Mastodawn

Chad Loder Jan 8, 2023

When you see someone like Elon Musk embracing the far right, it's not because the far right has any kind of coherent political or intellectual worldview he agrees with. It's because the far right is the last bastion of shitty people - they will accept anyone regardless of their personal behavior.

The far right have no standards for behavior, identity or beliefs - you only need to share the raw desire to dominate others. The far right welcomes all manner of abusers, thieves, grifters, and scoundrels.

Logically therefore if you're an abuser, thief, grifter or a scoundrel you will eventually find that the only friends you have remaining are far right extremists.

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WitchyDiana Jan 8, 2023

@chadloder

Eh, there are a lot of shitty people who aren't chums with far right people, the difference is in covert vs overt behavior, I think. There are abusers who have leftist or at least liberal politics and are good at behaving in public, while indulging in their abuse in private, and only towards their victims. That's part of how they acquire victims.

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Billy Bragg's Liquid Aminos

@witchydiana @chadloder I feel like there's a connection to be made here with Dan Price; how he was held up in the press as some sort of "anti-Elon" hero of the working class, when the entire identity was cover for his deeply shitty and violent personal behavior.

But the overt/covert distinction is surely why "traditional" conservatives of the McConnell ilk are frustrated with the MAGA assholes. The GOP has always been the party of bigotry, oppression, greed, and cruelty, but they did it with a veneer of respectability because they weren't overt. Now there's Nazis marching in the streets and flinging their shit in the Capitol — it's downright unseemly! It can't be controlled, and it's giving away the game.