The inside view
The last week has been interesting. I haven’t seen the multiple leftist riots I more-than-half-expected in the wake of The Donald’s stunning victory; on the other hand, the meltdown from mainstream (and plenty of lesser-known) leftists has ramped up to meth-frenzy levels.
This isn’t just a general observation regarding reports from national and alternative media; my wife’s social media has a number of posts from people she knows and with whom she’s always been on good terms, repeating the general lament that the government has been taken over by Nazis, and only bad faith and deliberate evil could possibly have prompted anyone to vote for Orange Man Bad.
I don’t simply disagree. I know they’re wrong.
Understand: this isn’t a matter of opinion. I know they’re wrong. And I’ll explain how I know.
If I tell you, No, I’m not a Nazi, then you have to decide whether or not to believe me.
I, however, don’t have to consider any such question. I know I’m not a Nazi. Not because I’m smarter than you, not because I have a better argument, but simply because I’m inside my own head and know what’s there. It’s not even your fault, it’s the plain reality that you can’t know my mind any better than I can know yours.
That obvious fact has effects further down the line. If you (the general “you”) call me a Nazi, and I know you’re wrong - utterly, intractably wrong in something apparently fundamental to your entire belief system - then I can’t help but see a very high likelihood that you’re wrong about a great deal more. Sure, I already believed you were wrong, but now I have direct evidence that your judgment is badly questionable.
Unless, of course, you - again, the general “you” - are just lying, saying ‘Nazi’ because ‘racist’ stopped working as well. (Not that ‘racist’ has been put out to pasture. I’d bet that I and people like me are now cast as every ‘ist’ in the dictionary, as long as it can be used as an insult.)
So, yes, I do have to make a decision after all. I have to figure out whether the person making the accusation is a liar, or an idiot. All the while recognizing that the two can, in fact, coexist.