Monday, April 19, 2021

The Oath Keepers Reminded Me of Something


That line of argument: We don't do that. That's not us.

It reminds me of those "a few bad apples" arguments we hear about police brutality and the slaying of unarmed people. Don't judge the whole organization for doing what, to be clear, we admit we're basically being trained to do. What I do pay attention to is that they explain they work hand in glove with police forces and it is pretty disturbing that members of a far-right militia are being treated like they are--what? Authority-adjacent?

Listening carefully, I also heard a kind of shoddy reasoning that they love the Constitution, but that it means pretty much what they'd like it to mean. As in, the Constitution might say "no", but she really means "yes" about some things. (Yes, pronoun deliberately selected there.)

It didn't remind me of anything good. And 60 Minutes aired that quite frankly. It felt a bit like a laundering operation. But those sheets are still dirty as hell.

2 comments:

Frank Wilhoit said...

No one seems to remember more than the first half of any proverb. The full saying goes "One rotten apple spoils the barrel". In other words, identifying and removing bad apples (assuming, for the sake of something, that those things can be done) is no good; the rest are all tainted as well. This is the opposite of the way the phrase is customarily used.

Anonymous said...

Agreed, Frank. I've been pointing this out a lot recently. As a point of interest, my well-informed 22-year-old daughter had never heard the entire proverb.

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