I want to make clear that I do not buy the notion that the fascism we see is just politicians manipulating the polity by distracting them with fear and bigotry.
I know these people. I was one of them when I was growing up.
The evil was there, at their core, waiting to be accessed, and it was passed from one generation to the next via community conformity and social training.
They are as culpable as the politicians who manipulate them.
I've heard people on the left making these kinds of excuses for bigoted actors for a long time now.
"Oh, but they are being distracted by a malevolent set of political actors who want to distract them from the damage being done by those in power."
I don't accept that excuse.
The will to harm and dominate, the hatred and bigotry to ignite that flame of action, were all there previously. The bigots and the oligarchs WORK TOGETHER.
So no. I'm not going to give bigoted white people, bigoted cis/het people, or whomever, a convenient excuse for their bloody minded, violent behaviors.
"Oh, those in power confused me."
"Oh, those in power confused the poor bigot."
They know what they're doing. And their enablers in power provide the nod toward violence that the bigot wants in the first place.
Don't fucking excuse this behavior.
The bigot and the oligarch are cut of the same cloth.
@timberwraith yep every time I hear someone say we shouldn’t attribute something to malice when it’s actually stupidity, I want to scream that’s how MAGAts got power. We assumed they were all just being conned, like they didn’t know better, when in fact they were cheering for the fascism and the hate.
@timberwraith I wouldn't even call them left arguments so much as whitewashing of bigoted white people's motives by other white people.
They will insist the former were simply deluded, misled, taken advantage of, or whatever when they were willing participants in the destruction of society all along. "If only they understood their economic and other interests lie with us!"
They don't, though. They like hurting people. That's their interest.
@gwynnion What I can say, is that I've seen a lot of white people on the left who use this line of reasoning.
They certainly have motivation for wanting to excuse the terrible behaviors of other white people and so it goes.
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I really have seen this idea alot* in leftist spaces though. There's even the comic with the rich oligarch with the large pile of cookies, the white worker with the small pile of cookies, and the POC with one/no cookies. It's a meme at this point.
POI: the people you describe are the toxic white moderates (or liberals as some call themselves) that MLK warned us about.
the Left, doesn't make excuses for fascism. historically, the whole concept of "Left" rose as the countervail to growing threat of fascism. in other words, it is not the Left unless it's antifascist to begin with.
so we say we can count in one hand the number of people who would fit the description of The Left, in DC, we aren't exaggerating.
agreed @timberwraith what i mean is, they call themselves the left but aren't. not due to what they say they are but exactly by what they end up doing. "watch what they do, not what they say" is absolutely necessary with not just yts in general but yt incumbent democrats. it's an eye-opening experience to go thru their legislative records or itemize the causes and people they champion.
@blogdiva@timberwraith I agree with what Liza is saying here. Calling yourself a leftist and having a bunch of the right pins/swag is not the same thing as actually being a leftist.
Like this isn't a no true Scotsman thing. This is like. A false consciousness thing. White people who show up for the vibes but don't engage in political education are not "doing" leftism when they're making excuses for bigotry. That's why it (rightfully) irritates us.
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