Cruelty
Cruelty
The cruelty and nastiness currently demonstrated by the Trump administration towards immigrants seems to me to have an exact parallel in the recent cancelling of people deemed to have sinned against feminist orthodoxy.[1] There is no interest in facts (only slogans), no concern with due process (only quick condemnation), no sense of proportionality (only blanket punishment and banishment). Paranoia replaces compassion. It is morally disgusting and vile. The psychopathic heart of America is revealed for all to see. But so is the blindness and stupidity. If you think I am exaggerating, you are part of the problem. You will never be forgiven.
[1] There is even a physical parallel: while the Trump goons gleefully expel “illegals” from the country no matter the suffering and loss caused, university officials expel the alleged miscreant from the university campus—all in the name of “safety”. Merely breaking formal rules (allegedly) is deemed sufficient for extreme expulsive measures. The rhetoric is all about removing “criminals” from our midst so that the “good people” do not become “victims”. The playbook is all too familiar.
“It seems to me that liberal and humane people, of whom there are many among us, would, if they were asked to rank the vices, put cruelty first. Intuitively they would choose cruelty as the worst thing we do.”
(Shklar, Judith N. “Putting Cruelty First.” In Ordinary Vices, 7-44. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984. p. 44)
They would be right. But that wouldn’t preclude them from acting cruelly for their own causes.