I find it fascinating that Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Scalia were the best of pals, yet I'm hearing plenty of random yahoos gloating over his death.
The real venom of this partisan divide is fueled by loudmouths who lack real personal ties to folks with differing views and styles. It's easy to desensitize from afar. That helps make people seem something other than real, breathing people.
That's why it's easy to recognize that Trump doesn't have personal connections with Mexican immigrants, for example. If he did, they'd be real, breathing people for him.
Judging by the reaction of many progressives to this news, there's some Trumpishness in many of us.
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2 comments:
To be fair, it is not just "loudmouths who lack real personal ties to folks with differing views and styles". The majority of the posts that I see celebrating his death, are from gay and lesbian friends. People that Scalia worked hard to sideline in our society. They are not just politically opposed. They have lived with feeling actually attacked by the man for a very long time. That generates an incredible amount of hate, which in turn, leads to a huge sense of relief at his passing.
An excellent point from a thread I have been following:
"It's petty and disturbing if you celebrate the death of a retired hall of fame quarterback because he beat your team a lot. It's not petty nor disturbing if a Jewish person danced upon hearing of Eichmann's execution.
Somewhere in between there's a line. I think that maybe some people have ample cause to be happy about Scalia's passing. he took positions on issues that would quite literally kill some people."
Ginsberg cares as much about every group - not just LGBT - Scalia turned his cold shoulder to as anyone. But she is not dancing. Nor is Lawrence Lessig, who clerked for him.
Your facile descent to Godwin's Law shocks me. However, there's great hope: as you do see the slippery slope in what you're suggesting. I'd suggest that the best course for your ambivalence would be to favor that rationality, rather than the more visceral faculties which, for time immemorial, have driven people of every idealogical stripe to justify their impulse to dehumanize.
I like Germans, btw.
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