Of late I have come to realize that I am not really all that good with labels. I find them, while useful in some incidences, on the whole kind of confusing, and tend to be more about what you are not than what you are. For me, that seems too limiting, and it presupposes some idea or concept that you either fit or do not.
I guess this probably stems from the fact I myself don’t really fit well any particular label or group, and even when I may identify a particular way, I can always somehow think myself out of it, or out of its significance within the bigger picture. All about the big picture, eh, long-term, what happens tomorrow, consequences of one’s actions and words and all that empathy and compassion sort of stuff.
For instance, if you say you are white, what you are in reality saying is what you are not. This little factoid was recently pointed out to me, for instance, how in today’s society President Obama, while having one white parent and one black, he would never identify himself as white; he could say he is purple with pink polka-dots, but he can’t be white – or so the idea of labels go. I have to admit, I was kind of surprised I hadn’t realized this on my own, but anywho.
Again, while useful in certain instances, they are constructs or agreed upon identifications, signs, symbols, that means x, at the exclusion of something other, something that you are not. While useful for diagnosis so that one may be helped or cured, while not as useful on what policies and laws we have and how and who they are applied to.
Ok, I’m confusing myself, what I’m trying to say is going down that right-wing rabbit hole has opened up a can of thought worms. Also just how polarized everything has become, of the ring-wing exclusionary politics, with a murky muck of mayhem and manipulation, of what this PhilosopherTube guy termed “narcissism projected outwards“.
So yes, I too to some degree would identify myself as left, as opposed to right. In American politics, these labels are far more defined then they are in Canada, so in U.S. Politics I would be Democrat. In Canadian politics though, that would all depend, on the person and their policies as we have a multi-party system.
The other thing is that I don’t watch conventional TV, don’t have one, don’t subscribe to satellite, but instead a couple British TV streaming content thinga-ma-bobbers.
Therefore I generally don’t chitchat well with my peers, at work let’s say, as I don’t do in my spare time any of the things they do, like gaming or Game of Thrones or whatever – I watch documentaries on history and archaeology lectures and so forth, ancient history, philosophers lately have peaked my interest, and of course politics and then my pursuit of free thinkers and alternative ideas. No, I’m not like the pack, and really never have been, so labels for me are confusing and I find myself always saying…”but what about“… cause, well, I think too much.
“Justice. To be ever ready to admit that another person is something quite different from what we read when he is there (or when we think about him). Or rather, to read in him that he is certainly something different, perhaps something completely different from what we read in him.
Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace
Every being cries out silently to be read differently.”
I suppose then that is why I was so disappointed in these Intellectual Dark Web folks, as I genuinely enjoy the discourse of free thought, but each and every one of them has this axe to grind, this exclusion they desire, and how they generally walk in lock step with their herd, with exception, but generally you kind of know what their stance is going to be on issues close to the right-wing heart, which is this obsessive occupation with the left as their defining element of derision using their pseudo-intellectual ammo.
It reminded me of this debate that was televised a number of years ago on the issue of abortion. Yeah, fairly explosive stuff, but what was most surprising was the Roman Catholic Priest sitting on the pro-choice side of the stage. His reasoning was eloquent and inspiring, that he was on that side because he could not in good conscience associate with the violent means to which the pro-life side resorted. That his guiding faith was not in forcing someone, but rather allowing them the choice and access to the council in order to make this choice for oneself, even if he staunchly may have disagreed with the choice they ultimately made. Basically, his stance was that being pro-choice did not make him automatically pro-abortion.
You know, the whole idea about God is great, God is good, God isn’t going to throw you away just because you don’t always do what he/she wants, or what you should, you know, redemption and all that. Free will.
“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power”
Benito Mussolini
So that is where I really have a difficulty with that IDW crew, that in their association with this fascist movement that has taken over the right, they are by that association advocating for it, tainted by it, and advancing the exclusion politics and policies being defined solely by outrage and fear, rather than by inclusive communities fighting for the good of the many, and by extension even for those on the right.
Basically, I guess I feel that what they say they want is really not want they want. They’re, um, not being completely upfront and honest about their motivation.
While there are elements of their talks that ring of truth, the gobble-de-gook they express is in a lot of cases difficult to counter, since they position themselves so loosely on the issue that they can easily slide off and still maintain an element of deniability, of not being responsible for the reactions their words have.
Well, sorry, but words do have consequences, and if you don’t own some of that then you have no moral compass. In fact, what they are collectively against is the normalizing of things that they hate, hence, exclusion politics. Well, and they’re more clickable when they say outrageous stuff that riles the snowflake lefties up ( by the way, which is a term I guess has gone out of vogue, I guess lefty is now the thang).
But anywho.
“Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!”
Dr. Seuss
by PaulaB 