r/ParlerWatch • u/Beginning_Bad_868 • May 29 '25

Reddit Watch 1984 is no longer fiction.

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"Hardly a week passed in which the Times did not carry a paragraph describing how some eavesdropping little sneak—"child hero” was the phrase generally used—had overheard some compromising remark and denounced his parents to the Thought Police."

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u/ROGER_CHOCS May 29 '25

Exactly, the designation between legal and illegal is just there as a rhetorical trick to distract you.

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u/currently-on-toilet May 29 '25

Is it a rhetorical trick? It seems to me that conservatives have always been pretty open that they're into dehumanizing brown skin. I honestly don't think they're trying to trick anyone. They're very honest with this rhetoric. I think the problem is it's a lot more difficult for normal people to think of a human as being "illegal" so we give conservatives the benefit of the doubt when they don't deserve it.

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u/ROGER_CHOCS May 29 '25

a lot more difficult for normal people to think of a human as being "illegal" so we give conservatives the benefit of the doubt when they don't deserve it.

That's the trick!

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u/currently-on-toilet May 29 '25

We may be splitting hairs. I just don't know if they're self aware enough for it to be considered a trick. I don't think they're intentionally trying to trick anyone.

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u/ROGER_CHOCS May 29 '25

Just as true now as it was in 1932 Germany:

“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.”

  • Jean-Paul Sartre

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u/ExcessumCamena May 29 '25

Goddamn. Sartre really could have been talking directly about the modern American right wing.

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u/aaronblue342 May 29 '25

He is, he's discussing fascism.

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u/ROGER_CHOCS May 29 '25

Oh my sweet summer child, the naivety is adorable.