I agree in principle, but I see this time as different. The parallels with early 1940s Germany have been alarming me since 2016 and the signals have only gotten clearer. I agree we shouldn't demonize the other side, but when actual demons are involved, it's a call to arms. The Left started with cultural war with their disdain, but the Right answered with hate and blatant lies. There's a very clear moral evaluation to be had here.
I agree that their appears to be many rhyming cadences between now and more than a few less than auspicious events of the 20th Century. I also agree there are many more overtly bad actors on the left, especially those with an authoritarian bent.
But I still maintain the best approach would be a measured one, devoid of sensationalist comparisons.
“I also agree there are many more overtly bad actors on the left, especially those with an authoritarian bent.” Wtf? Do you know what Nazis are? It’s not “calling everyone I disagree with a Nazi,” if they actually have all the hallmarks of Nazism..
I'm sure someone on the left is authoritarian, but are you talking about specifically? When Trump and JD Vance are on the table, calling anyone else authoritarian is cartoonishly hilarious.
Everyone I don't like is Hitler. Including me when I don't like me. (Which is several times a day.)
Everyone I don't like is Jesus. I know He loves me just the way I am. But He also loves me WAY too much to let me stay that way. ({Plus, He's a communist.)
Everyone I don't like is Ezra Pound. He wrote Chinese into his poems, went crazy about banking and then blamed the Jews. (He was nice to James Joyce though.)
Everyone I don't like is a fascist. They hate every offshoot of Christianity since Thomas Aquinas keeled over. And, if they are Nazis, they don't even believe in Jesus. (Though they love Thor and Dionysus for their own twisted, broken reasons.)
Everyone I don't like is a communist. They're always criticizing me for not giving more of myself and then for taking up too much oxygen too. (I'd be a better communist myself if I didn't have to put up with all of them.)
Everyone I don't like is a Republican. They used to be conservative, but now they're the unwashed kids in the back of the classroom who heckle the teacher, throw spitballs, and turn everything into either a fart joke or a sex joke. (Democrats annoy me too.)
Everyone I don't like is Edward Albee. He made me afraid of Virginia Woolf. (Plus he was as gay as three Tenessee Williams.)
Everyone I don't like is gay or transexual. Why can't they all be gender fluid? (Pour yourself a cup of me.)
Everyone I don't like is too binary. Every node on a logic tree should have three branches. (It's more quantumly correct.)
Everyone I don't like reminds me of me. (If you are me, then who am I?)
Everyone I don't like is Hitler. Did you see him in that Hellboy movie when Harvey Keitel (playing Satan) shoved a pineapple up his ass every day at 2:35? (Now that's what I call cosmic justice.)
One thing I would point out is there’s nothing new about the right calling people on the left communists. It might be tempting to see one thing as a reaction to the other but it’s been a slow, or not so slow sometimes, escalation between the two for years.
I’ve written about it a lot but I consider myself a bit of a Nazi hunter. I’m like a reverse Hans Landa. I know how to spot them, and I mean real Nazis. Not racists or bigots or people who say mean things. I mean people who want to see the rise of the 4th Reich.
When I tried to show leftists on Twitter where they were and how to deal with them, that’s when I found out that leftists have absolutely no interest in addressing actual Nazism. They want to use the fear of Nazis as a boogy man. A monster under the bed to keep children afraid of what happens if they don’t get their way. They’ll accuse anyone of being a Nazi, other than an actual Nazi, just like they’ll accuse anyone of being a Russian troll other than actual Russian trolls.
What a good article. Name-calling and labeling has become a rampant part of our discourse. In some respects, it has risen from the extremists who have said some things that are very difficult to hear. However, I think it would be a good idea if everybody, myself included, took a deep breath and ease up. Third grade is the last time some children call names, and we help them see why it's wrong. It's immature to do it when your no longer eight years old.
Thank you. I agree. It's immaturity manifesting on either side of the aisle from adult professionals that should know better. As I say in the article, I'm fine with it being used for comedic purposes in casual conversation or as part of entertainment. But not from supposedly reputable sources or voices with influence
One of the more demented accusations I see - and it seems to be picking up steam - is that if you like and post Classical Greek art or traditional sculpture in general, then this is sone sort of “far right dog whistle” and you are probably flirting with Nazism.
Well said. I’ve seen even more egregious examples than that. Not least attacks aimed at STEM fields and other areas based on the study of empirical data.
Calling far-right authoritarians “Nazis” is literally calling a spade a spade. None of you centrists can hide the fact that you’re actually just right wing apologists for very long.
With the first point, of course I agree. You pretty much recite the definition for Nazi. What is not entailed in the statement is any epistemic evidence for why whoever it is you are referring to fits said description. The reason has to better than, I don’t like them, by the way.
On the second point I respectfully disagree.
For the record, I don’t believe being right wing is inherently a bad thing just as I don’t think that being left wing is inherently bad. So calling me an ‘apologist’ for the right wing is a non sequitur in my estimation as I don’t view them as axiomatically evil.
Right wing commenters have similarly accused me of ‘shilling for the left’ and I give them the same response as above with the denominations reversed.
My argument is that it is not simply a case of either Red or Blue, or Good or Evil. I don’t view the left or the right as my enemy and refuse to be goaded into picking a side.
Destiny made the same specious arguments about centrists recently and I addressed all that nonsense in an article about him.
If you wish to engage in a civil discourse I will gladly do so. If not, I wish you well and all the best for the future. Take care
"What is not entailed in the statement is any epistemic evidence for why whoever it is you are referring to fits said description" You cannot be serious... Pick someone the Left calls a Nazi, and I'll gladly explain it to you. This is textbook pseudo-centrism. The evidence is out there, but I'll do the heavy lifting for you. Pick someone.
Being rightwing in America right now is inherently evil. It's pro-genocide, explicitly intends to eradicate transgenderism and, at the very least, heavily limit LGBT rights, they ban books they find disagreeable, stalk immigrants and democratic voters in states like Texas, blame immigrants for bringing left-wing ideas (and eating pets), they destroy trust in journalism by inventing alternate realities and screaming about how they are just as valid as actual reality (take Tucker Carlson or Alex Jones for concise examples).
Textbook Nazi, through and through.
An actual "centrist," in the American political climate, can only punch to the Right (which includes most Democrats, save a handful). That's all that exists in America.
"Right wing commenters" really? What's their issue?
Wow. Okay. I'm in England so was I mostly referring to The Labour party in the UK who are locking people up for Tweets and telling jokes at comedy gigs, etc. It is far worse and insidious than that just here but their is plenty of reporting on that out there if you wish to discover the full extent of Starmer's protectionism.
As far as the policy disagreements you have with the Republicans, that's a job for your democratic process to to sort out on November 5th. But as I have said on many occasions, I think the American public deserves better presidential candidates heading up each party. Trump is a terrible choice for president in my view, but so was Biden and so is Harris. I know you disagree, that's my view.
I find Tucker Carlson to be a dishonest, bad faith actor who enables some of the very worst people, most recently that history revisionist he had on. A case could be made that he is worthy of such terms. I find Alex Jones to be deplorable and disapprove of everything I have ever heard him say. That being said I think he (and everyone else) has a First Amendment right to say the stupid shit he says and believe the crazy things he does.
But just because their are some really bad people who identify themselves as being on the right, that doesn't make every Right Wing person evil. I disagree that right wing people are inherently evil. It feels like 'othering' to me. Tribalism at its most poisonous. I know you disagree and that is fine. But I really want to see the end of the 'We Good, They Bad' narrative from both sides of the spectrum, on either side of the Atlantic.
There are good and bad guys on both sides in my view. Again, I suspect there is nothing I could say to convince you and that's fine, as long as we can be civil and let each other get on with our individual lives. What I am arguing for is exactly that: 'Agree to disagree' and try and coexist. The alternative scares me more than anything. If two ideologically opposed agents cannot live with each other, then there is only on logical conclusion: Civil war. And I want to avoid that at all costs.
Right wingers mostly attack me for my atheism. Also some of my positions on social issues. It varies person to person quite a lot.
I really do wish you well and I hope you find happiness. If my Substack isn't for you that is more than fine, I only ask if you comment here, please keep it civil.
"The Labour party in the UK who are locking people up for Tweets and telling jokes at comedy gigs, etc. " Give me an example.
"I know you disagree, that's my view." I don't though, I just have legitimate complaints about both Biden and Harris, without any buts or excuses for Donald Trump existing.
Right wing politicians are evil for all the reasons I laid out, and then some. If someone votes for them, they are empirically evil. Regardless of whether they know it or not. I'm not demonizing the Right because of Tucker Carlson is on the Right, I'm demonizing the Right because they love Tucker Carlson (and all the other things I listed that you didn't address). It's not the same thing.
I oppose "agree to disagree" in the strongest terms. If one side's position is that the other side shouldn't exist, that is a disagree to disagree situation. There is only one side that has agitated for Civil War for the last 50 years, and it's the Right. No one on the Left wants a civil war, no one wants to eradicate Christianity or any group based on their immutable qualities. That is exclusively coming from one direction, the Right.
I respect that some of the Left-Right paradigm is different since we are in the UK and US, but it's not much different. Your Right hates migrants just as much, just to name one thing they have in common.
"I really do wish you well and I hope you find happiness" now you're just getting weird.
For me, Kisin is the ultimate ( well funded) containment operation. He is trying to prop up the ( failed ) Classical Liberal Centre. Also push European people into Individualism and reject any collective Identity.
Strange because he is very strong in defending his Identity (Jewish) and the Jewish ethnostate of Israel.
Many Jews people have strong in group preference but don't want other groups to have it. Total hypocrisy.
We are living through late stage Liberalism. Liberalism is like an acid on our civilisation and there are no solutions inside the Liberal paradigm for European people.
White people need to come together and organise for their own collective interests ( just like other groups do ) the demographics are only going to get worse and worse.
There is no middle 'Classical Liberal' way to stop us becoming a minority in our ancestral homeland. This is a total all out struggle for our civilisation, nothing less.
I agree in principle, but I see this time as different. The parallels with early 1940s Germany have been alarming me since 2016 and the signals have only gotten clearer. I agree we shouldn't demonize the other side, but when actual demons are involved, it's a call to arms. The Left started with cultural war with their disdain, but the Right answered with hate and blatant lies. There's a very clear moral evaluation to be had here.
I agree that their appears to be many rhyming cadences between now and more than a few less than auspicious events of the 20th Century. I also agree there are many more overtly bad actors on the left, especially those with an authoritarian bent.
But I still maintain the best approach would be a measured one, devoid of sensationalist comparisons.
Thank you as always for commenting, good sir
“I also agree there are many more overtly bad actors on the left, especially those with an authoritarian bent.” Wtf? Do you know what Nazis are? It’s not “calling everyone I disagree with a Nazi,” if they actually have all the hallmarks of Nazism..
I'm sure someone on the left is authoritarian, but are you talking about specifically? When Trump and JD Vance are on the table, calling anyone else authoritarian is cartoonishly hilarious.
When will people learn 😩
In a word, ‘Never’. Although I hope I’m wrong.
Everyone I don't like is Hitler. Including me when I don't like me. (Which is several times a day.)
Everyone I don't like is Jesus. I know He loves me just the way I am. But He also loves me WAY too much to let me stay that way. ({Plus, He's a communist.)
Everyone I don't like is Ezra Pound. He wrote Chinese into his poems, went crazy about banking and then blamed the Jews. (He was nice to James Joyce though.)
Everyone I don't like is a fascist. They hate every offshoot of Christianity since Thomas Aquinas keeled over. And, if they are Nazis, they don't even believe in Jesus. (Though they love Thor and Dionysus for their own twisted, broken reasons.)
Everyone I don't like is a communist. They're always criticizing me for not giving more of myself and then for taking up too much oxygen too. (I'd be a better communist myself if I didn't have to put up with all of them.)
Everyone I don't like is a Republican. They used to be conservative, but now they're the unwashed kids in the back of the classroom who heckle the teacher, throw spitballs, and turn everything into either a fart joke or a sex joke. (Democrats annoy me too.)
Everyone I don't like is Edward Albee. He made me afraid of Virginia Woolf. (Plus he was as gay as three Tenessee Williams.)
Everyone I don't like is gay or transexual. Why can't they all be gender fluid? (Pour yourself a cup of me.)
Everyone I don't like is too binary. Every node on a logic tree should have three branches. (It's more quantumly correct.)
Everyone I don't like reminds me of me. (If you are me, then who am I?)
Everyone I don't like is Hitler. Did you see him in that Hellboy movie when Harvey Keitel (playing Satan) shoved a pineapple up his ass every day at 2:35? (Now that's what I call cosmic justice.)
I sure wouldn’t hold my breath.
One thing I would point out is there’s nothing new about the right calling people on the left communists. It might be tempting to see one thing as a reaction to the other but it’s been a slow, or not so slow sometimes, escalation between the two for years.
I’ve written about it a lot but I consider myself a bit of a Nazi hunter. I’m like a reverse Hans Landa. I know how to spot them, and I mean real Nazis. Not racists or bigots or people who say mean things. I mean people who want to see the rise of the 4th Reich.
When I tried to show leftists on Twitter where they were and how to deal with them, that’s when I found out that leftists have absolutely no interest in addressing actual Nazism. They want to use the fear of Nazis as a boogy man. A monster under the bed to keep children afraid of what happens if they don’t get their way. They’ll accuse anyone of being a Nazi, other than an actual Nazi, just like they’ll accuse anyone of being a Russian troll other than actual Russian trolls.
What a good article. Name-calling and labeling has become a rampant part of our discourse. In some respects, it has risen from the extremists who have said some things that are very difficult to hear. However, I think it would be a good idea if everybody, myself included, took a deep breath and ease up. Third grade is the last time some children call names, and we help them see why it's wrong. It's immature to do it when your no longer eight years old.
Thank you. I agree. It's immaturity manifesting on either side of the aisle from adult professionals that should know better. As I say in the article, I'm fine with it being used for comedic purposes in casual conversation or as part of entertainment. But not from supposedly reputable sources or voices with influence
Thanks for the mention and good to know I provided inspiration hehe. Great article, astute and a damn good read.
You’re welcome and thank you
One of the more demented accusations I see - and it seems to be picking up steam - is that if you like and post Classical Greek art or traditional sculpture in general, then this is sone sort of “far right dog whistle” and you are probably flirting with Nazism.
Well said. I’ve seen even more egregious examples than that. Not least attacks aimed at STEM fields and other areas based on the study of empirical data.
Thanks for commenting…
Calling far-right authoritarians “Nazis” is literally calling a spade a spade. None of you centrists can hide the fact that you’re actually just right wing apologists for very long.
With the first point, of course I agree. You pretty much recite the definition for Nazi. What is not entailed in the statement is any epistemic evidence for why whoever it is you are referring to fits said description. The reason has to better than, I don’t like them, by the way.
On the second point I respectfully disagree.
For the record, I don’t believe being right wing is inherently a bad thing just as I don’t think that being left wing is inherently bad. So calling me an ‘apologist’ for the right wing is a non sequitur in my estimation as I don’t view them as axiomatically evil.
Right wing commenters have similarly accused me of ‘shilling for the left’ and I give them the same response as above with the denominations reversed.
My argument is that it is not simply a case of either Red or Blue, or Good or Evil. I don’t view the left or the right as my enemy and refuse to be goaded into picking a side.
Destiny made the same specious arguments about centrists recently and I addressed all that nonsense in an article about him.
If you wish to engage in a civil discourse I will gladly do so. If not, I wish you well and all the best for the future. Take care
Thank you for commenting…
"What is not entailed in the statement is any epistemic evidence for why whoever it is you are referring to fits said description" You cannot be serious... Pick someone the Left calls a Nazi, and I'll gladly explain it to you. This is textbook pseudo-centrism. The evidence is out there, but I'll do the heavy lifting for you. Pick someone.
Being rightwing in America right now is inherently evil. It's pro-genocide, explicitly intends to eradicate transgenderism and, at the very least, heavily limit LGBT rights, they ban books they find disagreeable, stalk immigrants and democratic voters in states like Texas, blame immigrants for bringing left-wing ideas (and eating pets), they destroy trust in journalism by inventing alternate realities and screaming about how they are just as valid as actual reality (take Tucker Carlson or Alex Jones for concise examples).
Textbook Nazi, through and through.
An actual "centrist," in the American political climate, can only punch to the Right (which includes most Democrats, save a handful). That's all that exists in America.
"Right wing commenters" really? What's their issue?
Wow. Okay. I'm in England so was I mostly referring to The Labour party in the UK who are locking people up for Tweets and telling jokes at comedy gigs, etc. It is far worse and insidious than that just here but their is plenty of reporting on that out there if you wish to discover the full extent of Starmer's protectionism.
As far as the policy disagreements you have with the Republicans, that's a job for your democratic process to to sort out on November 5th. But as I have said on many occasions, I think the American public deserves better presidential candidates heading up each party. Trump is a terrible choice for president in my view, but so was Biden and so is Harris. I know you disagree, that's my view.
I find Tucker Carlson to be a dishonest, bad faith actor who enables some of the very worst people, most recently that history revisionist he had on. A case could be made that he is worthy of such terms. I find Alex Jones to be deplorable and disapprove of everything I have ever heard him say. That being said I think he (and everyone else) has a First Amendment right to say the stupid shit he says and believe the crazy things he does.
But just because their are some really bad people who identify themselves as being on the right, that doesn't make every Right Wing person evil. I disagree that right wing people are inherently evil. It feels like 'othering' to me. Tribalism at its most poisonous. I know you disagree and that is fine. But I really want to see the end of the 'We Good, They Bad' narrative from both sides of the spectrum, on either side of the Atlantic.
There are good and bad guys on both sides in my view. Again, I suspect there is nothing I could say to convince you and that's fine, as long as we can be civil and let each other get on with our individual lives. What I am arguing for is exactly that: 'Agree to disagree' and try and coexist. The alternative scares me more than anything. If two ideologically opposed agents cannot live with each other, then there is only on logical conclusion: Civil war. And I want to avoid that at all costs.
Right wingers mostly attack me for my atheism. Also some of my positions on social issues. It varies person to person quite a lot.
I really do wish you well and I hope you find happiness. If my Substack isn't for you that is more than fine, I only ask if you comment here, please keep it civil.
Thank you
"The Labour party in the UK who are locking people up for Tweets and telling jokes at comedy gigs, etc. " Give me an example.
"I know you disagree, that's my view." I don't though, I just have legitimate complaints about both Biden and Harris, without any buts or excuses for Donald Trump existing.
Right wing politicians are evil for all the reasons I laid out, and then some. If someone votes for them, they are empirically evil. Regardless of whether they know it or not. I'm not demonizing the Right because of Tucker Carlson is on the Right, I'm demonizing the Right because they love Tucker Carlson (and all the other things I listed that you didn't address). It's not the same thing.
I oppose "agree to disagree" in the strongest terms. If one side's position is that the other side shouldn't exist, that is a disagree to disagree situation. There is only one side that has agitated for Civil War for the last 50 years, and it's the Right. No one on the Left wants a civil war, no one wants to eradicate Christianity or any group based on their immutable qualities. That is exclusively coming from one direction, the Right.
I respect that some of the Left-Right paradigm is different since we are in the UK and US, but it's not much different. Your Right hates migrants just as much, just to name one thing they have in common.
"I really do wish you well and I hope you find happiness" now you're just getting weird.
For me, Kisin is the ultimate ( well funded) containment operation. He is trying to prop up the ( failed ) Classical Liberal Centre. Also push European people into Individualism and reject any collective Identity.
Strange because he is very strong in defending his Identity (Jewish) and the Jewish ethnostate of Israel.
Many Jews people have strong in group preference but don't want other groups to have it. Total hypocrisy.
We are living through late stage Liberalism. Liberalism is like an acid on our civilisation and there are no solutions inside the Liberal paradigm for European people.
White people need to come together and organise for their own collective interests ( just like other groups do ) the demographics are only going to get worse and worse.
There is no middle 'Classical Liberal' way to stop us becoming a minority in our ancestral homeland. This is a total all out struggle for our civilisation, nothing less.