I believe this is the motivation for voting Republican in many cases. No thought or additional information required.
THAT’S the loving Jesus we all know! [roll eyes] Kill them all and let Dad sort it out,.
Not to mention that, if “the Jews*” didn’t kill Jesus, then…there wouldn’t be Christianity, and we’d never get into heaven. They, like Christ Himself, were just fulfilling the roles they were destined to play. None of them had any choice.
*We all know it was really the Italians that killed Christ.
Did you not read the title of the thread?
There are tens of millions of Americans who figured they were part of the con. Actually, tens of millions probably still think that.
Many continue thinking it while the leopards are in the process of eating their faces. The world has no shortage of otherwise intelligent people who believe that since they recognize the con for what it is, they won’t themselves fall victim. That is, until they find their faces have been eaten.
“When you enter the room, look around and see if you can spot the faces to be eaten. if you can’t, it’s your face.”
Hell, even if you spot the faces to be eaten, that’s no guarantee yours isn’t next.
I mean, there’s not much meat on a face, so they’ve got to keep snacking constantly.
I hardly ever get on Facebook any more, except to occasionally see what family members I don’t keep in close touch with are up to. When I do, I’m amazed at the vitriolic anti-Democrat propaganda some of my former classmates post. It’s mostly all ‘whataboutism’ about how evil and corrupt the Democrats are. I don’t think I’ve seen a single post saying “I think trump / Musk is doing a great job because they did (X) thing”.
One post said “To Democrats who are angry and up in arms that someone who was not elected to public office has so much control over their lives:” followed by a picture of Fauci. I just don’t get whataboutism as an argument. By making the comparison, are they saying that what Fauci did was bad, so it’s also bad what Musk is doing? But if they think what Musk is doing is OK, shouldn’t that mean it was also OK for Fauci to have done what he did (which of course is definitely not the case, due to the many ‘Fauci should be imprisoned’ posts I see)? What is the reasoning there?
I know, the real reasoning is “it’s OK if a Republican does it, but not if a Democrat does it”.
Remember when “hypocrisy” was an actual word?
“The forest was shrinking but the trees kept voting for the axe, for the axe was clever and convinced the trees that because his handle was made of wood, he was one of them”
Whenever I hear someone say they are independent, I assume that means conservative. Hell, I was “independent” when I voted for GW his first term. That was the last year I called myself independent and have voted for the sane party since.
I don’t think there is much reasoning beyond “Democrats did it too, so why are Republicans the ones who get criticized for it?”
I saw a similar post on Facebook, about how “Bill Clinton fired 400,000 federal employees, but nobody says anything about that. This shows that Democrats are liars who hate America.”
Quite apart from the fact that the Clinton job cuts were the result of a months-long process that actually did try to identify inefficiencies, and were submitted to Congress for approval, rather than being done at the whim of a single unelected billionaire, there seems to be a step missing in getting from premise to conclusion.
To the extent that there is any particular reasoning, it seems to be the familiar right-wing persecution complex: the other side can do whatever they want without any consequences, but we get in trouble for what we do. I don’t think whether the actions are good or bad enters into it. It’s who “gets away with it” versus who doesn’t.
It actually seems to me that the right is quite happy to note “hypocrisy” when they can accuse Democrats of it. It’s only their own hypocrisy that they ignore.
That already happened about 200 years ago.
Fauci - the guy who Trump stood next to at every press conference? What does he have to do with Democrats? Surely if you didn’t like the Trump/Fauci regime, disliking the Musk/Trump regime is consistent
Yeah… that worries me.
For years, I always reassured myself that I could live with the fact a bunch of religious nutjobs loved my country, because there was a much larger number of religious nutjobs who hated my country, so it evened things out a bit. Recently, though, I’ve started to come to the conclusion that all religious nutjobs are bad for you, no matter what side they say they’re on. I don’t really have a solution for that.
It’s often possible to reframe hypocrisy as an “Isn’t this what you wanted?” / “You are the real hypocrite”; I’ve noticed this in a lot of debates, and not purely a MAGA tactic.
The critical thing, as posters here have alluded, is asking what the supposed principle is behind deciding what is right and wrong? And, if we’re now saying such-and-such principle is correct for Musk, are we now going to concede the same principle for Fauci?
(I know MAGAs will never concede anything, I guess I’m alluding to good faith conversations)
I remember when it was an observation, not an aspiration.
And look at the sheer glee the maga are displaying every time Trump or one of his flacks trash to the constitution. That is, until it affects them to such a stunning extent that they can no longer deflect blame from their idol.
They are not normal people.
Fair enough. Dr. Fauci advised governmental officials on subjects for which he was a recognized expert of long-standing - he didn’t close anything or fire anyone, he just provided the advice based on his decades of medical experience
Musk, a person who clearly has no knowledge of governmental actions, directly fired people and shut down agencies without any clear idea of what they did.
I think it’s clear that there is a difference between the two
Agree completely.
I was just making the point that occasionally even good faith actors can fall into the trap of thinking they are pointing out someone else’s hypocrisy, without realising their argument boils down to “You’re the real hypocrite, for telling me to do X and now complaining that I’m doing X”.
It’s something I’ve pointed out, I think in my own thread, once.
…But I guess it’s a bit of an academic point to be making in this thread, because MAGA is a whole other animal. It goes beyond hypocrisy into just plain not caring about logic, principles or decency. All that matters is cheering for Trump and hurting those who aren’t in the tribe.
No offense taken - I agree it’s important to keep one’s own arguments honest and I appreciate your reminder to do so.
That’s good but I was just making an abstract point; not suggesting you were guilty of anything like that.
It’s 1am here in the UK; maybe I need to get some sleep because it seems I’m just causing confusion 