BEING RIGHT ISN’T ALWAYS A GOOD THING
I was going through some old posts on the Original Mad Sociologist Blog. I’m planning on publishing some retrospectives and I’m compiling some of my work. That’s when I stumbled upon this post from December 2014. The post is a response to a Facebook conversation that I had with a right-wing friend of mine. The conversation turned out to be quite revealing about his mindset, one that tolerates no contradiction and brooks no dissent. I speculated that this closed-minded philosophy might be generalizable to the overall right-wing mindset. This speculation has some objective support in the social science and even neuroscience literature.
Consequently, I was inspired me to ask, “is it unreasonable to speculate that a charismatic personality with the right, absolutist message could gain my friend’s unquestioning and undying support? With enough such people, blinded by their derived hatred of “the other”, could a fascist style social movement arise that destroys even the last vestigial remains of democracy in the United States?”
Six months later, Donald Trump announced his campaign for president with all of the right-wing populism, nascent fascist rhetoric that has been his hallmark. Now we are stuck with him as the recognized and largely supported Republican nominee.
Sometimes I hate being right.
Actual Facebook Conversation That Took a Curious Turn
We might want to be a bit more concerned for the political future of the US than we are.
The following is a conversation that I had on Facebook just yesterday. The gentleman involved is a friend of mine. A good, hardworking guy with a family. Not a political activist. This fact makes what he actually says and what he believes even more disturbing to me.
The conversation starts off pretty innocuously with a meme that, frankly, I somewhat sympathise with…
My friend’s response was “Mexico,” which is a bit strange, but I decided to give my conservative friend a little ribbing…
That’s when it got a little aggressive. But after all, I was goading him.
Really, I don’t know all that much about Belize. I had to look up what I said on the World Factbook. But as you can see, I’m still pushing buttons. As is often the case, push the right button, and truths are often revealed.
Wow! Am I reading that right? Is my interpretation mistaken? I realy hope so. Here is a friend of mine who is admitting that he is willing to support a single party state that censors schools and the media if it means getting rid of so-called radicals/socialists. Not only is this his position, but he is convinced that his disturbing vision for the nation is coming.
Wow! From this conversation, is it unreasonable to speculate that a charismatic personality with the right, absolutist message could gain my friend’s unquestioning and undying support? With enough such people, blinded by their derived hatred of “the other”, could a fascist style social movement arise that destroys even the last vestigial remains of democracy in the United States? I find this statement disturbing in its mundane locus. It’s such people who become the footsoldiers of fascism, smiling, waving flags, burning books and driving the undesirables from their homes.
The best observation made by my unnamed friend is, “You poison the well buddy” (sic)
Yeah. That I do. And, hopefully, you the reader will do so as well. We should all be dedicated to poisoning the well from the vermin of ignorance, intolerance, exclusion and totalitarianism.
The Mad Sociologist Blog 
1 Comment