You just can’t help the ad hominem/strawman routine, can you? Where did I say “just tolerate it?” Oh, I didn’t.Vēritās wrote: ↑Fri Sep 02, 2022 3:06 amApparently we're supposed to keep tolerating it, because the only thing worse that watching Democracy collapse is being called an authoritarian by someone who likes to illicitly equate things based on superficial similarities.honorentheos wrote: ↑Fri Sep 02, 2022 2:44 amI'm not sure about this, Res. Fox News is doing real damage to the Republic. I don't know what the motive is, and I've though a lot about that. Money doesn't explain it. There has to be a point where profit is trumped by principles if one has them.
So why has Fox News, especially their opinion evening programing that is the most popular, made hyper-partisanship king to the point of they would rather see Western Liberal Democracy in flames than acknowledge real threats if they are from the supposed right? Is it tolerable still after an insurrection and what we are seeing with Trump post-office?
"This guy said he like's pizza and he's a homophobe. You like pizza too, so you're a homophobe in my book!" Not an exact quote, but you get the point.
Sometimes it is really annoying to me that one must be super smart and articulate like honorentheus to get away with saying the hard truths without be called an "authoritarian."
Comparing branding political opposition as an enemy of the state to what fascists do is not an illicit or superficial comparison — it’s exactly what fascists and authoritarians do. If you Don’t want to be seen as an authoritarian, don’t adopt the language of authoritarians. Maybe you should re-read 1984 to remind yourself of where branding people enemy of the state leads.
Hard truths? That’s the easy rationale available to every authoritarian in the history of history. You don’t think that every authoritarian isn’t convinced of his own rightness? Isn’t convinced that it’s okay to be authoritarian in order to save the country?
In my opinion, you demonstrate a pretty strong authoritarian streak, which you justify by knowing you’re on the side of the angels, so it’s okay. Forgive me if I’m cynical about the notion that it’s okay because we’re right and they’re the threat.
I understand that I annoy you. I don’t anticipate that changing.