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1. jfenge+(OP)[view] [source] 2023-08-15 15:43:11
The hypothesis has a lot going for it, but I think it's missing a level. I don't think it explains the degree to which right-wing politics has become optimized for ignoring real threats and inventing fake ones.

I don't think that's necessarily inherent to right-wing-ism. Left wing politics has also had similar problems, and still does (say, organic food, or the way vaccine denial used to be a left-wing position), but it doesn't seem to dominate the position. Its bugaboos are "merely wrong"; they don't elevate to a movement-wide denial of well-understood sciences or a TV news network devoted solely to falsehoods about their opponents.

Perhaps that's just a way of redefining the terms of discussion: America's issue right now isn't really about right-versus-left at all, but about something else that happens to organize loosely along those lines. Perhaps rightism lends itself better to that, but I'd say that's inconclusive. Certainly left-wing-style thinking was the cause of a great amount of authoritarian violence in 20th century "socialist" countries. And we're left to argue whether that really is left-wing, or whether it's all just no-true-Scotsman.

replies(1): >>spiral+H3
2. spiral+H3[view] [source] 2023-08-15 15:59:52
>>jfenge+(OP)
> I don't think it explains the degree to which right-wing politics has become optimized for ignoring real threats and inventing fake ones.

You're assuming that they believe in the same sets of "real" and "fake" threats, or at least prioritise them similarly.

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