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The Left is using psychological projection as a technique. They accuse their opponents of doing exactly what they themselves are doing. They'll call you a fas

The Left is using psychological projection as a technique. They accuse their opponents of doing exactly what they themselves are doing. They'll call you a fascist while they burn books. They'll call you racist while accusing you of "white privilege". Like you say, they'll destroy people's lives, based on racial hatred, while accusing those people of racial hatred. Domestic terrorism.

cpursley 6y ago
Not sure why you're getting downvoted. Communists and Fascists share a lot of the same authoritarian tactics.
- hairofadog 6y ago
  It’s because they’re positing that it’s only people on the left that do this. I’ve heard it said that the enemy of extremists isn't the extremist on the other side, it’s the moderates. Extremists are itching for a fight, and they’ll continue fighting forever. Moderates and pragmatists stand in the way of that goal. If an extremist group were to win and completely eliminate the other side, they’d draw some other battle lines within their own group. “Othering” is important to extremists, and the’ll find a way to do it. I’m another proud lefty. I marched with Black Lives Matter last summer, voted for Elizabeth Warren in the primaries, I’m vegan for all the reasons people think are stupid. All of that is true, and it infuriates me to see leftist extremists getting dressed up in black and setting buildings on fire. It infuriates me to see leftists gatekeeping on Twitter, and taking such joy from tweeting people’s employers to try to get them fired for the crime of making a joke that didn’t pass a purity test, or for having a counterintuitive take on something complex. Internet pile ons are the worst. All that said, it confounds me that people on the right seem to be unable to see these traits within their own party, and aren’t working harder to rid their ranks of QAnon, Proud Boys, and Trumpism. It seems like anyone on the right who has the temerity to point out these problems gets branded as a RINO (Republican In Name Only) and expelled from the party. Jeff Sessions – JEFF SESSIONS – was cancelled by the right for not being right enough. So, yeah, there’s a lot of projection going on all around.
  - cema 6y ago
    No they are not positing they _only_ prior on the left are doing it. Militant left is as dangerous as militant right. The problem is not the side of the political spectrum but the approach to dealing with opponents.
    - rbanffy 6y ago
      > Militant left is as dangerous as militant right. Yeah... The terrible dangers of universal healthcare and proportional taxes...
      - common_crow 6y ago
        Promoting universal healthcare and proportional taxes isn't dangerous at all. Neither is promoting freedom of speech and healthy laws for small businesses. It get dangerous when either side decides that anything standing in the way (in their opinion) of these ideals are "other", and that the "others" are so evil they are simply inhuman, and must be quashed by all means necessary. This pattern repeats in history many, many times. And lots of people are nervous that the beginning of that pattern is starting to play out in the modern West.
        rbanffy 6y ago
        > It get dangerous True. Remember all the lynchings of white people in the South by the BBB, for offenses sometimes as minor as drinking from the wrong water fountain? Or when BLM marched, with torches in hand, chanting "Blood and soil" and "You will not replace us"? There was even a Neonazi woman who was ran over by a BLM activist driving a car. And what about the day when BLM terrorists invaded the Capitol threatening to kill everyone who wouldn't break the law and vote Obama back into the presidency? That day was wild.
        common_crow 6y ago
        Both far left and far right regimes have resulted in chaos, murder, and repression. If you're skeptical that leftism can cause violence, the wikipedia list of recent far-left terrorism groups may convince you otherwise: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-wing_terrorism https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-wing_terrorism And of course, there's the more classical examples: Maoist struggle sessions, the Red Terror, the Cambodian Killing Fields. Extremism is dangerous. And it's concerning to me that this has become a debatable point.
- core-questions 6y ago
  The word we need to use is "Totalitarian Liberalism". We're not heading into communism (there's no unity, there's no focus on workers) nor fascism (there's no aesthetic, there's no glory of the nation). Instead, we get as much Product as we want, as long as we all toe the line and profess to believe as we're told - no matter how far that strays from observable reality.
profunctor 6y ago
There is a clear difference between racism and acknowledging white privilege. White privilege simple describes one way in which racism manifests itself. If you can't tell the difference between a KKK member and someone says that people with white names getting called back for job interviews more than people with black names is white privilege then you are willfully ignorant. It is not racist to say that someone benefits from white privilege. Also the person you are replying to didn't say they destroy peoples lives based on racial hatred. They haven't destroyed anyone's lives because they're white.
- deleted 6y ago
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- rayiner 6y ago
  I'm fairly educated on these things, and I'm a racial minority married to a white woman with mixed kids, and I'm still not sure I understand what people mean when they refer to "white privilege." I get that there is a distinct cultural bias against Black people (what people call "anti-Blackness"). Living in the south this was quite apparent to me. This is structural in nature, and quite distinct from normal majority/minority dynamics. But I don't perceive any similar "white privilege." To go to your resume example, I've got a last name that's definitely Muslim, but I've never perceived any sort of difference in response on that basis. (And in myriad areas, from income policing to health, statistically I'm likely to enjoy advantages compared to white people.) I think the concept of "white privilege" is actually a conceptual error that comes from generalizing Black-white racial dynamics to a multi-ethnic society. Also, to address your point about the KKK member, the left uses "racism" to mean a lot more than just that. Based on that expansive definition of "racism" I'd qualify use of phrases like "unbearable whiteness" as "racism": https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/01/the-unbearable-whiteness-of-storming-the-capitol https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/01/the-unbearable-white...
  - rbanffy 6y ago
    I can describe it. I'm Brazilian, very white, green eyes, brown hair that was lighter when I was younger. About 30 years ago (wow!), in my late teens I organized a party on a house my aunt recently bought to become her medical practice. We had lots of drinks, some drugs, a DJ, live music and some guests walking over the roof of neighboring houses. Police got called. When they saw me, young and privileged, they wanted to arrest me. I offered them a beer, they entered the house, one of them played the drum set with his service gun. They drank some fancy cocktails. They enjoyed themselves for about 15 minutes until they were called on the radio. Then they told me, laughing, I should try to control my guests a little better. Then they went away. If we weren't a bunch or privileged white kids in an upper middle class neighborhood, they'd most likely arrive shooting, as they do when there are parties in slums.
throwawaymanbot 6y ago
What an absolute trash statement. The insurrection on Jan 6th was a Parler/Gab Production (Honorable mention to facebook also) Stop pretending otherwise!
dang 6y ago
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25922953 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25922953. Please don't use HN for ideological battle or post generic ideological comments or flamewar comments to HN. All that leads to internet hell, which we're trying to avoid here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html We ban accounts that do those things: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=banned%20by%3Adang&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... especially if they're using HN primarily for those things: https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0&query=primarily%20test%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme... Looking at your recent commenting history, it looks like you either are, or are perilously close to the line. Please stop.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

cpursley 6y ago

Not sure why you're getting downvoted. Communists and Fascists share a lot of the same authoritarian tactics.

hairofadog 6y ago
It’s because they’re positing that it’s only people on the left that do this. I’ve heard it said that the enemy of extremists isn't the extremist on the other side, it’s the moderates. Extremists are itching for a fight, and they’ll continue fighting forever. Moderates and pragmatists stand in the way of that goal. If an extremist group were to win and completely eliminate the other side, they’d draw some other battle lines within their own group. “Othering” is important to extremists, and the’ll find a way to do it. I’m another proud lefty. I marched with Black Lives Matter last summer, voted for Elizabeth Warren in the primaries, I’m vegan for all the reasons people think are stupid. All of that is true, and it infuriates me to see leftist extremists getting dressed up in black and setting buildings on fire. It infuriates me to see leftists gatekeeping on Twitter, and taking such joy from tweeting people’s employers to try to get them fired for the crime of making a joke that didn’t pass a purity test, or for having a counterintuitive take on something complex. Internet pile ons are the worst. All that said, it confounds me that people on the right seem to be unable to see these traits within their own party, and aren’t working harder to rid their ranks of QAnon, Proud Boys, and Trumpism. It seems like anyone on the right who has the temerity to point out these problems gets branded as a RINO (Republican In Name Only) and expelled from the party. Jeff Sessions – JEFF SESSIONS – was cancelled by the right for not being right enough. So, yeah, there’s a lot of projection going on all around.
- cema 6y ago
  No they are not positing they _only_ prior on the left are doing it. Militant left is as dangerous as militant right. The problem is not the side of the political spectrum but the approach to dealing with opponents.
  - rbanffy 6y ago
    > Militant left is as dangerous as militant right. Yeah... The terrible dangers of universal healthcare and proportional taxes...
    - common_crow 6y ago
      Promoting universal healthcare and proportional taxes isn't dangerous at all. Neither is promoting freedom of speech and healthy laws for small businesses. It get dangerous when either side decides that anything standing in the way (in their opinion) of these ideals are "other", and that the "others" are so evil they are simply inhuman, and must be quashed by all means necessary. This pattern repeats in history many, many times. And lots of people are nervous that the beginning of that pattern is starting to play out in the modern West.
      - rbanffy 6y ago
        > It get dangerous True. Remember all the lynchings of white people in the South by the BBB, for offenses sometimes as minor as drinking from the wrong water fountain? Or when BLM marched, with torches in hand, chanting "Blood and soil" and "You will not replace us"? There was even a Neonazi woman who was ran over by a BLM activist driving a car. And what about the day when BLM terrorists invaded the Capitol threatening to kill everyone who wouldn't break the law and vote Obama back into the presidency? That day was wild.
        common_crow 6y ago
        Both far left and far right regimes have resulted in chaos, murder, and repression. If you're skeptical that leftism can cause violence, the wikipedia list of recent far-left terrorism groups may convince you otherwise: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-wing_terrorism https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-wing_terrorism And of course, there's the more classical examples: Maoist struggle sessions, the Red Terror, the Cambodian Killing Fields. Extremism is dangerous. And it's concerning to me that this has become a debatable point.
core-questions 6y ago
The word we need to use is "Totalitarian Liberalism". We're not heading into communism (there's no unity, there's no focus on workers) nor fascism (there's no aesthetic, there's no glory of the nation). Instead, we get as much Product as we want, as long as we all toe the line and profess to believe as we're told - no matter how far that strays from observable reality.

profunctor 6y ago

There is a clear difference between racism and acknowledging white privilege. White privilege simple describes one way in which racism manifests itself. If you can't tell the difference between a KKK member and someone says that people with white names getting called back for job interviews more than people with black names is white privilege then you are willfully ignorant. It is not racist to say that someone benefits from white privilege. Also the person you are replying to didn't say they destroy peoples lives based on racial hatred. They haven't destroyed anyone's lives because they're white.

deleted 6y ago
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deleted 6y ago
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rayiner 6y ago
I'm fairly educated on these things, and I'm a racial minority married to a white woman with mixed kids, and I'm still not sure I understand what people mean when they refer to "white privilege." I get that there is a distinct cultural bias against Black people (what people call "anti-Blackness"). Living in the south this was quite apparent to me. This is structural in nature, and quite distinct from normal majority/minority dynamics. But I don't perceive any similar "white privilege." To go to your resume example, I've got a last name that's definitely Muslim, but I've never perceived any sort of difference in response on that basis. (And in myriad areas, from income policing to health, statistically I'm likely to enjoy advantages compared to white people.) I think the concept of "white privilege" is actually a conceptual error that comes from generalizing Black-white racial dynamics to a multi-ethnic society. Also, to address your point about the KKK member, the left uses "racism" to mean a lot more than just that. Based on that expansive definition of "racism" I'd qualify use of phrases like "unbearable whiteness" as "racism": https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/01/the-unbearable-whiteness-of-storming-the-capitol https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/01/the-unbearable-white...
- rbanffy 6y ago
  I can describe it. I'm Brazilian, very white, green eyes, brown hair that was lighter when I was younger. About 30 years ago (wow!), in my late teens I organized a party on a house my aunt recently bought to become her medical practice. We had lots of drinks, some drugs, a DJ, live music and some guests walking over the roof of neighboring houses. Police got called. When they saw me, young and privileged, they wanted to arrest me. I offered them a beer, they entered the house, one of them played the drum set with his service gun. They drank some fancy cocktails. They enjoyed themselves for about 15 minutes until they were called on the radio. Then they told me, laughing, I should try to control my guests a little better. Then they went away. If we weren't a bunch or privileged white kids in an upper middle class neighborhood, they'd most likely arrive shooting, as they do when there are parties in slums.

throwawaymanbot 6y ago

What an absolute trash statement. The insurrection on Jan 6th was a Parler/Gab Production (Honorable mention to facebook also) Stop pretending otherwise!

dang 6y ago

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25922953 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25922953. Please don't use HN for ideological battle or post generic ideological comments or flamewar comments to HN. All that leads to internet hell, which we're trying to avoid here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html We ban accounts that do those things: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=banned%20by%3Adang&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... especially if they're using HN primarily for those things: https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0&query=primarily%20test%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme... Looking at your recent commenting history, it looks like you either are, or are perilously close to the line. Please stop.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]