So GG your post confused me a little bit.
Green Gecko wrote:I have little else to add than the phrase "left/right/alt/lib/whatthefuckever" + "narrative" immediately discredits the opinion being criticised and suggests you are irrevocably biased, even without realising it.
If I used the term 'alt-right narrative' in describing a documented campaign of indoctrination perpetrated through various channels, such as so called news outlets, history podcasts and conspiracy theories all using twisted versions of the facts to promulgate racist, sexist, and anti-immigration views, does that make me biased? Is being biased against racism...bad?
I'm not sure what you're saying there.
The thought process "anything other than what I think is probably an illusion" is a dodgy place to get into and I think that's something a few of the "alt-right" provocateurs mentioned in this thread want. They really really want their followers to be as uncritical and angry, and fearful as possible, so I would invite people to ask if that is how they feel. It's why angry, hateful, confused, vulnerable individuals are so impressionable and can be fed answers, especially at times like this.
But there are narratives, ha, that
are pure illusion. The Great Replacement, the inferiority of non-white races, the rise of the feminazi who wants the eradication of all maleness. Speaking out against these is not thinking they're an illusion, it's
knowing they are having done the research and, you know, not being racist.
Please just, don't be give up critical thinking. Even if you are a nazi, criticise nazism, be a better nazi. Hate jews intelligently, be very specific why you hate them. It's even just slightly a tiny bit easier to understand (no, that's the wrong word - imagine, I suppose?). And the same with any other prejudice.
I get that the first part of this is the important bit but considering the thread this is a weird paragraph to have added here.
And while I find the whole spectrum fascinating I find it kind of worrying and annoying that people have to berate the "other side" at all. It really undermines any productive debate and I'd ask that people tone down the strawberry floats and what if this thread is going to be worth having.
I do worry that I've retreated too far into a left leaning bubble sometimes, and I try to analyse my own beliefs every time something like this comes up. I occassionally watch videos from alt-right sources before delving into deconstructions of said videos, and I try to look at poisonous social phenomena like racism and the rise of white supremacism with a critical eye. This doesn't mean I'll ever see them as anything other than completely baseless hate speech however.