One Does Not Simply

Presumably you're not left wing and you're painting those who are with a pretty broad brush. I wouldn't use the word 'demonizing' myself, but if the shoe fits...

Right. I don't know anybody who speaks in the political field these days who doesn't call for unity as a goal, but I'd be shocked at any left-wing (or right-wing!) advocate who calls for unity to the point of conformity. That's a direct clash against the goal of liberty.

Demonization of your opponents is a commonly used tool, left, right, and center, which is why I say that the best defense against this kind of thing is really vigilant care over what we take as facts and proof in debate. I've no problem demonizing someone who really is a demon, but people who are actually that unambiguously awful aren't all that common.

Here in the Uk the right bleat on about 'one nation' values while the left focus on the 'north/south' divide. The reality is that there is a very real and obvious north/south divide and the gap between rich and poor continues to widen under this current right-wing government. So in this case the words of the right seem empty and cynical.

I also think that the right historically have identified themselves in relation to 'enemies' - I.e. we are good, they are bad. This often leads to scapegoating "it's all their fault" which is very powerful politically, but consistently results in human misery.

Well now this is exactly my point. The left loves to accuse the right of "scapegoating" and diving people into good guys and bad guys. But the truth is that when the Left goes on its mission to unite, it inevitably does the same exact thing; except instead of Brown people it demonizes White people, instead of the Muslims it demonizes the Christians, instead of the foreigner it demonizes the patriot. This is precisely the hypocrisy that I am trying to point out. The Left simply takes conventional wisdom and turns it on its head. It has just as many enemies and it hates them with equal passion. It never goes beyond the good guy/bad guy duality and never ever actually unites. What it does do is put limits on free speech because it can never survive honest scrutiny.

So basically we are in agreement that the left demonize the right and the right demonize the left. Best not listen to any of them them and use our own eyes. What I have learned during my life is that when politicians try to make you afraid of something, whether that is economic hardship, national security, or whatever, there is ALWAYS something else going on.

I don't think that the Right wing makes such a point of emphasizing unity as the Left. I think that they are more honest about having enemies. The Left however wants us to not demonize Muslims, for instance, because that would undermine our global unity, but instead ends up demonizing those who disagree with their often naive conclusions. For the Left wing, unity and inclusiveness is the cardinal goal but they always exclude with every effort made to include. It's paradoxical.

Are you kidding me? I'm CONSTANTLY hearing it. "Reagan brought our country together, we've never been so divided than under bla bla bla" - they won't shut up about bringing people together. Like I said, it's just a rhetorical device that everybody uses - it's a gimmick designed to appeal to the universal desire that people have to see us overcoming our disagreements.

Demonizing Muslims really is an instance of the kind of demonization your meme complains against. Surely you can see that - I cannot respect you if you try to go there.

The Right talk about unity is always in response to the Left-Wing divisiveness of the sort I mention above. They don't claim first and foremost to be inclusive like the Left, unless they are responding the Left's accusations that they exclude people. The Left is always talking about how they are the "diverse" party that unites all the races, ethnicities, and genders. That is the essence of their platform. The right doesn't do that, again, unless it responds to the divisive message of the Left. They mainly talk about being globally competitive, family oriented, freedom-loving etc.

My point is that we are bound to demonize somebody. So let's stop pretending that this is somehow avoidable; and let's do our research and lift the politically correct filters, so that we can demonize the right people - WHOMEVER they turn out to be.

I can't help but feel that you're trying to keep the door open to demonize whoever YOU think deserves it while accusing your opponents of hypocrisy when they try to do the same. Even your "left" and "right" classifications feel a little bit off to me. But there's not much else to discuss without getting into specifics rather than generalizations, at this point.

I don't deny the need to demonize, they do - and that's the difference

Quite

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The shoe fits all too often. You never find a shoe that fits all of the time.