You've seen it, I've seen it, we've all seen it. It's minimising to call it schadenfreude when it's really more like mörderfreude or something.

I just saw a video of a progressive reacting with glee at someone telling them a story about an (alleged) Trump supporter who is reliant on the Affordable Care Act in the US to be able to access healthcare. The story goes that he voted for Trump in part because he promised to get rid of "Obamacare", oblivious to the fact that this is the buzzword used to refer to the ACA upon which he relies, because (and this is where it strays into being exaggeration or apocryphal) Democrats bad, Obamacare bad, I hate Obamacare and I hate Obama.

The story continues and the narrator does the big reveal - you just voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act and now you won't be able to access the healthcare that you rely upon. The person reacting to this story shows increasing amounts of joy as it unfolds and, at the reveal, is gleeful and toasts the camera, taking a big gulp of their drink.

Many such cases, I get it, but it just blows my mind that:

  • They didn't recognise it as a failure of the US political system that a person could vote so hard against their own interests

  • They assume that they democrats are on the right side of history and that they serve the best interests of the average person

  • They didn't seem at all bothered by the fact that maybe Kamala could have run on a platform of "He's taking your healthcare away - vote for me if you want to live" and won but her team failed so egregiously by not communicating this idea effectively

  • They also have 4 years of Trump to deal with - they and their loved ones are also in the same situafion but they're acting like it isn't a big deal; they and everyone they care about is in the same queue for the slaughterhouse and yet they haven't figured out which way the line is moving because they're too distracted by the grisly excuse for "entertainment" which is happening ahead of them

  • They would rather convince themselves that they have the correct opinion than to win or for there to be access to healthcare

These people are so smug and impotent and filled with ressentiment yet they have zero shame or self-awareness. Assuming this story is true and not just erotic fanfiction for the sadistic progressive, which is a very good possibility, where is their outrage about all this? A person who is politically naive, who is presented as being below average intelligence, who is duped by the vile bourgeois media and a despicable political system which is a grim mockery of democracy is, at the least, going to end up very unwell—if not homeless or even dead—and this scumbag is happily putting on their dancing shoes in anticipation of being able to celebrate when this person gets put in the ground??

You failed. Your team failed. Your system failed. Your democracy failed. And because of this consistent and ongoing series of failures, you hear that a person is going to suffer tremendously and probably even die but your response is to celebrate? This is some utterly depraved shit.

The next time a progressive claims to be left wing I'm not going to dispute it, I'm going to agree and tell them "Yes - the left wing of fascism." The only consolation is that it's shit like this which only serves to accelerate the collapse of the US, but it's very meagre consolation indeed.

  • WeedReference420 [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    4 days ago

    Good post. British radlibs act very similar if someone who voted/they think voted for Brexit gets fucked over in any way, drives me nuts and doesn't bode well for how things are gonna go when the lights go out and taps run dry for all of us.

    • ReadFanon [any, any]
      ·
      3 days ago

      "Would you say that Brexit was a scam?"

      "Yes."

      "And would you agree that it was sold to the British public through propaganda and outright lies?"

      "Very much so."

      "Do you take glee at the news at the victims of this mass-scale scam have faced hardship and financial ruin, if not openly wishing death upon them?"

      "Of course I do."

      "And would you agree that you are morally superior than these people and that you have their best interests at heart?"

      "Undoubtedly."

      It's shit like this attitude that I just cannot square the circle of. It's much easier for someone to detect the open scorn and contempt that another person has for them than it is to detect the lies that someone like Nigel Farage feeds them.

      That's not to say that Farage isn't transparent with his bullshit but when someone genuinely hates you and wishes ill upon you, it's virtually impossible not to take notice of it. I'm not saying that reactionary and bigoted beliefs aren't contemptible or that they should go unchallenged but, generally speaking, treating people with contempt is one great big own-goal imo because you aren't gonna get far educating and agitating amongst people who you consider to be human garbage.