(01-31-2021, 05:58 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: The idea that all people are equal under law for me is mixed in with the Bill of Rights at some level. Your revulsion at those who reject those ideals is understandable, but the idea that minorities aren't equal, are considered less equal because their ancestors came in at the wrong time or their skin is pigmented differently is by many considered abhorrent by the standard you set.
Have I said anything to indicate I don't believe the 'All men' part of 'all men are created equal?'
Quote:And occasionally the other guys are evil. If they are trying to throw away votes against them cast by minorities, if they attempt a violent insurrection, I'm sorry. They violate the principle you list and count as making you itch. Those violations make me itch.
I tend to side with Solzhenitsyn on whether you can declare a person as evil or not, as opposed to actions or ideology. And, as a good old-fashioned Civil Libertarian, I would still defend the rights of even people I think truly are evil.
The worrying trend I've seen over at least the last 20 years is the refusal to engage in serious policy discussions in favor of characterizing political opponents as innately evil (whether that is cries of racist, SJW, *phobic, or Marxist). I can more easily point to where this has happened on the left than on the right, mostly because it seems more of a mainstream opinion on the left. The unwillingness to see the distinction between people who wholly supported Trump and those who voted for him as the 'least objectionable' option is nearly non-existent. That worries me if the hope is to have a 4T without wide-scale internal conflict.
There is truth to the old saw that the right sees the left as misguided while the left sees the right as evil. In the last couple years, though, as the reaction against Trump became increasingly vitriolic and all encompassing, the 'left is evil' narrative has been becoming more mainstream as well.
I never claim to have solutions, I'm mostly just watching trends and trying to identify which have the potential to go in a bad direction. I long since gave up the belief that I have power to actually affect anything.