I don’t know what “sliding right” has anything to do with it. People need to stop assigning general human psychological phenomena to political parties.
Being authoritarian or blindly loyal is not an exclusively “right wing” thing. There are people who want it to be against the law to not use a person’s preferred pronouns. That’s an extremely authoritarian ideology.
And to put a fine point on it, using people’s preferred pronouns is a good thing, in my mind. But making that enforceable by law I view as the same as if religious zealots made a law that you had to refer to religious leaders by their title “Father” and or “Pastor”, etc.
This tweet is really poor at addressing the real point.
I mean yes, and political groups can have some leanings, but it doesn’t serve a useful purpose in discourse like this.
Trying to say the left is “sliding right” traditionally would mean they are leaning more fiscally conservative and in favor of smaller government. But here the insinuation is by “sliding right” they mean “being sycophants for their leaders”. That trait is not part of the “left vs right” axis. And using it really confuses the two, and echos Stewart’s overall point… Identity politics is not exclusive to one side.
As an example, if “the left” started gathering on a weekend day to discuss personal growth and the potential presence of the afterlife, would we call that “sliding right”? I would say no because it’s a behavior of people who, in general, align with a political ideology, but the activity itself is not part of that ideology.
The point is that America doesn’t HAVE a left. Just because the far right calls Biden a Marxist or commie doesn’t make him any further than mid right.
The point is that democrats are exhibiting all the same faschie symptoms if you don’t fall in line with their guy. Democrats see leftists as a bigger enemy than Republicans at this point - because they’re still mid right, and sliding further right every go round.
I don’t know what “sliding right” has anything to do with it. People need to stop assigning general human psychological phenomena to political parties.
Being authoritarian or blindly loyal is not an exclusively “right wing” thing. There are people who want it to be against the law to not use a person’s preferred pronouns. That’s an extremely authoritarian ideology.
And to put a fine point on it, using people’s preferred pronouns is a good thing, in my mind. But making that enforceable by law I view as the same as if religious zealots made a law that you had to refer to religious leaders by their title “Father” and or “Pastor”, etc.
This tweet is really poor at addressing the real point.
You do realize political parties are comprised of individual people. The same people that psychologists study.
I mean yes, and political groups can have some leanings, but it doesn’t serve a useful purpose in discourse like this.
Trying to say the left is “sliding right” traditionally would mean they are leaning more fiscally conservative and in favor of smaller government. But here the insinuation is by “sliding right” they mean “being sycophants for their leaders”. That trait is not part of the “left vs right” axis. And using it really confuses the two, and echos Stewart’s overall point… Identity politics is not exclusive to one side.
As an example, if “the left” started gathering on a weekend day to discuss personal growth and the potential presence of the afterlife, would we call that “sliding right”? I would say no because it’s a behavior of people who, in general, align with a political ideology, but the activity itself is not part of that ideology.
The point is that America doesn’t HAVE a left. Just because the far right calls Biden a Marxist or commie doesn’t make him any further than mid right.
The point is that democrats are exhibiting all the same faschie symptoms if you don’t fall in line with their guy. Democrats see leftists as a bigger enemy than Republicans at this point - because they’re still mid right, and sliding further right every go round.
Trump supporters rabidly support him and react passionately to criticism. Republicans in general “fall in line” behind their candidates.
Democrats have traditionally been more open to criticism of their candidates, and reluctantly support them.
So the fervent hostility shown to anyone critical of Biden is what the tweet is addressing. And the comparison to right wing supporters apt.
This post isn’t saying that the left is sliding right. It’s saying that liberals, who are already right wing, are sliding further right.
I think you’ve fundamentally misunderstood what’s being said here.