ID: Xtremely Transbian, Online @ThisACoolPerson posted:
“i imagine being a liberal is much like having a cat on your lap, in that you have a comforting distraction from misery and can’t stand up for anything”
E: before people derail the conversation to offer me the fallen arm from the title - I’ve tried many different combinations, and they all result in a wrong looking shruggy face. Deal with it lol
I mean, you’d have to ask them, but from an anarchist perspective I would say the comfort in the familiarity of the (hierarchal, capitalist, statist, patriarchal, white supremacist, cis heteronormative, ableist) status quo which they are dedicated to upholding.
Anything material it provides is there to placate the population in to not rising up against those in power who exploit and destroy both planet and population for personal gain, and a really bad deal for at least 95% of the global population.
In most developed nations, “Rising up against those in power” conjures images of revolution that would make things drastically worse for everyone in that nation, for at least a generation. It’s not hard to see why that’s a tough sell.
@FrowingFostek - this. This is the comfort, and the wilful ignorance of what a revolution entails or aims for, and fear of losing privilege and perceived superiority, that go with it.
Fascism openly in power? People being genocided? Rounded up in to camps? Stripped of their human rights for how their were born? Deprived of their bodily autonomy? Losing entire communities to climate change? Having to exist as slave labour in a “developing” (read: colonised and pillaged) country to maintain the capitalist overconsumption machine? The widest wealth inequality ever to exist? Or even “just” - your neighbours can’t afford rent even with working 3 jobs? Have to choose to heat or eat because they can’t afford both? Die because an insurance company refused their claim? Die because the government refused their benefits claim? Get sick and die due to pollution? And on and on and on and on and on and on…
And then, the idea that everyone will have to work together for the benefit of everyone else? Building communities from the bottom up, and under the guidance and leadership of its most vulnerable, rather than its most privileged? Equity? Equality? Justice???
Fuck all that.
The liberal wants their individual privilege and comfort maintained! At whose and what cost is completely irrelevant.