A View From the Left
Posted: Mon Jul 15, 2024 3:36 am
I’ve been unapologetically politically left of center for over 40 years. There’s no magic as to why. The most important lesson I learned in college is the sheer number of assumptions that market theory is based on and how far from reality those assumptions are. I had never heard of market failure and externalities when I started, but understood them very well.
To me, that gave government an important role in society: stepping in where externalities and other cases where markets do not perform as advertised. If our society chooses an economic system that necessarily generates winners and losers, then society has a moral obligation to make sure the losers don’t get crushed by a market that cares not one bit whether the losers suffer and die.
That’s my political philosophy, as they say, in a nutshell. And for that I’ve been demonized, dehumanized, and threatened by a political movement led by people who have incited hatred by my fellow Americans against other of my fellow Americans, motivated by greed and power.
I got my first hint at what was going on in a conversation with my very LDS, very conservative brother in law. He served his mission in Chile and was singing the praises of Pinochet. He segued into asking me how I could possibly be a liberal. I asked him what he thought liberals believed. The answer resembled a complete caricature of what liberals believe and stand for. It was a shock.
I responded by telling him what I believed as a liberal and that, in my experience, my views were pretty typical of liberals. He seemed very surprised. Now, he and I liked each other very much, and that conversation didn’t change that. He was a loving, caring individual and a wonderful husband to my sister. He and I just did what was common in those days — we recognized the differences in our politics and just didn’t talk about it.
But I wondered: How did he get a picture of who liberals were what they believed that was so off the mark?
The answer wasn’t hard. He, and most of the folks he associated with, were big fans of the Rush Limbaugh show. I tuned in and discovered that every false or exaggerated stereotype that my brother in law had mentioned was front and center in the show.
I figured that this was a phase that would pass like most do. But over time, keeping an eye on right wing radio, I saw the demonization of liberals and the incitement of fear and anger ratchet up and up and up. Some of the stuff that was said became so over the top that I could not believe that anyone would take it seriously.
But that feeling changed with the election of Obama. From my perspective, the right lost its collective mind. The birthers — one Donald Trump among them — was one of the most shameful political movements I’ve witnessed.
And that’s when I remembered something I never should have forgotten: propaganda works. Rush Limbaugh, Fox News and Republican politicians had discovered just how well it works.
With the candidacy of Donald Trump, the wheels came completely off. Opinion leaders, media outlets, and politicians on the right learned that they could tell outright lies with impunity because people who have been fed a steady diet of fear, anger and grievance reach a point where the actual facts don’t matter.
Even worse, those same leaders began to employ a tactic that allowed them to justify never ending escalation. They would accuse the left of doing something that the right was already doing, and then using that as a justification for escalating even more. That’s a self perpetuating escalation that leads to Rwanda — where hate radio drove ordinary people to pick up machetes and slaughter their neighbors — men, women, and children. People who are hopped up on anger, fear and resentment don’t act rationally.
Have all you folks on the right forgotten this recent set of events? MAGA representatives and Fox News accused the President of ordering the FBI to assassinate Trump during the search of Mar al Lago. That was not just a lie — it was a 100% malicious lie. It was the equivalent of throwing gasoline on an out of control fire.
What were the initial reactions by opinion leaders after the assassination attempt? Democratic leaders, including the President, threw water on the fire. They all condemned the shooting and all political violence. The Biden campaign went dark to let things cool off.
The first reactions from the other side threw gasoline on the fire. J.D. Vance, a guy who wants to be Vice President of the United States, accused Biden of causing the shooting. Yet, never once has Vance ever suggested that Trump and R politicians should tone down their rhetoric, which has explicitly called for violence against their political enemies.
To keep informed on what the left is up to, I read a few sites, including Daily Kos. The site has two rules that the membership and the site owners enforce: no suggestion or encouragement of violence and no promotion of conspiracy theories. Last night, the few folks who tried to push a false flag narrative got hide rated into oblivion. The same with any suggestion of employing violence. Contrast that with the toxic stew of conspiracy theories and incitement of violence you find on any right wing site.
Now, to avoid any misunderstanding, I’m not saying that that aren’t folks on the left who engage in some of the same behavior. But those on the right who are meming one sentence uttered by the President while giving a free pass to the firehouse of violent rhetoric coming from their own side — including one Donald J. Trump — come off as 100% phony.
I think I have a smidgen off street creed in that department. I’ve taken a fair amount of crap for opposing the demonization of others by people who are on my side of the political divide. I’ve tried to push back against over the top reactions to Court decisions. I’m not claiming sainthood, but I think I’ve done my bit to try and push my “side” away from the edge of the cliff that we are teetering on.
The problem with inciting fear, anger, and resentment in a population is that you never can anticipate the results. A mob is an uncontrollable monster that often ends up eating its own. Inciting fear, anger and resentment is the authoritarian playbook — it’s how people who value their freedom end up handing it over lock, stock and barrel to dictators and tyrants. Neither Putin’s Russia nor Orban’s Hungary are what the founders were aiming at. Not even close.
Four years ago, I took a break from here because the political rancor had become personally intolerable. I might need to do that again.
To me, that gave government an important role in society: stepping in where externalities and other cases where markets do not perform as advertised. If our society chooses an economic system that necessarily generates winners and losers, then society has a moral obligation to make sure the losers don’t get crushed by a market that cares not one bit whether the losers suffer and die.
That’s my political philosophy, as they say, in a nutshell. And for that I’ve been demonized, dehumanized, and threatened by a political movement led by people who have incited hatred by my fellow Americans against other of my fellow Americans, motivated by greed and power.
I got my first hint at what was going on in a conversation with my very LDS, very conservative brother in law. He served his mission in Chile and was singing the praises of Pinochet. He segued into asking me how I could possibly be a liberal. I asked him what he thought liberals believed. The answer resembled a complete caricature of what liberals believe and stand for. It was a shock.
I responded by telling him what I believed as a liberal and that, in my experience, my views were pretty typical of liberals. He seemed very surprised. Now, he and I liked each other very much, and that conversation didn’t change that. He was a loving, caring individual and a wonderful husband to my sister. He and I just did what was common in those days — we recognized the differences in our politics and just didn’t talk about it.
But I wondered: How did he get a picture of who liberals were what they believed that was so off the mark?
The answer wasn’t hard. He, and most of the folks he associated with, were big fans of the Rush Limbaugh show. I tuned in and discovered that every false or exaggerated stereotype that my brother in law had mentioned was front and center in the show.
I figured that this was a phase that would pass like most do. But over time, keeping an eye on right wing radio, I saw the demonization of liberals and the incitement of fear and anger ratchet up and up and up. Some of the stuff that was said became so over the top that I could not believe that anyone would take it seriously.
But that feeling changed with the election of Obama. From my perspective, the right lost its collective mind. The birthers — one Donald Trump among them — was one of the most shameful political movements I’ve witnessed.
And that’s when I remembered something I never should have forgotten: propaganda works. Rush Limbaugh, Fox News and Republican politicians had discovered just how well it works.
With the candidacy of Donald Trump, the wheels came completely off. Opinion leaders, media outlets, and politicians on the right learned that they could tell outright lies with impunity because people who have been fed a steady diet of fear, anger and grievance reach a point where the actual facts don’t matter.
Even worse, those same leaders began to employ a tactic that allowed them to justify never ending escalation. They would accuse the left of doing something that the right was already doing, and then using that as a justification for escalating even more. That’s a self perpetuating escalation that leads to Rwanda — where hate radio drove ordinary people to pick up machetes and slaughter their neighbors — men, women, and children. People who are hopped up on anger, fear and resentment don’t act rationally.
Have all you folks on the right forgotten this recent set of events? MAGA representatives and Fox News accused the President of ordering the FBI to assassinate Trump during the search of Mar al Lago. That was not just a lie — it was a 100% malicious lie. It was the equivalent of throwing gasoline on an out of control fire.
What were the initial reactions by opinion leaders after the assassination attempt? Democratic leaders, including the President, threw water on the fire. They all condemned the shooting and all political violence. The Biden campaign went dark to let things cool off.
The first reactions from the other side threw gasoline on the fire. J.D. Vance, a guy who wants to be Vice President of the United States, accused Biden of causing the shooting. Yet, never once has Vance ever suggested that Trump and R politicians should tone down their rhetoric, which has explicitly called for violence against their political enemies.
To keep informed on what the left is up to, I read a few sites, including Daily Kos. The site has two rules that the membership and the site owners enforce: no suggestion or encouragement of violence and no promotion of conspiracy theories. Last night, the few folks who tried to push a false flag narrative got hide rated into oblivion. The same with any suggestion of employing violence. Contrast that with the toxic stew of conspiracy theories and incitement of violence you find on any right wing site.
Now, to avoid any misunderstanding, I’m not saying that that aren’t folks on the left who engage in some of the same behavior. But those on the right who are meming one sentence uttered by the President while giving a free pass to the firehouse of violent rhetoric coming from their own side — including one Donald J. Trump — come off as 100% phony.
I think I have a smidgen off street creed in that department. I’ve taken a fair amount of crap for opposing the demonization of others by people who are on my side of the political divide. I’ve tried to push back against over the top reactions to Court decisions. I’m not claiming sainthood, but I think I’ve done my bit to try and push my “side” away from the edge of the cliff that we are teetering on.
The problem with inciting fear, anger, and resentment in a population is that you never can anticipate the results. A mob is an uncontrollable monster that often ends up eating its own. Inciting fear, anger and resentment is the authoritarian playbook — it’s how people who value their freedom end up handing it over lock, stock and barrel to dictators and tyrants. Neither Putin’s Russia nor Orban’s Hungary are what the founders were aiming at. Not even close.
Four years ago, I took a break from here because the political rancor had become personally intolerable. I might need to do that again.