I have a close friend that I’ve known 20 years who became obsessed with right-wing politics. even though I’m liberal, I don’t make it my entire personality and life. But anyway… I was talking to him this morning casually like friends do.
Me: “Hey man. Do you have off today for MLK day?” Friend: “No, I have to work today.” Me: “Damn, sorry to hear. I have off today since it’s a company holiday.” Friend: “Yeah, I work for a living. Guess that’s the difference me and people who live in an ivory tower.” Me: “Uhh I work for a living too. Idk why you’re acting like I don’t?” Friend: “I didn’t mean you specifically. But you’re off and I’m not so it shows that you get to relax at least. You should be able to handle the truth lol. There’s no shame in admitting that I’m a harder worker than everyone else. you shouldn’t be so sensitive”
Honestly, he’s not unique, either. I’ve met so many people who are conservative, obsessed with right-wing stuff, and they’re all like this. They act like they’re special and the whole world is lazy, “no one wants to work anymore” attitude.
?
“right wingers” or “decent people”
Choose one, because they are mutually exclusive.
You can still be charismatic, a good neighbor, someone who stands up for friends when things start getting rough, a caring person that worries about those around them, and still hold the most batshit insane political ideas. I happen to know multiple people like this.
People are complex, and plenty are good people who have been led to believe the most outlandish shit. They are gullible and don’t put enough thought into what they accept as truth. It is just as attractive to people on our side of the fence to paint everyone else with broad assumptions. It is the nature of Evil, because evil is ultimately a boring thing that we all do every day without thinking about it.
I think the difference is between our definitions of “decent people”, because I don’t think a person gets to be called “decent” simply because they can be nice, pleasant, thoughtful, or helpful to only the people who abide by their personal world views while actively trying to make life worse for people who don’t meet their bigoted qualifications.
Yeah, they can sure seem like “decent people” if you’re not on the receiving end of their bigoted ire.
It’s not even that they only accept people that abide by their views - it’s just that they are oblivious to those outside the scope of their lives. They are not people who hate immigrants or other minorities, they’re people who never interact with minorities at all and so get no pushback when they just passively accept the idea that they are stealing all the jobs in the US. They don’t know any trans people and so when they hear that trans people are groomers, they just go “that’s horrible! Someone should do something about that”.
We need to remember that these people are a large portion of half the US we constantly have to fight against. They’re not all just a hateful swarm, there’s variety within that mass. They’re our relatives and our neighbors. A large amount of these people are really just insanely gullible and don’t see past their own noses. That gullibility is a mark on their quality, yes. They can still be decent human beings, despite that. They can also be corrected if you get them to understand, which I’ve done before. Many others have done the same.
This attitude makes liberals lose elections.
Of course there are decent people on “the right”. What would you call them if theoretically, they voted for what you want? Would they still be terrible people, just voted correctly?
What exactly is the logic of your comment? The attitude of people judging right wingers based on their own actions makes “liberals lose* elections”? Where exactly is the information you’re basing this on? Your gut feeling? None of what you said made any sense.
The actions of voting for people who want to remove people’s rights. The actions of supporting a rapist convicted felon liar. The actions of spreading lies that cost people their lives. The actions of spreading hate towards LGBTQ+ people and anyone who is not willing to be a bigot towards them too, like library workers who get so many death threats they have to leave their job and town. All of these of their own actions are what makes them no longer decent* people, not the label itself. Their hateful, disgusting actions.
How does that exactly cause liberals to lose elections?
People who are willing to do and/or support any or all of the aforementioned behaviors had already made up their mind on who they would vote for. When logic and reason was never even involved in their decision in the first place, then logic and reason is not going to magically start working suddenly.
You’re judging people based on some flaky righty-lefty dogma that attempts to put people in teams. Stop doing that, and think a bit more logically. People have a million different reasons for thinking a certain way about different subjects, and they might still be kind people. Of the top of my head, i remember the pair of guys who let Borat stay with them. They had the most insane ideas about politics that i’ve ever heard. But they let a random “immigrant” stay in their house, and didn’t utter a single word of complaint. So you’d think they are pretty tolerant. Much more tolerant than a lot of people who vote left that i’ve mer. Those are the kind people that you lose to the other side. Especially when you call them evil, or whatever you think they might be.
My gut feeling? You did lose the election. Are you not living in the same world I am? You have lost touch with what people want and prioritize.
Judge people on action, but don’t fucking label half your country as evil. Many of them have been spoonfed lies like religion since birth.
Can we skip right to the part where we show them films of the atrocities they voted for (precursors for many of which area already in today’s headlines) or do we have to wait for all those atrocities to happen first?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5307007/Clip-shows-Germans-walk-Nazi-camp-WW2.html
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2015/09/25/this-is-how-the-german-soldiers-reacted-to-footage-of-concentration-camps-1945/
There you go again. Nazis. This isn’t the same. Find a new angle, because whatever is going on in the US isn’t working.
1932 was a pivotal year in the Nazis’ ascent. It’s a terrifying parallel for today
Leading Civil Rights Lawyer Shows 20 Ways Trump Is Copying Hitler’s Early Rhetoric and Policies
Here’s the list from that second article. Article goes into detail for each.
Neither was elected by a majority. (not relevant now this was 2019 - but if you are trying to pick these apart one by one instead of looking at the picture they paint, you are still doing it wrong)
Both found direct communication channels to their base.
Both blame others and divide on racial lines.
Both relentlessly demonize opponents.
They unceasingly attack objective truth.
They relentlessly attack mainstream media.
Their attacks on truth include science.
Their lies blur reality–and supporters spread them.
Both orchestrated mass rallies to show status.
They embrace extreme nationalism.
Both made closing borders a centerpiece.
They embraced mass detention and deportations.
Both used borders to protect selected industries.
They cemented their rule by enriching elites.
Both rejected international norms.
They attack domestic democratic processes.
Both attack the judiciary and rule of law.
Both glorify the military and demand loyalty oaths.
They proclaim unchecked power.
Both relegate women to subordinate roles.
Though if you can’t see it for yourself by now you aren’t paying attention or don’t want to see it.
Talk about missing the point.
I’m not the one you need to convice, you fucking tool. You need “the other people” to agree with you. The fact that you live in a #problematic democracy doesn’t change that you need votes.
The parallells fall apart immediately, since that happened pre-information age. Whatever the nazis did to undermine the educated is borderline impossible to do today. Whatever is happening today is different. It’s probably worse in that no information can be trusted, in comparison to no information being available at all.
Do you keep this copy-pasta to actually try to convince people?
And yet they are doing so.
Plonk.
I literally listed actions of individuals. I did previously also very clearly provide logic explaining how the right has defined their party as “all or nothing” themselves. If you don’t want to be a part of a party that wants that, then don’t support that party.
Additionally, you’re the one spouting brainless “left bad” nonsense without anything to back it up:
Then you’re trying to put words in my mouth:
I never even said the word “evil”. I think you just outed yourself.
I never said anything about not losing “the election” (Note how that’s different from “elections” like you said earlier. Now you’re shifting the goalpost). I was specifically asking about your claims for the cause of lost “elections” (again, different from “the election”). You made a very specific claim about the cause of lost elections, and you also said “elections” which claims like these need backing data and information, otherwise you’re talking out of your ass.
But again, it seems you’ve outlined the disconnect there in that you’ve decided to live in a different world where you get to choose what I said and what I meant. Good luck in that little world of yours, kiddo. Keep me out of it.
Your words. Literally. Stop labeling people.
I love your method of completely ignoring my point that I’ve very clearly outlined and just replace it with whatever you’ve decided my point is.
You’re the living embodiment of “I reject your reality and substitute it with my own.”
It must be exhausting and lonely seeing the world in black and white.
Must be nice to be able to not be a subject of people’s bigotry and think that people who are actively trying to remove other people’s rights and even have a hand in causing people’s deaths could be considered “decent people”.
Considering you immediately turned on me for having a different opinion on who could be considered “decent people”, you are likely to be similar to them in their lack of empathy towards people who are different. Maybe you’re not exactly the most qualified person to determine who is “decent people”.
But please, prove me wrong and show me that empathy you seem to have for your so-called “decent people”. I’d suggest starting with treating me like a person and asking “why do you feel that way?” instead of spewing negative comments towards me.
Those mental gymnastics you perform daily to justify being friends with hateful morons must be twice as exhausting.
Apparently you project your toxicity onto the decent (eventhough you’re a leftist) Nuance is clearly, not your forte
I can’t think of a single Conservative social talking point that would make them good people. You have to remember these are the same people who want to ban abortion, gay marriage, remove rights from minorities, and have ‘in’ and ‘out’ crowds. There’s no ‘good people’ there. They may perform good actions, sure, but their belief system is entirely about stagnation and dogma.
Left aren’t any better, they have stallin apologists for one, in your quest to “give rights to minorities” you end up marginalizing the majority for two & three your open border policy causes massive economic damage
Plus I am talking about those said good actions, also there’s a world outside of politics
You’re a naive fool if you think democrats have an “open border policy”. Go talk to your right wing business owners and suggest that if we really wanted to stop illegal immigration, we would jail business owners who hire them. Surprise surprise, those right wing owners exploit these people but don’t really want to stop any illegal immigration.
Funny because, those right wing business owners never said that They would rather employ their own people, rather than those immigrants
You’re talking about corporations, who don’t really have any political affiliation & try to suck up to anyone who is currently in charge
Again you assume all right-winger are the same, People are very nuanced & it’s naive to go “Leftists = bad & Rightists = scumbags”
I imagine this is the kind of nonsense political take one develops when they go through life only skimming a few grade school social studies textbooks and actively disregarding all other reality or thought.
Sounds like you’re projecting your lack of insight into humans onto me Unlike your priviledge ass, I come from a minority & worked my way to a stable job
my fellow minorities (along with me) mostly never got the welfare that they deserve. You’re too busy crapping on Right-wingers & not actually putting in the work
Keep that up & you’ll lose even more footing, you need to clean up the opposition (As in the democrats), but judging from this Thread It’s not going to happen (I’ll be glad if it did though)
My guy 😭 you don’t know how wrong you are. I’m a black woman from a single mother that paid her own way to a bachelor and career in engineering. I am putting in the work, I am out on the streets in my community, organizing with a revolutionary party. I invite you to read through my comment history. Check your fucking privilege.
The Republicans and Democrats are both right wing parties of capital. Neither of them are on the side of the people and they absolutely were not about to give you welfare reform. They are beyond cleaning up.
Those are called tankies and nobody likes them. Especially those of us on the left.
“Marginalizing the majority”. Yeah, because white Americans are so marginalized with their hegemonic control over the state and capital.
Oh, no! The economy is tanking because Juan from Chiapas got a job picking oranges for a Dole contractor in California for less than federal minimum wage because his shitbird boss pays him under the table. Do you know how fucking stupid that sounds?
No, there is no world outside of politics. The personal is political. Choosing to associate with ignorant bigots says more about your values than any half-cocked appeal to moderation.
What hedgemonic control ? People have been losing jobs left & right
The right knows how to mask their hatred when it counts, while the left is busy virtue-signaling, Anyone half-intelligent will use whatever tools effective & honestly so will
Rightist policy of exclusion is pretty good you know, I want to exclude capitalists from society for e.g
noooo you HAVE to enforce borders with violence!!! How else will you keep out all the cretins from nations whose infrastructure you’ve destroyed and resources you’ve plundered!!! You can’t possibly take care of all those people, think of tHe EcOnOmY!!!
hahaha that’s so funny guy you really think this is a normal and well adjusted view of the world. Those scare quotes around uplifting minorities is a cherry on top. You’re so devoid of empathy you can’t even fucking imagine a world of people that actually care about each other for the sake of their humanity.
I’ll take a “stallin apologist” over a capitalist that cares more about his stocks than his fellow man. Any fucking day of the week.
I do care about empathy, just not for people who keep saying “Right wing bad, Left wing good” When have you actually done something for the working class ??
Oh & reminder Stallin apologists are class traitors, if these are the people you’d chose then you are basically killing your own movement you’re too busy marginalizing the majority, which can be turned to your side
🐶😙
Who told you that? The American capitalist class? You really trust what they have to say about the leader of a socialist country they were trying to justify a war with, and prevent their own working class from getting any ideas, at all costs?
I invite you to challenge all beliefs that have been formed under a state which finds itself threatened by socialist revolution.
You went pretty quickly into insulting me simply because I don’t agree that hateful bigots should be considered “decent people”.
You’ve shown plenty of evidence that you are not qualified to determine who are “decent people” and who is “toxic”. Seems I was able to determine the toxic nuance embedded in your comment just fine.
Yeah when you go Leftist good, Rightist bad, well let’s say that, that kind of dumb thinking is what makes you lose strength in the eyes of apolitical people & invites trouble , the world of politics is too murky for you behave like that
Oh & as for rudeness, you’re the very definition of hateful since you cannot compartmentalize, You have made your politics into your entire identity & as for rooting out things; Leftists have been losing a lot of potential recruits lately haven’t they (you couldn’t root out your own toxicity)
I’m “hateful” because I disagree that people who support a literal felon rapist get to be called “decent”?
It’s clear you’re just a troll, because you don’t even make an attempt at logic and immediately jump to insults to try to disguise that. Your post history proves that you desire downvotes like it somehow validates your pathetic child behavior.
The right has shown time and time again that they specifically want to define the entire party as “all or nothing” and we can only accept that as truth. Yet, when people treat them that way we are making things black-and-white, “Leftist good, Rightist bad”.
You can’t hide your true face, troll.