I know you pretty well. Be honest. Did you actually listen to that speech or did you find a safe source like The Atlantic who would reaffirm what you already believe and spoon feed you bits out of context to show you how correct you were? There was nothing in any of those clips that indicated how Richard Spencer thinks about fiscal policy, or a woman's right to choose, or social safety nets, or nearly any topic that differentiates right from left.
If you want to know where Richard Spencer, the Alt-Right, and the eco-fascist socialists who kill people in Buffalo stand on the political spectrum, here it is in his own words during an unedited Q&A split into 3 parts:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlOv3BXSyJM
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhicdpt9Q0U
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSefByrjXzY
If you wanted the political compass stuff, pay particular attention to part 2 where you get to hear:
- @3:25 – Support for environmentalism and anger at climate change denial
- @3:45 – Wants massive expansion of public transportation
- @4:25 – Wants total student loan forgiveness
- @5:05 – Wants Medicare-4-All
All of this was from back when he was supporting Trump, just a handful of months after the speech the Atlantic cut up to feed you. But Red, I know you wont watch any of it because it is not safe. It won't reaffirm your preheld beliefs. Quite the opposite. You'll find out your trusted sources maybe didn't deserve as much trust as you gave them. Richard Spencer is a POS racist but he isn't a right wing POS racist even if he did vote for Trump in one election before returning to form and voting straight democrat. You won't watch it and you won't change your opinion, and I know that because I do know you pretty well.
I recall that speech at the time. I thought there was a transcript, but I could not find it last night, so just went with that snippet.
But, no, you don’t know me or my history at all. You don’t know a thing about Irish street gangs, and white neighborhoods abutting black neighborhoods, nothing about the race riots in Providence, nothing about my own grappling with racism in my youth. There are still streets I would never walk down in Providence at night. Because they are black neighborhoods, and I’m not stupid or eager to take risks. I in fact wonder at times how racist am I in simply avoiding black neighborhoods. Most of those Irish friends are still likely Democratic supporters, but how one was raised, and the experiences of growing up in certain neighborhoods likely still conditions their views of race. Me, I just want everyone to get along, I want all the hate and anger to stop.
Nor have I ever demonized half the people in this country, as you also stated is taking place in this thread. When Joe Bagadonuts suggested I start a thread discussing differences between liberals and conservatives that looked at possible biological differences in the brain, I did, but few were interested at the time, and the thread went nowhere as I recall. But I did that because I thought it was very important to at least try to bridge the gap, and that meant looking anywhere where there might exist insights that would help explain why conservatives felt as they did, why liberals felt as they did. I still believe there is insight in looking at such studies. Conservatives more attune to threats, liberals more comfortable with change. I am not the one way, inflexible ideologue you think I am. My closest friend is a Trump supporter. My wife leans very strongly right. He’s still my friend, and I would never stop loving my wife, despite our extreme political differences. It hurts at times, and all I want for my country is the ability to compromise again, to talk again, to tamp down the culture wars that are tearing us apart. I am not someone standing on one side of our political divide, demonizing and full of hate for the other side.
Instead, I hate Donald Trump. I hated his divisive speech. I hated the fact he was the first president in my lifetime who refused to reach out to all those millions of Americans who did not vote for him, and make some effort, any effort, to act like a president for all Americans. I hated him because of his inconceivable divisive stances, when it was the polar opposite we needed. And of course I would hate to see a repeat of all that.
But I don’t hate many of his followers, nor am I an urban liberal hating all the rural reactionary hicks. I put it that way, but I don’t really feel that is an appropriate way to see myself or rural America. I spent my summers in my preteen youth living among Swamp Yankees still living in the 19th century, would not trade those memories for the world. I got to know both urban and rural America. I just recognize, having been a student of American history for my whole life, that our culture wars pivot on an urban/rural fulcrum, something that in fact has been there since colonial times. And understanding that, like understanding the differences in the brains of liberals and conservatives, can help illuminate how we got to a very ugly and dangerous place in our nation’s history. I want to understand all of this better. Because I am not a leftist ideologue, determined to demonize and hate those who differ from me politically or culturally.
You don’t know me. You don’t know that I examine my own beliefs all the time. I listen to my friend, and my wife, together, asking me, astonishment in their voices, why in the world do I believe what I believe. I feel I am smack dab in the middle of the tensions, the forces rendering our social fabric, and I struggle to understand how to find a way forward, for myself, my friends and family, my country.
My own experiences, esp. right now, at this time in my life, feels like a great test for me. You see, I believe life is a morality play. I believe we are spiritual beings on a human journey. I think I should be grateful I am being so tested, with someone with strongly held beliefs seemingly the opposite of mine living with me. I feel this is a test and love is far stronger than hate. It’s very painful in fact, but this is a morality play, and I want to do the right thing. Anger is a poison, in one’s personal life, and in the body politic. I still have work to do in that area, the anger comes way too easy at times. You think I am an inflexible ideologue on the far left. Well, yeah, on most things and issues I do lean that way. But I would embrace compromise in our body politic in a heartbeat, because politics should be the art of compromise. And if, as I believe, we are spiritual beings on a human journey, we have a responsibility to learn this, no matter how long it takes. History would certainly suggest my belief is delusional and foolish to the extreme, but it is my choice to act as if that belief is 100% true. I try. I fail daily, but I try.
You think I am an ideologue, yet the very reason I stated that when difficulties communicating reach this level, I feel I wish I could sit down with someone like you, is to do away with impressions born of anonymous Internet forums. I am in fact a very open person, and no, you really do not know me….