This argument never made sense to me. The people who say that the new fascism will call itself antifascist also claim to be against fascism so this equals out. It just doesn’t make sense as a gotcha. Antifa is demonstrably against fascistic politics and that’s the gotcha if there is one
One comment I saw eons ago explained it, it went something like this
“Imagine theres a group called Team-No-Bad-Guy. They gather to yell to stop people doing bad guy things. You don’t like those people that they yell at, but you don’t like the non-yelling methods Team-No-Bad-Guy uses sometimes. Team-No-Bad-Guy hears you say this and calls you a bad guy and begin yelling at you. You realize that they can call anyone bad guys and you wonder how things would be for you after the big bad guys were gone.”
Don’t worry, it’s just because they’re not arguing from a place of good faith. They are often not even serious or thoughtful enough to even understand that they’re arguing in bad faith, it’s just they have strong feelings and not enough capability to form logical arguments in their heads to fight their own discomfort with foreigners or people of color or having to respect people’s gender identity. (It’s almost ALWAYS about race or sex.)
This is why centrism is dead. There is no “middle ground” between having paralyzing hangups and emotion-driven policies and not having these things. Either you get incredibly sweaty and ashamed watching interracial cuckolding porn or you’re chill and don’t care. There is very little overlap.
To me it seems at least kind of suspicious if someone has a shared hobby with fascists of sharing videos of people being assaulted or killed and talking about how much they deserved it, and are enforcing groupthink in a similar way. It feels like they are playing the same game and must share many of the same ways of thinking, even if they are nominally on different teams. Maybe that isn’t what Antifa is really about, but people I’ve known who self identified with it have been like that. I worry that engaging with and relating to politics that way is all heading to a similar place regardless of on-paper beliefs, so the way this comic depicts a physical refusal to even acknowledge the thought is kind of chilling.
I came across a scientific proposal to investigate the issue I think you’re responding to: dangerous ideological thinking that breeds
evidence-resistant dogmatism and intergroup intolerance.
Ideological adherents aren’t necessarily a problem until they become militant in their intolerance to dissent & hostility to self-examination.
Their zealotry may lead them to abandon reason (eg, rampant fallacies) & commit injustices for ideological pursuits.
Movements against fascism, theocracy, & persecution of threatened classes can be good at opposing particular problems.
However, adherents who fixate can lose sight of the general failure in humanity—ideological extremism—that got us those problems and indulge in the same kind of flawed thinking that creates the kinds of problems they’re opposing: they’re counterproductive & self-defeating.
A failure to commit to integrity in the pursuit of truth and to scrutinize & justify efforts rationally (eg, by welcoming self-examination & debate) is a sign of problematic priorities.
An interesting part about the research proposal is it suggests ideological thinking is a general phenomenon with essential qualities distinct from the content of any particular ideology and testing is needed to properly define that phenomenon.
It suggests a definition to test that identifies doctrinal & relational components as essential qualities: ideological thinking is
a style of thinking that is rigid in its adherence to a doctrine and resistance to evidence-based belief-updating (i.e., doctrinal) and favorably oriented toward an in-group and antagonistic to out-groups (i.e., selectively relational).
In terms of components
doctrinal component
description: an absolutist explanation for existing conditions
prescription: a set of prescriptions for future thought, behavior, & social relations
relational component
group identification: strong personal identification with the in-group
prejudice & hostility: a rejection of nonadherents that often takes the form of hostility and prejudice
Accordingly, an ideologically extreme individual
is one who (a) possesses a rigid, evidence-resistant description of the world, (b) strongly adheres to inflexible prescriptions for how they and others ought to live and act, (c) exhibits intense identification with fellow adherents, and (d) displays active hostility toward nonadherents
whereas an ideologically moderate individual
is one who (a) adopts a description of the world that is flexible and responsive to evidence, (b) does not rely on or impose on others rigid prescriptive rules for living, (c) displays weak or moderate identification with others who believe in similar worldviews, and (d) does not express hostility or prejudice toward dissimilar others.
The way individuals like this blow up when you criticize problematic thinking is typical of ideological extremism: even if you agree with their cause or are an ideologically moderate fellow adherent, they’ll irrationally treat you with the intolerance & hostility of a nonadherent.
I think intellectual humility that respects truth & integrity demands ideological moderation.
Your opinion that nobody deserves to be killed is really rare, historically. King Arthur killed people. Achilles killed people. Moses killed people. Sun Wukong killed people. Superman is probably the first superhero in history who didn’t regularly kill people.
What I’m saying is that people who celebrate violence are normal and your pacifism is a weird and hypocritical trend that won’t be popular for very long.
George Washington understood that. He fought and sent people to their deaths for the freedom you now enjoy. Show some patriotism and appreciate the value of violence.
Your opinion that nobody deserves to be killed is really rare, historically.
Not really: ahimsa from dharmic traditions is ancient.
Pacifism isn’t novel: found in Mohist school in Taoism & various ancient cultures.
Appeal to force is irrational.
I think you’re mischaracterizing their objection as concerning violence rather than shitty thinking that creates the kinds of problems the thinkers oppose.
Injustice regardless of cause is injustice and not what we’re fighting for.
A just cause begins with not abandoning truth, integrity, justice to zealotry that creates the kinds of problems we’re opposing: we can support causes without being assholes.
The fascist mindset is about superiority, not violence. They’re white supremacists. A violent mindset isn’t a fascist mindset, it’s just called being normal.
You should be more concerned with celebrating the violent deeds of the heroes who brought us our liberty. It’s concerning that you don’t love George Washington for all the Redcoats he killed.
Celebrating the deaths of authoritarians is one of those country’s founding values.
The fascist mindset is about superiority, not violence.
Nah, those guys hate themselves, the idea they’re superior is surface level cope. Look at the content right wing extremists are consuming and how they are using it; it’s the emotional weight of violence being employed for self inflicted brain damage, dogmatic cult building through manipulation and artificial trauma eg. hazing.
Well, the left wing is about self-love. It’s about gay pride, and worker solidarity. I’m part of a left wing cult, and our leader, Jesus Christ, tells us to love our neighbours and ourselves, and says we all have the power to move mountains. So I don’t think you need to worry about our violence leading to fascism. It’s right wing groups like capitalists and Christians (followers of Paul) you need to watch out for, because they teach self-hatred and then sell their followers superiority as the cure. Kind of like Zuko from Avatar when Iroh was explaining that his pride was the source of his shame.
Hey dipshit. They are literally sending people to concentration camps right fucking now. Stop with this “but maybe in the future bullshit”.
If you’re not American I’ll bet your country also has a growing fascist subset because just look at the state of politics the world over. We can talk about future fascists once we deal with the ones that are literally in front of us following the same playbook as last time.
I mean, you’re wrong if you think I don’t think these are urgent problems, being caused by fascists. If you’re in a position to effectively resolve them, great, I will give credit to actions that qualify as stuff that is likely to actually work and not be counterproductive.
What I’m talking about is less urgent, but I don’t think inadvertently contributing to fascist culture is the sort of thing that’s a direct solution to urgent problems anyway.
This argument never made sense to me. The people who say that the new fascism will call itself antifascist also claim to be against fascism so this equals out. It just doesn’t make sense as a gotcha. Antifa is demonstrably against fascistic politics and that’s the gotcha if there is one
That’s because they’re lying.
One comment I saw eons ago explained it, it went something like this
“Imagine theres a group called Team-No-Bad-Guy. They gather to yell to stop people doing bad guy things. You don’t like those people that they yell at, but you don’t like the non-yelling methods Team-No-Bad-Guy uses sometimes. Team-No-Bad-Guy hears you say this and calls you a bad guy and begin yelling at you. You realize that they can call anyone bad guys and you wonder how things would be for you after the big bad guys were gone.”
Don’t worry, it’s just because they’re not arguing from a place of good faith. They are often not even serious or thoughtful enough to even understand that they’re arguing in bad faith, it’s just they have strong feelings and not enough capability to form logical arguments in their heads to fight their own discomfort with foreigners or people of color or having to respect people’s gender identity. (It’s almost ALWAYS about race or sex.)
This is why centrism is dead. There is no “middle ground” between having paralyzing hangups and emotion-driven policies and not having these things. Either you get incredibly sweaty and ashamed watching interracial cuckolding porn or you’re chill and don’t care. There is very little overlap.
To me it seems at least kind of suspicious if someone has a shared hobby with fascists of sharing videos of people being assaulted or killed and talking about how much they deserved it, and are enforcing groupthink in a similar way. It feels like they are playing the same game and must share many of the same ways of thinking, even if they are nominally on different teams. Maybe that isn’t what Antifa is really about, but people I’ve known who self identified with it have been like that. I worry that engaging with and relating to politics that way is all heading to a similar place regardless of on-paper beliefs, so the way this comic depicts a physical refusal to even acknowledge the thought is kind of chilling.
I came across a scientific proposal to investigate the issue I think you’re responding to: dangerous ideological thinking that breeds
Ideological adherents aren’t necessarily a problem until they become militant in their intolerance to dissent & hostility to self-examination. Their zealotry may lead them to abandon reason (eg, rampant fallacies) & commit injustices for ideological pursuits.
Movements against fascism, theocracy, & persecution of threatened classes can be good at opposing particular problems. However, adherents who fixate can lose sight of the general failure in humanity—ideological extremism—that got us those problems and indulge in the same kind of flawed thinking that creates the kinds of problems they’re opposing: they’re counterproductive & self-defeating. A failure to commit to integrity in the pursuit of truth and to scrutinize & justify efforts rationally (eg, by welcoming self-examination & debate) is a sign of problematic priorities.
An interesting part about the research proposal is it suggests ideological thinking is a general phenomenon with essential qualities distinct from the content of any particular ideology and testing is needed to properly define that phenomenon. It suggests a definition to test that identifies doctrinal & relational components as essential qualities: ideological thinking is
In terms of components
Accordingly, an ideologically extreme individual
whereas an ideologically moderate individual
The way individuals like this blow up when you criticize problematic thinking is typical of ideological extremism: even if you agree with their cause or are an ideologically moderate fellow adherent, they’ll irrationally treat you with the intolerance & hostility of a nonadherent.
I think intellectual humility that respects truth & integrity demands ideological moderation.
Holy shit. You’re unironically being the guy behind the wall. Quick, Susan, where is my camera!?
Your opinion that nobody deserves to be killed is really rare, historically. King Arthur killed people. Achilles killed people. Moses killed people. Sun Wukong killed people. Superman is probably the first superhero in history who didn’t regularly kill people.
What I’m saying is that people who celebrate violence are normal and your pacifism is a weird and hypocritical trend that won’t be popular for very long.
George Washington understood that. He fought and sent people to their deaths for the freedom you now enjoy. Show some patriotism and appreciate the value of violence.
Not really: ahimsa from dharmic traditions is ancient. Pacifism isn’t novel: found in Mohist school in Taoism & various ancient cultures. Appeal to force is irrational.
I think you’re mischaracterizing their objection as concerning violence rather than shitty thinking that creates the kinds of problems the thinkers oppose. Injustice regardless of cause is injustice and not what we’re fighting for.
A just cause begins with not abandoning truth, integrity, justice to zealotry that creates the kinds of problems we’re opposing: we can support causes without being assholes.
My point is more that being fixated on it in that way reflects a mindset that is the same as fascists.
The rest of your comment seems like some kind of joke which is a little funny with your username, but it’s a serious topic so idk.
Here, maybe this will help. I found it just a few posts down:
Alright well your point is wrong.
The fascist mindset is about superiority, not violence. They’re white supremacists. A violent mindset isn’t a fascist mindset, it’s just called being normal.
You should be more concerned with celebrating the violent deeds of the heroes who brought us our liberty. It’s concerning that you don’t love George Washington for all the Redcoats he killed.
Celebrating the deaths of authoritarians is one of those country’s founding values.
Nah, those guys hate themselves, the idea they’re superior is surface level cope. Look at the content right wing extremists are consuming and how they are using it; it’s the emotional weight of violence being employed for self inflicted brain damage, dogmatic cult building through manipulation and artificial trauma eg. hazing.
Well, the left wing is about self-love. It’s about gay pride, and worker solidarity. I’m part of a left wing cult, and our leader, Jesus Christ, tells us to love our neighbours and ourselves, and says we all have the power to move mountains. So I don’t think you need to worry about our violence leading to fascism. It’s right wing groups like capitalists and Christians (followers of Paul) you need to watch out for, because they teach self-hatred and then sell their followers superiority as the cure. Kind of like Zuko from Avatar when Iroh was explaining that his pride was the source of his shame.
Holy shit another guy who considers Paul to be a usurper! There must be dozens of us
Hey dipshit. They are literally sending people to concentration camps right fucking now. Stop with this “but maybe in the future bullshit”.
If you’re not American I’ll bet your country also has a growing fascist subset because just look at the state of politics the world over. We can talk about future fascists once we deal with the ones that are literally in front of us following the same playbook as last time.
I mean, you’re wrong if you think I don’t think these are urgent problems, being caused by fascists. If you’re in a position to effectively resolve them, great, I will give credit to actions that qualify as stuff that is likely to actually work and not be counterproductive.
What I’m talking about is less urgent, but I don’t think inadvertently contributing to fascist culture is the sort of thing that’s a direct solution to urgent problems anyway.