I don't agree with everything here but these words are very close to my personal beliefs: "Liberalism celebrates certain values: reasonableness, conversation, compassion, tolerance, intellectual humility and optimism. Liberalism is horrified by cruelty." nytimes.com/2020/02/27/opi…
Our current political/chattering classes have all but capitulated to cruelty as a virtue, the age of The Clapback! I refuse to accept it. Dehumanizing our opponents stems from the part of ourselves we must wage war with, every single day. But today it's considered the noble part.
"But the other side is putting babies in cages!" Yeah, for lack of murdering the part of themselves that enjoys dehumanizing the other. You don't fight that by finding someone else to dehumanize, to humiliate, to shame.
I'm not saying don't fight. Lord knows, we have a lot to fight for. But the amount of cruelty specifically people are bringing to this fight, to their own side even, it's not just counterproductive; it becomes impossible to eradicate. And it will always look for a new target.
