Thread by @JYuter

1. Thread: I want to talk about political apologies.

2. In a conversation with a friend, I had mentioned I'm of two minds about them. On one hand, they help reinforce norms but on the other hand, they're often insincere and largely performative.

3. My friend recognized the insincerity but still held that apologies are needed to preserve the norms. Fair enough. However, I saw several other statements about how Omar > Trump and King because she apologized, attributing greater significance to the apology.

4. Now, it's worth mentioning that lots of people had issues with Omar's apology, many pointing out that for a supposedly "unequivocal" condemnation there was a whole lotta equivocation
commentarymagazine.com/anti-semitism/…

5. My sense is that Omar's apology wasn't intended to mollify the people she offended as much as her supporters who could now point to *a* statement regardless of its coherence. She checked a box which is good enough to sweep it under the rug and "move on"

6. I say this because we should be familiar with several types of non-apologies. A classic one is "mistakes were made" or "I'm sorry you were offended" - neither of which accepts personal responsibility.

7. Then there's the Mark Zuckerberg's repeated apologies which include nice sounding words but deflect from addressing the real issues.
washingtonpost.com/news/on-leader…

8. I think the Trump and King comparisons are apt. Neither one has apologized for their offensive remarks. But think for a moment what if they did? Would you believe them? Think they're sincere? What if they apologized like Omar? How would you react?

9. Personally, I'd be just as skeptical. But I suspect so would most of the people who have been demanding apologies.

10. And that's what I find so fascinating. We want the apologies and the political pablum even when we *know* it's insincere and artificial.

11. If they're from our side we even can say an obligation was met and hold our heads high for being morally superior in confronting our weaknesses, even if we do no such thing in reality.

12. My point is these apologies are essentially political sugar, empty calories we constantly crave even though we have plenty of evidence to know better.
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