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Nazis, Anti-vaxxers, and Islamophobes

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Everybody who voted for Trump was a Nazi in the same way as everybody who doesn’t want to get a COVID “vaccine” is an anti-vaxxer. And in the same way as everybody who doesn’t want to read Ibram Kendi and Robin DiAngelo is a racist. And in the same way as everybody who opposes puberty blockers is a transphobe.

This is the oldest rhetorical trick. Call people some outrageous name and redirect their energy towards denying the charge. They will look so weak and pathetic issuing denials (“No, Comrade Stalin, I’m not a Japanese spy. You know how dedicated I am to our great revolution. Please, Comrade Stalin!”), that they guarantee your win.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The power to name is the power to create and blot out of existence. Some people have figured that out while others keep mumbling pitifully “no, please, I’m not a racist-Nazi-hater-phobe.”

11 responses to “Nazis, Anti-vaxxers, and Islamophobes”

  1. Margaret W. Avatar
    Margaret W.

    So then, is it fair to say we should not try to reason with unreasonable people? How do we defend ourselves? A good approach, I think, is to question these sewer-brained individuals when confronted directly. As in to say, “Why do you think that about me? When have I displayed Nazi tendencies?”

    My pastor called me an anti-vaxxer and refused to be reasoned with so I left the church. The bible says, “Don’t throw your pearls before swine.” Seems wise to me. But to dig a bit deeper, true friends who love and care for each other will have a conversation that preserves the relationship. They can agree to disagree. But people who have no vested interested in each other can just lob labels and spew hate.

    Malice is rife in our culture. And I think it is a result of people pulling away from each other. To your other post about friendship. I keep thinking that I fight for my friendships. I forgive those who wound me to the best of my ability. And if they refuse to let me be who I am, I excuse them from their responsibility to be my friend. This is a discipline that can be very painful personally. But I am trying to live as God intended. But society as a whole is experiencing all this dysfunction because people are so self-focused to the detriment of the culture as a whole. We have become consumers–not just of goods, but of people. And that’s really sad.

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      I don’t hold any discussions with the “you are racist-sexist-Nazi” crowd. I extract them from my life immediately. There have been some long-time readers of this blog who tried to engage in this name-calling. I put them on a blacklist, and now they can’t address me either here or by email.

      Liked by 1 person

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    2. Just George Avatar
      Just George

      What seems wise to me is to defend yourself by turning away from people who would attack you and turning towards or finding others of your kind.

      What I mean by “your kind” is people with similar morals, life attitude, ethos etc with whom you can inter relate cooperatively and without conflict.

      In my experience the worst thing you can be at this time is in disagreement with people who aren’t of your kind who outnumber you, because there exists the possibility that they will hurt you one way or the other.

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  2. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    “When have I displayed Nazi tendencies?”

    Not advised… that’s just an invitation for them to come up with a list (and they will).

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Yes, there should be no dialogue after this. Imagine somebody called you a stupid motherfucker. Will you start debating the point and offering proof that you did not engage in any act that can be described in this way?

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  3. Avatar
    Anonymous

    I feel the right displays similar weaknesses when they devote a lot of time to arguments about why Democrats are “the real racists” or pointing out liberal hypocrisy in general. A little bit of this can be a valuable outreach tool to people who aren’t on the right but are beginning to wake up media bias and things like that. Though even then, it’s best if it’s done in a less whiny way; point out the failures of the liberal media and how that has important ramifications rather than just constantly whining about how the mainstream media doesn’t treat you fairly.

    But I feel like at least half of what I hear from the right is wah wah wah, liberal hypocrisy! With the vaccine passport thing, 90% of the tweets I’ve seen about it are “Democrats think a vaccine passport is fine, but voter ID laws go too far!” What does that even have to do with the topic at hand? Shut up about voter ID for a second and focus!

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Oh, I so agree. You can’t possibly win the “you are the real racist” game. Once you accept that the game deserves to be played, you’ve already lost. The existence of the game is the real problem here. That’s what we should oppose.

      Being constantly on the defensive is loserish behavior. Complaining about the double standard of your opponent is loserish behavior. Bitching about hypocrisy is loserish behavior.

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      1. Avatar
        Anonymous

        Btw, my name keeps not showing up, but it’s Demotrash commenting here. I’m too lazy to log in lately.

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  4. Avatar
    Anonymous

    My personal approach: when a label I find vile (ex. racist, transphobe) is tossed at me, I simply scoff and ignore; too ridiculous to be worth engaging with. When a label that isn’t accurate but I don’t find highly offensive is (generally a political label of some kind), I might say “sure, I’m a [fill in the blank]” or “I’m not a real [fill in the blank]” (people try to use the “you’re not a real [blank] if you believe that” line a lot; what do I care about fitting into some arbitrary label?)

    When I first heard about this speech by Steve Bannon, I was appalled. I thought he was proud of being racist. But now I totally understand what he was talking about. “Let them call you racist. Let them call you xenophobes. Let them call you nativists. Wear it as a badge of honor.”

    https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/steve-bannon-call-racist-wear-badge-honor/story?id=53656814

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  5. Anon Avatar
    Anon

    I think this is worth a read: https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/the-global-columbo-vaccine-passports

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Exactly. Yes,. This is exactly why we are terrified of “vaccine passports.” Because IT’S NOT ABOUT VACCINES.

      I’m reposting this as a separate post. Thanks for the link!

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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