Thomas ZimmerJun 27, 2023

This has me thinking of a strange argument I had with a well-known historian last summer that, to me, epitomized the problems of #BothSides thinking. Democrats, this colleague told me, had also become too radical - they even rejected Trump’s Supreme Court nominees!

Quick story:

Show threadThomas ZimmerJun 27, 2023
At a conference last June, a colleague criticized me for focusing on the Right only while neglecting the “radicalization of the Left.” His example: Trump’s nominees weren’t any worse than Thomas and Alito (correct!), yet Democrats had refused to support them. He saw that as a problem.
JE BrookJun 27, 2023
Show threadThomas Zimmer
It’s the perfect example of how deeply flawed a perspective is that defines the key problem as “polarization” and reflexively prescribes “overcoming division” as the solution: Sure, if your sole goal is “unity,” bipartisan support for powerful reactionaries in previous eras was good.
Jun 27, 2023 at 4:23pmIvory for iOS
Show threadThomas ZimmerJun 27, 2023
I fully agree Alito and Thomas are at least as bad as Trump’s justices. But if you are chiefly concerned about democracy and civil rights rather than worrying about abstract notions of “unity,” Democrats no longer supporting such people - while indeed “divisive” - is progress.
Show threadThomas ZimmerJun 27, 2023

This colleague is a self-proclaimed Liberal who made the case - in the summer of 2022, after Dobbs had been leaked! - that things had been better when Democrats could be counted on to support reactionary cranks like Thomas and Alito.

Beware: “Unity” gospel can take you to bizarre places.

Show threadThomas ZimmerJun 27, 2023
There is a reflexive type of self-chastising that liberal academics and elites love to engage in because they believe it demonstrates how reasonable, above the fray, and capable of critical introspection they are. It’s just virtue signaling that obscures rather than illuminates the problem.
Show threadErin ConroyJun 27, 2023

@tzimmer_history

100%

Show threadkevin CumminsJun 27, 2023
@tzimmer_history Can you write a simple, clear declarative sentence?
Show threadBrooke BinkowskiJun 27, 2023
@KevinC @tzimmer_history They're all perfectly clear to me. Perhaps the problem is with the reader.
Show threadErin ConroyJun 27, 2023

@KevinC You should probably have a short & humble think on why Thomas is so valuable to so many of us historians of fascism - and maybe also demonstrate your own understanding of basic grammar rules - before criticizing his style.

(there should be a comma between "clear" and "declarative" in the string of adjectives in your sentence)

Show threadtoxtethogradyJun 27, 2023
@tzimmer_history Funny how that argument never translates into bipartisan support for powerful communists...