One key to understanding reactionaries is that horrible people believe, at a deep level, that everyone is horrible. Virtue & decency strike them as tricks, as someone trying to pull something over on them. They literally cannot imagine good people.
https://twitter.com/timjhogan/status/1322246965808291840
On this same theme, read this piece about the RW militia group Oath Keepers. They work each other up with scary tales about what the left & "antifa" are doing (or preparing to do), in order to ease the way for their own escalation.
theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
Early in the piece, Oath Keepers guy is like, "we're not going to start anything, we're just going to be ready when the left acts." But of course, everything they think about the left is fantasy & never comes to pass. So by the end of the piece ...
...more radical people are taking over the group w/ the new line, "We can't wait for the left to act! We must take action now to preempt it!"
At no point does their boogeyman left bear any connection to reality. It's just a cognitive/emotional tool they use to justify violence.
At no point does their boogeyman left bear any connection to reality. It's just a cognitive/emotional tool they use to justify violence.
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