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Nope, you don't get to "both sides" this. The far left exists. There are genuine Maoists and Tankies out there, unquestionably. But they have no political powe

Nope, you don't get to "both sides" this. The far left exists. There are genuine Maoists and Tankies out there, unquestionably. But they have no political power, no majorly successful political candidate or party, and ultimately no impact on today's discourse. The actual left that stands up to the far right powers that are running things in countries like the US and Brazil does not participate in hate speech. Intolerance of hatred (whether it's misogeny or racism) is not itself intolerance or hatred, any more than being Anti-Fascism is an ideology like fascism itself. When you see Leftist terrorists or Bombers in today's 21st Western society, then come back to me about leftist hate speech. Until then, get out of here with your both-sidesism

jonahbenton 6y ago
Hear hear. Well said.
throwmehaweh 6y ago
This is absurd, the past 100+ days far-left/left/antifa/"blm" have been wielding immense political power by rioting, looting, burning, shooting, and antagonizing throughout multiple US cities. The term "far-right" has no meaning when it's been applied to every human not condoning left-wing mob politics.
- ende 6y ago
  The arson and vandalism has been caused by right wing white nationalists. edit: downvote all you want, racists, it’s true.
site-packages1 6y ago
Very well said, the “both sides” stuff cannot stand.
0xy 6y ago
Is calling for the public execution or extrajudicial killing of a confirmed racist hatred in your books? Because there's innumerable examples of that from the left. How many people called for the execution of Derek Chauvin prior to confirming his guilt in a court of law?
TheGrim-888 6y ago
The right isn't burning down buildings, the left is. The right isn't violently clashing with the police, the left is. The right is not looting, the left is. The right is not setting vehicles on fire, the left is. The right is not rioting, the left is. The right is not marching in the street as a political show of force, the left is. The right is not attacking people and businesses based on the owner's race or political leaning, the left is. Until recently I lived in downtown Seattle. I saw all of this with my own eyes. I saw them torch the building next to mine because the owner was an "evil white capitalist". I saw them torch the Starbucks 2 blocks from my building because of the "evil capitalists". I saw them march down my street every single night forcing people out of their cars, stopping traffic, looting and vandalizing as they felt like it. There's hundreds upon hundreds of hours of documented video evidence of your side turning to violence. It's so absurd that your side is ACTIVELY throwing away everything we've built, throwing away our justice system, turning to violence and anarchy, and you want us to just ignore that. Your side is literally turning to domestic terrorism to forcefully coerce your political ideology. But no, me peacefully sitting at home, watching your side literally burn our country down, apparently makes me the evil one, there's nothing wrong at all with what you're doing, I need to be censored out of existence. That's real tolerant.
happytoexplain 6y ago
It's frankly terrifying how many people who are ostensibly not trolling will refuse to admit the simple reality expressed in this post.
AlgorithmicTime 6y ago
No, you do get to "both sides" this. There are people on the left with national significance who say heinous things about entire demographics, demographics by virtue of their birth, nonetheless, who have their message spread via social media. And you know, I'm fine with them getting to have their say, as long as everyone gets their say.
mellosouls 6y ago
Completely agree - there is no "both sides" here. Modern McCarthyism, the attempt to control thought and speech is very much a problem of the left.
- geofft 6y ago
  Ah, that explains why our leftist president recently declared that certain thoughts and ideas are "un-American propaganda."
totetsu 6y ago
The logical conclusion of the "far right" type ideologies, that seek ethnic purity, and everyone to be in their right place, is to destroy(segregate and kill) all threats to purity. The logical conclusion of people opposed to that, is to stop people being killed, and when that isn't happening let everyone go about their business. They are not comparable.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
wegs 6y ago
We do get to both-sides this. The thing Facebook did amazingly well is silo people who hold identical opinions, and drive inflammatory false content to them. This maximized clicks, while inflaming and radicalizing people on both sides. Hatred doesn't last long when you talk to people. But Facebook doesn't let people talk to each other across boundaries. It's segregatory. See Brown v. Board. Now, there is no middle, and we have a mess to clean up. This maximized clicks. Facebook weren't the only ones doing it, but Facebook is the giant in the room. Facebook could have connected people on the left and on the right, and facilitated civil discussions. It chose not to do that. Do I blame them for it? I'm not sure. Market forces are powerful, and I suspect its hand may have been forced. Nevertheless, it's something we need to fix. Regulation is nice since it changes market forces. To say the polarized left isn't harmful is false. I don't much care about terrorists or bombers. There aren't enough of them to matter. I care about racists on the right. I care about vigilante doxers on the left. I care about people losing their careers. I care about kids from some communities not learning. I care about people hating each other. That's as much of a problem on each side. There was an article I ran into earlier today about how the far left which just caused a USC professor to be suspended from teaching for saying 那个 in a course on communications (which sounds a lot like an American racial slur). This stuff happens all the time in the far left. Watch the video. What he said is exactly what you'll hear in China all the time. https://reason.com/2020/09/03/usc-greg-patton-chinese-word-offended-students/ https://reason.com/2020/09/03/usc-greg-patton-chinese-word-o... As a footnote, if you do want to see terrorists on the left, tune into Fox News. They play nonstop footage of BLM protesters beating people up, setting fires, and in one case, executing someone. You can't just close your eyes here; half of America is seeing one reality, and half is seeing another. To start closing the gaps, it's helpful to see both.
- happytoexplain 6y ago
  >Hatred doesn't last long when you talk to people. I talk to people almost every day in a completely uncensored environment who have nothing but the purest hatred and mockery for all liberal or leftist people and liberal or leftist ideologies. They unabashedly want to murder their enemies. They applaud the killing and beating and gassing of BLM protesters. Yes, "the left" has places where they mock the right unreasonably too, and they fire somebody sometimes for a stupid misunderstanding or for being too offensive, or they ban somebody from a web site for a not-good-enough reason - it's stupid and awful, but there is simply no comparison. Calling what the worst elements on the right are doing to society and discourse "stupid and awful" would be a comedic understatement. And yes, in the right-now, people in the protests are burning things and assaulting people, but they are responding to being murdered by police. If the state murders you in the street, it's hard to find a ceiling for responses past which I couldn't understand people going, even if the response ends up ultimately doing more harm than good, which I can't even predict. The thing they're responding to is one of the worst things that can happen in a civilization. Edit: Somebody replied to me with the recent death of the Trump supporter, but got flagged (predictably so, considering the rest of their post). I just wanted to point out that it's a good example of cherry picking. Each time somebody dies, the people "on their side" will hold it up alone as evidence of how evil the enemy is. Of course, I'm speaking of the big picture, and I'm aware of the many smaller pieces, and I take pains to consider them.
cowmoo728 6y ago
I will worry about radical Maoists when it's plausible that they (or people using their votes for political gain) win a presidential election, obstruct the senate, have a majority in the supreme court, stockpile 400m guns, and have elected officials that write online manifestos about the need to kill their political opposition [1]. It's time to take the DHS and the FBI at their word; far right movements are the largest danger to the US right now. It does not make sense to worry about a mosquito while there's an angry grizzly running towards us. "Antifa" protesters that commit violence can be dealt with via regular law enforcement just fine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Shea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Shea
Reedx 6y ago
Yes, you can and should "both sides" this. Maybe you're unaware of what's happening with the extremes on both sides, but they're feeding off each other and rapidly regressing (thanks in large part to Facebook/Twitter). While each is enabled/emboldened by the free pass from their side, who are either unaware of their own extremes or just more afraid of the other. It's a negative feedback loop and we really need both sides to start pushing back on their own.
- happytoexplain 6y ago
  It's a huge red flag to tell people they are simply "X" or "X or Y", where all options are basically synonymous with stupid or lying. I agree with the parent, and I am painfully aware of what is happening with the extremes on both sides.
  - happytoexplain 6y ago
    Note that the parent was heavily edited after I posted this.
krapp 6y ago
Wow, it looks like you really hit a nerve with this comment. Good job.
banmeagaindan2 6y ago
You are mixing up the far right with the right-liberal part of the Liberal faction. We live in a chimeric system and it confuses nearly everybody in it. There are always two factions working against a third. I think political partisans are victims - they have been given a bad political map. Spectrum, compasses - all ideas given credibility by their political competitors. You should ask yourself who benefits from these models. It isn't the left or right. It's a third faction hiding in the blindspot of the other two factions. I have to admit it's very clever and it took me a long time to realize what was going on. I have to thank outsider science fiction author Liu Cixin who vividly bought the topic to life with his Straussian description of our political order in the Three Body Problem. For most of the population it's the perfect political Venus Fly Trap and probably the explanation for why the West has dominated the world for centuries.
markbnj 6y ago
This x 9000.

jonahbenton 6y ago

Hear hear. Well said.

throwmehaweh 6y ago

This is absurd, the past 100+ days far-left/left/antifa/"blm" have been wielding immense political power by rioting, looting, burning, shooting, and antagonizing throughout multiple US cities. The term "far-right" has no meaning when it's been applied to every human not condoning left-wing mob politics.

ende 6y ago
The arson and vandalism has been caused by right wing white nationalists. edit: downvote all you want, racists, it’s true.

site-packages1 6y ago

Very well said, the “both sides” stuff cannot stand.

0xy 6y ago

Is calling for the public execution or extrajudicial killing of a confirmed racist hatred in your books? Because there's innumerable examples of that from the left. How many people called for the execution of Derek Chauvin prior to confirming his guilt in a court of law?

TheGrim-888 6y ago

The right isn't burning down buildings, the left is. The right isn't violently clashing with the police, the left is. The right is not looting, the left is. The right is not setting vehicles on fire, the left is. The right is not rioting, the left is. The right is not marching in the street as a political show of force, the left is. The right is not attacking people and businesses based on the owner's race or political leaning, the left is. Until recently I lived in downtown Seattle. I saw all of this with my own eyes. I saw them torch the building next to mine because the owner was an "evil white capitalist". I saw them torch the Starbucks 2 blocks from my building because of the "evil capitalists". I saw them march down my street every single night forcing people out of their cars, stopping traffic, looting and vandalizing as they felt like it. There's hundreds upon hundreds of hours of documented video evidence of your side turning to violence. It's so absurd that your side is ACTIVELY throwing away everything we've built, throwing away our justice system, turning to violence and anarchy, and you want us to just ignore that. Your side is literally turning to domestic terrorism to forcefully coerce your political ideology. But no, me peacefully sitting at home, watching your side literally burn our country down, apparently makes me the evil one, there's nothing wrong at all with what you're doing, I need to be censored out of existence. That's real tolerant.

happytoexplain 6y ago

It's frankly terrifying how many people who are ostensibly not trolling will refuse to admit the simple reality expressed in this post.

AlgorithmicTime 6y ago

No, you do get to "both sides" this. There are people on the left with national significance who say heinous things about entire demographics, demographics by virtue of their birth, nonetheless, who have their message spread via social media. And you know, I'm fine with them getting to have their say, as long as everyone gets their say.

mellosouls 6y ago

Completely agree - there is no "both sides" here. Modern McCarthyism, the attempt to control thought and speech is very much a problem of the left.

geofft 6y ago
Ah, that explains why our leftist president recently declared that certain thoughts and ideas are "un-American propaganda."

totetsu 6y ago

The logical conclusion of the "far right" type ideologies, that seek ethnic purity, and everyone to be in their right place, is to destroy(segregate and kill) all threats to purity. The logical conclusion of people opposed to that, is to stop people being killed, and when that isn't happening let everyone go about their business. They are not comparable.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

wegs 6y ago

We do get to both-sides this. The thing Facebook did amazingly well is silo people who hold identical opinions, and drive inflammatory false content to them. This maximized clicks, while inflaming and radicalizing people on both sides. Hatred doesn't last long when you talk to people. But Facebook doesn't let people talk to each other across boundaries. It's segregatory. See Brown v. Board. Now, there is no middle, and we have a mess to clean up. This maximized clicks. Facebook weren't the only ones doing it, but Facebook is the giant in the room. Facebook could have connected people on the left and on the right, and facilitated civil discussions. It chose not to do that. Do I blame them for it? I'm not sure. Market forces are powerful, and I suspect its hand may have been forced. Nevertheless, it's something we need to fix. Regulation is nice since it changes market forces. To say the polarized left isn't harmful is false. I don't much care about terrorists or bombers. There aren't enough of them to matter. I care about racists on the right. I care about vigilante doxers on the left. I care about people losing their careers. I care about kids from some communities not learning. I care about people hating each other. That's as much of a problem on each side. There was an article I ran into earlier today about how the far left which just caused a USC professor to be suspended from teaching for saying 那个 in a course on communications (which sounds a lot like an American racial slur). This stuff happens all the time in the far left. Watch the video. What he said is exactly what you'll hear in China all the time. https://reason.com/2020/09/03/usc-greg-patton-chinese-word-offended-students/ https://reason.com/2020/09/03/usc-greg-patton-chinese-word-o... As a footnote, if you do want to see terrorists on the left, tune into Fox News. They play nonstop footage of BLM protesters beating people up, setting fires, and in one case, executing someone. You can't just close your eyes here; half of America is seeing one reality, and half is seeing another. To start closing the gaps, it's helpful to see both.

happytoexplain 6y ago
>Hatred doesn't last long when you talk to people. I talk to people almost every day in a completely uncensored environment who have nothing but the purest hatred and mockery for all liberal or leftist people and liberal or leftist ideologies. They unabashedly want to murder their enemies. They applaud the killing and beating and gassing of BLM protesters. Yes, "the left" has places where they mock the right unreasonably too, and they fire somebody sometimes for a stupid misunderstanding or for being too offensive, or they ban somebody from a web site for a not-good-enough reason - it's stupid and awful, but there is simply no comparison. Calling what the worst elements on the right are doing to society and discourse "stupid and awful" would be a comedic understatement. And yes, in the right-now, people in the protests are burning things and assaulting people, but they are responding to being murdered by police. If the state murders you in the street, it's hard to find a ceiling for responses past which I couldn't understand people going, even if the response ends up ultimately doing more harm than good, which I can't even predict. The thing they're responding to is one of the worst things that can happen in a civilization. Edit: Somebody replied to me with the recent death of the Trump supporter, but got flagged (predictably so, considering the rest of their post). I just wanted to point out that it's a good example of cherry picking. Each time somebody dies, the people "on their side" will hold it up alone as evidence of how evil the enemy is. Of course, I'm speaking of the big picture, and I'm aware of the many smaller pieces, and I take pains to consider them.

cowmoo728 6y ago

I will worry about radical Maoists when it's plausible that they (or people using their votes for political gain) win a presidential election, obstruct the senate, have a majority in the supreme court, stockpile 400m guns, and have elected officials that write online manifestos about the need to kill their political opposition [1]. It's time to take the DHS and the FBI at their word; far right movements are the largest danger to the US right now. It does not make sense to worry about a mosquito while there's an angry grizzly running towards us. "Antifa" protesters that commit violence can be dealt with via regular law enforcement just fine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Shea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Shea

Reedx 6y ago

Yes, you can and should "both sides" this. Maybe you're unaware of what's happening with the extremes on both sides, but they're feeding off each other and rapidly regressing (thanks in large part to Facebook/Twitter). While each is enabled/emboldened by the free pass from their side, who are either unaware of their own extremes or just more afraid of the other. It's a negative feedback loop and we really need both sides to start pushing back on their own.

happytoexplain 6y ago
It's a huge red flag to tell people they are simply "X" or "X or Y", where all options are basically synonymous with stupid or lying. I agree with the parent, and I am painfully aware of what is happening with the extremes on both sides.
- happytoexplain 6y ago
  Note that the parent was heavily edited after I posted this.

krapp 6y ago

Wow, it looks like you really hit a nerve with this comment. Good job.

banmeagaindan2 6y ago

You are mixing up the far right with the right-liberal part of the Liberal faction. We live in a chimeric system and it confuses nearly everybody in it. There are always two factions working against a third. I think political partisans are victims - they have been given a bad political map. Spectrum, compasses - all ideas given credibility by their political competitors. You should ask yourself who benefits from these models. It isn't the left or right. It's a third faction hiding in the blindspot of the other two factions. I have to admit it's very clever and it took me a long time to realize what was going on. I have to thank outsider science fiction author Liu Cixin who vividly bought the topic to life with his Straussian description of our political order in the Three Body Problem. For most of the population it's the perfect political Venus Fly Trap and probably the explanation for why the West has dominated the world for centuries.

markbnj 6y ago

This x 9000.