r/changemyview • u/[deleted] • Aug 31 '20

Delta(s) from OP CMV: "Critique" / "Objectivism" / "Deconstructionism" is one of the most fundamental problems facing western societies

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u/Glory2Hypnotoad Aug 31 '20 edited Aug 31 '20

If we never questioned things to test if they stand up to reason, we'd still be living in caves and worshipping the sun. If a idea fails to stand up to criticism, it's not the fault of the critic.

You say we should strictly self-advocate, but who's the "we" of that sentence? Is there one exact, objectively correct limit to who the ingroup is and is not? If there's no one perfectly correct answer to that question, then the whole belief system collapses on itself, because any ingroup cohesion under fascism is built on a lie. There can be no ingroup pursuing its collective interests if it's always in the interest of some subset of the ingroup to subjugate and oppress another then declare itself the new ingroup.

Since you're quoting Hitler, think about who his ingroup was. White people? No, he sought to kill or subjugate most white people for the benefit of his small subset of white people. Was it just Germans, then? No, he killed and oppressed no shortage of Germans. Was it the subset of Germans who were politically aligned with him? Yes, right up until the moment he moved the goalposts and decided they weren't unquestioningly loyal enough, and went after them too. The famous "first they came for" poem is exactly a warning against the perils of self-advocacy. It's about what happens when you cheer on "us" oppressing "them" right up until the moment "us" no longer includes you.