Aggression is basically bullying, and is simply incompatible with good order
One of the things that concern me most about our political landscape nowadays is that both the left and the right are increasingly embracing aggression as a political strategy. From what I have observed, right-wing influencers have more often openly celebrated, or called for, an 'aggressive' approach to shutting down and punishing their enemies. The New Right has clearly shown a willingness to embrace the arbitrary and unfair use of government power to hurt their perceived enemies. This represents a worrying new level of aggression not seen in the pre-2010s Right. On the other hand, the left's frequent denounciation of what they call 'tone policing' and 'respectability politics' is effectively a form of encouraging aggression, and the left's embrace of cancel culture and de-platforming is indeed a kind of aggression in and of itself. In the past decade or so, both sides have clearly gotten very aggressive.
Aggression is inherently incompatible with fairness, objectivity, rationality and good order. This is all because aggression is simply incompatible with having rational debates on a fair playing field. When people are allowed to be aggressive, there is no longer a fair playing field at all. Imagine a game of football or basketball, or any other sport, where there are no rules against violence towards other players. The game wouldn't be fair anymore. It would just be won by the team with the more violent players on it, regardless of actual merit in the sport itself. Similarly, when people are allowed to aggressively threaten others via political, economic, reputational or other means over differences of opinion, there is no longer a fair playing field in society's marketplace of ideas. When people can be intimidated into silence or insincere agreement, there is no longer any meaningful debate to be had. Might simply becomes right. As I've illustrated in previous episodes of this series, when there is no fairness in the marketplace of ideas, there is no ability to pursue the objective truth, there is no ability to act truly rationally or morally, and there will certainly not be good order in society.
Aggression is also incompatible with compassion, especially when it is associated with tribalism. By definition, if you are compassionate towards somebody, you don't act aggressive towards them. Moreover, when aggression is deployed in a tribalistic way, it essentially becomes bullying. This is why a society that allows aggression is essentially one that condones bullying. With the rise of aggression in the politics of both the left and the right, we've indeed seen much more political bullying across the Western political landscape in the past decade. This normalization of bullying, starting in politics, inevitably spreads to all areas of society, if left unchecked. A society that allows widespread bullying is, by definition, a society without any compassion whatsoever.
In conclusion, aggression is inherently incompatible with having rational debates on a fair playing field, and this means that aggression is inherently incompatible with good order. Moreover, aggression, especially when deployed in a tribalistic way, is inherently incompatible with any notion of compassion. Therefore, there are very good reasons why polite society used to shun aggression and aggressive people much more, and I think we should bring that back.
Doing sociology and philosophy in real time by looking at developments in contemporary Western politics and culture, from a Moral Libertarian perspective. My mission is to stop the authoritarian 'populist' right and the cultural-systemist left from destroying the West.
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Why We Need to Shut Down Political Aggression
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Aggression is basically bullying, and is simply incompatible with good order One of the things that concern me most about our political land...
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