The Far-Right's Romance With Cruelty

[babylonsister]

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/steven-day/104516/the-far-rights-romance-with-cruelty

The Far-Right's Romance With Cruelty
by Steven Day | December 29, 2022 - 8:00am


snip//

But the cruelty of the far right is something different. This is cruelty as the defining characteristic of a movement. To the far right, cruelty is more than a means to achieving a policy goal—it is often the goal itself. Cruelty for cruelty's sake—directed against "the other," a variable collection of liberals, immigrants, and minority groups. It has become the substance, even the soul, of today's far right. And it is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate the far right from the rest of the political right on this score.

Just look at how much pure cruelty by GOP leaders has been in evidence lately. Ron DeSantis spends public money to transport a handful of undocumented immigrants to politically liberal northern areas of the country. Substantively this accomplishes nothing. The tiny number of people involved doesn't amount to a scratch on a Boeing 747-8, when compared to the number of undocumented immigrants in Florida. But even that understates the absurdity of the stunt. The coup de grâce is the fact the immigrants in question were taken from Texas, not Florida.

snip//

But cruel political stunts are just one example of right-wing cruelty. There is also the cruel way the right attacks transgender students. Unwilling to offer any accommodation, right-wing leaders work to bar them from participating in sports in their affirmed gender and require them to use bathrooms designated for the sex they don't identify with. They go so far as to ban books that touch on transgender issues from school libraries, and prohibit any mention of the subject in class. The view from the right is clearly that no compassion is required. Who cares if they are 7.6 times more likely than other young people to commit suicide?

Then there is the troubling tendency of the political right in general to respond to political violence against liberals with cruel humor. This was recently on view in the right-wing response to the brutal attack against Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul.

snip//

There is no reason to think any of this will change. On an individual basis, some members of far-right organizations will likely be able to evolve over time—to back away from the darkness. But the far-right movement itself won't. Cruelty, hatred for "the other," and a love of violence are all now central to the movement's essence, burned into its DNA.

It won't change. It can only be defeated.

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

[Timeflyer]

1. Maybe his cruelty explains Wrong DeSadist's popularity with the MAGAloon base.

If so, he'll double down 2024 approaches. Goddess save us.

[Phoenix61]

2. They are cowards. Afraid of their own shadow so they

hide behind the shadow of a bully.

[Hotler]

3. The repug voter demands hate and meanness toeards Dems and Libs

from their elected politicians.

[Cosmocat]

6. DECADES of AM radio and other "conservative" media AND religious

entities marianating hundreds in victimhood, demonizing "others" while stoking their egos telling them they are greatest of all patriots and christians.

They are angry and petulant Frankenstein's monster.

[Martin68]

4. I don't agree that "politics" has always been cruel. I believe that applies only to what is termed

"hardball" politics. The best politics consists mainly of negotiation and compromise.

[jaxexpat]

5. The sincere and wholesal buy-in by the LEO community makes it a clear and apparent danger.

To you and me and all our friends and all our children collectively and generationally, the danger looms. Joe Biden is a bit old to play the "Little Dutch Boy" with his finger plugging the dike, single handedly holding back disaster, but that's what he's doing.

We've fucked around and given the Republicans the House, the "inch" from which they will be laser focused on stealing the mile. No matter how determined, one 80-year-old cannot hold this stance single handedly. There must be an uprising of support from the people of the nation to condemn and express their intolerance, the "end of their rope frustration" for the political games the Republicans and their pet media play.

For instance: There should not be a single street where the likes of Gym Jordan or Ron DeSantis could walk down and not be vilified on sight by every passerby. It's a free country to tell politicians how you're tired to death of their lying, you know.

[Cosmocat]

7. There are SO many holes in the dike

And, yeah, LEO is a big one that to an extent even people on our team don't understand how quickly it could flip.

The vast majority of LEO are definitely right leaning.

As normative systems have been degraded, they have increasingly moved from keeping their politics isolated from their work to feeling as though part of their role in the "movement" is bring their institution into that corner.

[jaxexpat]

9. Thanksgiving table a couple years ago.

My SIL is a LEO. He's not an unintelligent man by any standard. He was talking about how shameful it was that people wanted cops to be perfect, but they weren't willing to pay attractive salaries. My sister's husband was at the side of this conversation and interjected, "if you want decent pay to do government work vote Democratic and encourage all your fellows to do the same". The SIL stared silently, got red in the face and informed my BIL that it was more complicated than that. My BIL was on a roll. He said, "The only thing complicated is that the Republicans have convinced their constituents that Democrats are Satan, it's all voodoo and mind control with the GOP." It was intense but my sister is a cut-up. She joked over that conversation, and it died without further drama. He was the only MAGA at the table.

In their minds, they have the righteous stance, dead certain they're all there is between chaos and a society free of crime.

[Cosmocat]

10. Great

moment.

Its mind bending how "we" are at the sum total of all that is wrong with everything, even in the face that most of that contradicts itself.

[Initech]

8. We declared war on these assholes once and won.

We'll do it again if we have to.