As bad as this is, I haven’t even gotten to the really depressing part. Most people assume that if fascism came to America, we would recognize it as individuals and refuse to go along with it. In reality, very few people are directly affected by living in an authoritarian country; life is mostly “boring and tolerable” for the majority. “Yes,” most people would say, “but if asked to do things I know were wrong, I would refuse to comply. Because I’m an American, and I know better.”
Except, we’re already testing this every day in red states, and failing miserably.
I’ve had my dad agree that something the Republicans are doing is extremely authoritarian and state that he is going to look past it because he wants lower taxes and likes guns in the same breath.
The core problem is “wrong” is not a self-evident concept. Christians think masturbation is wrong (and a host of other intrinsically human things). Not so terribly long ago, a disturbingly large number of Americans didn’t think it was wrong to own people.
“Minimizing harm,” on the other hand, is much easier to pin down.
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Everyone loves fascism until it’s used against them.
I’ve had my dad agree that something the Republicans are doing is extremely authoritarian and state that he is going to look past it because he wants lower taxes and likes guns in the same breath.
A thousand times this.
The core problem is “wrong” is not a self-evident concept. Christians think masturbation is wrong (and a host of other intrinsically human things). Not so terribly long ago, a disturbingly large number of Americans didn’t think it was wrong to own people.
“Minimizing harm,” on the other hand, is much easier to pin down.