6494/19414
For a while now I’ve noticed a very common formula for wry political comment, used by both left and right in which someone points out the hypocrisy of the opposition who got offended by one thing, whilst then seeming to support something similar because it gives their side an advantage….
It seems the worst of points to make, because in pretty much every case you could just reverse the comment and make it a criticism of yourself.
I will give you the one I noticed today from Dan Hodges but it could equally have come from Owen Jones or anyone else.
Dan tweeted of people getting affronted at the government openly breaking international law - "Lot of people who have spent the summer defending the tearing down of statues, street disorder in the US and the blockading of printing presses suddenly seem exercised about the rule of law.â€
As with all these tweets (from both sides) there’s firstly an assumption that everyone opposed to you feels the same about everything. If you had a specific example of a person stating both these things, then maybe you have something approaching a point.
But it’s a self-defeating tweet because whichever way round you are putting it, it just makes me think the tweeter is unable to see they are exposing their own hypocrisy. In this case. “Lots of people who have spent the summer opposing the tearing down of statues, street disorder in the US and the blockading of printing presses suddenly don’t seem to care about the rule of law.â€
The statement includes both options and it’s impossible to make it without including a self-own, unless you were one of the people who didn’t like law breaking at any point.
Obviously you can then have an argument about whether one kind of lawbreaking is more serious than another, because murder is worse than stealing pick n mix (arguably) so not all crimes are equal. But that discussion will probably remain solidly on political lines as to whether you prefer Boris Johnson and Edward Colston to Extinction Rebellion or Black Lives Matter.
But I am not arguing about that and you will never know which side I am on (#diamondhardbrexit) because I won’t be drawn into politics. I am just criticising this style of “joke†or “argument†due to the way it is fundamentally flawed whoever is using it. But I guess it gives us some hope that people on both sides are equally stupid to think that making points like this makes them clever, so maybe there is some hope we might all come together in stupidity one day.
Anyway stop doing it.
