People who are beastly to others for a living have no right to ask for good wishes, let alone prayer, even when they’re scared. But I am scared, so I am asking anyway.
Wow, that is a heck of a lot of self awareness; the right wing may be more aware of how rotten they are on the inside than we give them credit for; first Trump admits he doesn’t believe he’s going to heaven and now this; these people are aware they’re rotten and they’re choosing to be rotten. Seems that thing in his brain is as rotted as his personality.
It makes me think about the liberal take on how “no one believes themselves to be the villain” or “everyone’s the hero in their own view” that’s just such wide eyed idealist nonsense in practice. Fascists know they’re evil, they revel in being evil, they actively build up this lionization of self destruction through cruelty to cope with just the internal consequences of their actions. Even liberal idealism is run through with “ah well you see the Hitlerburger Freedom Institute in coordination with Lockheed Martin, Blackrock, and the Pinkertons have produced this very nice and factual graph that reveals that the best way to optimize good is to do evil, and that trying to do good outright actually does a super mega ultra evil and doesn’t work and it should be illegal to even suggest doing good instead! What a fascinating factual axiomatic rule of creation they have discovered! So it’s all good, everything’s good, we should just let them do all the evil they like and it’ll be the most good that is materially possible!” bullshit cope to deal with how openly evil and dysfunctional liberalism has proved to be.
Fascists know they’re evil, they revel in being evil, they actively build up this lionization of self destruction through cruelty to cope with just the internal consequences of their actions.
Honestly how else would one explain when they see the facts, decide it won’t give them what they want and then either lie about them or cover them up; I’m reminded always of when Jewish people in Germany during WW1 were researched by the government at the time because they wanted to prove that Jewish people barely if ever joined the military to serve their country; their findings showed that Jewish people were overrepresented in the military because of their desire to prove they were just as German as anyone else, and the government hid the study.
Or today for example, with the Trump administration hiding the evidence that the majority of terror attacks are conducted by right leaning people.
The truth is not everyone looks at the world from the perspective of good and evil; a lot of genuinely awful people see the world from the perspective of superior and inferior, including libs. One of the lessons my teachers in my youth hammered in me is that no culture, not even Western culture, is superior to another, only different; libs don’t see things this way, they also tend to believe in the superiority of Western culture, which is why us brutally invading the global South barely gets a shrug from them, but Trump publicly talking about invading Greenland made them foam at the mouth (even though ironically such an invasion would most likely lead to very few deaths as I entirely doubt Denmark would commit to a full on war against America). One of the things I keep seeing from libs on TV, either from the news or on talk shows, keeps bringing up the concept again and again of inferior cultures; they found a (very easy) way to continue the racism but without the now frowned upon rhetoric; it’s probably the reason they’re having a hard time condemning Israel after repeatedly telling us all about how it’s a deeply Western country, with Western values and acts as a Western outpost (which it only seems to able to do by excluding as much of the local population as they can). It’s the reason why the global South isn’t allowed to have equal rights such as self defense and sovereignty and why we’re all allowed to decide their fates as we please.
It makes me think about the liberal take on how “no one believes themselves to be the villain” or “everyone’s the hero in their own view” that’s just such wide eyed idealist nonsense in practice.
I always have found it interesting how a lot of people try apply literary criticism to real life. If they see a cartoonishly evil villain in a TV show or a movie they say “wow this writing isn’t very subtle. Boo.” meanwhile when people in real life are over-the-top and cartoonishly evil, are self aware a bout being over-the-top and cartoonishly evil, and don’t see themselves as secretly good, people say “well there must be some perspective I’m missing, after all, surely they see themselves as the hero, there’s no way real life is more unsubtle than a well written TV show.” But it is. Like you said they’re giving too much credit to the idea that everyone sees themselves as good. It’s wide-eyed and naive.
Liberals are often like people who cheat on others in a relationship, they assume that because they are doing it, everyone is doing it. It’s the same way that they assume communists are lying or gaslighting them or that we are saying what we are saying just to hold some sort of moral high ground, as if that is what is important, and not the literal human lives at stake.
I think this is true. There are some actual ideological conservatives out there (I was one like 20 years ago) but for the most part movement conservatism these days is about doing what you know liberals or leftists will take issue with.
Edit: whereas the libs still think they’re the good guys and are extremely self-righteous about it.
If he’s been smart and held on to the wealth he’s generated rather than just spend it all, he could literally just stop; he could just retire and stop making the world a worse place.
Wow, that is a heck of a lot of self awareness; the right wing may be more aware of how rotten they are on the inside than we give them credit for; first Trump admits he doesn’t believe he’s going to heaven and now this; these people are aware they’re rotten and they’re choosing to be rotten. Seems that thing in his brain is as rotted as his personality.
It makes me think about the liberal take on how “no one believes themselves to be the villain” or “everyone’s the hero in their own view” that’s just such wide eyed idealist nonsense in practice. Fascists know they’re evil, they revel in being evil, they actively build up this lionization of self destruction through cruelty to cope with just the internal consequences of their actions. Even liberal idealism is run through with “ah well you see the Hitlerburger Freedom Institute in coordination with Lockheed Martin, Blackrock, and the Pinkertons have produced this very nice and factual graph that reveals that the best way to optimize good is to do evil, and that trying to do good outright actually does a super mega ultra evil and doesn’t work and it should be illegal to even suggest doing good instead! What a fascinating factual axiomatic rule of creation they have discovered! So it’s all good, everything’s good, we should just let them do all the evil they like and it’ll be the most good that is materially possible!” bullshit cope to deal with how openly evil and dysfunctional liberalism has proved to be.
Honestly how else would one explain when they see the facts, decide it won’t give them what they want and then either lie about them or cover them up; I’m reminded always of when Jewish people in Germany during WW1 were researched by the government at the time because they wanted to prove that Jewish people barely if ever joined the military to serve their country; their findings showed that Jewish people were overrepresented in the military because of their desire to prove they were just as German as anyone else, and the government hid the study.
Or today for example, with the Trump administration hiding the evidence that the majority of terror attacks are conducted by right leaning people.
The truth is not everyone looks at the world from the perspective of good and evil; a lot of genuinely awful people see the world from the perspective of superior and inferior, including libs. One of the lessons my teachers in my youth hammered in me is that no culture, not even Western culture, is superior to another, only different; libs don’t see things this way, they also tend to believe in the superiority of Western culture, which is why us brutally invading the global South barely gets a shrug from them, but Trump publicly talking about invading Greenland made them foam at the mouth (even though ironically such an invasion would most likely lead to very few deaths as I entirely doubt Denmark would commit to a full on war against America). One of the things I keep seeing from libs on TV, either from the news or on talk shows, keeps bringing up the concept again and again of inferior cultures; they found a (very easy) way to continue the racism but without the now frowned upon rhetoric; it’s probably the reason they’re having a hard time condemning Israel after repeatedly telling us all about how it’s a deeply Western country, with Western values and acts as a Western outpost (which it only seems to able to do by excluding as much of the local population as they can). It’s the reason why the global South isn’t allowed to have equal rights such as self defense and sovereignty and why we’re all allowed to decide their fates as we please.
I always have found it interesting how a lot of people try apply literary criticism to real life. If they see a cartoonishly evil villain in a TV show or a movie they say “wow this writing isn’t very subtle. Boo.” meanwhile when people in real life are over-the-top and cartoonishly evil, are self aware a bout being over-the-top and cartoonishly evil, and don’t see themselves as secretly good, people say “well there must be some perspective I’m missing, after all, surely they see themselves as the hero, there’s no way real life is more unsubtle than a well written TV show.” But it is. Like you said they’re giving too much credit to the idea that everyone sees themselves as good. It’s wide-eyed and naive.
Liberals are often like people who cheat on others in a relationship, they assume that because they are doing it, everyone is doing it. It’s the same way that they assume communists are lying or gaslighting them or that we are saying what we are saying just to hold some sort of moral high ground, as if that is what is important, and not the literal human lives at stake.
Evil may indeed often be the most banal Eichmann. Perhaps sometimes it comes instead with Mephistophelean splendour. But very often it’s a party-goer; boisterous; braying; a frat alumnus; a bully who loves being a bully; a successful professional, lip-smacking at the misery of those s/he hurts; and one who is increasingly happy to cop to that enjoyment, to proclaim it, to perform it.
I think this is true. There are some actual ideological conservatives out there (I was one like 20 years ago) but for the most part movement conservatism these days is about doing what you know liberals or leftists will take issue with.
Edit: whereas the libs still think they’re the good guys and are extremely self-righteous about it.
I mean what other job is he gonna get at this point?
If he’s been smart and held on to the wealth he’s generated rather than just spend it all, he could literally just stop; he could just retire and stop making the world a worse place.