This is what makes it disappointing - to see intelligent people rationalizing the despicable
actions of Trump and his flunkeys. It’s depressing. — Wayfarer
This and climate change. Those two issues are so easy and so obvious that a child can understand them, and yet individuals who would otherwise fool you into believing they’re sharp thinkers simply cannot grasp them.
To me, both are a kind of litmus test. I used to think it was belief in God (“how can anyone rational really belief this?”), but that’s changed. Actually it’s rather similar, since the dogma and brainwashing of Christianity has largely shifted to politics, and so to education, science, medicine, etc. A lot of overlap. But still, I’m much more forgiving of religious beliefs these days — seem almost quaint and harmless compared to the Trump cult, anti-vaxxers, climate deniers, book banners, etc.
It is indeed depressing, but shows how easy it is to get lost and let irrationality take over. Happens to the best of us.
In Fishfry’s defense, he’s certainly far from the worst of it — just skewed on where the emphasis gets placed and a lot of false equivalence — and there’s a lot of truth in it, to the both-sides stuff. Always has been. Because there really IS a lot to criticize in either party, and the hypocrisy that gets pointed out IS real.
For example, it’s true that there was some violence and destruction of property in the 2020 protests, yes. It’s true that the people who generally agreed with the values downplayed a lot of it, despite condemning it. It’s true that the conservative media ran NOTHING BUT these negative stories, to the point where you might have been convinced entire cities were being burned down and the world was falling into anarchy and being consumed by fire.
But most of us are already beyond that analysis. Getting stuck in the endless hypocrisy accusations is boring and tiresome and regressive, and usually serves as nothing more than a cover for one’s thinly-veiled partisanship. If you want to pretend you’re independent but deep down feel that one side is a bigger threat, then that will eventually come out. Look where the emphasis gets placed. I do this too. But I don’t hide it under the cover of “both sides.” The Republicans and Trump are more dangerous in my view— period. So I vote against them because I don’t want them in power. Why? Because it makes it that much harder to make any progress. But that’s not an endorsement on Biden or the Democrats, whom I loathe. But they’re NOT the same.
Eh…rambling over. Bottom line: stop overthinking things. Stop the gaslighting. Forget the culture war nonsense. And for God’s sake, enough with the fucking both-sides Nickelodeon analysis.