The Right is Wrong Again

The pro-rights right has reverted to its old tropes.

For many decades, I usually found myself on the opposite side of issues with so-called "right" "conservative" "libertarian" extremists. They often exhibited intolerant, arrogant, ignorant, bigoted views. Everyone they didn't agree with was a "commie" or a "Marxist" including center-right neo-liberal establishment pro-war corporatist Democrats. They were easy to mock and discredit.

When the c0v!d scam burst upon us, with lockdowns, face diapers, and eventually j@bs, it was many of these same persons who stood up for medical freedom, bodily autonomy, and the right to be free from government over-reach and illegal mandates. Here, in Florida, when mask mandates were proposed, and I went to government meetings to oppose them, nearly all the others speaking against such authoritarian impositions were conservatives, Republicans, mostly Trumpsters. I found myself at strategy meetings with persons with whom I had practically nothing else in common politically or philosophically. I was a radical "progressive" pro-freedom socialist among MAGA cultists. But on the issues regarding c0v!d tyranny, we were on the same side.

This brought me into contact with various online persons of similar political bent. Comedian JP Sears, crew-cut ranter Stew Peters, Catholic fanatic Matt Walsh, and a few others who did the research and were ahead of the pack in revealing the horrors of authoritarian impositions on the manipulated populace. I usually had to post comments on their podcasts that calling authoritarian neo-liberal corporatists "commies" was not correct and showed their ignorance of what communism actually meant and stood for. But they never wavered from their McCarthyite slander. Yet I overlooked that to the degree that they were speaking truth about USA and state govt over-reach, domestically and overseas.

But now that c0v!d has mostly receded into the rear-view mirror of history, and the most pressing issues are genocide, saber-rattling with Russia and China, inflation, economic injustice, student protests (the same classic issues I grew up with) I noticed that most of those erstwhile pro-freedom, anti-authoritarian proponents had reverted to all the tropes and troglodyte positions that had me distance myself from them in the past and shake my head at their mean and angry intolerance on most things I thought were basic decency and sensible positions. I can't even listen to them anymore, as they have turned back into the conservative equivalent of what "woke" is to the liberals… being smug, arrogant, intolerant bigots.

All the more reason to hew to my long-standing philosophy of eschewing labels and dogmas and being a sui generis regarding my own set of positions, while resisting ready-made belief systems and their ego-centric leaders. Yes, there are individuals I still listen to, even if I don't agree fully with everything they say, but who still have a way with words and point me in the right direction as far as doing further research on certain issues goes.

No, there is still not a single politician I would wholeheartedly endorse or vote for. No, there is no "leader" I would march behind. Not a single elected person who technically "represents" me, at every level from local to national, actually "represents" ME!

Most every time I voted for the person who was least in opposition to what I wanted and stood for, lost to the person I least liked. That's when I realized I would NEVER get someone in office who would vote as I would on legislation, or make the speeches in favor of what I favored.

Even when *I* was in elected office I found myself stymied by the system and frustrated that I couldn't get anywhere near what I wanted to see discussed, much less passed.

I'm sure I'm not the only person who feels that way, now more than ever. I guess this will turn out to be one of the more interesting years we've seen in decades, if the events and movements continue to trend as they seem to be going.

Will it be epiphany or catastrophe? Or another dull thud, and another whimper with no bang? Stay tuned.