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"Hypocrisy" is insufficient.
Feb. 23rd, 2021 04:52 pmI'm getting tired of liberals smugly pointing out that right-wingers are hypocrites. People who say that are almost always avoiding the actual point.
Right-wing ideology is deliberately homicidal and genocidal. An intrinsic strategy of the right wing is to make thinly veiled excuses for their behavior, to cover up their real motives. To merely counter their arguments, and to allow them to respond with further lies or doubling down, is to engage in their game. It keeps the framing in their hands. When you claim that their actions make no sense even according to their stated values, you are shying away from acknowledging that their actions make sense according to their unstated values. You are being unconscionably polite toward oppression and mass murder.
The list of so-called right wing hypocrisies is vast, but entirely consistent with their unstated goals. They have no principles or even opinions on how Supreme Court nominees should be confirmed: They only care about empowering oppressors. They don't care about speaking ill of the dead: It's an excuse to silence criticism of wrongdoers. They don't care about criminal behavior: They care about dehumanizing poor and Black people, and excusing the rich and white people who victimize them. I'm sure you don't need me to cover the rest to make my point.
Are there right-wingers who don't know that their voices, votes, and donations support crimes against humanity? Absolutely. (I expect some otherwise decent people worked on the Death Star, too, out of ignorance, cowardice, or lack of conviction.) But we still find them parroting the same lies, even after they are clearly debunked. We can't help the world by stopping at, "Your stated reasons don't make sense." Conservatives don't care. They just "believe" what they're told to: It doesn't have to make sense, and they're okay with that. Calling out them and their beliefs for hypocrisy is not sufficient. We need to call them out for harming people.
Further reading: Siderea explores the homicidal and genocidal impulses of the right wing in sections 6.1 and 6.2 of this post.
Right-wing ideology is deliberately homicidal and genocidal. An intrinsic strategy of the right wing is to make thinly veiled excuses for their behavior, to cover up their real motives. To merely counter their arguments, and to allow them to respond with further lies or doubling down, is to engage in their game. It keeps the framing in their hands. When you claim that their actions make no sense even according to their stated values, you are shying away from acknowledging that their actions make sense according to their unstated values. You are being unconscionably polite toward oppression and mass murder.
- Example: "Pro-lifers" opposing birth control and sex education.
It was the Catholic church that reframed abortion as being about "life". Opposing abortion is a convenient way for cowards to demonstrate their allegiance to powerful bullies*, through their willingness to harm people to no good end, when that is what those bullies ask. To actually take steps that would reduce abortion would not further this goal. Therefore, they do not bother. Additionally, increasing the subjugation of women grants men the ability to murder them more easily and with more impunity.
* Much more on the kowtowing to bullies here. - Example: Trumpers beating police officers with a Thin Blue Line flag.
The Thin Blue Line, "All Lives Matter," and "Blue Lives Matter" all mean exactly one thing: White people should have the right to harass, oppress, and murder Black people. None of those things have anything to do with respect for the dignity or lives of police officers. American fascists know this perfectly well. They just won't say it, because "defending the police" is a socially acceptable cover story (and dog whistle) for their racist emblems and slogans. - Example: Right wingers who support martial law, concentration camps, mass surveillance, and/or any other authoritarian government behavior, claim that mask mandates are a violation of their rights.
Authoritarianism and bullies go hand-in-hand. This should need no explanation. Those who enjoy harming people have an unparalleled opportunity to do so during a pandemic. Merely by talking face-to-face, they can threaten people's lives. Occasionally, they even get to kill someone, with plausible deniability! "How was I supposed to know I was sick?" They haven't missed the message: They know that they could be harboring the virus at any time. Their knowledge that they might be killing people, without having to lift a finger or risk jail time, is simply thrilling! And all they have to do is lie about their reasons, like they've always practiced. Both authoritarianism and anti-masking are opportunities to get away with harming people.
The list of so-called right wing hypocrisies is vast, but entirely consistent with their unstated goals. They have no principles or even opinions on how Supreme Court nominees should be confirmed: They only care about empowering oppressors. They don't care about speaking ill of the dead: It's an excuse to silence criticism of wrongdoers. They don't care about criminal behavior: They care about dehumanizing poor and Black people, and excusing the rich and white people who victimize them. I'm sure you don't need me to cover the rest to make my point.
Are there right-wingers who don't know that their voices, votes, and donations support crimes against humanity? Absolutely. (I expect some otherwise decent people worked on the Death Star, too, out of ignorance, cowardice, or lack of conviction.) But we still find them parroting the same lies, even after they are clearly debunked. We can't help the world by stopping at, "Your stated reasons don't make sense." Conservatives don't care. They just "believe" what they're told to: It doesn't have to make sense, and they're okay with that. Calling out them and their beliefs for hypocrisy is not sufficient. We need to call them out for harming people.
Further reading: Siderea explores the homicidal and genocidal impulses of the right wing in sections 6.1 and 6.2 of this post.
