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Something I Found At Jeff Tiedrich's Site [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-01-27
This is unabashedly derivative. And I am now officially self-enjoined from entertaining any snide thoughts about diaries that are written to discuss articles elsewhere, because
this is a diary
about an article elsewhere
that discusses yet another article at another elsewhere.
There is a short blog by Maya Boddie, at The Smirking Chimp www.smirkingchimp.com/…
[that’s a link to the article], in which she discusses an article by David French at the NYT, in which HE discusses the writings of German Mitläufer and political theorist Carl Schmitt.
So why am I bringing this here? Not merely so someone can point out to me that this is actually
an article
about someone else’s article
about someone else’s article
about someone else’s book,
which makes it the third derivative, hey calculus lovers, w00t,
but because the ultimate subject is hugely relevant here.
French discusses a transition he has observed on the Right, people who moved “from supporting Donald Trump in spite of his hatefulness to reveling in his aggression."
He points to the German author as the source of an intelligent explanation for this [yes, yes, the cruelty is the point, but why? It matters, because cruelty is becoming the objective on the Left as well, oh yes it is too, and we’d do well to shake that off before it becomes our ideological center — in its own special unique way, of course.]
Boddie’s column is short, and I am probably pushing the envelope of Fair Use by quoting this much of it, but I don’t feel right paraphrasing her/his/his central point — I’d rather quote her quoting him quoting him… the asterisks are mine, see notes below the quote.
Furthermore, French notes that Schmitt notes that "one of liberalism’s deficiencies is a reluctance to draw the friend-enemy distinction," and its failure "to draw it is a fool’s errand."* "An enduring political community can exist only when it draws this distinction. It is this contrast with outsiders that creates the community," French emphasizes.** The Times columnist suggests, "Because our civics depends on our ethics, we should be teaching ethics right alongside civics. Sadly, we’re failing at both tasks, and our baser nature is telling millions of Americans that cruelty is good, if it helps us win, and kindness is evil, if it weakens our cause.***
*this is the “comity delusion” that seems to immobilize too many professional Democrats, which not only frustrates us but has enabled monsters.
**this is the origin of dysfunctional group dynamics in a nutshell. Each group defines itself as “not the other”, which might be OK if it stopped there, but as we can all see, it didn’t; the definition becomes “not the Other, whom we must hate hate hate, destroy, Doc I want blood and guts and veins in my teeth...”.
I think we tried reserving the “blood and guts and veins in my teeth” part as a special limited edition garnish for our schadenfreude popcorn at home, and it didn’t go well.
Meanwhile, the MAGA crowd has been using the same dynamic against us, but remember, they have decades of ugly propaganda defining us as Demon-rats and Lie-berals and other monstrosities abroad, mostly so they can avoid seeing their real monstrosity at home.
In other words, my pretties, hate is a disease. And it is highly, highly contagious.
***This is the part you guys ain’t gonna like. Because this right here, this business of preserving ethics as part of preserving civics, and NOT getting into the mindset that
cruelty is good, if it helps us win, and kindness is evil, if it weakens our cause.
is what those Tone Police and Hall Monitors and Wokescolds and such, non-pejoratively known as Community Moderators, are trying to do. Keep us civil. Keep us ethical. Keep us from turning into the Jungian Shadow of the MAGA. Fight off the disease, because you actually don’t need hate in order to recognize evil and stand against it.
In fact, once you’ve matched hate with hate, you might as well go home, because you have surrendered. You are now part of the cycle, and your hate will perpetuate more hate. [See? History DOES rhyme.]
I do not take exception to French’s use of the inclusive pronoun. I have seen much evidence for its validity.
Boddie’s linked article is a worthwhile read. I have no access to anything the NYT paywalls, and French’s article is, of course, paywalled; but if someone shares a gift link, I will put a link in this article to the comment where it is shared.
Also, I will be looking in only sporadically. Got stuff to do now that things have thawed out for a bit.
Also, to those who were expecting a different article today, there are two of them, drafted and awaiting final cleanup.
Addendum: People are asking sensible questions, and expressing sensible concerns, and I realized that I should include my response to one comment up here, because it will help those reading to better see where I am coming from. Without further ado:
[END]
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[1] Url:
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