02-14-2017, 07:34 AM
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Confirmed User
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Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 8,234
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The Alt-Right and the Antifa
From Larken Rose:
Quote:
Watching the "alt-right" fascists and the "antifa" communists go at it is like watching an angry, stupid bird pecking at its own reflection in a window. Each expresses a mentality along the lines of, "Your viewpoint is so dangerous, and such a threat to freedom and justice, that I feel justified in violently attacking you for merely expressing your viewpoint!" Meanwhile, each viewpoint condones authoritarian collectivism in the name of the "common good," using "ends-justify-the-means" arguments. In principle, even if their rhetoric sometimes sounds different, there is little difference between them. It's reminiscent of the silly notion that Stalin was "far left" and Hitler was "far right," when in the end their regimes looked very similar, each being about forcible domination and enslavement. That makes it extra appropriate that Hitler and Stalin were arch enemies ... except when they were allies. Like every cowardly gang member or schoolyard bully, they were both paranoid, scared of their own shadows, and needed to subjugate others to feel powerful. Arguing about WHICH flavor of statist fear-mongering to cheer for is a pathetic waste of time. And it brings to mind something that I mention in my book:
"Even the most heinous examples of man's inhumanity to man, committed in the name of 'authority,' rarely persuade anyone to question the idea of 'authority' per se. Instead, it leads them only to oppose a particular set of tyrants. As a discouraging example, much of the most fervent resistance to the Nazis came from the communists, who themselves advocated a form of oppression just as vicious and destructive as Hitler's regime. Due to their authoritarian mindset, the Germans had no chance to achieve peace or justice, as their entire national debate was concerned only with which kind of all-powerful rulers should be in charge, without even a hint at the possibility that no one should have such power. The public discourse has been similar throughout most of the world, throughout most of time, focusing on who should rule, instead of questioning whether there should be rulers at all."
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