Monday, March 5, 2012

Right-ist and Leftish

Is there any such a thing as mistreatment? Has anyone ever been mistreated --- for no reason? Has anyone who was just completely innocent, just standing there, ever actually been mistreated?

A large portion of the last two hundred years of "Left" activities arises from the notion that such is possible and that such exists. The "Right" view is that, all right, bad things do happen, but you cannot call it mistreatment, and also, in some sense, it is senseless to try to fix it. It sounds a bit like saying "that's life." This seems suspect, though, and I cannot support it. This is because persons who say this are privileged (or maybe they are coming from a privileged internal self assessment, even if they live in the trailer park). That kind of thinking emanates too often from persons who are also trying to protect their own privileged white status, egos, or general freedom from scrutiny.

I think I am seeing a lot of misunderstanding of what the basic Left motive has been, in the historical sense. The basic impulse over time past is often the response of someone (and, again, let's admit that it is often a privileged individual taking on these views) who sees what he or she perceives to be a terrible wrong. In other words they see someone that they feel has been "mistreated." Rather than see "just life"? And they want to right that wrong, so, to me this seems kind of pure and good actually.
     Although situations, like the one in Syria for example, are always more complicated than we give them credit for, and although we are always more ignorant than we like to admit, this kind of "Left" view comes from, dare I say, a basically good place.

In this complicated world, then, there are also other views. The "Right"-ist view in its more common and popularistic incarnations comes off looking suspect to me. No matter how clever or reasonable-sounding, there is an underlying motive there which has to do with an actual desire to stay in ignorance, since that is more comfortable to them and that means that that is their preferred state of being! And I really mean "motive," because they like being ignorant. That's fine. Maybe they are right but it won't lead to good public debates, will it? It is also the desire to hold onto one's own privilege regardless of the real nature of the world, and this obliviousness will always lead only to bad things, not only for the Right's inevitable victims, which of course they will be "innocent" of understanding that they have done anything bad too, but, ultimately, the Rightwingers themselves and everyone else.

     Persons who publicize such views on the internet are just malicious and ignorant. We should say so, and get it out in the open. Right-wingers should stay in their little grass huts. The problem is that they think they already know everything. There are complicated reasons, to be sure, but at any rate, they will not make the first attempt to overcome their own knowledge deficits. How can we relate to them? How then can they themselves make any progress? How can we work with such a group?
     I don't mind discussing the philosophical question "is anyone ever mistreated?" but these persons as they exist in actual society, who want to "reason" with us about their Right-wing views, are a real, ever-present danger. Why as I so activist about this today? Well, it must be because I am upset at some Um --- "bad web sites" --- while they are basically just malicious, as I have been iterating, there is also something else here, which is to note that generally speaking they do not seem to be actually doing all that much or creating that much actual harm. They just like to chatter on the internet? Maybe their lack of actual action (with a few exceptions like the Oklahoma City bombing) is because, at some level, they know the difference between right and wrong after all. But they are showing off on these web sites, in deference to fostering their self-delusion (and driving me crazy). On some deeper level they know they are wrong? I would like to think so, because today I visited some kind of Fox TV sites (actual Fox TV) and it didn't make me real happy. They have apparently create multiple sites, custom-warped to order, or they steer persons to what is "on the web." This was totally scary to see. These are members of our society. I know these persons, because I once lived with some of them. On the local level, they are nice people. But on a higher level, it is worthless, and we should get rid of  these people. Send them back to the little shacks in the hills. I don't think Kentucky is full, is it? These persons are saying, "I love being ignorant, and I will do everything in my power to stay that way," and there are some complicated reasons for that.
     This is not to say that Leftist persons are not sometimes wrong about stuff, but Right-ists are simply dangerous.

The "Right," at the same time, however, is always a great force in society.

Which is a conundrum. I'm stuck, so, I'll end it here.

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