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Comment by cpursley | Hacker News Reader

Not sure why you're getting downvoted.

Communists and Fascists share a lot of the same authoritarian tactics.

The word we need to use is "Totalitarian Liberalism". We're not heading into communism (there's no unity, there's no focus on workers) nor fascism (there's no aesthetic, there's no glory of the nation). Instead, we get as much Product as we want, as long as we all toe the line and profess to believe as we're told - no matter how far that strays from observable reality.

It’s because they’re positing that it’s only people on the left that do this.

I’ve heard it said that the enemy of extremists isn't the extremist on the other side, it’s the moderates. Extremists are itching for a fight, and they’ll continue fighting forever. Moderates and pragmatists stand in the way of that goal. If an extremist group were to win and completely eliminate the other side, they’d draw some other battle lines within their own group. “Othering” is important to extremists, and the’ll find a way to do it.

I’m another proud lefty. I marched with Black Lives Matter last summer, voted for Elizabeth Warren in the primaries, I’m vegan for all the reasons people think are stupid. All of that is true, and it infuriates me to see leftist extremists getting dressed up in black and setting buildings on fire. It infuriates me to see leftists gatekeeping on Twitter, and taking such joy from tweeting people’s employers to try to get them fired for the crime of making a joke that didn’t pass a purity test, or for having a counterintuitive take on something complex. Internet pile ons are the worst.

All that said, it confounds me that people on the right seem to be unable to see these traits within their own party, and aren’t working harder to rid their ranks of QAnon, Proud Boys, and Trumpism. It seems like anyone on the right who has the temerity to point out these problems gets branded as a RINO (Republican In Name Only) and expelled from the party. Jeff Sessions – JEFF SESSIONS – was cancelled by the right for not being right enough.

So, yeah, there’s a lot of projection going on all around.

No they are not positing they _only_ prior on the left are doing it.

Militant left is as dangerous as militant right. The problem is not the side of the political spectrum but the approach to dealing with opponents.

> Militant left is as dangerous as militant right.

Yeah... The terrible dangers of universal healthcare and proportional taxes...

Promoting universal healthcare and proportional taxes isn't dangerous at all. Neither is promoting freedom of speech and healthy laws for small businesses.

It get dangerous when either side decides that anything standing in the way (in their opinion) of these ideals are "other", and that the "others" are so evil they are simply inhuman, and must be quashed by all means necessary.

This pattern repeats in history many, many times. And lots of people are nervous that the beginning of that pattern is starting to play out in the modern West.

> It get dangerous

True. Remember all the lynchings of white people in the South by the BBB, for offenses sometimes as minor as drinking from the wrong water fountain?

Or when BLM marched, with torches in hand, chanting "Blood and soil" and "You will not replace us"? There was even a Neonazi woman who was ran over by a BLM activist driving a car.

And what about the day when BLM terrorists invaded the Capitol threatening to kill everyone who wouldn't break the law and vote Obama back into the presidency? That day was wild.

Both far left and far right regimes have resulted in chaos, murder, and repression.

If you're skeptical that leftism can cause violence, the wikipedia list of recent far-left terrorism groups may convince you otherwise: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-wing_terrorism

And of course, there's the more classical examples: Maoist struggle sessions, the Red Terror, the Cambodian Killing Fields.

Extremism is dangerous. And it's concerning to me that this has become a debatable point.

It's noteworthy that these groups were mostly active in the 20th century as opposition to governments while right-wing extremists have been the government of many countries, including the US until recently.

Yes, I agree that it's very noteworthy. These groups generally appear in response to right governments. Which means I suspect we'll see more of them in coming years.

I am all for fighting far-right extremists. I am very against innocent civilians being killed, oppressed, or censored in the process.

Those are good points.

I think however, cancel culture in particular, is a phenom of the Left right now.

Weaponizing conspiracy (QAnon, Elections, COVID) is a culture of the Right, no doubt.

Both sides are fully aware of what they are doing and leveraging it on purpose (not all, but many).

The thing is - if we have good institutions then we can hold out against QAnon. But cancel culture I think is actually a corrosion of our institutions.

QAnon and COVID conspiracies are not a problem at Harvard, whereas Cancel Culture is, in fact, it's being driven little bit from places like that.

Cancel Culture is all over the right. They just don't call it that.

Mention the name AOC favorably, and you will be shut down. Parler censored people for supporting BLM. Many took pride in tanking Captain Marvel because of its lead's support for feminist causes. Any progressive action you take will cause you to be dubbed "virtue signalling".

It's all just cancel culture. They simply won't call it that.

There's a saying that for the right wing, every accusation is a confession. They're calling it out on the left (much of it nut-picking[1]) because it's a pervasive part of their own culture.

[1] https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Nutpicking

"Mention the name AOC favorably, and you will be shut down."

No, this is not remotely true. They'll downvote you into obvlivion on 'Fox News' comments - but this is not cancel culture.

Nobody is 'losing their job' and being 'publicly shamed' because they said the 'like AOC'.

Sure - you might get a few Trumpers in your face for supporting one of the more perceptibly radical faces of the Demcorcatic party - but that's just 'angry culture' - not cancel culture.

" Parler censored people for supporting BLM."

I strongly doubt this is true - even if it is - again, this is not 'cancel culture' - this is just bad groupthink on a site.

If executives and staff were being fired and losing their jobs for showing up at a BLM rally, or donating money to BLM - that would be 'cancel culture' - but I don't believe that is happening.

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