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Time for the sartre quote again
Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.
The right wing fundamentally do not care about facts and meaning. You can give as many stats and facts as you want that disprove their position and it doesn't matter. They're not arguing facts. They believe they're right, and they'll make whatever noises they want to justify that.
They're bad people.
Perhaps the greater horror of fascism, from a philosophical perspective, is that it is essentially against the concept of meaning itself.
Language is merely another tool to enforce domination and submission. All that really matters is being on the winning side.
Definitely the most horrifying part to me (at this stage anyway, I imagine I'll feel differently if they make it to camps phase later)
I really hope it doesn't get to the camps phase cause I'm know I'm at the top of thr list for an extended stay. (Or, very short stay depending on how extreme they wind up being)
They've already got a better system than Hitler could have every hoped for: normal prison.
The US has the largest prison population per capita, plus migrant holding facilities, plus juvenile holding facilities.
All they need to do is capture the presidency and keep at least one chamber of Congress, and they can just expand the existing laws to target their enemies. The facilities are already in operation, they just need an excuse to grab the people they don't like.
Anyone that's been in a relationship with an abusive narcissist can clearly see the playbook. They live in a world where the only thing that matters is power and control because their grandiosity entitles them to anything they want. They manipulate reality so that they are always on top. There is no truth beyond that. Additionally, since they are entitled to everything but don't get it, they see themselves as an eternal victim that blames everyone else. This makes any relationship with them inherently antagonistic. Thus, anyone debating with them using logic to reach a valid conclusion will be wasting their time because the goal of the narcissist is simply to have power. They will dodge questions, distort reality, and even straight gaslight.
Another technique they use is to project. They assume that everyone else is like them, so when they accuse someone of something, the vast majority of the time it is a confession. For example, if they accuse someone of stealing an election, it's because they tried to steal it but were unsuccessful. Since they were unsuccessful at winning the election through cheating, then the other side must have been cheating too, or they would not have won. In there minds, everyone is playing this game. They literally cannot conceive a world based on rationality and see anyone that engages in that as a threat that will dismantle their delusional grandiosity.
Watching the MAGA movement is like watching a narcissist function on a societal level. It really is the same thing. If the Democrats truly wanted to rid the country of this deranged movement, then they would hire a team of psychologists that specialize in working with narcissists in order to develop a skill set to control and limit the abuse this mentality pushes onto others. Otherwise, we're all screwed because a narcissist cannot stop themselves from abusing others.
Too bad I haven't read Sartre, that quote is brilliant and I already have reinvented it poorly a few times.
(Usually while analyzing verbal encounters with Turks\Azeris on Armenian issues, though, since open anti-Semites are hard to find, but them too.)
Highly recommend the essay that quote is from: "Anti-Semite and Jew". It's written from that post-liberation of Paris/ending of ww2 perspective, but a lot of the insights on the nature of that kind of societal hate still hold up pretty well.
They're not that hard to find currently due to the ongoing situation in Gaza.
Gently reminding everybody that condeming Israel's actions in Gaza does not equate anti-Semitism. And blaming all the Jews for your troubles is anti-Semitism.
I wonder if that sort of right wing person is capable of doing science. I think they can't, due to the parallels with the most deadly scientific fraud perpetrated by Ancel Keys. He had no qualifications, but in the late '40s he stole a hypothesis and claimed it was his
This new affliction heart disease could be caused by eating saturated fats
The only good thing he did was design a good study to test the hypothesis, but his study unfortunately proved the opposite. People in the control group (eating the normal diet full of butter, eggs, and meat) lived longer than the intervention group, who replaced butter, eggs, and meat with linoleic acid (an omega 6 oil)
So he buried the study and said "we didn't run the study long enough, but we are certain due to the results we have that saturated fat is causing heart disease"
They can. They can even combine real science with tangible results and pseudo-science. It has all been witnessed in history.
They are and yet we, through their actions over the years, and our own inaction, are playing their game. We continue to talk instead of act. We continue to argue instead of act. We speak of standing up and yet do not act. We hope that, in the U.S., the justice system and democracy will act for us and yet we do not trust it, and still we do not act.
I know this is a little harsh. After all, we are doing something. Just that the Republican base and especially the MAGA cult is willing and has acted. Not that we should take such harsh action, only that I feel we rely too strongly on pushing our "leaders" instead of just coming together.
Careful when lumping people into groups. You say the right wing are bad people, but the Democratic party itself is center right.
The irony of your comment in a post calling out both sides bullshit is lost on you? Or perhaps the answer lies in the very comment you are responding to.
"Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies." -Sartre
The irony of your comment in a post calling out both sides bullshit is lost on you?
OPs post is in no way calling out the democratic party. Can you not see that?
Or perhaps the answer lies in the very comment you are responding to.
Take a look at who created the patriot act the most fascist legislation in the US.
Before calling "the right" evil,maybe you should take a good long look in the mirror.
"Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies."
The irony. Mirror. Check it.
The democratic party isn't actively trying to install a fascist theocracy.
They may not be the greatest, but they're in no way comparable.
It's like trying to say that stealing a candy bar is just as bad as mass murder because they're both against the law.
The democratic party isn't actively trying to install a fascist theocracy.
Neither is Trump. He is too stupid and lazy.
However Trump is showing the way for future dictators, and keeping people of the ballot is precisely the type of tool dangerous people will use by redefining "insurrection".
Being too stupid and lazy to accomplish something doesn't mean he isn't trying.
The fake electors bit seals it for me. In court they tried to say "oh they legitimately thought the election was stolen" then it came out that actually, they had fake electors in place. If Mike Pence had played ball they stood a very good chance of stalling things indefinitely if not seizing power completely. They could've pushed it to SCOTUS and let them end any recounts a la Bush v. Gore circa 2000.
These people are dangerous. They're well-funded and their ideology and talking points have been refined by ivy league educated thinkers.
OK, yes. The people around Trump could be dangerous. But if they were successful, wouldn't they have done more in Trumps first term?
The man isn't competent enough to tie his own shoes unsupervised.
Trump is a puppet whose only purpose is to get the idiots they created over the past 70 years riled up. The people controlling him are the ones trying, and succeeding, at overthrowing the government.
They literally releasrd a playbook on their plans to subvert the government.
OP in no way even insinuated anything about the Democratic Party. I'm pretty sure that most people in America know that we have two options, and neither of them have been a good option since before my parents were born. It's been lesser of two evils, possibly since the country was founded, though the first few presidents did seem to actually give a shit about the people.
OP in no way even insinuated anything about the Democratic Party.
OP labled the entire right "evil" which includes the Democratic Party.
It's been lesser of two evils
OK. I think we are agreeing.
Right and left are subjective terms. Sure, the left may be closer to the right in the rest of the world, but that's irrelevant because we're not talking about global politics.
Here I don't disagree.
What set me off was someone labeling an entire side of the political spectrum as "evil". That was lazy and dangerous.
The easiest way to demonstrate that was to show how they could be labeling themselves as "evil"