02-01-2021, 01:34 AM
(01-31-2021, 07:40 PM)mamabug Wrote:(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.
Most people have the choice between good and evil. Good creates fewer problems down the line. I'm not going to deny that people become evil after some part of their brain is damaged, typically the part that allows moral discretion. Look at most of the people sentenced to death, and you often find a legacy of head injuries, below-normal IQ's, and child abuse and neglect.
There really isn't much "smart crime". There are easier ways to make a sustainable living -- like flipping hamburgers or doing assembly-line work. People need to see the long term.
As for sick societies... yes, they exist. In those the government is run by gangsters, and doing evil on behalf of the Leader is either lucrative or mandatory. Secret police forces have ways to get people accustomed to beating, torturing, and killing people. Describe enemies as vermin? Sure. They are disloyal to the perfect New Order, one that will be free of "kulaks", Jews, landlords, "deviants", whatever... as in the Soviet Union, the Third Reich, Mao's China, Baathist Iraq... or people who, as in a place like Pinochet's Chile, anyone who disputes the idea that there is no purpose in life except to enrich those already rich.
We recently took baby steps in that direction and we seem to be in retreat from that. Bad habits form easily and are difficult to leave. Bad habits, like blunders, seduce.
Quote: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.
Donald Trump left plenty of warning signs. He has huge funds and he gets attached to a porn star. He is taped talking about grabbing women by their "kitty cats". He mocks the handicapped. He denounces people for their religion and ethnicity. A bit fewer than 46% or the American electorate vote for him in 2016, and an even larger share vote for him in 2020. Character is destiny, and people of bad character eventually get bad results even if they have competence and talent. Just look at Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, and Phil Spector.
Hey, parents: if you must choose a life for your kid, and he seems lacking in character -- the sort of person who will abuse power if he can get away with it -- and you must choose between sending him to college or consigning him to a life of poverty as a farm laborer or store clerk, then choose poverty. The poor cannot get away with as much.
Hey, college administrators: it is not enough that your students learn some rigorous knowledge; it is also important that they learn the value of doing right not so much when things are going well and it is easy... but even more, when it is difficult and requires sacrifices.
Quote: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.
Alkalis and acids are supposed opposites, but their effects upon flesh are much the same. When they meet they react with violence corresponding to their differences in acidity. With an extreme base, water is a strong acid; with an extreme acid, water is an extreme base. So just imagine what happens when an extreme base like potassium metal meets sulfuric acid.
Quote: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.
Fascists and communists do not have my trust.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.