The Comfort of False Equivalence
There’s a seductive kind of cowardice masquerading as wisdom in modern discourse: the insistence that all extremes are created equal. It’s what allows the centrist to shrug and say, “Well, both sides are dangerous,” as though morality and method exist on a balanced scale, and history is simply a record of shared mistakes. For MAGA, this rhetorical laziness isn’t just useful. It’s strategic.
This bit stands out to me pretty strongly
This helps explain why MAGA so often feels impervious to evidence. Logic isn’t the foundation of the worldview, identity is. And any fact that threatens that identity is rejected, not because it’s untrue, but because it’s unwelcome. The very structure of MAGA thinking is built to preserve the self, not challenge it.
Us vs them, the dumbest thing, taken as far as possible.
I’ve been saying similarly for ages. We’re all emotional to some degree, but the right wing often turns it up to 11. Facts don’t matter. In-group belonging matters.
I don’t know a better word for it than “Stupid”, but it is deeply what I’d call stupid. Doesn’t care about facts, consistency, outcomes. Just feeling good about being a member of the group.
The oatmeal did a comic about this: https://theoatmeal.com/comics/believe
Leftists aren’t cult-y enough, that’s why you often find them debating with each other (to put it nicely).
Trump and his administration full of yes men and yes women is very cult-like.
The left is hard to become cult-y and dogmatic, and has plenty of in-fighting because it has its roots from old school liberal values of “think for yourself” and the rejection of hierarchy. The right values order and hierarchy so there is less factionalism and are more united. But the left could learn a thing or two from the right to be more structured without being dogmatic and authoritarian. I mean, the civil rights movement in the 1960s was successful because they have leaders to clearly express their demands, coordinate actions and excite people to join. In more modern leftist and progressive protests, there are no leaders and was facilitated by different factions advancing their own agenda. This is why the last major leftist protest, the Occupy Movement, in the United States failed miserably in my opinion. There are anecdotes of some people joining simply because it was the meme at the time.
Don’t fret though and mistake that there has not been successful left wing demonstrations in other parts of the world in recent history. The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) in UK has been tremendously successful in making their demands. Watch the interviews of their leaders and their responses are eloquent and incisive, which leave opponents and bad faith interviewers lost for words, or even laughing with smart arse answers! The American left could emulate their British counterparts!
That’s the problem with remaining loyal to your ideals. We’re very hard to indoctrinate.
In my opinion, the best president in my lifetime was Obama. I don’t agree with his choice to follow Bush and bail out the banks, he took too long to pull out of Iraq, and his speed over fairness deportations were awful. MAGA is incapable of seeing flaws in their electors.
Obama was the best conservative president.
I’d have a hard time calling the guy who championed civil rights, same-sex marriage, and tried to create universal healthcare a conservative.
Who would you say was a better President since Reagan that wasn’t conservative?
Championed same-sex marriage? That’s what you think he did? Because I remember a man condemning same-sex marriage until the rest of us dragged him to it kicking and screaming. If it had been up to Obama same-sex marriage would still be on the out and he’d be patiently waiting on the right time.
Jimmy Carter because he never stopped doing good work for people.
Carter was probably the best person to be president in recent history, but he wasn’t a particularly good president.
It was the last time we weren’t directly in a war, so that’s pretty awesome. He also put solar panels on the white house, since removed by Spacefarce 457.
Carter was before Reagan. That’s why I said Obama was the best in my lifetime. I agree with Carter as a choice though.
The left is a loosely knit confederation of groups who often dislike one another but dislike the right even more.
I’m not sure this is true. There are some leftists who hate Democrats far more than Republicans, especially here on Lemmy.
Some are actually supportive of the Trump regime because they believe it will bring about a collapse that will lead to a communist utopia (lol).
United States Democrats ARE part of the right, they just advertise as otherwise.
That’s the type of ignorant nonsense that got us here. Cut it out with that both sides bullshit.
I’m not an American. The rest of the world sees American national politics as the good cop/bad cop farce it is. Both sides ARE bad, just one is worse than the other.
The sentiment that holding the less bad side accountable for still being bad is somehow counterproductive is part of what got you all in this mess. Expect more from your politicians.
So you literally are both sidesing right now. Lmao. Focus on your own rightward shifting politics instead of pretending to be an expert on what is happening in a country you know nothing about.
I lived in your country for 15 years. All your commentary has shown me is I know more about your country’s workings than you do.
Sounds like you know jack shit about my country. Lmao.
No one said anything about both sides. But if you sit here thinking that Arch capitalists like Liberals are on the left side you’re just dreaming.
There’s more about being left than economic left honey.
I really don’t think there is. Especially when you remember that a liberal will literally sacrifice every other ideal because of economics. It’s been that way the entirety of our country’s history. Great liberal thinkers like Madison and Jefferson, speak of freedom and equality, how long did that last though? Did it last through the question of their economic well-being being threatened? Did they free the slaves? No. Ever it was for liberals, and ever it will be.
So you’re a class reductionist. Fuck the minorities and people who are suffering right now because they’ll all be fine when the"revolution" comes? Because that has always worked out in the past. Lmao you guys are so up your ass.
I don’t think they’re trying to both sides it. Democrats are center right on their best days, that’s just a fact.
Wrong and misinformation spread by Putin to try to disseminate hate towards democrats. First paragraph from Wikipedia:
“The platform of the Democratic Party of the United States is generally based on modern liberalism, contrasting with the conservatism of the Republican Party. The party generally sits on the center-left of the American political spectrum. Currently, the party has large centrist[1][2][3][4] and progressive[5][6] wings, as well as smaller fiscal conservative[7] and democratic socialist elements.[8]”
And you can claim that compared to -insert country here- that Democrats are right wing but it doesn’t matter. When Republicans complain about the left they are complaining about Democrats and everyone to the left of them. In American politics, Democrats are left-wing. And those other countries are shifting rightwards as well. Stop falling for psyops bullshit from Russia and tankies.
The party generally sits on the center-left of the American political spectrum.
Emphasis mine.
This is where having broader knowledge is useful in making comparisons. The American Overton Window has been ratcheted so far to the right that a center-right party appears center left as actual progressive/leftist politics are considered ridiculous by the population. Your Bernie Sanders is barely left but he’s referred to by many as an extremist.
Consider what center-left looks like in Iran. It’s certainly much farther right than the equivalent in the US.
Did you read the rest of my comment? What happens in other countries doesn’t relate to American politics and even in these “left” countries you speak of they are also having their Overton windows shift right. Europe isn’t some leftist utopia.
They don’t do much. Biden started to roll back reaganomics but that’s being gutted now.
That’s because tankie idiots decided they’d rather have Trump than anything even close to progressive politics.
As an European, the democrats sit firmly in the center-right sphere, somewhat more socially left, but more right in certain areas
Like, our center-right parties straight up are more progressive in some areas than the democrats are
See my other post. What happens in Europe doesn’t matter compared to American politics. And most European countries are experiencing right wing shifts also.
Our two party system (which sucks and needs to go) makes the comparisons impossible as well. You guys are literally playing around with naziism again. And many of your countries are rolling back gay rights and abortion rights. Don’t pretend like Europe is some left wing utopia. Lmao.
Most of that influence comes from America though?
You can try to shift the blame to others all you want. The truth is you only have yourself to blame though.
Our politics are influenced by Russia, China, Australian and South African billionaires, but it is our people who voted according to that influence.
Even if you blame Americans for influencing, your people are still voting for it.
How’s that inconsistent with what he said? They said they hate the right even more.
Because Democrats aren’t on the right dumbass.
They literally are
They literally aren’t but continue being a mouthpiece for Putin Russian shill.
just like a famiy
While you’re over there on Substack, report this guy, Russian ultranationalist, Aleksander Dugin (Putin’s brain). I won’t be visiting there again and deleted my account yesterday. They leave this stuff up and have a reputation of doing so. The commenters were all on board. There’s not an option to report this for what it is. An excerpt of this was on RT previously
The Transgender Ukrainian Nation
Alexander Dugin draws a parallel between the fall from grace of transgender individuals in the United States and the impending abandonment of Ukrainians by the West…
I really wish that car bomb got him instead of his daughter
That’s truly disgusting. I can fathom neither how sick one would have to write this nor how stupid one would have to be to believe it.
I did a thread on Bluesky about tracing down that particular piece and it was not a road I’d been down before. First, there was a screenshot with an even more inflammatory headline from RT. Eventually, I found a direct link to Substack from a “paleoconservative” POS maintaining a wordpress blog. I get that people actually growing up in Russia their entire lives have learned this stuff and don’t excuse it but at least can understand that to some degree. But I grew up in a very progressive bubble and never experienced people like this in my life. The blogger and the commenters were clearly programmed deeply from various corners of more hellish places. It’s sick but it’s also taught disinformation etc.
Ukrainians are collective transgenders. Russians who have changed their sex, their ethnicity, for an abstract, imaginary, and absurd alternative.
Yes Sasha the more schizo the shit you say is the more true it is.
“Both sides are the same,” is not only comforting to centrists, it’s also a handy excuse when you’re too lazy to get off your ass and vote. “I’m not lazy, I’m raising awareness!”
It’s not that it is “the same”. It’s that both of them are shit. Frankly, one is worse over the other. But nonetheless, it’s either giant douche or turd sandwich. Two sides of the same coin.
Both sides aren’t the same. Yours is worse. I’ve never voted dem or republican. I usually just let people assume whatever they want. I’ve never liked a candidate enough to actually support.
Every accusation is a confession. I’ve spent many years in close quarters with conservatives. Usually when they’re making an absurd claim about people to the left of them, it’s either to justify them doing it in “retaliation” (such as election interference), or that they believe their way of thinking is natural for all people, being that everyone has gods and thought leaders they believe uncritically.
You watch this shit right here and tell me what you see.
all I see is CREEPY
Jim Jones has nothing on MAGA.
