Another diarist made a good point earlier today: his grandfather hated the Nazis and fought them in World War 2, but had white supremacist beliefs no different than the Nazis. We have a habit of assuming other people conceptualize things exactly same way we do, when in fact they don’t. People more often than not, prioritize and compartmentalize concepts differently than we assume they do. This is why fundamentalist Christians do not see that they have much values in common with fundamentalist Muslims & vice versa — their opposition is superficial and symbolic. They do not see their hypocrisy, because they’ve compartmentalized their perception of themselves as separate from their opposition based on a different set of premises than a liberal has of them both.
Many well meaning white Americans who have subconscious and naive but not overtly racist views in common, who were appalled at yesterdays events will only be appalled at a caricature of what they perceive is white supremacy, not at its actual implications. They will compartmentalize themselves as ‘not a Nazi nor a Klansman, therefore not racist’ and prioritize the fact that they dont act or dress anything like the caricatures that they saw in the news, as justification why they are not racist. They will convince themselves that they’re not racist, because they’re not one of them. Just like how many Christians believe that their being against gays is somehow different than their own antipathy towards Muslims who hate gay people: “They’re bigots because their Muslim beliefs makes them hate gays, not because of their hating gays alone. I’m not a bigot because my Christian beliefs says it is okay to hate gays.” That’s why I’m not very optimistic that Charlottesville was a ‘wake up call’ as much as people may think — the comments that I’m seeing from conservatives across the internet appear to support my case — they are still trying to rationalize and justify themselves as ‘not one of them’ rather and make no effort to understand the serious implications of yesterdays event. Just pointing out that they are Nazis and Klansmen and reminding them of precedent is not enough.