There are times in life in which we must criticise our own side. For those who really see themselves as having a side this is a rare occasion but for those who cringe at the idea of picking a side to immortalise over others then this is probably just another day. I’m always somewhere in the middle and I don’t see why this would be any different. I call it the curse of seeing, although not necessarily agreeing with, both sides of the argument while others would suggest it is more about being indecisive when the opposite is required. In this instance I’ll just suggest I’ve seen something I find hypocritical.
I am referring to this article and this one too. In one the Independent newspaper talks about an advert from The Lincoln Project, a Republican group who have dedicated themselves to preventing the reelection of Donald Trump, which suggests he is ill and falling to pieces. The other article suggests similar and uses some quotes by a neurologist to suggest Trump has neurological problems. While both articles reference a few different things they both mainly use the example of his struggling to walk down some ramp at a military parade the other day. Now fair enough he did look like he was struggling a little, the man is seventy-four years old so it’s not impossible to imagine he’s not fit and healthy anymore but both articles are in my opinion lazy. I remember a few years ago when Donald Trump and Theresa May met for the first time, there were photos of them holding hands as they walked down some steps and it was explained that he had some disorder which made going down things difficult, that it was a balance thing hence the hand holding, and that this is something he had had for years. It was supposedly not serious but was explained non-the-less. I can’t help but feel his inability to walk down a ramp is related to this. If I know this of course then there’s no excuse for a political correspondent for a national newspaper not knowing it.
The reason I take issue with this is not because he is a defensible man in any way but because we on the anti-Trump and his ilk spectrum of society and politics scream foul of immoral, corrupt and lying elements on the other side of the fence. We behave outraged at the lies and the deceit, and justifiably so, see politics and society as being in the gutter. The right wing are in many ways hugely responsible for that but it’s very easy to look through our partisan eyes and not see the hypocrisy of our own actions and spokespeople. The reality in this situation is that with stories like this we are being played just as much as the supporters of Trump or Brexit that we decry as manipulated idiots. I want my people to be in the right to such an extent that they don’t need to lie or blur the facts of a story. If my people need to manipulate me to believe an argument then they’re not my people and it’s not my argument. I’m not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, I believe it’s okay to be human and fallible, but to manipulate people is different. I expect nothing less of those idiots I feel I’m fighting against but I’ll always come down harder on those professing moral superiority and failing to deliver. At that point we find ourselves in the very same gutter and we must always be better.
Observations and Misunderstandings 