Today's slice of WTF

I learned something today.

Some people have no perspective, no clue, and no depths to which they will not sink.

Well, I knew the first two... and I guess I should have known the third.

So, long story short, there is a conflict. I am on one side, at least in spirit, and I have at times been arguing/discussing with people on the other side. Some are reasonable, some are not, as you do.

One of the key points, at least for me, is that last year the other side linked arms with a notoriously foul bigot, famously titled by one of his targets as a Racist, Sexist, Homophobic Dipshit. They brought him in, alledgedly, just to piss people off, and those people remember it this year, and there is criticism.

Especially since the bigot has formed his own campaign and mucked everything up even more.

However, the Other Side keep trying to make it about THIS YEAR's campaign, and not their movement as a whole. They disavow any connection with the bigot (but they neither confirm nor deny how they feel about his views and actions), and they claim that the perceived connection is just a handy means to attack them. (It's not that so much as it is one point of criticism among several).

Now. A bit further back, back to the 60s, there are a couple of people who were, ostensibly, liberals. One a popular fantasy author, the other a known figure in the local scene with a couple of claims to fame of his own. Except he eventually becomes known as a child molester, and his wife, the author, is known as his accomplice... until recently, when she's been accused of molestation as well. It's all very horrific and weird and tragic, but both of them are dead now so all we can do is debate and try to help the victims pick up the pieces.

So anyways, in response to a comment I made about the bigot, one guy from the Other Side makes this startling claim: "If I'm responsible for [the bigot], then you're responsible for [the molesters]".

Wow.

I can see why this might make sense if you're not really thinking. I mean, the Other Side is nominally right-wing, and so is the bigot. I'm nominally left-wing and so were those two. Same same, right?

Not really. Asking a group to take responsibility for THEIR OWN actions LAST YEAR is in no way comparable to.... well, demanding that I accept responsibility for things that happened before I was born.

The molester dude died in '93, so I was only 12 at the time. Even if he kept offending, I was waaaaaay to young to have any part of it, or to be part of the community that supposedly turned a blind eye and enabled him. Not to mention I live on the wrong continent.

But, y'know, taking responsibility for the asshole from last year is JUST THE SAME THING as taking responsibility for one who's been dead 20 years...

Oh, and one more example of no perspective and no clue.

The response to the bigot mucking things up has been a rumble of basically shutting everything down. And the bigot has gleefully announced that if people shut it down on him this year, he'll make sure it all gets shut down NEXT year... and so the dude running the Other Side, who has been playing the plausible deniability card all this time, is jumping up and down and screaming about it.

"It's just what he wants!" he says.
"Listen to me!" he says.
"Follow the proper rules and do things right!" he says.... even though he bent those rules himself and has gone on record as saying that ethics don't matter anymore because OTHER PEOPLE did it first.

And, of course, he blames anyone but his side. He acts the victim because everyone's so against HIM that they let the REAL monster in the door...

The monster that his friends were only too happy to invite to the party.

But that was last year, right?