It's a simple statement, a golden truth, but often ignored. What do I mean? It's simple. When Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf that the Jews were a bacteria which needed to be eliminated, he meant it.* When Stalin spoke about the destruction of the Kulaks as a class he meant it. So what does that have to do with anything?
It, again, is simple.
When representatives of the Right in this country speak of censoring books, banning music or games, rolling back rights for minority groups, they are speaking from the heart. When a right-wing talk show host makes an offhand comment which is insulting and denigrating he's speaking his perceived truth, from his unedited thoughts, from the depths of his subconscious. The spin factories, however, gear up to massage the public snafus, to soothe over the ruffled feathers, to speak of figures of speech or exaggeration or misunderstanding.
It's all whitewash and lies. If a particular political candidate wants to ban abortion, pay no attention to fudges about extreme medical procedures, parental notification, the rights of the father, or what have you. That person wants to ban abortion and is proceeding down the gradualist approach. If another representative speaks of homosexuals being more dangerous than terrorists pay attention, that person means it.
Unfortunately we humans have an infinite capacity to rationalize, both our own actions and those of others. If you like and support someone you'll pick up the whitewash brush and help, make excuses, point out inconsistencies, and ignore the little poke of conscience in the back of your mind that perhaps your idol has feet of clay. If, on the other hand, you bring those utterances to light you're vindictive, vicious, and unforgiving.
People will continue to blurt out their truths and then backpedal and lie, prevaricate and alter, changing their history to one which does not challenge the average person to realize the speaker's hidden depths. Don't let them get away with it. Hypocrisy is the only poison which can kill a free society.
* Look! I Godwined my own thread.
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