Performative cruelty
Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2022 10:16 am
I heard the following quote from Aldous Huxley for the first time this week, and it makes me profoundly sad for how true it is:
"The surest way to work up a crusade in favor of some good cause is to promise people they will have a chance of maltreating someone. To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior 'righteous indignation' — this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats."
--Aldous Huxley, Crome Yellow
A man broke into the home of Paul and Nancy Pelosi at 2:30 in the morning, looking for Nancy. When he couldn't find her, he attacked Paul, who is 82, and broke the old man's skull. Last I heard, he was still in ICU. The attacker openly admits that he is a MAGA supporter, election denier, Q-ANON believer, pizza-gate, the whole bit. He explains that he was there to interrogate Nancy Pelosi, and he had duct tape, zip ties and other equipment to use for this. He says that if she answered him truthfully, he would have let her go, but if she lied, he had planned to break her legs as a warning to other Democrats.
This guy is obviously unwell and this is all horribly tragic. My current problem is with the response. The response to this should be a no-brainer. The response should be identical to what happened after GOP congressman Steve Scalise was shot by some left wing extremist in 2017... everyone on the national political stage should condemn political violence. "Regardless of one's political views, violence such as this has no place..." etc etc.
But the GOP is excusing it. Shifting blame to "the attacker was an illegal immigrant" or "this was actually a gay escort meeting Paul for a tryst while Nancy is away". Trump insinuates that he brought it on himself ("weird things going on in that house"). Don Jr posts a truly gross picture of a "Paul Pelosi Halloween costume kit". Kari Lake running for governor in Arizona uses it as a laugh line as she's campaigning, joking about the lack of security in the Pelosi home. Elon fucking Musk, proud new owner of Twitter, leads off the reasonable discourse by immediately responding with "things may not all be as they seem" with this situation.
Fucking monstrous behavior.
A reminder to myself not treat others this way, no matter how much I may dislike their actions.
"The surest way to work up a crusade in favor of some good cause is to promise people they will have a chance of maltreating someone. To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior 'righteous indignation' — this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats."
--Aldous Huxley, Crome Yellow
A man broke into the home of Paul and Nancy Pelosi at 2:30 in the morning, looking for Nancy. When he couldn't find her, he attacked Paul, who is 82, and broke the old man's skull. Last I heard, he was still in ICU. The attacker openly admits that he is a MAGA supporter, election denier, Q-ANON believer, pizza-gate, the whole bit. He explains that he was there to interrogate Nancy Pelosi, and he had duct tape, zip ties and other equipment to use for this. He says that if she answered him truthfully, he would have let her go, but if she lied, he had planned to break her legs as a warning to other Democrats.
This guy is obviously unwell and this is all horribly tragic. My current problem is with the response. The response to this should be a no-brainer. The response should be identical to what happened after GOP congressman Steve Scalise was shot by some left wing extremist in 2017... everyone on the national political stage should condemn political violence. "Regardless of one's political views, violence such as this has no place..." etc etc.
But the GOP is excusing it. Shifting blame to "the attacker was an illegal immigrant" or "this was actually a gay escort meeting Paul for a tryst while Nancy is away". Trump insinuates that he brought it on himself ("weird things going on in that house"). Don Jr posts a truly gross picture of a "Paul Pelosi Halloween costume kit". Kari Lake running for governor in Arizona uses it as a laugh line as she's campaigning, joking about the lack of security in the Pelosi home. Elon fucking Musk, proud new owner of Twitter, leads off the reasonable discourse by immediately responding with "things may not all be as they seem" with this situation.
Fucking monstrous behavior.
A reminder to myself not treat others this way, no matter how much I may dislike their actions.