I wish more lefties would internalize that hypocrisy is not a meaningful accusation to the right. Of course they're being hypocrites. That you are bound - by rules, standards, logic, human decency, some sort of fundamental moral consistency, anything at all - and they are not? That's their conception of what power is, and why they seek it. So they can exercise power, without constraint, and you cannot. That's the whole point.
Hypocrisy is the virtue-signaling of fascism.
@mhoye I would agree it's not a meaningful accusation to fascists, but not really all of the right. There are definitely conservatives and libertarians for whom these things are important as well. Although you clarified this was about USA politics below, it might be more broadly applicable there...
@timorl When the dominant strain of right wing politics is fascism, the entire moral foundation of any other brand of conservative thought just evaporates. Libertarians in particular are facism's useful idiots.
@mhoye You can still meet and talk with people who hold the non-fascist versions of these views -- you can actually sometimes discuss reasonably with them and they will be appropriately annoyed by hypocrisy. Speaking from experience. I'm trying to point out that you shouldn't immediately assume that a right-winger will treat hypocrisy the way you describe, although your original post is a good reminder that it is currently a frighteningly common option.
Especially strongly agree on the libertarian point, what happened to them in Poland makes it particularly obvious to me.
