Mind you, I don't think we should trust or support liberals either, and of course we should be opposed to any laws they might push to strengthen the police state, or any other new laws that could otherwise harm us. However, I think the attack against the right that's likely coming might be a strategically good thing for the left, for the following reasons:

  1. Just my opinion, but support for free speech should probably end with people who are organizing so they can murder me, you, and the people we care deeply about. None of these people would support our free speech or even basic human rights if they ever got full control over the government.

  2. Corporations never cared about free speech anyway. Those saying that social media will come after leftists next are naively ignorant of the fact that they already have and will do so in the future. It's not as if going after the right will somehow open up a new door for them as far as this goes, but at the very least, denying fascists a platform is still a good thing.

  3. If the liberal establishment ever actually grew a spine and decided to confront the right using federal law enforcement (most likely FBI), the efforts towards this could help tie up resources and deflect attention away from organizing on the left.

  4. Since most people in local police departments and some federal agencies are in full support of racism and/or fascism, attempts by liberals to address this would likely be a difficult battle for both law enforcement and the liberal establishment, which would benefit the left for obvious reasons.

I've seen some comments on twitter leaning towards supporting the supposed rights of Trump protestors because "free speech" and because it would somehow open the door to targeting the left. This strikes me as naive, since they would do that anyway with the tools they have, but I'd love to hear your opinions on this.

  • pooh [she/her]
    hexagon
    ·
    4 years ago

    Framing it as supporting what’s happening vs not supporting is kinda weird, it really doesn’t matter, there is gonna be a shit storm against the left if it ever comes close to power regardless of whether you support it or not and going around saying “this is bad because reasons” just makes you look like a chud.

    Definitely agree with this. I typed this up after seeing people on twitter defend Trump and his supporters, but framing it as support for one action or another is probably not as useful as framing it in terms of a lack of support for fascists.