It’s really super neat the way the radical right vilifies smart people while desperately pretending to be them. Very cool and stable worldview that will bring nothing but good things.
At their core they don’t believe in merit. They believe in birthright.
The astounding progress humanity has made in the past few centuries doesn’t happen without oppurtunity being, in some way, distributed based on merit. No country on Earth is a true meritocracy but the standard until very recently was feudalism where you’re either born lucky or you’re not.
For some right wing folk, there’s not a lot to offer on the basis of merit so they’d rather move back to the coinflip model being lucky even if they have little to offer.
Look at RFK - does he really have anything to offer besides his name?
“you’re not a scientist with all your “research” and “peer reviewed studies” and stupid “evidence”! You’re not even wearing a lab coat! I’ve got a lab coat! You’ve got to respect me because my lab coat and my name tag says I’m a scientist! This guy doesn’t even have a name tag c’mon.”
“You think learning the specifics and intricacies and dedicating a chunk of your life to furthering your understanding of complex systems and decades navigating the rigors of academic study makes you a scientist or something?”
Also super neat that the non-radical right is just the Democratic leadership and the dead-fucking center get called the radical left and the actually slightly left are the Red Menace.
Though, if you’re looking for someone to blame, look no further than liberals and leftists.
Liberals, because in the 90s their big plan was to become indistinguishable from republicans. Well, in a two party system the two choices have to be different in some way shape of form, and the Clintonistas really only gave the GOP one direction to move. They KNEW this would happen and assumed it meant the GOP would become unelectable (see: Clinton 2016 campaign) instead of systematically destroying the USA. WHOOPS!
The left because we pre-compromising and always presenting the reasonable option first which leaves no room for negotiation other than to veer away from reasonable. If one side of the table is saying “tax the rich fairly” and the others is saying “hunt the poor for sport”, the outcome is going to be somewhere in the middle.
It’s really super neat the way the radical right vilifies smart people while desperately pretending to be them. Very cool and stable worldview that will bring nothing but good things.
At their core they don’t believe in merit. They believe in birthright.
The astounding progress humanity has made in the past few centuries doesn’t happen without oppurtunity being, in some way, distributed based on merit. No country on Earth is a true meritocracy but the standard until very recently was feudalism where you’re either born lucky or you’re not.
For some right wing folk, there’s not a lot to offer on the basis of merit so they’d rather move back to the coinflip model being lucky even if they have little to offer.
Look at RFK - does he really have anything to offer besides his name?
“you’re not a scientist with all your “research” and “peer reviewed studies” and stupid “evidence”! You’re not even wearing a lab coat! I’ve got a lab coat! You’ve got to respect me because my lab coat and my name tag says I’m a scientist! This guy doesn’t even have a name tag c’mon.”
/s hopefully obviously
“You think learning the specifics and intricacies and dedicating a chunk of your life to furthering your understanding of complex systems and decades navigating the rigors of academic study makes you a scientist or something?”
Also super neat that the non-radical right is just the Democratic leadership and the dead-fucking center get called the radical left and the actually slightly left are the Red Menace.
Sort of a tangent, but yeah. That checks out.
Though, if you’re looking for someone to blame, look no further than liberals and leftists.
Liberals, because in the 90s their big plan was to become indistinguishable from republicans. Well, in a two party system the two choices have to be different in some way shape of form, and the Clintonistas really only gave the GOP one direction to move. They KNEW this would happen and assumed it meant the GOP would become unelectable (see: Clinton 2016 campaign) instead of systematically destroying the USA. WHOOPS!
The left because we pre-compromising and always presenting the reasonable option first which leaves no room for negotiation other than to veer away from reasonable. If one side of the table is saying “tax the rich fairly” and the others is saying “hunt the poor for sport”, the outcome is going to be somewhere in the middle.
Same mistake twice, really.