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No, no, and no. This is exactly the problem! You define conservative ideas as fascism in one swoop and now "they" are all evil, all discussion stops, and you f
by linuxhansl 2y ago
No, no, and no. This is exactly the problem!
You define conservative ideas as fascism in one swoop and now "they" are all evil, all discussion stops, and you fall in exactly the trap you accuse the other "side" of. We do not need sides. There is no "The Right" as much as there is no "The Left".
Of course we need to not allow fascism (and the populist MAGA nonsense), I have stated nothing to contrary.
For the record I tend to be strongly liberal progressive (see my various comments, although I keep politics on HN to a minimum).
But I also realize that only liberal progressive ideas are not enough, just handouts do not work, people want jobs through which they can support themselves, we need a working economy, reduce debt, etc, etc.
So, again, I wish we would come together instead of drifting more and more into extremes. If we did come together, we would not have a problem with fascism in the first place. We would not be so easily divide by populists smoke bombs like trans-athletes or alleged violent immigrants.
This is not "hopelessly naive" but intensely practical and necessary.
- ZeroTalent 2y agoDo you not consider people who voted for a proto-fascist president, if not evil, at least responsible for his wrongdoings? Do you really think we can take the middle road here? Like the two-state solution with Israel? I don't. This is the paradox of tolerance. The fascists will eat everyone alive if they are allowed to freely express their "opinions" and implement them on a societal scale.
- linuxhansl 2y agoNot sure how else I can phrase it... We have to stay away from false equivalencies. I am not, and was not, saying that we should tolerate fascism! We should not, absolutely not, and what is happening in this country right now is a travesty. I'll try to make it simple: Fascism = very bad, voting for a fascist = very bad, only conservative ideas = not good enough, only progressive ideas = not good enough. Moderate conservatives and liberals not coming together is what causes fascism in the first place.
- ZeroTalent 2y agoThat's an interesting take, and it sounds right. I wonder what the root causes are. Lack of civil education, community strength, and things like these probably play a big part in that division. Educated, clever, happy, balanced people would not let someone like Trump (grab em by the pussy, etc) come even an inch to the any governing body.
- linuxhansl 2y agoLate reply... I think lack of education is part of it. The other part is that we are bombarded with content designed to keep us glued to the screen, and the best to do that is to feed us stuff we either agree with or that causes us to feel self-righteous indignation :)