In a thread, a few days ago, perhaps a week or two in fact, there was a discussion about helping people in natural disasters, and when I said I wouldn't help someone with a swastika, flying a confederate flag, people surprisingly called me out on that, saying they became socialists to help people, and not to cause more misery and so on. The main argument was potentially turning an enemy into a friend, but there obviously was the "moral" argument of helping your neighbour. I didn't think much of it, and went on with my life.

However, a few days later, I listened to "It could happen here", and posted about it. The podcast is basically a frightening thought experiment about the eventuality of a second american civil war, and it made me doubt a few things I took for granted. It also makes me realize I'm not even able to feel as a morally decent person anymore. I keep de-humanizing people, be it billionaires, nazis, landlords or even libs, I have grown bitter, angry and jaded towards normies, I genuinely despise a good chunk of them, and a part of me would absolutely love to see them get what they deserve.

And I hate it. I have the feeling to be wrong, that it is wrong to want people to be hanged or to get the wall, but it has almost become a reflex at this point. To make things even more complicated, the podcast reminded me of something : I could've been one of these guys. I could've become a fascist, had things gone horribly wrong, which almost did happen. It reminds me that these guys are humans, just like me. Flawed, stupid, credulous, miserable but still human. So here's the fucking question : am I wrong for thinking violence is the only solution to save ourselves from the coming horror ? What do these people deserve should we come out on top ? Am I a horrible person for hating libs and normies with my guts, even more than I hate reactionaries ?

And yes, I know I'm a fucking edgelord, but I'm honest with it; and I genuinely wish to hear your thoughts on this, because I am sure as hell that I'm not the only one having doubts on the question of mercy.

  • a_blanqui_slate [none/use name, any]
    6·
    4 years ago

    This is it, I think. This is ball game. The whole enchilada. You can talk about competing intellectual frameworks and and materialism vs idealism and false consciousness until the cows come home, but as soon as you've developed a rationale for the denial of human dignity to anyone that can and will be weaponized do massive amounts of harm to innocents, even if you're not intending to. It's the proverbial kid who's found his dad's gun.

    So in my mind, if you're not placing universal human dignity as a bedrock foundational assumption, you're not entirely on the right side.

    I think a lot of this issues around this stem from viewing ourselves as pieces moving around as part of some massive narrative, the class struggle even, where anything can be justified if it moves us closer to some end. The problem with that though is, you're never in the players position to judge. You've got to live your life from your own perspective and with your own decisions.

    So my approach to this might not move us closer to some grand political goal. It might even move us further away. I can't tell, thats a judgment rendered outside of my scope. I can only operate within my scope, and the battle I can fight in there is to fight against that tendency toward dehumanizing and loss of empathy and to do whatever I can to beat back the claws of the cold.

    • Owl [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      The ends justify the means in a purely abstract utilitarian sense, but we've all seen enough use of this logic twisted to horrible results that we need to start asking - is there something inherently broken about how humans weigh ends vs means? It looks pretty consistent that we'll justify more harm against our enemies and more reasons for us to personally take power than actually suit our goals. So these are things we need to watch out for, even when we feel like we're in the right.

      I personally find it easiest to view violence, even against enemies, as a failing. Mistakes are inevitable, and sometimes you already failed before you had a chance to ask the question. But this semi-pacifist framing at least puts some of the weight back on the decision that seems to go missing once our brains identify someone as an enemy.