I hold a few “enlightened centrist” types in high regard, and the opinions I always hear from them are “Yeah, Trump is a lunatic (butsoisbiden™), but the rest of the Republican party is fine.” While Trump is openly planning to replace the entire RNC chair with virtually zero pushback.
What the fuck am I missing here?
The example in the meme is rage-baity, but it’s not wrong when these people are being willingly ignorant at best.
If anyone thinks Trump doesn’t pull some shit in office, and either him or his replacement (due to age/health, not conspiracy) don’t try to hold on to power by even less democratic means than we already have… You’re not paying attention. The dude has told us this is what he’s going to do.
Yeah, the governments got problems… But handing the keys to a man that has proven time and time again that he has no regard for the will of the people… Shit’s bad, but I -promise you- it isn’t that bad.
As far as the trials being political… Yeah, they are. But the crimes were real. And how can we demand our politicians be bound by the law, but protest the first time one actually gets prosecuted?
This is high profile, and millions are watching. Set the precedent. And -we- have to create a culture of holding them accountable after this.
People who say the rest of the Republicans are fine are also just wilfully ignorant or intentionally misleading. They’re the ones who voted Trump in to begin with and he wasn’t ever hiding who he truly was so they don’t have the excuse that they didn’t see this coming.
It’s almost like they’re looking in the mirror saying “I, the rest of Republicans, am fine” like they want to sleep at night after sentencing people unlike them to death
There is a third option, which is a right wing strategy im seeing more and more:
They cherry pick.
Basically when someone says the rest of the republicans are fine, they might mean there are a couple that are normal in isolation.
This tactic works the other way too. When they criticize the left, it’s the small, loud minority that are much easier to debate (with a cherry picked audience).
I have never, ever, heard a right wing person criticize or attack things like worker rights, consumer rights, or desiring equality. They know they can’t. They only pick battles they can win and extrapolate from that.
A lot of the lowest-rung, easiest targets for ridicule are those who are very loudly, uncritically on one side of an argument or another. People who are of middling intelligence correctly identify this as an opportunity for themselves to demonstrate that they are very clever and superior by taking the piss out of the silliest of the left and the right. This leads to Enlightened Centrism™.
This works phenomenally well until they meet someone who has genuine convictions based on their own individual morals and rationale and not how they can differentiate themselves from others.
This is my own slightly bitter, slightly drunken, leftist rant. My own bitter POV is that Enlightened Centrism is a shortcut to smug emotional and intellectual superiority for those who can’t come up with their own convictions.
I keep coming back to ‘inability to entertain the hypothetical’.
It seems that many people can not conceive of something that they have not personally experienced. They can not entertain the hypothetical situation of Trump taking over the party simply because it has not happened yet. They can not conceive of a dictatorship simply because it has not happened yet. It’s mind boggling to me that people can’t entertain the hypothetical, but it’s what I keep coming back to.
I think to be conservative a person can’t have sympathy or empathy. Can’t picture themselves in the situations of others. They are the center of the universe. Everyone else is just not as good or as smart as they are because they think different thoughts
God rewards his followers ie if you’re poor you are not godly. Nevermind the riches are in heaven and that being rewarded on earth is Not The Point, or that Jesus preached compassion. That’s their belief system so yeah, a lot of the religious right apply that to helping the people in our community who need help the most- must have done something to deserve it. “I don’t have to bother having sympathy because I am a smart good Christian so this would never be something to happen to me”
Just more evidence that a good chunk of humanity is neither rational nor observant.
Natural selection has been put on hold by how completely we have dominated our environment and the foolish and ignorant aren’t being weeded out any more.
I just need a place to rant…
I hold a few “enlightened centrist” types in high regard, and the opinions I always hear from them are “Yeah, Trump is a lunatic (butsoisbiden™), but the rest of the Republican party is fine.” While Trump is openly planning to replace the entire RNC chair with virtually zero pushback.
What the fuck am I missing here?
The example in the meme is rage-baity, but it’s not wrong when these people are being willingly ignorant at best.
If anyone thinks Trump doesn’t pull some shit in office, and either him or his replacement (due to age/health, not conspiracy) don’t try to hold on to power by even less democratic means than we already have… You’re not paying attention. The dude has told us this is what he’s going to do.
Yeah, the governments got problems… But handing the keys to a man that has proven time and time again that he has no regard for the will of the people… Shit’s bad, but I -promise you- it isn’t that bad.
As far as the trials being political… Yeah, they are. But the crimes were real. And how can we demand our politicians be bound by the law, but protest the first time one actually gets prosecuted?
This is high profile, and millions are watching. Set the precedent. And -we- have to create a culture of holding them accountable after this.
Genuinely asking though… What am I missing?
People who say the rest of the Republicans are fine are also just wilfully ignorant or intentionally misleading. They’re the ones who voted Trump in to begin with and he wasn’t ever hiding who he truly was so they don’t have the excuse that they didn’t see this coming.
It’s almost like they’re looking in the mirror saying “I, the rest of Republicans, am fine” like they want to sleep at night after sentencing people unlike them to death
I agree. I watched a Hillary debate for the first time the other night… The signs were there, ffs.
There is a third option, which is a right wing strategy im seeing more and more:
They cherry pick.
Basically when someone says the rest of the republicans are fine, they might mean there are a couple that are normal in isolation.
This tactic works the other way too. When they criticize the left, it’s the small, loud minority that are much easier to debate (with a cherry picked audience).
I have never, ever, heard a right wing person criticize or attack things like worker rights, consumer rights, or desiring equality. They know they can’t. They only pick battles they can win and extrapolate from that.
That projecting and strawmanning have carried their party since forever.
A lot of the lowest-rung, easiest targets for ridicule are those who are very loudly, uncritically on one side of an argument or another. People who are of middling intelligence correctly identify this as an opportunity for themselves to demonstrate that they are very clever and superior by taking the piss out of the silliest of the left and the right. This leads to Enlightened Centrism™.
This works phenomenally well until they meet someone who has genuine convictions based on their own individual morals and rationale and not how they can differentiate themselves from others.
This is my own slightly bitter, slightly drunken, leftist rant. My own bitter POV is that Enlightened Centrism is a shortcut to smug emotional and intellectual superiority for those who can’t come up with their own convictions.
It also reinforces privilege, so it’s a double feedback loop
I keep coming back to ‘inability to entertain the hypothetical’.
It seems that many people can not conceive of something that they have not personally experienced. They can not entertain the hypothetical situation of Trump taking over the party simply because it has not happened yet. They can not conceive of a dictatorship simply because it has not happened yet. It’s mind boggling to me that people can’t entertain the hypothetical, but it’s what I keep coming back to.
I think to be conservative a person can’t have sympathy or empathy. Can’t picture themselves in the situations of others. They are the center of the universe. Everyone else is just not as good or as smart as they are because they think different thoughts
God rewards his followers ie if you’re poor you are not godly. Nevermind the riches are in heaven and that being rewarded on earth is Not The Point, or that Jesus preached compassion. That’s their belief system so yeah, a lot of the religious right apply that to helping the people in our community who need help the most- must have done something to deserve it. “I don’t have to bother having sympathy because I am a smart good Christian so this would never be something to happen to me”
Just more evidence that a good chunk of humanity is neither rational nor observant.
Natural selection has been put on hold by how completely we have dominated our environment and the foolish and ignorant aren’t being weeded out any more.