uspol-adjacent, mh, history, pondering
I wonder how many of my differences with other leftists come down to the fact that so many of you have _never_ been a conservative in your life and have never even had a single conservative friend.
I came from the other side.
I had a lot of help, since my mom was pretty much a hippie, but ideologically speaking she raised me very laissez-faire and when I become a pseudo-fundie at 11 all she really had in the way of resistance was a rather sororal "No... seriously?! You believe this shit?" over coffee in our kitchen at 3 am.
But I got myself into conservative beliefs for some very well-meaning reasons, and I can still model that world. I'm also _agonizingly_ aware of what a tremendous intellectual house of cards it is, which is paradoxically why I'm so harsh about holding leftists to high standards of intellectual integrity.
It's because I basically have nowhere left to go politically, and I'll be damned if I'll see the same memetic-zombie scenario I saw on their side happen on ours. No, being the Good Guys isn't enough to protect you. You're a human being. It's in your fucking neurological code, and if you don't fight it constantly, it happens. Look at all the things I'VE fucked up, and I sweat this stuff every moment of my life. >__<
re: uspol-adjacent, mh, history, pondering
Mark my words well, younglings.
Sociopaths and exploiters will fill any niche that benefits them. That's just basic evolution. It would only be evitable after a massive rearchitecture of human culture and/or neurology.
Someday, we leftists WILL have our own Trump. They won't have all of King Stubby's traits, but they'll have the same talent for marshalling people through paranoid BS.
And we leftists will have our own set of rationalizations about why he is totally okay and everything is fine. And the fact we are absolutely cock-sure we are the Good Guys will do nothing but serve that hypothetical bastard's purposes.
Now, I _do_ think leftists do have a few common traits that will help boost our immunity. We don't have, for instance, entire social institutions like the church or Fox News devoted to keeping us in line. We don't really treat authority the same way that conservatives do. And we're _usually_ on the side of social change.
But I'm sorry, we can be dogmatic as hell. And every single day, I see leftists accusing people, even allies, of being The Enemy just for offering criticism or saying "yeah, we do that too-- that's a human thing, not a conservative thing."
(I'm getting really sick, for example, of the thought-terminating cliche that anyone who points out both sides do a given bad thing is an evil centrist and should just be casually written off. I understand it's a tactic they exploit and we should call it out when it's used as a distraction tactic, but... jesus christ, people. We're not saints, and if you think being leftist makes us all morally perfect.. yeah, you're just wrong. Yes, we DO have bad habits. Yes, they DO need to be criticized. LOOK AT WHAT HAPPENED TO THE RIGHT WHEN THEY STOPPED ACCEPTING CRITICISM. >_< )
Honestly, I think that's really dangerous. We NEED to be able to fact-check either other and point out when we're the ones falling into mob mentality, cognitive bias, or self-serving logic. We need to be able to say things like "Listen, I think Trump should be fired into the sun, naked and screaming, as soon as possible... but this *particular* news article about him makes some really bad, illogical points."
Like I said earlier. We are probably gonna be in a whole new type of cultural war for the next several years. We have to get REALLY good at filtering out bullshit, RIGHT now, INCLUDING our own. -_-
re: uspol-adjacent, mh, history, pondering
@zebratron2084 Mixed feelings here. I'm a hick from Georgia; I got indoctrinated with some absolutely horrific stuff, and it nearly killed me.
So I think of conservatives as enemy partly because I've seen what they do to people, kids included, but also, I have a certain amount of empathy because there are *good* people there, too, and they're being used, and they're being trashed out by this horrible dogma which mostly is there to benefit rich assholes, not white southerners.
And I know leftists aren't saintly either. I do think part of the way we go after each other so readily is that the enemy has all the resources and it looks like nothing will stop them from getting their way, *especially* not the Democrats. I think we go after each other because it's appealing when there's no way we can win.
It's as though we're shoving and pushing at each other down here in the tube station, because there's nothing we can do about the Luftwaffe's bombs steadily flattening London over our heads.
re: uspol-adjacent, mh, history, pondering
And if you're wondering how this doesn't contradict my earlier rant about going easier on other leftists in the coming years... yeah, it's an admittedly subtle distinction. I want MORE criticism between leftists and FEWER fights. I want actual discussions. I want us to listen to each other. I want us to extend each other basic civility and benefit of the doubt.
And FWIW, I'd love for us to plan ahead for how we can extend those things to conservatives again, even just maybe some select ones who abandon Trump. But I'll be honest with you... I'm not gonna ask you to do it right now. 'Cause I'm not. I've basically cut off conservative America like an abusive family member, and we ain't talkin' until they show us they're getting some therapy and taking some responsibility. >___< But I still don't like it when we outright demonize them, dehumanize them, or tell ourselves self-serving fictions about them.
Anyhow. Ranting, sorry. Literally feverish with the first signs of a cold here, so I demand full amnesty if I just said something stupid again. :)