Compromise

It's funny how the only time I hear about compromise is when it is someone horrible trying to convince people to agree to do something horrible.

Like, in principle compromise is a good idea, two or more parties with differing needs/wants negotiate until everyone involved is either happy with, or mildly grumpy about the outcome. But in reality there are a few situations where it doesn't work.

Look at politics right now, the Republicans control the Legislative and Executive branches of government, and probably have more influence of the Judicial than I am comfortable with. This means they have a massive advantage in pursuing legislation that their opponents might dislike, leaving things like the filibuster the only option the minority party has. The Democrats meanwhile get accused of refusing to compromise when they use the filibuster to kill a bill, but if they attempt to insert language into a bill that helps their goals, it is stripped out just as fast as it is put in, compromise in this case just means the party in power gets to do whatever it wants.

And before you go after the Democrats for doing the same thing, fuck right off with that, Obama spent virtually his entire first term reaching across the aisle and what did it get him? A compromise healthcare bill which is actively being dismantled at this moment. The ACA was not perfect in large part because he did take input from the conservatives, which is what you are supposed to do.

Today compromise apparently means we should ban Muslims and strip every single environmental protection away. Oh yeah, also put the least qualified and most awful people in the country into positions of unmatched power and influence, without debate for preference.

Anyhow, today I fought on the internet with someone who, while presumably not a Nazi himself, sure seems to think that they should be allowed a platform to talk without fear. Which is stupid as hell, now he didn't use the word compromise, but the point was clear I feel. He did have a lot to say about dialogue, and open mindedness, and something about how communism is just as bad, or worse, also apparently I have a simple minded understanding of the Third Reich, a phrase which has never before been said by someone who wasn't an incredible butthole.

The point is there are some situations where you don't compromise, period. Nazis are one of those, if compromise is the art of meeting someone partway, then how do you do that with an ideology that encourages genocide? Kill everyone, but don't hate them? Only kill half of them? There's no room for negotiation here, and no one who doesn't already agree with at least some of this is going to be the least bit put out when a Nazi is punched in the face by someone who objects to their existence.

You don't debate with mass murderers, you just don't. There is no good that can come out of it, speaking calmly and rationally to someone like that, attempting to argue with them using evidence and argument, it doesn't work, at least not in public, and the only thing it does is tell viewers that they have a viewpoint worthy of consideration.

Compromise doesn't work in other contexts too, Bill Nye, a man who I respect and think is generally a cool dude, debated a young earth Creationist a while back, both parties declared victory, Nye because of scientific fact and evidence, the other guy because, well, God. It was a dumb decision by an otherwise smart man, because all it accomplished was to give the Creationist a platform to seriously talk about his viewpoint in a situation where he had to be taken seriously. It doesn't work.


I am an atheist, this should surprise no one, but I do think there is such a thing as evil, and real evil doesn't get compromised with, you don't argue with evil or treat it as something that deserves a legitimate place in society, you mock it, you ignore it, you fight it constantly and destroy it when you can. I am not saying that Creationists are evil, or even that all people spewing Nazi bullshit are, but their ideas very much are in many ways, obviously for different reasons, but they do not deserve a platform either way, for the Creationists the best response is mockery, derision, and just ignoring them, but Nazis deserve a more forceful approach.
More and more so does the Republican party as it increasingly becomes indistinguishable from a fascist group based on racism. The time is coming, and probably sooner than we think, for us to decide if their ideology is one that deserves a platform as well, and if it doesn't then what tactics we should use to deny it.