4 ms·

Nobody actually bothers with Popper today, especially liberals themselves. "Historicism is bad" -> "Trump/Bolsonaro/insert random right wind populist have rhet

Nobody actually bothers with Popper today, especially liberals themselves. "Historicism is bad" -> "Trump/Bolsonaro/insert random right wind populist have rhetoric similar to early Hitler, we must stop them to prevent Nazis/fascists rising up again" "History is not our judge and historical success does not prove anytihing" -> "Here is my Whig historiography identifying me, the open society enjoyer, as the descendant of Union soldiers/ US soldiers landing in Normandy / etc."

TMWNN 3y ago
>"Here is my Whig historiography identifying me, the open society enjoyer, as the descendant of Union soldiers/ US soldiers landing in Normandy / etc." Yes, I've noticed lately a rise in this bizarre form of Union Army cosplaying (such as threats to repeat Sherman's match on the South) by certain terminally online leftists. The implication, of course, is that ideological opponents are naturally the Confederates, and thus racists (and also Nazis/fascists/etc. The bogus history is beside the point.)
- mrguyorama 3y ago
  >is that ideological opponents are naturally the Confederates, and thus racists They are literally, purposely, as it's "their history", flying a damn (historically inaccurate no less!) battle flag of the confederacy! A rebellion that took less time than Game of Thrones the television show! Seeing as the confederacy was openly about protecting slavery as the SINGULAR issue separating them from the Union, choosing the fly a flag that represents a short rebellion (and open treason) against the US is definitively choosing to represent yourself as a confederate. Seeing as the confederacy was openly about slavery, and southern US slavery was openly about a broad belief that black people were lesser than white people, and savages that god gave them dominion over, you know, racism, it should not be controversial to call someone flying a confederate flag a racist. That flag represents nothing else. People who are giddy about doing another Sherman's march sure are weird though. Sherman himself didn't even like it. Arguably it wasn't some all out massacre save for one city that "supposedly" the boys got too roudy with, but he wasn't exactly proud salting the earth so aggressively that you can still see it flying over the area to this day. There are plenty that consider themselves "liberal" or "progressive" even, that happily adopt violence as a means to their chosen end. There's always someone willing to bend their interpretation of reality to a form that "requires" they violently act to be the hero. I wouldn't exactly call the left the originator of this violent rhetoric however. "Democrats should be shot" isn't exactly a rare thing to hear from conservatives in the US, and not in jest, and it is not new.
  - TMWNN 3y ago
    >Seeing as the confederacy was openly about protecting slavery as the SINGULAR issue separating them from the Union, choosing the fly a flag that represents a short rebellion (and open treason) against the US is definitively choosing to represent yourself as a confederate. I am in no way denying that slavery was the cause of the South's secession from the US. My point is that if one calls himself part of the "boys" of the "Union army" today, then obviously one's political enemies are thus the Confederates, and thus ipso facto racist, and thus must be the evil/wrong side.

TMWNN 3y ago

>"Here is my Whig historiography identifying me, the open society enjoyer, as the descendant of Union soldiers/ US soldiers landing in Normandy / etc." Yes, I've noticed lately a rise in this bizarre form of Union Army cosplaying (such as threats to repeat Sherman's match on the South) by certain terminally online leftists. The implication, of course, is that ideological opponents are naturally the Confederates, and thus racists (and also Nazis/fascists/etc. The bogus history is beside the point.)

mrguyorama 3y ago
>is that ideological opponents are naturally the Confederates, and thus racists They are literally, purposely, as it's "their history", flying a damn (historically inaccurate no less!) battle flag of the confederacy! A rebellion that took less time than Game of Thrones the television show! Seeing as the confederacy was openly about protecting slavery as the SINGULAR issue separating them from the Union, choosing the fly a flag that represents a short rebellion (and open treason) against the US is definitively choosing to represent yourself as a confederate. Seeing as the confederacy was openly about slavery, and southern US slavery was openly about a broad belief that black people were lesser than white people, and savages that god gave them dominion over, you know, racism, it should not be controversial to call someone flying a confederate flag a racist. That flag represents nothing else. People who are giddy about doing another Sherman's march sure are weird though. Sherman himself didn't even like it. Arguably it wasn't some all out massacre save for one city that "supposedly" the boys got too roudy with, but he wasn't exactly proud salting the earth so aggressively that you can still see it flying over the area to this day. There are plenty that consider themselves "liberal" or "progressive" even, that happily adopt violence as a means to their chosen end. There's always someone willing to bend their interpretation of reality to a form that "requires" they violently act to be the hero. I wouldn't exactly call the left the originator of this violent rhetoric however. "Democrats should be shot" isn't exactly a rare thing to hear from conservatives in the US, and not in jest, and it is not new.
- TMWNN 3y ago
  >Seeing as the confederacy was openly about protecting slavery as the SINGULAR issue separating them from the Union, choosing the fly a flag that represents a short rebellion (and open treason) against the US is definitively choosing to represent yourself as a confederate. I am in no way denying that slavery was the cause of the South's secession from the US. My point is that if one calls himself part of the "boys" of the "Union army" today, then obviously one's political enemies are thus the Confederates, and thus ipso facto racist, and thus must be the evil/wrong side.