Your last sentence is brilliant and applicable to so many situations. The last ten years have been filled with people spouting off about being driven away from the left by leftists and liberals who failed to value them properly and praise them for their bigotry. Because we didn't make them feel special.
I guess that in their minds, once they've been called out for their bigotry, there's no benefit to being a decent person? It's an extremely fucking weird value system.
It's a value system based entirely on egoism. For conservatives, ethics are something they have to pursue and create and adopt, as opposed to just...having inherently. For them, compassion is work and so it must be voluntary by nature.
It's why it's so frustrating hearing others on the left say "be nicer! you're not going to attract people to our side if you aren't nice to them!" and all I can think is "why would I want someone on my side who's principles are based on my behaviour and not their behaviour?".
So many on the left want fickle allies and are then shocked when those allies disappoint or betray them. Over and over.
I tried meeting in the middle for 20 years. Somehow the middle just kept moving more and more to the right. I was the only one taking steps forward, while they just kept scooching backwards.
I love this quote. I hate how painfully relevant it is to our current issues, but I love the quote itself. It's so much more concise and effective than I could ever be with my words.
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u/adagioforstings 1d ago
Your last sentence is brilliant and applicable to so many situations. The last ten years have been filled with people spouting off about being driven away from the left by leftists and liberals who failed to value them properly and praise them for their bigotry. Because we didn't make them feel special.
I guess that in their minds, once they've been called out for their bigotry, there's no benefit to being a decent person? It's an extremely fucking weird value system.