The question we need to ask the American right: "What is it you want permission to do?'

[Nevilledog]

https://theweek.com/politics/1008030/the-question-we-need-to-ask-the-american-right


Listening to the right describe American reality today is a little like overhearing a mid-level military commander preparing a battalion for an upcoming fight to the death with a ruthless enemy: The stakes are enormous. The other side is incredibly powerful. They seek nothing less than to destroy us, and they'll succeed if we don't destroy them first. Our own self-preservation requires nothing short of total victory — by any means possible.

This venom spews forth from our car radios, primetime cable news broadcasts, partisan websites, and the mouths of elected officials, setting a tawdry, unedifying tone for our public life. We've grown so accustomed to the hyperbole that it barely makes an impression.

Yet, as Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell have frequently suggested on their consistently excellent podcast about the American right, "Know Your Enemy," we need to pay attention to such talk and learn to interrogate it. More specifically, we need to confront it with a crucially important question:

What exactly is the American right giving itself permission to do?

The question is important because it highlights the political function of such hyperbolic rhetoric and suggests, quite rightly, that its ultimate aim is to provide a permission structure for future action.

*snip*

[Baked Potato]

1. How brave of these sheltered and pampered loudmouths

to spew their divisive bullshit out to everyday Americans trying to live and work together in some kind of peace. All while they suckle the government teat—the government they purport to loath. The government that pampers them and their families with pay and benefits and a retirement.

[Busterscruggs]

2. So we have the

What that needs to happen. How do you suggest we eliminate these fools? They are a harm to themselves and the rest of society.

[maxsolomon]

11. I think you have some of that backwards.

The right wants to ELIMINATE liberals.

Welcome to DU, I think. I liked your Ballad.

[Busterscruggs]

13. Thank you

After seeing that Wisconsin maniac literally get away with murder, it's just a matter of time before they get to the rest of us

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Question them and it quickly reveals they would violate the Constitution they hypocritically revere

It is only cover for their christo-fascist defence of their privileges (almost always white privilege and mostly white male privilege).

[Nevilledog]

4. They treat the Constitution like the Bible....

They've never read it.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

15. And those who have read it aren't equipped to think about it.

For example, they think that the 1st Amendment prevents a private company like Twitter from cancelling an account.

[Baitball Blogger]

5. How many times do I have to say it?

I guess you have to be a member of a minority group to see it clearly. If you live in white suburban communities, especially in the south, it is very clear. They're trying to protect their back channels. The ones that undermine the legal process that we expect public agencies and governments to follow to make sure that everything is fair. It is a tale as old as time. It helps them keep the suburbs white by bestowing help to those who fit their tribes.

[PatSeg]

6. And more importantly

would they be willing to give that same permission to other people who might disagree with them?

[Mad_Machine76]

7. We know the answer to that

Also, the way the corporate media pathologically covers Trumpers, it would seem that their "grievances" (no matter how crazy or out of touch with reality they are) are more important than everybody else's and somehow more legitimate. I certainly didn't see massive coverage of Hillary voters and their concerns for the last 4 years.

[PatSeg]

8. Sadly, the most outrageous

tend to get the most attention, like toddlers acting out.

[Mad_Machine76]

9. Too bad nobody ever puts these toddlers in time out or tells them "no"

Trump in particular is very clearly somebody who never got told "no" his entire life.

[PatSeg]

10. Yes, too many people who were never told "no"

We've all known such people - entitled, demanding, and self-absorbed. Clearly, no one ever taught them about compassion or kindness. They want what they want when they want it and when they don't get their way, they lash out, often becoming abusive with their spouses and children.

Yes, Trump is a classic example of such people.

[Boomerproud]

12. They always talk about destruction.

Um...what are they going to replace the destroyed institutions with? Where's that question and where's the answer?

[Mad_Machine76]

14. That's unfortunately rhetoric not exclusive to the right

but the same question is definitely applicable.