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Conservatism is Brain Damage
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2024
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US Authoritarianism
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People always want to put me into one of the categories, give me a label, but I don't really see the need for that. I'm not trying to be on a "team", I'm just having a discussion. So many interactions on the internet (and politics in general) become a game of identifying which group you belong to and then saying either amen or completely ignoring the ideas or nuance that I enjoy discussing. It's unfortunately rare to find a good discussion since most people are here to circle jerk about this or that. I think the most important thing is to maintain open discourse so we can freely exchange ideas and learn. That's what I enjoy on lemmy, the only reason I'm here. Circle jerks are tiresome, boring, and only stoke anger, sow more discord between people, and make real progress harder. They contribute to making our political environment a zero sum game when it doesn't need to be.
You mean it's confusing if I use examples that aren't consistent with a single political ideology? That's exactly the point. My position is simply that Authoritarianism is not limited to a single political ideology, that it can come from either side. That's it. That's my position. You can call out conservatives for some bad things and progressives for other bad things, and both of them for authoritarianism if they do it.
That's on them if they want to assume a motive beyond what I'm actually saying. But if you want an example of left wing authoritarianism, then I would start with the Chinese cultural revolution.
During the cultural revolution, it was common to attack suspected bourgeois, or anyone who was "four olds" in an attempt to destroy old culture, old ideas, olds customs, olds habits, in struggle sessions. Basically they kept after someone until they confessed, sometimes to the death. It was a giant game to track down any remnant of conservatism and destroy it. Whatever the motives of the people in charge who started it, the driving force was authoritarian, left wing ideology that the people took up and embraced as their own. Are we close to that now? Maybe not, but it happens quick. You can argue that we are closer right now to the other half century old authoritarian state, fascism, but it's besides the point I was making. As long as we agree that authoritarianism can be a left or a right thing, then I'm content. You won't get a confession out of me.