this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2024
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"I WAS going to vote against fascism, but now you've FORCED me to vote for fascism!"
I had a conversation with my conservative neighbor who legitimately made this argument. He was saying that it's the left's fault for telling all these young conservative men that they're Nazis, which makes those poor impressionable young men go "well if you're going to call me a fascist then I'm going to fascist even harder just to spite you."
It does, though. It doesn't have to make sense to you, but it's natural for people to say "who welcomes me? Who attacks me?" And go with those who welcome them. Is it simplistic? Sure. But either you learn how to take on the educational and emotional burden of reaching out, or you have extra enemies.
Important caveat: telling a person their ideology is hateful isn't "an attack," and letting them continue to wallow in ignorance is more unkind than enlightening them.
That they feel attacked is another issue. We still have to deal with the consequences of this, and should be cognizant of it, but at the end of the day let us not lose the plot and start conflating their sensitivity with offensive language as if they weren't two very different things.
Indeed. The raw fact of how people tend to work doesn't make it right. It's just that hating on them for it is ineffectual.
The people in my life who are wearing the red hats are essentially always the ones attacking, despite making up a tiny fraction of the people in my social sphere. The rest of us just spend every family gathering or social event hoping they won't start spouting off this time, and offering zero of our own opinions because we know they absolutely will start spouting off if we do. They have a chilling effect on topics that anyone can discuss, compared to what we can discuss when they are not there.
So yeah, IME they are the oppressors from Trump all the way down.
My maga neighbor across the street has no idea if I'd welcome him or not, because his yard is full of hand lettered signs letting me know in no uncertain terms that anyone who votes like I do is a moron/traitor, etc. So I just pretend he doesn't exist, and hope he and his (continuous stream of) visiting buddies don't blow up the neighborhood or get careless with their guns one day.
The one and only sign he does have in spanish is the one letting everyone know he's got a surveillance system though. That's probably not racist though...
Totally get that. I'm not at saying they're not going to socially attack you. I'm just saying that ridicule in return is ineffectual.
But so is being overly soft.
And yes magas, everyone you know who isn't one of you is doing this. All your friends, coworkers, and relatives who don't actively call you out are just silently praying that you don't open your bigoted, racist mouth whenever you are all together.
The irony is when you see people who are so capable, in some senses, of intelligent discourse on the matter, but still can't see through the issue well enough to reach others in a similar situation, but settled in a different set of ideas. In the end, we don't like it, it's up to us to resolve those emotions. It may not be easy, but it works - whereas anything else defers the issue.
Yeah, I know when I'm just hanging out and meet a bunch of nazis talking about how jews and blacks need to be exterminated, I feel welcomed and understood.
They were racist before, they're comfortable because they finally get to take off their masks, or hoods in this case.
It's natural for you to say "who welcomes me? Who attacks me?" and go with those who welcome you.
That doesn't make it effective at making the overall situation better.
Which is how Hitler recruited the brownshirts.
You'd think people would learn this pattern as it's repeated constantly through history, but alas.
Yep. And it is easily rationalized as doing the right thing, until its too late to do differently.
"And in a way, that makes YOU the fascist!"
Continues becoming even more fascist
"I used to hold very strong leftist values and principles up until someone on the internet hurt my feelings."