Thread by @mcjulie

Evangelicals do this kind of stuff all the time, it gets really funny when you're a cynical teenager starting to pull away from the church.

https://twitter.com/jbouie/status/1400830020206084099

Also, one curious left-right asymmetry is that people on the right will say, without the teeniest hint of shame, the most outrageous stuff about the left -- like, that we're literal satan-worshiping baby eaters.

And even if they get some pushback for it, the right always barrels through and keeps on doing it until everybody else just shrugs and gives up I guess. Like this "leftism is a religion!" thing is a pretty old canard, which righties have been moaning about since GWB

At the same time, if somebody seen as on the left side (left, liberal, Democrat etc.) says something like "Republicans are motivated by racism" or "Trump supporters are racist" we always get SO much pushback.
"Oh, surely you don't mean RACIST, that's an offensive thing to say!"

There seems to be this idea that *calling* something "racist" or "fascist" or "evil" is so outrageous that the standards for what makes something any of those things are set impossibly high.

You know, they'll admit, reluctantly, that actual historical Nazis were fascists, or that the KKK is racist, or that the Inquisition was evil. But surely no MODERN people or actions are like that! How could you say that! So offensive!

But the fainting couch only gets pulled out if it's left calling right. Right is ALWAYS pointing the finger at left. "You woke BLM CRT fascists are the REAL racists, also the real fascists, everything you want to do is evil"

I have fallen for this rhetoric in the past -- succumbed to this shaming -- "oh, Republicans seem racist, kinda fascist, sometimes downright evil to me, but I guess I'm just being judgmental"

The quoted tweet here is a good example of type -- chiding people on, presumably the left side, or the NON Republican side anyway, for having too low an opinion of the Republican side, and this low opinion is what "prevents unity"

https://twitter.com/mcjulie/status/1393307066475761664

Sorry, that was hard to follow. This is the tweet I was talking about. The premise is that politics of distrust favors the right, therefore the left must... unilaterally trust, I guess?

https://twitter.com/quinnae_moon/status/1392913595214618628

And this happens all the time. The left gets shamed into meeting the right halfway, the right moves further right, we get shamed into meeting them halfway again, etc. etc.

Sometimes I compare it to the way "good kids" get shamed into accepting worse treatment. "oh, I know we let your brother get away with all that stuff you get in trouble for, but it's just because we expect more from you!"

It's 9 am so I guess that's the end of the thread. Have a Friday everybody!