#but this is another level of idgaf-ism

[lenteur]

the fact that weki meki won't be able to give their fans a proper goodbye is absolutely vile

[searchingforsignal]

Goodwill Has Left Politics

Nary a day go by where I don’t see politics plastered across social media. Overwhelmingly, it is individuals advocating for very progressive causes with witty slogans and fancy graphics. You can find accounts on the right as well, but those are often ‘Think Tanks’ or political advocacy groups. Rarely are they people that you know (as is the case with my liberal friends). Both sides have the right to do that, but the unrelenting echo chamber this environment forms forces people deeper and deeper into tribalism, especially when the other side feels like it can’t respond. I wrote another post a while back advocating for choosing to love those who disagree with us and I won’t rehash those arguments here. This time I want to voice why those witty quotes are disingenuous at best and malicious at worst.

Because I’m going to bash on the liberal side a bunch let me just reiterate that there are people on the right who do the same thing and I’m not looking to give them a free pass. One of two semi-political arguments I’ve gotten into on social media was with a right-of-centre account who insisted that 9/11 must have been faked because you couldn’t see the airplane hitting the pentagon in footage (Spoiler alert: if you go frame by frame, you can for ~2 frames, which corresponds to what you would expect on a low frame rate camera). But for this post, I’m literally going to go through my social media accounts and just respond to the things I’m seeing.

1) You MUST vote for Biden in order to stop Trump (or voting for anybody but Biden is evil/treasonous/makes you a terrible person) and the ‘Stop Trump at all costs’ mentality in general

Two problems with this one. First, how condescending is it to assume that you can tell somebody how they must vote. If you want to lay out arguments why Biden is the best candidate, by all means, go ahead, but don’t tell somebody that they need to vote for Biden because he’s not Trump and the Democratic nominee. Second, this is a recipe for long-term electoral failure. Thinking like this may win 2020 because of how extremely flawed Trump is, but what happens when a mainstream Republican who is willing to play to the populists runs in 2024? This doesn’t encourage the Dems to correct the very serious structural problems that lost them the Rust Belt. Trump is a symptom, not a cause. And beating Trump won’t magically fix all the things you don’t like about his supporters, they will still be there, ~40% of the population, voting, protesting, advocating. If the goal is to bring them into the fold again, just beating Trump won’t achieve that, in fact it may just make it worse.

2) The reason why Trump is treated extraordinarily poorly is because Trump is extraordinary

This is laughable to anybody who has an accurate memory of 2012. Trump won the primary because the Republicans were tired of taking the high road and getting beat up for it. Mitt Romney was not treated kindly and respectfully in 2012. He was one of the nicest guys ever to run for President and he was smeared as a ruthless businessman who was grossly incompetent and had a foreign policy out of the Cold War (Hahahahah remember when Obama criticised Romney for calling Russia our number one geopolitical foe...). McCain was treated much the same way. He wasn’t a war hero, he was a loose cannon, liable to snap at any instant. Republicans nominated Trump because Trump was an asshole. He would roll around in the mud without any shame. Trump publicly treated the Democrats the same way that Democratic groups would treat Republican candidates. Did Trump take this to a new level? Yes. Is this how politics should work? No. But to pretend that both sides aren’t guilty is to live in an alternate timeline.

3) Anybody who doesn’t support Black Lives Matter but supports Blue Lives Matter has some issue with the word Black (with the implication that they’re racist).

Uhhh... This is just disingenuous. The reason most people who disagree with BLM disagree isn’t because they believe that Black lives don’t matter, but rather because they disagree with the people who run the BLM movement. I’m not an expert on this so I’m going to kind of punt on this a little, but BLM advocates for specific policies. Somebody who has an issue with those specific policies can disagree with the organisation without disagreeing that Black lives matter. (In short, we have the phrase Black Lives Matter and the organisation Black Lives Matter. It’s reasonable to assume that the people who use “All Lives Matter” or “Blue Lives Matter” are arguing against the latter rather than the former [or at least we should grant them that presumption of goodwill until they prove otherwise].)

4) CHOP/CHAZ/Portland/Insert City Here Has Entirely Peaceful Protests

Okay, this is tough, but the important thing here is that everybody can be wrong. The entire city may not be burning and 90%+ of the protests may be peaceful, but there were several shootings in CHAZ/CHOP and there was, at the very least, property destruction in Portland. This means that the protests aren’t entirely peaceful. Might there be other factors (instigation?) at play, sure. But we shouldn’t lie to advance our own position.

5) If you think wearing a face mask infringes on your rights you’re just an asshole

This is another situation where several things can be true at the same time. The part that people choose to overlook is that a government FORCING you to wear a face mask in public can be a violation of your rights. But, if you can wear a face mask and you don’t well... then you might be an ass... Just because you think you have the right not to do something doesn’t mean you should choose to exercise that right.

6)  Accusing Trump of some -ism or -phobia

You’re not winning anybody over with this... People either already agree with you or you’re pushing them away. If you have a real argument against a policy present that instead, you might actually change somebody’s mind this way

7) Being Apolitical on your social media means you support the status quo

No, I just know that social media is a shitty place to have these conversations, and I’m not looking for a pat on the back or to start a fight. Talk to me privately if you want a serious conversation.

8) Police chose to be police so we shouldn’t advocate for their safety

Bloody hell... This one is stupid. There were several innocent police officers who were killed execution style the last time there were mass protests against police brutality so I think at least a little concern is warranted. Also this in no way has to or should take away from a discussion of how to address police brutality. Once again, both things can true at the same time-- this doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game.

9) Democrats have a police reform bill, but the senate won’t take it up

Yeah, this one is TECHNICALLY true, but everybody knew that the Democratic bill had too many poison pills for Republicans to swallow. However, Senate Republicans had a bill too (one that was more moderate, it was essentially everything from the Democratic bill that both sides could agree on), which Sen. Schumer and most of the Senate Democrats filibustered to keep it from coming up for debate and amendment... At the very least, both parties are equally to blame here, though had Schumer allowed the bill to go to floor debate and it passed, then they would have gone into conference and negotiated a compromise.

10) Selective Political Myopia

This really encompasses many of the things above. We all tend to get caught up in the moment and forget the emotional baggage that some things carry with them. We don’t want to hear why the other side might find one of our positions problematic. Most everybody, myself included, is guilty of this; it’s why confirmation bias is a thing. F. Scott Fitzgerald said, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” So let’s all agree to do our best to be a first-rate intelligence. To see both sides of an issue and continue to function and to truly try and understand why your political “opponents” feel the way they do.

In closing IDGAF what your politics are, just be nice, respect the people who disagree with you, and do your best to actually listen to the other side. If I put some effort in I’m totally certain I could replicate this post with Right-Wing slogans, but I think that would be too much Charlie Kirk for me to take.

To end on a more positive note, I do want to say that I am really heartened to see real positive change being made towards equality.

Okay, Rant without direction complete! If you’ve actually read this far, thank you. Be warned, I will not even look at the notes on this-- Too much anxiety. If you actually want to talk to me, shoot me a message and I’ll answer, well, the next time I open Tumblr (which could be several weeks)