It would of course be best if more people had sufficient empathy to oppose the oppression of others just in and of itself, but I recognize that empathy isn’t sll that common (and has its own drawbacks), so I don’t really expect that.
But at the very least, anyone should be able to follow the simple chain of reasoning that leads to the conclusion that a system that’s empowered to oppress someone, no matter who it is or what the excuse is, is a system that’s empowered to oppress me if it happens to turn its attention my way.
It’s as if people stand in the middle of a crowd as gunmen walk around, shooting people in the head, and they completely ignore it (or worse yet cheer it on) right up until the moment the gun is pointed at their own heads. And then and only then - far too late - do they think to oppose it.
This is the part that gripes me the most.
It would of course be best if more people had sufficient empathy to oppose the oppression of others just in and of itself, but I recognize that empathy isn’t sll that common (and has its own drawbacks), so I don’t really expect that.
But at the very least, anyone should be able to follow the simple chain of reasoning that leads to the conclusion that a system that’s empowered to oppress someone, no matter who it is or what the excuse is, is a system that’s empowered to oppress me if it happens to turn its attention my way.
It’s as if people stand in the middle of a crowd as gunmen walk around, shooting people in the head, and they completely ignore it (or worse yet cheer it on) right up until the moment the gun is pointed at their own heads. And then and only then - far too late - do they think to oppose it.
Conservatism doesn’t allow for empathy. It isn’t part of the ideology.