The biggest encouragement of this negative behavior came when Trump gave permission for people to flaunt their racism, bigotry, and other forms of hatred out in the open for all to see. And to be proud of it! 😞
Totally agree. Trump has normalized cruelty, whether it's his 4th-grade name-calling, making fun of people with disabilities, as well as the racism ("but Black people love him"), bigotry, etc.
Absolutely not! But I think with the example you provided w Fetterman coupled w Biden's grace, I feel it highlights that many already are on the train of doing better/being better.
Today, just like yesterday and hopefully many more tomorrows- is an opportunity for ALL of us to be better people....a better husband....father....son...nephew ....cousin....coworker....friend....listener.......I could go on....so I def feel/share your sentiment that as a people....as a nation...we've gotten do better.
I try, before I leave my kids every AM to teach everybody else's kids, to say this:
Today is another day in which you can be positive. You can be nice. And you can treat people with kindness. And all of that will cost you NOTHING.
I guess I'm channeling my inner indignant teenager here. But I just can not take anymore lecturing that the left isn't quite as bad, but needs to do better also, even though the right is a mob of bullies. It's not even close! Like at all! There is always a bad actor you can point to, but even your examples are of a Dem being kind while Republicans eat their own! It's not close. Tell the right to stop spewing hate.
This proves my point. You are arguing that because Republicans have voices of intolerance and bullying that anything and everything is justified to respond to them. I just don't agree. I think that's how we got into this mess.
I guess I don't see that I'm arguing that. I don't intend to. I don't think that bad behavior is justified from anyone. What I'm saying is that I don't really see any bullying and mockery from the folks on the left. I'm not claiming model behavior, but where in your examples or in recent days has it been Democrats or leaders on the left being awful? Even the Lincoln Project is Republicans!
Where we are today politically began with the arrival of Newt Gingrich in Congress. Hypocritical opportunist that he was and always has been and is today, he finally won on his third attempt, after figuring out that Nelson Rockefeller Republicanism was a loser, and red meat "conservatism" was a winner. He proceeded to flout the norms and disrupt the House as part of his personal agenda of climbing to the top, in the process demonstrating the truth that "while it is easy to take the boy out of the trailer park (he was raised in one as part of a very dysfunctional family), it is difficult to take the trailer park out of the boy." When he showed that being the bull in the china shop was a way to success, he influenced many others in the Recently Fallen Out Of The Trees caucus that we have traditionally sent to Congress (as Mark Twain noted back in 1873: "Consider a congressman, then consider an idiot. Bah! I repeat myself!"). Couple the rise of Gingrich with the preceding influence of far right talk radio after Reagan killed the Fairness Doctrine and there were a lot of "dead trees" in the Congressional "forest" that were easy tinder to the Faux Snooze lightning bolts.
This of course was all atop the continuing radicalization of the far right that began back in 1968 with Richard Nixon inviting the Unreconstructed Confederates of the South to join the GOP.
So, I'm sorry, Chris, but there has been one Guilty Party operating in America since the early 1960s, and today is the result of their 60 year campaign. And it goes back further than that.
I strongly suggest you read Rick Perlstein's "Before The Storm" (the Goldwater campaign). "Nixonland" (the career of you know who), "The Invisible Bridge" (the radical "southernization" of the GOP and the rise of Reagan) and "Reaganland" (how the Reagan Administration began the so-far successful demolition of the New Deal). Perlstein's history of the rise of the right demonstrates that it was not an overnight event. Hell, the fact that Harry Truman looked at the far right morons of the House Republicans in 1948 and said "The only 'good Republicans' are pushing up daisies" should show it's gone on for a long time. McCarthyism never went away, it just went underground and provided the initial power for what developed before our very eyes.
Steve Kornacki's excellent "Red and Blue" is also a good history of far right radicalism as it first showed its head publicly during the Clinton Administration, the first time we saw the new Republican Rule that "When a Democrat wins, that's wrong."
It is historically demonstrably proven that what exists today was NOT a case of "both sides" being guilty. One side was the Actor, one the Reactor.
But the “online left”, as Color Me Skeptical pointed out, is NOT the DNC nor any particular caucus within the Democratic Party at large.
The “online left” and the House Freedom Caucus are NOT equivalent in any way! One is a bunch of people on social media doing what people on social media do, ie complain and troll, while the other is a caucus within the House of Representatives of the United States! THAT’S what strikes me about this: the Right has fundamentally changed the way our political conversations take place and the tone that they take.
Chris, can you actually give an example of THAT sort of childish behavior from an organized Democratic Party source? THAT would be equivalent.
Yeah, I'd love to see any official communique or tweet from any Dem committee, caucus, or elected official crapping on Boebert over this. I haven't seen it. But then I left Xitter a long time ago for a reason.
The online left is not the base of the Democratic Party.
Is anyone of the Democratic Party leadership or any of the Congressional Democratic Leadership dunking on McConnell? I suspect they are not.
Is President Biden dunking on McConnell? No, most certainly not.
Is the Chair of the Democratic Party dunking on McConnell? I don’t believe so.
You are criticizing the online left and equating them with the Democratic Party. They are not the same.
Meanwhile, the Freedom Caucus, the main body of the Republican Party IS dunking on McConnell. Trump, the absolute leader of the Republican Party, is dunking on McConnell.
You are engaging in false equivalence. And in doing so you are helping the forces of darkness who are intent on destroying democracy in the United States.
They started it. Below the belt crap. Super bad. You can't go "High" when they are hitting below the belt. When I watch these interviews with the MAGA supporters, and the actual lies and conspiracies they accept as gospel truth, I am so torn. What have they done to our great country? This is totally on the GOP. We might be a little nuts at times, but they are off the wall. Look at the Fetterman tweet you referenced. Have you seen any hard right GOP folks express one ounce of decency on anything? Look at the reaction after Paul Pelosi was almost hammered to death. Was there a single kind word from any MAGA official? Not ONE. Yet the crowds roared in approval when any of them suggested it was a gay encounter gone bad. Sorry, this is ALL on you MAGA folks.
I am a huge fan of yours. Followed you for most of your career. I get where you are coming from. I consider myself a fairly kind and open man. I am a registered independent. My friends point me out as "that guy who can be friends with both sides". I like that.
Those "other side" folks are perfectly happy with our nation as we know it fundamentally changing. No, that wasn't strong enough. They WANT a strong man. They adore him. They hate that "others" have a place in the USA. You can't reason with them. Our food supply would absolutely break down without illegal immigrant workers. That's important, but you know that already. How many big strong white Alabama high school kids sign up to pick crops? None. Again, you know that. But they don't know it.
When they cheered Paul Pelosi getting his head bashed in, it was because they were certain he had a gay lover. We're adults, we can say it. WTF does it matter if he DID?
We're at a deflection point here. And I don't see much of a national discourse these days. As a frequent traveler, when I am flying over the red states, I feel so sad that decent hardworking farmers in Iowa or Nebraska really think Joe Biden is the boss of a crime family. You and I do know the head of a crime family, and he has 91 indictments and his name isn't Joe. I don't know what to do. I can't talk with my friends about this. Their minds are closed and made up.
While they are solid on the Dems having a "Deep State", the GOP is actually making that an open secret to how they are planning to take over. It is ironic that Mitch announced his retirement on the very day his Supreme Court shifted the court in Donald's favor, perhaps forever. I think yesterday was akin to the Comey announcement 2 weeks before the 2016 election. Everything shifted.
How do we have discourse with folks who wish us dead?
Make no mistake, they hate any of us who don't think they are right. When Biden won in 2020, remember the dancing in the streets that Saturday afternoon. Yea, dancing.
Who could ever imagine January 6th?
Love ya man, let's meet for coffee so you can sign your book for me. You are one of the great guys. Keep it up.
Fetterman was gracious. Biden was more generous in his statement about McConnell than members of McConnell’s own Party. You won’t hear about thugs, vermin, or poisoned blood from the left. Donald J Trump has brought discourse to a level we couldn’t have imagined even a decade ago. The genie won't fit back into the bottle.
Thanks for calling this out, Chris. Matt Gaetz had an equally ugly tweet about McConnell yesterday. Much as I dislike McConnell, the classiest thing I see yesterday was Joe Biden's statement. I'm sure many people disagree with me, but I think Mr. Biden is one of the most decent human beings to serve as POTUS. I just hope he can get enough support to be reelected. He's not perfect, but he's better than we deserve right now.
When it comes to McConnell: Look at what he did to hold the Supreme Court hostage or his moral cowardice when it comes to Donald Trump. It's exactly the day to dunk on him and remind people the destruction he caused our democratic institutions.
That said, the House Freedom Caucus tweet was absolute lunacy.
With Boebert: She's spent years demonizing drag queens, LGTBQ people, etc. Now she's being hoisted on her own petard. I think it's fair to make fun of her, while also acknowledging the sadness of a troubled young man whose dealing with a family that really wasn't ready for the scrutiny their mother brought on them.
Chris - this post of yours is precisely the reason you MUST push on and keep this going!! It is also the reason that you not only be successful, but very influential!!
Chris, you've really given me reason to ponder. I have to admit that I'm part of the problem. And, I don't know how I got here, either. I think I'm an enlightened, see-both-sides individual. I hate the extremism, and strive to be a left-of center realist. Yet, I have to confess that I catch myself enjoying the stick-it-to-'em. I accept your challenge to strive to be better. I don't know if I'll succeed, but I'll try.
Chris, I love your substack and I love hearing your point of view. I agree somewhat with your statement above. BUT I think you are missing the point. The two sides are not the same and are not weaponizing cruelty in the same way. Republicans like Trump, bannon and their acolytes are using name calling and lying as just another campaign tool. They endlessly repeat lies to convince the electorate to believe their point of view. The Democrats do not do this Certainly, there are individuals who lie and belittle the opposition but such cruelty is not a policy of the party or a habit of most Democrats . To claim that both sides are the same not only defames Democrats but also diminishes and normalizes the nastiness of the Republicans. I am not saying it’s ok for us to do it since they are doing it. I am saying that one side is wallowing in lies, incivility and downright cruelty , while on the other side, some people just need to stfu.
Chris, I think there are two issues presented here that have been conflated into one. The House Freedom Caucus tweet is politics, fair and square - unpleasant perhaps for Senator McConnell, but he made the bed he now sleeps in. He is, by his choice, a public figure that has to take whatever is thrown at him, about him. Rep. Boebert is a detestable person, but as Senator Fetterman points out, her kids and family issues are not fair game. He calls the effect, collateral damage, and he is right. The discourse today is awful, and I'm not sure there is a way to turn the clock back on public figures, but I do think that attacks on family members, collateral damage, could be mitigated if enough people, enough times, keep publicly pounding the table to stop it.
Chris, I wonder if you could make it a little more obvious that Fetterman's tweet was a plea for decency? Maybe link to the tweet? After a quick read I thought Fetterrman was piling on, not supporting, the Boebert family after the arrest. Thought didn't sound like him so I went looking for the tweet.
What is clear is that you are trying to equate the two parties.
You say, “It’s just gross. And unfortunately, it’s become totally acceptable behavior by partisans — OF BOTH PARTIES.”
But it is not both parties. The leadership of the Democratic Party is acting with empathy and decorum. The leadership of the Republican Party is acting grossly.
Agreed. I think Chris has totally missed the point on this one, and that’s precisely why I’ve chosen to “Reply” to your comments and support what you’re pointing out.
While Chris is certainly welcome to make mistakes (as we all do upon occasion), considering the “online left” equivalent to the House Freedom Caucus is clearly and demonstrably false and wrong, and I’m disappointed that he’s made such an obvious logical error that has led to his use of “bothsidesism” when not warranted.
I thought it was perfectly clear. I also thought it was great that you highlighted how we should behave. There are classy, decent ways to respond to the bad behavior of others without becoming like them. Sadly, we’ve traded in our decency for likes & reposts. Bullies bring out the worst in us. That’s why we shouldn’t elect them as leaders or put them in positions of authority.
Agree completely. So many family and friendships have been ruined by this type of rhetoric. It is very, very sad. I hope the tide begins to turn, the sooner the better.
Agreed...this decrease in human decency has be here a while. I am an avid believer in picking people up...across the board whenever possible. Can it spread....my firm hope is yes.
The biggest encouragement of this negative behavior came when Trump gave permission for people to flaunt their racism, bigotry, and other forms of hatred out in the open for all to see. And to be proud of it! 😞
Absolutely agree. But does that justify getting in the gutter too? Is "well he started it" a real justification? I don't think it is.
If I gave that impression, I apologize.
Totally agree. Trump has normalized cruelty, whether it's his 4th-grade name-calling, making fun of people with disabilities, as well as the racism ("but Black people love him"), bigotry, etc.
I agree💯
I think it's also appropriate to give Biden credit for his response to Mitch's announcement as well. ZERO chance we'd EVER see Trump act similarly.
I agree.
But, again, just because someone wouldn't do the right thing does that justify us not doing the right thing?
Absolutely not! But I think with the example you provided w Fetterman coupled w Biden's grace, I feel it highlights that many already are on the train of doing better/being better.
Today, just like yesterday and hopefully many more tomorrows- is an opportunity for ALL of us to be better people....a better husband....father....son...nephew ....cousin....coworker....friend....listener.......I could go on....so I def feel/share your sentiment that as a people....as a nation...we've gotten do better.
I try, before I leave my kids every AM to teach everybody else's kids, to say this:
Today is another day in which you can be positive. You can be nice. And you can treat people with kindness. And all of that will cost you NOTHING.
I guess I'm channeling my inner indignant teenager here. But I just can not take anymore lecturing that the left isn't quite as bad, but needs to do better also, even though the right is a mob of bullies. It's not even close! Like at all! There is always a bad actor you can point to, but even your examples are of a Dem being kind while Republicans eat their own! It's not close. Tell the right to stop spewing hate.
This proves my point. You are arguing that because Republicans have voices of intolerance and bullying that anything and everything is justified to respond to them. I just don't agree. I think that's how we got into this mess.
I guess I don't see that I'm arguing that. I don't intend to. I don't think that bad behavior is justified from anyone. What I'm saying is that I don't really see any bullying and mockery from the folks on the left. I'm not claiming model behavior, but where in your examples or in recent days has it been Democrats or leaders on the left being awful? Even the Lincoln Project is Republicans!
What would you have folks do to counter the intolerance and bullying?
Yes! 100% this!
Where we are today politically began with the arrival of Newt Gingrich in Congress. Hypocritical opportunist that he was and always has been and is today, he finally won on his third attempt, after figuring out that Nelson Rockefeller Republicanism was a loser, and red meat "conservatism" was a winner. He proceeded to flout the norms and disrupt the House as part of his personal agenda of climbing to the top, in the process demonstrating the truth that "while it is easy to take the boy out of the trailer park (he was raised in one as part of a very dysfunctional family), it is difficult to take the trailer park out of the boy." When he showed that being the bull in the china shop was a way to success, he influenced many others in the Recently Fallen Out Of The Trees caucus that we have traditionally sent to Congress (as Mark Twain noted back in 1873: "Consider a congressman, then consider an idiot. Bah! I repeat myself!"). Couple the rise of Gingrich with the preceding influence of far right talk radio after Reagan killed the Fairness Doctrine and there were a lot of "dead trees" in the Congressional "forest" that were easy tinder to the Faux Snooze lightning bolts.
This of course was all atop the continuing radicalization of the far right that began back in 1968 with Richard Nixon inviting the Unreconstructed Confederates of the South to join the GOP.
So, I'm sorry, Chris, but there has been one Guilty Party operating in America since the early 1960s, and today is the result of their 60 year campaign. And it goes back further than that.
I strongly suggest you read Rick Perlstein's "Before The Storm" (the Goldwater campaign). "Nixonland" (the career of you know who), "The Invisible Bridge" (the radical "southernization" of the GOP and the rise of Reagan) and "Reaganland" (how the Reagan Administration began the so-far successful demolition of the New Deal). Perlstein's history of the rise of the right demonstrates that it was not an overnight event. Hell, the fact that Harry Truman looked at the far right morons of the House Republicans in 1948 and said "The only 'good Republicans' are pushing up daisies" should show it's gone on for a long time. McCarthyism never went away, it just went underground and provided the initial power for what developed before our very eyes.
Steve Kornacki's excellent "Red and Blue" is also a good history of far right radicalism as it first showed its head publicly during the Clinton Administration, the first time we saw the new Republican Rule that "When a Democrat wins, that's wrong."
It is historically demonstrably proven that what exists today was NOT a case of "both sides" being guilty. One side was the Actor, one the Reactor.
I agree. It's sad to see. But wasn't Fetterman's tweet appropriate, i.e., a plea to back off?
Yes totally! I just meant it as a GOOD reaction to the attacks on Boebert.
Then why are you “both-siding” this?
The Democratic Party isn’t dunking. Some lefty trolls on X may be, but they aren’t the D Party.
On the other hand, the Republicans are in fact dunking on one of their own.
It is not the same thing and you are doing yourself a disservice by comparing them thusly.
I disagree. The online left is OBSESSED with dunking. It's all they do.
But the “online left”, as Color Me Skeptical pointed out, is NOT the DNC nor any particular caucus within the Democratic Party at large.
The “online left” and the House Freedom Caucus are NOT equivalent in any way! One is a bunch of people on social media doing what people on social media do, ie complain and troll, while the other is a caucus within the House of Representatives of the United States! THAT’S what strikes me about this: the Right has fundamentally changed the way our political conversations take place and the tone that they take.
Chris, can you actually give an example of THAT sort of childish behavior from an organized Democratic Party source? THAT would be equivalent.
Yeah, I'd love to see any official communique or tweet from any Dem committee, caucus, or elected official crapping on Boebert over this. I haven't seen it. But then I left Xitter a long time ago for a reason.
The online left is not the base of the Democratic Party.
Is anyone of the Democratic Party leadership or any of the Congressional Democratic Leadership dunking on McConnell? I suspect they are not.
Is President Biden dunking on McConnell? No, most certainly not.
Is the Chair of the Democratic Party dunking on McConnell? I don’t believe so.
You are criticizing the online left and equating them with the Democratic Party. They are not the same.
Meanwhile, the Freedom Caucus, the main body of the Republican Party IS dunking on McConnell. Trump, the absolute leader of the Republican Party, is dunking on McConnell.
You are engaging in false equivalence. And in doing so you are helping the forces of darkness who are intent on destroying democracy in the United States.
They started it. Below the belt crap. Super bad. You can't go "High" when they are hitting below the belt. When I watch these interviews with the MAGA supporters, and the actual lies and conspiracies they accept as gospel truth, I am so torn. What have they done to our great country? This is totally on the GOP. We might be a little nuts at times, but they are off the wall. Look at the Fetterman tweet you referenced. Have you seen any hard right GOP folks express one ounce of decency on anything? Look at the reaction after Paul Pelosi was almost hammered to death. Was there a single kind word from any MAGA official? Not ONE. Yet the crowds roared in approval when any of them suggested it was a gay encounter gone bad. Sorry, this is ALL on you MAGA folks.
They started it! Is that how we want to go forward in our national discourse? I don't.
Let's think about this for a moment.
I am a huge fan of yours. Followed you for most of your career. I get where you are coming from. I consider myself a fairly kind and open man. I am a registered independent. My friends point me out as "that guy who can be friends with both sides". I like that.
Those "other side" folks are perfectly happy with our nation as we know it fundamentally changing. No, that wasn't strong enough. They WANT a strong man. They adore him. They hate that "others" have a place in the USA. You can't reason with them. Our food supply would absolutely break down without illegal immigrant workers. That's important, but you know that already. How many big strong white Alabama high school kids sign up to pick crops? None. Again, you know that. But they don't know it.
When they cheered Paul Pelosi getting his head bashed in, it was because they were certain he had a gay lover. We're adults, we can say it. WTF does it matter if he DID?
We're at a deflection point here. And I don't see much of a national discourse these days. As a frequent traveler, when I am flying over the red states, I feel so sad that decent hardworking farmers in Iowa or Nebraska really think Joe Biden is the boss of a crime family. You and I do know the head of a crime family, and he has 91 indictments and his name isn't Joe. I don't know what to do. I can't talk with my friends about this. Their minds are closed and made up.
While they are solid on the Dems having a "Deep State", the GOP is actually making that an open secret to how they are planning to take over. It is ironic that Mitch announced his retirement on the very day his Supreme Court shifted the court in Donald's favor, perhaps forever. I think yesterday was akin to the Comey announcement 2 weeks before the 2016 election. Everything shifted.
How do we have discourse with folks who wish us dead?
Make no mistake, they hate any of us who don't think they are right. When Biden won in 2020, remember the dancing in the streets that Saturday afternoon. Yea, dancing.
Who could ever imagine January 6th?
Love ya man, let's meet for coffee so you can sign your book for me. You are one of the great guys. Keep it up.
Yes, 💯!
Fetterman was gracious. Biden was more generous in his statement about McConnell than members of McConnell’s own Party. You won’t hear about thugs, vermin, or poisoned blood from the left. Donald J Trump has brought discourse to a level we couldn’t have imagined even a decade ago. The genie won't fit back into the bottle.
Thanks for calling this out, Chris. Matt Gaetz had an equally ugly tweet about McConnell yesterday. Much as I dislike McConnell, the classiest thing I see yesterday was Joe Biden's statement. I'm sure many people disagree with me, but I think Mr. Biden is one of the most decent human beings to serve as POTUS. I just hope he can get enough support to be reelected. He's not perfect, but he's better than we deserve right now.
I don't know if I agree with this, Chris.
When it comes to McConnell: Look at what he did to hold the Supreme Court hostage or his moral cowardice when it comes to Donald Trump. It's exactly the day to dunk on him and remind people the destruction he caused our democratic institutions.
That said, the House Freedom Caucus tweet was absolute lunacy.
With Boebert: She's spent years demonizing drag queens, LGTBQ people, etc. Now she's being hoisted on her own petard. I think it's fair to make fun of her, while also acknowledging the sadness of a troubled young man whose dealing with a family that really wasn't ready for the scrutiny their mother brought on them.
You have clear vision. Unclouded by a sentence to Hudson Yards Prison.
Chris - this post of yours is precisely the reason you MUST push on and keep this going!! It is also the reason that you not only be successful, but very influential!!
Push on!!
Though it started before Trump, he made nastiness acceptable. It has infected all segments of our society.
I’m 65 and I remember when it was unseemly and unacceptable. This is not a good thing!
Chris, you've really given me reason to ponder. I have to admit that I'm part of the problem. And, I don't know how I got here, either. I think I'm an enlightened, see-both-sides individual. I hate the extremism, and strive to be a left-of center realist. Yet, I have to confess that I catch myself enjoying the stick-it-to-'em. I accept your challenge to strive to be better. I don't know if I'll succeed, but I'll try.
Dude, I am in the SAME boat. It's hard as hell.
I just think that if the justification for bad behavior is a) they started it or b) they are worse, we are not living up to our better angels.
Chris, I love your substack and I love hearing your point of view. I agree somewhat with your statement above. BUT I think you are missing the point. The two sides are not the same and are not weaponizing cruelty in the same way. Republicans like Trump, bannon and their acolytes are using name calling and lying as just another campaign tool. They endlessly repeat lies to convince the electorate to believe their point of view. The Democrats do not do this Certainly, there are individuals who lie and belittle the opposition but such cruelty is not a policy of the party or a habit of most Democrats . To claim that both sides are the same not only defames Democrats but also diminishes and normalizes the nastiness of the Republicans. I am not saying it’s ok for us to do it since they are doing it. I am saying that one side is wallowing in lies, incivility and downright cruelty , while on the other side, some people just need to stfu.
Chris, I think there are two issues presented here that have been conflated into one. The House Freedom Caucus tweet is politics, fair and square - unpleasant perhaps for Senator McConnell, but he made the bed he now sleeps in. He is, by his choice, a public figure that has to take whatever is thrown at him, about him. Rep. Boebert is a detestable person, but as Senator Fetterman points out, her kids and family issues are not fair game. He calls the effect, collateral damage, and he is right. The discourse today is awful, and I'm not sure there is a way to turn the clock back on public figures, but I do think that attacks on family members, collateral damage, could be mitigated if enough people, enough times, keep publicly pounding the table to stop it.
Chris, I wonder if you could make it a little more obvious that Fetterman's tweet was a plea for decency? Maybe link to the tweet? After a quick read I thought Fetterrman was piling on, not supporting, the Boebert family after the arrest. Thought didn't sound like him so I went looking for the tweet.
Yes! I have in the actual text of the post. Sorry that wasn't clear enough initially.
What is clear is that you are trying to equate the two parties.
You say, “It’s just gross. And unfortunately, it’s become totally acceptable behavior by partisans — OF BOTH PARTIES.”
But it is not both parties. The leadership of the Democratic Party is acting with empathy and decorum. The leadership of the Republican Party is acting grossly.
Please stop both-siding this.
Right, there is *no* moral equivalency here.
Agreed. I think Chris has totally missed the point on this one, and that’s precisely why I’ve chosen to “Reply” to your comments and support what you’re pointing out.
While Chris is certainly welcome to make mistakes (as we all do upon occasion), considering the “online left” equivalent to the House Freedom Caucus is clearly and demonstrably false and wrong, and I’m disappointed that he’s made such an obvious logical error that has led to his use of “bothsidesism” when not warranted.
One thing is clearly NOT like the other. Period.
I thought it was perfectly clear. I also thought it was great that you highlighted how we should behave. There are classy, decent ways to respond to the bad behavior of others without becoming like them. Sadly, we’ve traded in our decency for likes & reposts. Bullies bring out the worst in us. That’s why we shouldn’t elect them as leaders or put them in positions of authority.
Agree completely. So many family and friendships have been ruined by this type of rhetoric. It is very, very sad. I hope the tide begins to turn, the sooner the better.
Agreed...this decrease in human decency has be here a while. I am an avid believer in picking people up...across the board whenever possible. Can it spread....my firm hope is yes.