Can the Right Echo the Left?
Or, can they pretend to be us accurately?
As I mentioned a while back, I’m still getting these stupid emails from that “friend” from way back who refuses to take me off of his email list, a chain that sees the same few people eternally arguing over left vs. right issues where nobody can ever meet in the middle except on useless feel good issues.
I generally end up tossing them, but I often (just for amusement’s sake) read some of it.
Today, one thing caught me. One of the writers noted:
What is the purpose of having these discussions if you’re not going to develop enough understanding of those who disagree with you to be able to make arguments that “sound like something [your opponent] would say”…
After thinking about that, it hit me. Just about any of those who tend to agree with my Progressive leanings can arguably and fairly well produce an argument that sounds remarkably like a right wing conservative. It isn’t hard.
But listen to what one of the hard liners on the other side replied to him with:
I am all for taking another’s arguments on their own terms. However, to what ends does playacting those arguments serve? I see little value in reciting arguments you don’t believe.
The first guy then replied:
The value is not in playacting other’s arguments but in having listened and understood well enough that you know you could do it.
In a nutshell, that’s the entire point. Of course, the right wing idiot still resists, seeing “no use” for that skill. Which is no surprise, because he’s propagandized to just repeat his masters’ words, and thus thinks that’s what his opponents are doing. The result is that he thinks his opponents aren’t thinking beings, but shills repeating stuff they don’t understand. Which is why he thinks simply repeating our words is useless.
Because of course, that’s what he is. Because he doesn’t truly understand the arguments of his masters, he thinks his opponents don’t either. But the difference is, we can echo their arguments because we understand what their masters are trying to achieve. We see the purpose behind the false arguments and know they’re false, and why.
He thinks they’re true because he’s been told they’re true. Not because he understands them. He just wants to be right.
Therein lies the essential difference between the Left and the Right. Oh, I know, you’re going to say there are smart people on the Right also. Sure there are. I could (if I could remember without Duck Duck Go) recite half a dozen names of famous smart conservatives. People like William Buckley, or George Will, who famously removed himself from the Republican Party because of Trump. (Which, of course shows he’s smarter than 99% of those on the right.) But Buckley is the perfect example of who I’m talking about.
He could spout all sorts of smart sounding things to support right wing ideas and values, but he always missed the essentials that underlie Leftist ideals. As do they all. They do because they fail to understand those essentials. And they fail to understand them because they all think we’re spouting stuff we’re told to say by others, and don’t truly understand reality.
Yet, they refuse to even try to understand our side in the simplest way possible — by assembling one of our arguments without repeating someone else’s words.
I think the reason for that is simple. If they did, they might be tempted to understand our arguments. And if that happened, they’d lose, and to them, losing is worse than understanding.
Yes, it really is that simple.
