Comment by acdha
9 days ago
What value do you think comes from trying to finely parse whether the “I was racist before it was cool” guy calling for a “eugenic immigration policy”, who “would not mind at all if Gaza and Israel were both wiped off the face of the Earth” has a slightly different self-identity than his boss who threw the Nazi salutes? “Anti-Semitic bigot who at the very least doesn’t mind being around people who throw Nazi salutes” is longer but doesn’t seem very different in terms of how decent people would view them.
The same value as finely parsing whether you are the same person as Stalin or whatever. You are viewing your enemy not as a bunch of flawed or even mentally ill people, but as some movie villain or even not-reall-humans. This is a problem. That's how you start down the path of justifying genocide. When the right becomes crazier, the solution is not for the left to become even crazier and starting some arms race of who can be most insane.