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Why Do They Have To Be Evil? Can’t They Just Be Wrong
I’ve seen the following formulation recently from people on the right, here on Ricochet and elsewhere. It goes something like this:
Democrats = Progressives = Socialists = Communists = Antifa
The idea, it goes, is that “They” are all part of one big monolithic block. Your cordinary Democratic Party member or your run-of-the-mill Democratic hack politician has the same goals. And that is to rip down American history, American traditions, American ideals, and, of course, America. Every protester is either astroturfed or Antifa, or both. Every protester is willing to use their sign to bash someone in the head. And they’re just one command away from murdering every cop in sight and massacring anyone who ever voted for a Republican. Sure, it starts with statues and symbols of the Confederacy, then it’ll be Jefferson and Washington, and soon we’re making enormous bonfires and burning Bibles, and soon after Christians.
All Democrats are in on it too. And by extension the entire media, academia, the deep state, and “The Establishment,” which may or may not include “Northeastern elites” (as I was recently called), like myself. Because, of course,
“The Media” = Academia = “The Deep State” = “The Establishment” = Democrats = Progressives = Socialists = Communists = Antifa
Further, not only are “They” capable of anything, but “They” are hyper-competent. “They” can almost accomplish anything. Because, of course, “They” are all in it together. Every member of “They” takes orders unquestioningly. Among the Democrats/Progressives/Socialists/Communists/Antifa, they all think the same. There are no competing ideas, no competing power centers, no different ideas.
And there are no limits. The Democrats/Progressives/Socialists/Communists/Antifa value only power and will do anything and everything to achieve it.
When you go down this line of thinking, “They” are capable of literally anything. A Republican state representative in Idaho said recently that is was “completely plausible” that Democrats staged the events in Charlottesville to make the President look bad. And this would be astonishing to me if I hadn’t read the idea floated here on Ricochet and given serious consideration by some.
Okay, so with all due respect to Idaho state Rep. Bryan Zollinger, not only is it not “completely plausible,” it is utterly ridiculous.
I fully recognize that politicians and governments are capable of despicable things, of horrible things. That of the reason I’m a libertarian because government is dangerous and, given the chance, too often men will trample the rights of other men.
And so often this isn’t even done out of malice. As one of Robert Heinlein’s characters once put it, “What I fear most are affirmative actions of sober and well-intentioned men, granting to government power to do something that appears to need doing.”
Yes, things went wrong in Charlottesville, but far more likely than malice is ordinary incompetence. People are often bad at their jobs, especially those that work for the government.
The notion that Democratic officials intentionally provoked Charlottesville in the hopes that something terrible would happen isn’t just implausible. As Waylon Smithers once put it, “[crosses] that line between everyday villainy and cartoonish supervillany.”
Let’s walk through this the steps in the plan:
- The city responds to a petition from a citizen and votes to rename a park and remove a statue.
- This provokes white nationalists to flock to Charlottesville.
- That provokes counter-protesters.
- The police are told to stand down and let violence happen.
And all of this in the hopes that Trump would be true to form and make an ass of himself afterwards?
This plan would have had to have been set up months ago. And every one of those steps, and probably others, would have to go off perfectly, without a hitch, to achieve the goal. Break any link in that chain, and it the grand hopes of these master conspirators are dashed.
But again, this assumes a level of cartoonish supervillany. It’s not individuals doing bad things, it’s a super-villain master doing evil things. And they do so with the help of everyone involved, all of whom are on board, without any dissent, because, after all,
Democrats = Progressives = Socialists = Communists = Antifa
Okay, so I hate to break it to everyone, but there is no grand hyper-competent leftist conspiracy.
Democrats ≠ Progressives ≠ Socialists ≠ Communists ≠ Antifa
Is there some overlap between these groups? Of course there is. No doubt the comments below will includes boundless examples of X Democratic politician expressing sympathy or support for progressives or socialists or communists or Antifa.
The left is no more unified than all conservatives or Republicans are unified. They’re not all robots anymore than all conservatives or Republicans are robots.
Just as how on the right there are competing ideas and competing interests and competing power blocks and competing egos, so it is on the left. Just as there are competing ideas and arguments and debates and squabbles on the right, so it is on the left. And just as there is incompetence and fecklessness among Republican office holders, so there is among Democratic office holders. Republicans have RINOs, Democrats have DINOs.
Our friends on the left aren’t evil and they’re not all communists. Some are. Most aren’t. And I’m sure people will point to Democratic office holder X doing something terrible. There is no shortage of terrible humans, especially when you’re talking about politicians. But there’s a different between bad or corrupt and cartoonish supervillany.
The fact of the matter is that the overwhelming majority of Democrats and progressives are just ordinary people, trying to live their lives according to the things they value.
Yes, they sometimes have horrible ideas that sprang from horrible ideas in the past, sometimes created by despicable and even evil people. But that doesn’t make those individual Democrats or progressives evil. They just have ideas that are wrong.
And that’s what it comes down to: these people aren’t evil. They’re just wrong.
Published in General
Fred,
For some reason, Brock always reminds me of Renfield.
Fred, David Brock is evil. Rest assured.
Regards,
Jim
I’m fine with those observations, Fred. I don’t like “they” applied to anyone, and I am overwhelmed at the moment with how I–a teacher who cares about Southern history–have been lumped into a block of “they” that includes Neo-nazis, klansmen, and other such creatures by every iconoclast currently ripping up the memorial landscape.
That said, I don’t mind the word of caution on using such generalizations about people on the Left. You are right in that people doing this are wrong.
Wrong and evil aren’t mutually exclusive. Terry McAuliffe is wrong and evil.
Thanks Fred. I’m glad you agree with me that my wife of 37 years, my parents, my in laws and my children are not evil villains bent on destroying our nation. I think even the dog is progressive.
But the reason we oppose them is because their wrongness will lead to evil. I agree, generalizing the evil of a few to the entire group is not only a big mistake, it drives us nuts when they do it back. Unfortunately, in a binary system where all questions boil down to “for or against”, it is all too easy and tempting. I am finding the symmetry between how the left used to see itself and where we are right now bizarre: they need to have their consciousness raised, to be shown the error of their underlying assumptions and to be brought into the light. We can’t do it if we just exult in demonization.
There are plenty of decent progressives, but very few of them are in positions of influence and leadership.
Okay. So I could only stomach about three minutes of that blonde lady before I had to close the window, so maybe I missed what your point was.
There’s some Democratic strategy guide that they put out after the election? Okay. And?
Nothing to disagree with there.
If memory serves me there were about twice as many “Truthers” as there were “Birthers” back when those affiliations were of some relevance. I suggest that the former were more deranged.
While I agree with the overall message of your post, there is a small problem with this particular analogy.
The divisions in the right exist because the right does not really know what it is about anymore besides opposing the left. Thus, there are actual struggles for control of the right’s institutions (e.g. the GOP) and significant disagreements about what direction things ought to go in (e.g. given that they are mutually exclusive, should we favor free trade or protectionism?).
The divisions in the left are less about what direction to go in, and more about how quickly and violently we should go there. Everyone on the left is pretty much sold on the idea of more federal government control of everything, the arguments are about whether they make everyone go at Clinton Speed, Sanders Speed, or some other speed to get there.
Isn’t this what Trump said?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqcyyowAyiw
Fred,
The blonde was easy on the eyes and was making an important point. Com’n Fred watch the video. What about the second video. Surely David Brock gives you that creepy Renfield feeling. Just imagine Soros as Count Dracula and David Brock as Renfield.
Now we’re talking evil.
Regards,
Jim
The Editor in Chief might have something to say about “the blonde”.
Only on Ricochet can you find scathing condemnations of how evil people on the right are while being treated to a glowing defense of the left. Oh. Wait. That’s everywhere!
Not that I disagree with the premise, I’m just a bit annoyed that this was considered of utmost importance to write about.
No. But I don’t read left-wing commentators, not do I pay attention to what Democratic politicians say.
Nor would I expect to see such a thing right now. Maybe if there were a Democratic president, we might. But right now all the focus and attention is on the alt-right types.
Yeah, but there were Truthers on the left and the right. And while Democrats gave aid and comfort to them (when Bush was in office), nobody elected one President.
Soros has been shorting markets betting on a collapse that will put billions into his pockets. Soros funds all kinds of nefarious political activities. But there is no conspiracy.
A few things:
Pick your ultra-wealthy donor of choice. Soros is to the right what the evil Kochtapus is to the left.
I’m as unmoved about evil George Soros stories as I am about evil Kochtapus stories.
Fred, I feel you are strawmanning here, despite some valuable commonplace admonitions. Your cartoon of the WE engaging in this supposed group think reads like the flip side of the THEY you are reciting. You aren’t breaking any news that our Democratic family members, friends and co-workers aren’t seething evil monsters.
Re the quote above, we’ve seen a quarter of the GOP break nearly every commitment made to voters and reaffirm nearly every guarantee of the ACA and oppose a single dollar of cuts to the Medicare expansion. Where’s the comparable dissension in the Democratic party?
Name names here. On a whole set of issues — increased federal spending, increased taxes on the wealthy, large increases in the minimum wage, affirmative action, global warming, teacher union support, sentencing reform, abortion through the second trimester, gay marriage (and penalties against those who refuse to participate in same) — can you list some prominent national Democrats who are DINOs that prefer moderate GOP positions on economic, social and foreign policy questions.
Same for my family, my wife, my in-laws. Even my sister who wore one of those pink hats and marched in Washington.
My sister isn’t evil, just horribly, horribly wrong.
Not everything. Just certain things.
People on the right want more federal government control too. Just of different things.
But, Fred, there are no enemies on the Left, so Democrats = Progressives = Socialists = Communists = Antifa ;)
Fred, I find this post to be incredibly disingenuous.
Who said all Democrats are progressives? Name names please. I don’t recall anyone online, or personally who has said that. Most people I know believe there are conservative democrats, and then there are also those democrats that are truly liberal in the more classical sense, rather than the current leftist version. Furthermore, from personal experience I would say that is true.
Now for many people being a progressive is synonymous with being a socialist, and socialism by some people’s reckoning is just a weak version of communism, but again I would say most socialists don’t consider themselves communists even though they may have a lot more in common with the communists than they would care to realize. It is also true I believe than many on the Left have no idea really what socialism or communism is, and fling around those political labels and others like frisbees at the park just to make some point.
Antifa is just another ball of wax – it is a trained, violently criminal leftist group, many of which are paid to disrupt. To even suggest that your everyday Democrat on the Street is a Antifa thug is just complete nonsense. Anita is violence for hire as was documented at Charlottesville where many of the Antifa protesters were paid $25 an hour.
But the real problem I have is there is a reasonably large section of Hard Left Democrats that have recently bought into a political philosophy that excuses political violence to achieve their political goals, cares not a wit for our or anyone else’s constitutional rights, and prefers to angrily attack at least verbally anyone who dares to disagree with them. In short they no longer respect an opinion other than their own, which is a recipe for a very uncivil society.
Your post with it’s disingenuous allegation that people of a certain conservative bent are now attacking all Democrats as Communists is a purposeful distraction from the really frightening probability that many Americans no longer believe in our Constitutional protections or system , wish harm to those who disagree with themselves and seem to want some sort of Leftist dictatorship where they are in control or at least where “conservatives” and people they just don’t like have no say.
Furthermore, there are too many like you Fred who want to look the other way, deny that there a problem, and wish the problem will blow over. The serious problem with that idea is that most Leftists are just grown up spoiled brats, who if you let them get away with some crime or atrocity, will only come back again with sometime worse, even much worse the next time. Failure to face up to the problem and the wish to condone the Left’s violence will only lead to more violence and a much less civil society that could be ripped apart by your cowardice and that of people like you.
I think both are a scourge.
My God! Political organizations are engaging in politics…news at 11…oh, wait…
This might explain why you’re so willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.
To the extent that the Left criticizes their own it’s that they are insufficiently leftist, too pragmatic or willing to do deals with Republicans.
I’d like to take a hit of whatever it is you’re smoking. There is no transgression that a Democrat can not recover from. Manslaughter to Lion of the Senate? Hymietown to civil rights icon? Rapist to champion of women’s rights? You don’t get there without a certain lockstep to the mentality.
There is a peculiar strain among the NeverTrumpers. They want to embrace the Left as long as they share the common enemy. “These people will remember what we did together,” they say, “and when Trump is gone they will reward us accordingly.” Dream on, young man. And take another hit.
This post strikes at the heart of the beliefs of some Ricochet members.
I think Fred should be fired. He should know better than to publish such inflammatory, triggering material on his employer’s website. Next thing we know, he’ll be questioning Ricochet’s diversity policy.