Mash 'em, boil 'em, stick 'em in a centrifuge
Is it though? One seems more morally justifiable on the surface, but both have the same end result of reducing someone to subhuman status. And that reasoning is almost exclusively used to justify treating people like subhumans.
I’m just saying, we can fight and denounce ICE without adopting their rhetoric and dehumanizing ideals.
I’m not suggesting complacency; quite the opposite in fact. Rage against tyranny and do everything you can to push the fascists out of power. But never forget that you could have been one of them, had your circumstances been different. And never let yourself become their mirror image, because rhetoric like “they aren’t human” is exactly how you get there.
People don’t stop being people just because they’re terrible. That just makes them terrible people. Never forget that the capacity for evil lives in all of us.
Furthermore, the only real purpose of claiming someone has “lost their humanity” is as a justification for treating them as less than human. Which is precisely why you and I despise them in the first place.
Fuck ICE, but stop saying they aren’t human. For one thing, their cruelty and depravity should stand as a reminder of what the worst of humanity is capable of. But more than that, dehumanization of one’s enemy is the first step toward radicalism. How else do you think they came to have their own terrible views?
They weren’t born like this. They were made this way.
Neither does making these pointlessly demoralizing comments, but that hasn’t stopped you.
“Ah, I see you also enjoy that warm, wet feeling on your thighs, Mr. President!”
– Ted Cruz
Who has terrible reading comprehension? 🤔
This line of thinking works fine up until you consider the innocent children who are having this idiocy forced on them by their parents.
I know you don’t give a shit, that’s why you’ve done nothing but make faltering attacks at arguments I never made and attempt to equate me as a person to the failings of our political system. You don’t want anyone to do anything about anything; demoralization was the point all along. I can only hope someone eventually comes along and takes a serious look at this argument, and decides to actually do something with their feelings rather than spew their negativity all over everyone else. Or, knock on wood, that you one day grow up and revisit this thread with the genuine desire to do something constructive with your time.
Either way, good luck.
If you are doing anything other than advocating for Democratic leadership to change, for the Democrats to abandon their pro corporate strategy whole cloth
This is the first time I’ve heard you even get close to something representing a call to action. Give me more of this. How do I advocate for change? Who do I speak to, and how do I amplify that message? Get specific. Stop intentionally mischaracterizing my comments as “handwringing” (how am I handwringing?? I’m not even disagreeing with you, I’m just criticizing your method of communication for being demoralizing and ineffective) and actually give people something to do. It’s all well and good to tell me to “stop because you’re doing real damage,” but the next step is to tell me what to do instead.
I’m not wringing my hands about anything. I am telling you, definitively and unequivocally, that you are saying nothing of value if you don’t attach a call to action to your criticism. Criticise all you want, but then tell people to do something about it. I literally don’t know what you want me to do about the situation because you haven’t said anything except that it sucks. Stop telling me what isn’t constructive and start telling me what is.
Tell. People. What. You. Want. Them. To. Do. Goddammit.
When are people going to understand that “you’re doing it wrong” is not actionable advice on its own. If you want people to change their behavior, tell them what to do, not why what they’re currently doing doesn’t matter. Any sense of moral superiority you find by correcting people is immediately made null and void by the simple fact that you’re not actually doing anything; at least they’re acting on their feelings, even if they are (supposedly) misguided.
I don’t think you’re wrong about the Democrats; they’ve shown themselves to be unreliable time and time again, and trusting in them to do anything for us at this point is foolish. But you will convince no one of that by just telling people that they’re wrong; all you’ll do is demoralize them further and make sure nothing at all gets done. If you don’t want people voting Democrat, tell them who to vote for instead. If you think voting is pointless, tell folks where else to direct their energies. Hand out links, spread information you find useful, do something constructive to further your point. As it is, you are literally no different from the bots and foreign agents that infiltrate our social media to spread disharmony and despair.
And you’re just bitching about it. Which is worse.
I’ve always disliked comments like this. Like, you’re not wrong, but you’re also just kinda delivering defeatism wrapped in a cloak of “telling it like it is.” If you’re gonna say something like this, at least include a call to action for change or something. Even if it feels meaningless, it’s gotta be more meaningful than just saying “yep, we’re fucked.”
Yes, but one definitely leads to the other. The rhetoric informs the action; if one hears something enough times, they may eventually begin to believe it’s true.
Fair enough, we seem to agree on the larger issue here so I won’t force the argument. But perhaps you can at least agree that calling those oppressive actions inhuman is directly denying the fact that humans are perfectly capable of such great evils. Which, evidently, they are.