patrick.net

CBOEtrader says

It's not a coincidence that German culture spawned both the Nazi's AND is at the center of today's PC culture. As a society, virtue signalling is far more important than individual liberty to them. Righteousness is more important than truth.It was a recipe for fascism in the 30's, just like today.

Yes, this is a great insight I have not heard before.

I lived in Germany for two years in college and can speak German. Also lived with a family for the summer before junior year of HS. They were totally PC even then, out of a pervasive sense of guilt for WWII. It had not occurred to me that guilt and virtue signaling (by admitting your guilt publicly as a "racist" from birth exactly like original sin) can be powerful controlling forces, but they can. So yes, same shit seems to be going on here, and maybe it explains why the left is acting much more like Nazis than the right this time around.

rando says

and maybe it explains why the left is acting much more like Nazis than the right this time around.

Yes, something like 5% of the left. Meanwhile the entire right (which has been drifting further to the right for decades, elects Donald Trump PResident. (this doesn't seems weird to you ?) Meanwhile the behavior of a tiny fraction of the left has you saying:

"the left is acting much more like Nazis than the right this time around"

Truly stunning times. What the hell is going on ?

The fear and sense of being threatened has driven the right to madness. They are driving legislation of reactionary paranoia, rallied around a belief that terrorists and angry college kids drugged up on kale juice are coming for them.

(Insert picture of 1 poison M&M meme here. Only problem is the picture is short about 3.6 billion M&Ms (1 in 3.6 billion : the odds of you being killed by a refugee), but hey, facts are meaningless. We are running on feelings now. America first! Shutdown the borders! Trump, call up the next world leader to insult! MAGA!)

marcus says

Meanwhile the behavior of a tiny fraction of the left

This may be fair, but where is that same tiny violent fraction from the right?

Check out Professor haidt and consider the blinding nature of righteousness. https://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind#t-6154 "Sports is to war as pornography is to sex." Good stuff.

We are irrational as individuals. As groups, we are pure fucking sociopaths. Every group-think evil in human history had righteousness at its core. Today's left is righteously, gleefully hateful of fellow americans in a way that I've never seen.

rando says

maybe it explains why the left is acting much more like Nazis

Bingo. Watch for righteousness. "Our righteous minds were designed by evolution to divide us into teams, to unite us against other teams, and to blind us from the truth."

As a caveman, righteousness was an important in-group signal. As a modern thinker, righteousness will misguide you.

Today's left is blinded by righteousness.

Take some time & study leftist revolts.

CBOEtrader says

Bingo. Watch for righteousness. "Our righteous minds were designed by evolution to divide us into teams, to unite us against other teams, and to blind us from the truth."

Nice quote.

CBOEtrader says

This may be fair, but where is that same tiny violent fraction from the right?

The right doesn't need a tiny violent faction right now, they are in charge.

Amazing how many people on this board have very selective memories about who had violent incidents and when.

CBOEtrader says

Today's left is righteously, gleefully hateful of fellow americans in a way that I've never seen.

What ?

Only someone relatively right wing would see it that way. The opposite is arguably the case for decades now.

A politically neutral (not left wing) person would have been observing truly bizarre behavior from the right for decades. There is a huge right wing media machine that makes a TPB possible. Have you ever tried to pin the guy down for a logical explanation of one of his beliefs? This is the result of exquisite and constant programming by right wing radio and internet. Brietbart is the most recent version.

You can even hear it from Patrick. WE don't know where he's gotten his nonsensical emotion based views of the smug and extreme left media bias. BOth sides have been in their bubbles for decades now, but the right's bubble is far more extreme.

Now we have TRump, which you might wish to rationalize, but it's clear evidence that I'm correct about which side promotes hate more, regardless of how much Patrick and others grasp for straws to explain it. AS for the violence. It's insignificant, and there has been an emboldening of racism and a few violent events from asshole racists. But the left isn't drawing any stupid generalizations from it, becasue the racists have always been there. They aren't right per se, and there aren't any middle left people trying to make those generalizations. A:though I see the specific cases of racism as motive for Trump frequently.

(continued)

(editing previous comment led to hitting length limit)

It seems like a lot of people need to review how logic works. E.g. right of center doesn't imply racist asshole, but being a racist asshole does imply you voted for Trump. A Flaky teenager only concerned with transgender and feminazi issues that was supporters of Clinton, might even maybe behave violently in a crowd of like minded morons. This says nothing about the other 97% of the majority people that did not and would not have voted for TRump.

I would dare say that racists, and "gleeful" consumers of right wing hate media make up a segment of the republican party that is at least 12 times as large as the proportion of "special snowflakes" on the left.

CBOEtrader says

Check out Professor haidt and consider the blinding nature of righteousness

Yes, I am a fan of his, when trying to understand the other side and the bigger picture. IT doesn't alleviate the disappointment all that much though.

rando says

I lived in Germany for two years in college and can speak German.

Do you like Falco?

bob2356 says

The right doesn't need a tiny violent faction right now, they are in charge.

Amazing how many people on this board have very selective memories about who had violent incidents and when.

marcus says

I would dare say that racists, and "gleeful" consumers of right wing hate media make up a segment of the republican party that is at least 12 times as large as the proportion of "special snowflakes" on the left.

Ideas aren't violence...perhaps you are talking about support for war? The R's and D's have been equally guilty of war.

Show me an example where a tiny fraction of the right has been violent while celebs/pundits/media/twitter-verse righteously cheers them on. That's the dangerous, righteous spark. That's how the Nazis happened.

I have never seen anything as divisive and hateful as this current crop of righteous leftist hate.

Take the French-canadian mosque shooting as an example of right wing violence. I'm sure that nut had an echo chamber of other nuts wherein he learned righteous hate for Muslims...and as scary as that is, its an isolated incident specifically because no one outside his 4 friends in the basement on the right supports that behavior. The pundits/media/politicians all came out and immediately supported the Muslim community and expressed disgust by the violence.

Individuals will always be violent. Righteousness turns us into Nazis. The left is currently drunk on their own righteousness.

CBOEtrader says

That's the dangerous, righteous spark. That's how the Nazis happened.

There's been a dangerous righteous spark on the right for decades. Donald Trump is by far the closest thing we've ever seen to Naizism happening.

Trump's lies are much more evil than people getting self righteous about how much he lies and how willing the right wing sheep are to look the other way.

zzyzzx says

rando says

I lived in Germany for two years in college and can speak German.

Do you like Falco?

I used to like Falco. He has his own unique accent in German. Affected, but fun.

CBOEtrader says

Righteousness turns us into Nazis. The left is currently drunk on their own righteousness.

This.

It is necessary to demonize demonize demonize over and over in order to give people their sweet hit of "justified" "anti-fascist" violence without feeling in the least bit bad or ironic about being the exact thing they are complaining about.

CBOEtrader says

Ideas aren't violence...

Exactly! The right's ideas are the justification for demonizing them, and therefore giving a free pass for violence without guilt.