you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

Sometimes I genuinely wonder how much this toxicity contributes to the development of reactionary right-wing types, and the way they portray the left and progressives as a screaming crowd in search of another scapegoat.

You'd be (well maybe not) surprised to learn it's actually a HUGE part of the problem. Having met a number of those people almost invariably they (the younger ones anyway, like 40yo and under) used to be liberals until they disagreed with ONE thing or said ONE wrong word, and then it snowballed from there into them supporting the other side that is all too happy to welcome them, indoctrinate them, etc, just by playing nice. Turns out people are still individuals and "toe the party line or else" works on some but pushes others away, and some of those pushed away can be caught by the opposition with a different disposition, sort of a "catch more flies with honey" situation. Who knew?

  • source
  • parent