No Moral Equivalency

In our quest for the appearance of fairness, we have developed the unfortunate tendency to ascribe equal value to opposing points of view. And that can be a laudable trait when dealing with matters that can be rationally argued from either perspective.

There are sufficient grays in our world of black and white, and the contours of the truth are not always crystalline in their clarity.

We should strive to understand an opponent’s point of view, because from thence springs empathy. (Yes, I used the word “thence” so I can cross that off my bucket list.) When we can assume the mantels of our opposite number, we can peel back the layers of our diverse identities and harmonize the humanity within us all.

Some people have been trying so hard to find a place of commonality with those of differing opinions. And that is all well and good – to a point. So we contort logic and say, “He’s not really a racist. He doesn’t really think all Black and brown people, and all Muslims and Central Americans and other non-white people are stupid, lazy, rapist gang-members from shithole countries.” But he is, and he does really mean all that and more.

Our president is sympathetic to, and a role model for, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and Klansmen.

When another’s perspective or philosophy or goal is the annihilation of me and all people who look like me, I cannot defend their right to wipe me off the face of the Earth as just another point of view.

These people are wrong and evil and do not deserve our fairness or understanding or empathy. There is no moral equivalency between those who want equality for all people, and those who don’t.

How is it that Nazis goose-stepped across Europe only seventy years ago -- a mere blink of an eye on the face of time – and we are arguing about whether Nazis “are good people too.”

They are not. And we must never forget that.