Why Does the Right End Up Being So Wrong All the Time?
Dishonesty or Ignorance, Still Unclear
Imagine minding your own business reading the various authors around Medium, and you come across a couple think pieces which hit the right notes about how current Nazism and how attacking hate speech isn’t the same as attacking free speech. So, you begin internally (and maybe even externally) nodding your head in agreement at the well-argued and well-framed points throughout, and then you scroll along further and hit the comments and boom. A complete and utter contrast to the authors thoughts across the comments. It ranged from calling the author dishonest to calling the article trash. Then you have confusion that furrows your brow, where did the author go wrong to draw the ire of multiple people like that?
Some may try to claim others who may write similar stories live in a media bubble of self affirming articles and blog posts, but fail to realize by being on site like Medium — between the articles, posts and comments — and being surrounded by many different perspectives, you are already not in a bubble. You could peruse sites like Reddit, Twitter or your own Facebook feed and have the same non political bubble.
It is not just one or two people saying the following comments are just wrong, it is reality itself calling these commentators out. Let it be prefaced by saying, there will always be respect for anybody’s right to express their opinions even conservative ones, but what many will not tolerate is opinions that express their perspective as the right ones (pun intended) when their argument is rooted in dishonesty or come from a place of confidence in a warped perspective. Not to say only conservatives do this, liberals can be wrong too.
Let’s look at the first comment that was viewed:
The author is wrong on so many levels. I say this as someone whose father spent 4 years on the Eastern Front fighting actual Nazi’s, whose mother and grandfather were both active in the Polish Resistance….and who’s grandmother died in the camps. Both my father and my mother would be horrified by the authors position.
Our 1st Amendment and freedom to engage in political expression, including expressions that many may find objectionable is exactly what protects us from becoming the kind of tyranny that Germany turned into.
Sure, Jan.
The main issue is that the author of this comment immediately starts by trying to give himself a position of authority over the author of the article. But makes an error in his second paragraph by stating a statement, a bold statement without any backup to support his opinion. I am assuming the previous paragraph establishing the commentator’s authority was supposed to do this but just being the child of some people who were related to WWII doesn’t give YOU the authority because you were not there. This commentator forgets the Nazi Party rose to power first by appealing to the masses, and then suppressing free speech, they didn’t have any power until given a large platform to push their rhetoric. Sounds remarkably like how neo Nazis and white supremacists were given a platform this year with this presidency.
Let’s keep this train moving shall we:
The anti-fascists are not the good guys, they are the same style of thugs that the Nazi’s are, they just wear a different colored uniform. Much like Stalin’s NKVD in WW2 were. They were anti-Nazi too… and they also murdered and oppressed their own citizens (and those of other countries) in nearly as large quantities as the Nazi’s did.
So, from the same commentator they conflated anti-fascists or people who don’t like white supremacy or neo Nazis as “thugs” and conflated them to murders despite white supremacists being the people who initiate terroristic threats and kill people. Hmmmm….
The police are arresting anti-fascists, not because the police are shielding the Nazi’s but because what the anti-fascists are doing is initiating violence against other people…. and in most cases, against people who they simply disagree with on some political view or other and label as “Nazi’s” to dehumanize that individual and justify engaging in violence against them.
So, Nazism is the belief that you are superior to “non-Aryans”. So, when you call someone a Nazi, you are calling them someone who thinks less of other races because they are white. Nazis are fascists and fascists if given enough power would strip people they define as “other” of their rights. Which is why peoples defense of their “free speech” (read:hate speech) has always come off as either just blind ignorance or people who may have sympathy to the ideology itself. Along the same lines of labeling, people who the right labels as “antifa” are labeled as violent because they are people whose very ideology does not allow fascist beliefs to survive in a modern society nor think the ideology that condones fascism should be present in this society we have built, and so yes some fascists like Richard Spencer get cold-cocked in the mouth because their very existence is only to spread such a toxic ideology to the mainstream. The very idea of fascism is one so rooted in the past of ignorance, that the fact someone can still believe in that ideology today is proof we as a society have failed somewhere big time.
That resistance you are experiencing from the 80% also originates from the overt and obvious hyperbole, fallacious argumentation and self-aggrandizement from the ‘resistance’……That sounds good only if you are a believer, but not good to the public that won’t legitimize vigilante violence and suppression of free speech.
This is another comment legitimizing Nazi speech or hate speech as free speech. They are not the same at all. And this commentator also tries to put down the “resistance” in the same comment, which is being guilty of what they are arguing against, which is suppressing free speech. You provide sympathy to the hate speech people, but immediately try to take away to the power of anybody who is critical of said speech or is against that speech so idealistically they believe violence is the only way to get the point across that is “No, hate speech should not be tolerated”.
For one thing, the “resistance” is nothing more than a smattering of people across the internet who are tired of the conservative values and far right ideology taking power in the country. Furthermore, hate speech is not free speech, people who equate the two are plain idiots. While you give people, who like to say anybody who is brown or is non-white is less than platforms, you give the people who are brown or are part of other minority groups less spaces where they can express their opinions or feel safe on the internet.
To add on here are some articles showing how much the Right can be wrong:
- Five lies that are ricocheting around the right-wing media bubble
- Lies Told by Donald Trump from Jan. 21st to July 21st
- White House telling lies
We could go on and post some more links, but this is just the tip of the ice berg. If it isn’t an outright lie, it’s a half truth. Or if it isn’t a half truth, it is an exaggeration. Or it is pushing an idea or politic to distract people from another issue or lie. Not to say we didn’t have issues of political conspiracy theories and exaggerations or lies before this year. But now that we have Republicans being the most prominent political party in the country and with that newfound power of the Republican Party and complete governance it has been issue after issue, tweet after tweet. Spin after spin by the folks on Fox & Friends and the Press Secretary. It gets so damn tiring. And we are still only 10 months into all of this.
Can we see this going on all the way to 2020? The number of articles and think pieces on the issues in the Republican Party and from the various sub groups of the right side of the spectrum have been tremendous. And that is just on Medium, think about the number of articles that have come out of major publications like the NY Times or the Washington Post.
Maybe if it was more normal politics of old where we would have someone with a slip up occasionally, but Trump has single handedly changed political discourse in the entirety of this country. It is beyond frustrating where I am not even mad or surprised whenever a new tweet or scandal or revelation in the Russia-Election 2016 investigation.
It’s just tiring.
Seeing article after article, or blog post after blog post, on Medium or Twitter complaining about the same thing that was complained about the week before it was posted. Sometimes there is a diamond in the rut where there is a genuinely good or interesting post or article that added something to the conversation besides the same old complaints that the left has abundantly made clear by now.
And the right is not innocent in this. Between trying to demonize people associated with “antifa” or trying to put down anyone who is part of a minority group or create or rehash an old conspiracy theory, it is the same old same old of putting party over anything else. Defending the indefensible, or in many cases it is not defending but deflection; “wut about Hillary/Obama?” (literally can set a watch by it by now). There was a time where political parties like the Republicans cared a little more about the people they serve besides protecting the same old interest groups.
It is a cycle that is never-ending, Republican person does “X” thing that hurts more than it helps, immediate outrage from the left, the defending of it by the right. The many tweets and articles and think pieces on why “X” is bad.
Or
Republican person says “Y” outrageous statement, people on the left leap at it, and the tweets, blog posts and articles come out, the commentators across the internet debate on “Y” statement, what the person meant when they said or what they are saying but people are looking at it wrong.
Or
President Trump tweets “Z” thing, left reacts, right protects and defends, here come articles and more tweets. Arguments across the internet on what Trump meant by “Z” tweet, ad infinitum.
It is not going to end anytime soon, and and what is not being said is we need to stop being critical of things that anyone on the right side may do or say. What is being said though, is that we need to evaluate whatever we type whether it be an opinion piece or article, we make sure as writers we are adding something to the conversation than mutual outrage. Outrage isn’t making the country be better or improves anyone’s situation, it only adds to the noise.
The dishonesty of the conservatives or anyone on the right cannot be fought with more left “noise”. We need solid analysis, and facts to make sure the truth of the matter gets to the people and then they decide whether to accept it or not. No matter the number of times we may write on a specific subject, we may in fact not win hearts and minds but the effort that we need to take is not just get some more “amens” from a chorus of people with similar political beliefs, but we need to make clear points that can appeal to people across the aisle so that we can take steps together into making this country better than what it is right now. And that is all that matters.
