The Myth of Equally Reprehensible

 I was reading a story in The Commons, Unhealthy and deeply destructive, and the basic idea was that the Right was reprehensible the "Extreme Left" was just as bad. He claims to have been a Democrat and now cannot. The writers exact words were " I have generally voted Democrat my entire adult life. However, in recent times, a frightening portion of the left has become so extreme that it is at times on parity with the extremist right."

What I read after this makes it extremely unlikely that this person was ever a Democrat. What follows seems to have come directly off of Fox "News" or any of the extreme Right Wing propaganda sights.

"The extreme left doesn't believe in working. They believe work is an affliction and associate employment with pain. An honest day's work is good for one's mental health, physical health, and self-respect, yet, the extreme left believes everything should be done for you. This is not sustainable for a healthy functioning society."

Now this is one of the favorite tropes of the Fixed Noise crowd. I am a Liberal. I am one of the Extreme Left that this idiot is talking about. I work and barely survive on my one income. This is just like every other Liberal and Democrat I have ever met in my life. We work. We do believe in a Level Playing Field so that each person can go as far as their natural talent will take them. Who you were born to, where you were born, your parents economic status, race, religion, etc should not matter. Yet is this country all of that matters deeply.

"The extreme left perpetuates learned helplessness and dependency. The extreme left (and innumerable cowards of all political and social backgrounds), because they're not working, have nothing better to do than engage in petty witch hunts on the mostly waste-of-time otherwise known as social media. They do this to be self-aggrandizing all while ignoring their shortcomings they could be working to improve about themselves.

This is the most privileged class of people who have the luxury to flex anonymous keyboard disparagements because they're not working when they could be. Here's a nonconformist suggestion: How about putting down your cell phone and reading an actual book?"

Sorry Dude, you are confusing us with the keyboard warriors of the American Nazi Party, AKA the Republican Party, AKA the MAGA Faithful. We will call out your stupidity when we have time, and most of us do not have the time or the inclination to try to educate people like yourself that are so far down the rabbit hole that your chances of ever seeing daylight again are negligible.

I read all the time. I am, at this moment reading "The Capital Order: How Economists Created Austerity and Paved the way to Fascism" by Clara E. Mattei and "Our Tribal Future: How to Channel our Foundational Human Instincts Into a Force for Good" by David R. Samson. Check them out from your local Library. You might find them interesting.

"The extreme left shuts down differing viewpoints and tries to censor anything they don't happen to like."

Calling Bull Shit when we see it and holding people accountable for their deeply divisive lies and obfuscations is not Shutting Down. Grow a skin you snowflakes of the Right and get over yourselves.

"The extreme left suppresses the robust exchange of ideas and demonizes any intellectual inquiry that differs from their orthodoxy."

Again, wrong side son. It is the Right which does this. We on the Left will argue all day. The Right just loses their shit and gets violent.

"The extreme left cancels, condemns, and dehumanizes anyone who asks honest questions that challenge their self-righteous narrow way. These are vestiges of the extreme right as well."

This is, again, Gaslighting of the worst kind. The ONLY people who have tried to cancel anything is the Right. Witness Ron Desantis and his war with Disney.

"The extreme left lionizes victimhood and believes everything happened to them, rather than perhaps as a consequence of their behavior, choices, and actions."

White people of the Right are the ones crying victim son. Look at them. They are so victimized by people of Color, Gay people, Muslim people, Trans people, etc, that they are trying to make our country into a Nazi State so that they can protect themselves from them.

"The extreme left makes excuses for criminals and refuses to hold them accountable while honest community citizens (and towns) suffer in the wake."

The Right has the biggest criminal of them all, the Traitor Donald Trump, who they are making every excuse possible for and still want as their leader. For Shame.

"The extreme left believes in coddling to the point where society becomes fragile and can't learn to deal with difficult circumstances.

When we as a society totally shield ourselves from tough experiences, we never learn to live with the hardships, we only learn to live in avoidance of them."

Learn to tell the difference between coddling and levelling the playing field so that we all have close to the same chances to make a decent life as anyone else.

And finally, I saved the first for last:

"The concept of 'woke' may have begun as a good thing, but humans have a penchant for bastardizing things. Woke has now generally devolved into militant authoritarianism."

Again, straight out of Right Wing talking points. Woke is merely being Awake to the fact that other people exist and have just as many rights to exist as I do. It is being awake to the fact that just because it does not affect me that does not mean it is not true. It is awake to the fact that just because I do not understand or like someone's lifestyle choices that does not mean that I have any right to try and inhibit those choices. Woke is merely the Idea that what I believe is not the only belief that matters in this world and that you also have the right to believe. Even if it is Right Wing Christian Nationalism that is destroying this country. Woke is being Awake to the idea that I am free to believe what I choose to and I am not free of other people telling me exactly what they believe about that.

SO this is part of the argument we are having today. Between Ideologues who will pervert anything to make a One Party State with heavily Christian Nationalist overtones, and people like me who want everyone to be able to choose their lives and have a level playing field on which to live that life and go as far as their Natural Talents will take them.

So choose a side. Always choose a side. And then live with the consequences of that choice. As I am going to have to live with the consequences of publishing this.