Moralists don’t really have beliefs. Sometimes they stumble on one, like on a child’s toy left on the carpet. The toy must be put away immediately. And the child reprimanded. Centrism isn’t change — not even incremental change. It is control. Over yourself and the world. Exercise it. Look up at the sky, at the dark shapes of Coalition airships hanging there. Ask yourself: is there something sinister in moralism? And then answer: no. God is in his heaven. Everything is normal on Earth.
I keep coming back to this Disco Elysium quote. For a disturbingly large part of the english speaking world, belief in something seems to be as shallow as a t-shirt with a symbol on it. The right bit of paraphernalia signaling oneself as part of this or that group. It reminds me of this article I read months ago, from a journalist working in Indonesia. They were documenting the labor movent there. At one point, they remarked to someone how ironic it was to see labor organizers wearing, like, corporate branded clothing. The person they said this to was a little surprised and didn’t see the supposed contradiction. It’s clothing. You get what you can. Even if it didn’t have a logo, it would still mass produced by some multi-national corporation. This was some eye opening culture shock for the journalist, coming from a place where personal consumption, not your actual actions, define who you are.
That’s what this is. To this twiter poster, queer rights and black liberation and fucking natzi are nothing more than t-shirts. They don’t see anything more beneath that, no moral or political depth. No question of right or wrong. Just toys that belong in a box, clutter to be swept away so it stops getting in the way of the very grown-up, un-ideological Rationalists.
It’s something I read when (out of morbid curiosity) reading Dugin. He argued that liberals after the successes of WW2 and Cold War have declared themselves the default, the absence of politics.
I think he’s half right on this but this also extends to fascists. Sure, many fascists enjoy the LARPy aspect of it but will be happy to tell you they’re just regular Americans obeying American culture. They’ve somehow turned conformity into a fashion brand.
This is how you get braindead takes like what we just saw. No different than a meat eater telling a vegan to let him “sin” in peace and can’t we all just get along?
Once again a liberal fails to understand that the problem with nazis isn’t what they believe it’s what their beliefs cause them to do. If you wanna go be a racist dingus in your mind by all means go for it. Keep it to your self and I honestly do not care. If you want to pickle your brain with hatreds thats your prerogative. It’s not my brain. Have fun.
The problem is when they act on those beliefs. Because now the rest of us have to deal with that. You made them part of our shared world.
And spreading those ideas? That’s also a form of doing things. So, no, freeze peach does not apply here either.
This ain’t Steven Universe, I am not obligated to forgive fascists for something they’re not even sorry for at LEAST.
People need to be taught early on, that it is acceptable to NOT forgive certain people.
That’s always bugged me, there’s no shortage of smarmy assholes who eagerly tell you that “respect is earned and not given.”
But western culture seems mortified of the idea that instead, it is forgiveness that is earned rather than something people are entitled to.
Turns out a longtime friend of mine who I lost touch with a bit for the last few years has been in a relationship with an ex taxi skin who was in a pretty hard-core fucking gang. He’s got tatts still. When another pal saw them he went off about how ashamed he is of it and how that’s not him anymore and blah blah blah. This is a guy who was in a violent right wing street gang. He hurt people. Don’t throw a fucking pity party when you can even bother to get your nazi tattoos covered up. You’ve gotta make at least an attempt at reparations, if he’s not spending more time volunteering to make up the damage he’s done than he did doing hate crimes, fuck him.
This comment may be too fringe to make sense, but like literally every plot in FFXIV involves offering forgiveness and redemption to the villains. All of them. Regardless of how awful they were, it always just turns out that they were misunderstood or misguided and it turns out we should actually make allies with them
Even if they’re sorry, that’s not really enough for me. That’s just like…I can tolerate you living level of acceptance
I want to imagine a Steven Universe character named Brick lmao
“I wish people who want to coexist could get along with people who’s explicit goal is to not coexist.”
“Guys, guys, lets find some middle ground! How about instead of exterminated, you just get tortured?”
“We will only kill half of you and then kill half of ourselves. Just like Thandos, the ultimate centrist.”
Since there are way more leftists than fascists in the world that would be a huge W for fascism. We’ve got China, that alone gives us a massive global majority on a population basis
These people should never post anything again without their mothers smacking them upside the head
Chad Felix Greene is the Federalist’s resident transphobe, so imagine how vile of a person this is. Greene wrote a book about “detransing” through Judaism and prayer, since apparently Greene had some kind of formal diagnosis of gender dysphoria?
Which is just the sickest shit I can imagine. A person who has struggled with gender dysphoria and just selling out their own people for the highest bidder. Like I thought Caitlyn Jenner was one of the biggest sellouts and here’s this Greene person who has written entire instruction books on how to be a traitor.
