I don’t think I have ever hate-subscribed to something before, but I had been hearing about David Plazas’ column in The Tennessean this week, which appears to have been written by a kindly man from 1942 who has somehow missed the past 80 years. I was like, “It can’t be that bad.” Surely there cannot be anyone who lives in America and thinks deeply about it who still believes “both sides are just as bad” is anything other than a way to let conservatives off the hook for being a bunch of cartoon villains.
So I paid my $1.99 for six months and read the column, which — fortunately for Plazas — is behind a paywall. That means few people will know that the very same week state Sen. Frank Niceley went on the Senate floor and urged homeless people to take inspiration from Hitler, Plazas was “befuddled” by one of state Rep. Gloria Johnson’s tweets expressing her frustration with Gov. Bill Lee’s attempts to dismantle public education. This is the whole opening section of the column, a column in which the very first sentence identifies Johnson as a Democrat.
Once Plazas has “established” that everyone on both sides is prone to heated rhetoric, he sets off to give examples of all the rhetoric that is so bad:
2022 is a midterm election and the rhetoric has heated up on "culture war" issues including critical race theory being taught in K-12 public schools (it's not) and the rights of — and health care for — transgender young people. Lawmakers have passed laws to squash phantom threats.
He then goes on to talk about Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill and other legislation, including a bill put forth by state Rep. Bruce Griffey and the aforementioned state Sen. Frank Niceley that is aimed at oppressing LGBTQ people.
He then says: “One of the distasteful effects is that some proponents of these type of bills are labeling the opposition as ‘groomers’ or ‘pedophiles’ from the Florida governor's spokesperson to a Georgia member of Congress to a Fox News host.”
Nowhere in his column does Plazas identify which party is heating up the “culture war” by passing anti-gay legislation and forbidding the honest teaching of history in public schools. He never says which party has mainstreamed calling their political opposition groomers and pedophiles. It’s just as mysterious in his column about which political party is accusing school librarians of being pornographers.
Plazas says: “This kind of rhetoric goes beyond hyperbole. It is reckless, manipulative and shameless.” But he pulls his punches on exactly who is out here being reckless, manipulative and shameless.
Right before he invites people to join a virtual event where people who disagree with each other can talk to each other, Plazas writes, “If Americans are serious about ending polarization and misinformation, citizens — and especially our leaders — need to tone down the rhetoric and find ways to listen to each other, respect each other and acknowledge that disagreements are normal in a democratic society.”
Listen, if I don’t think about this for longer than four seconds, I agree with it. But the premise of it is bullshit. Americans aren’t serious about ending polarization and misinformation. And when a legislator can extol the virtues of Hitler and bring forth bills singling out gay people, that’s no longer rhetoric. That’s a dude telling us plain as day what his worldview is and what his agenda is.
I’m constantly struck by how hard thoughtful people cling to this fantasy that this is a matter of hyperbole and misunderstanding and we can all just sit around and talk about this and find some common ground. But if a Republican says I’m a pedophile and I say I’m not, what would the reasonable middle ground between those two positions be? Should I concede to being accused of destroying children, like, three-and-a-half days a week, and they’ll concede that I’m not doing that three-and-a-half days a week? I believe trans kids should be able to leave their houses and go to school and use the bathroom and play sports. Most Republicans either believe trans kids should not exist, or at the least they’re fine hanging with people who have that belief. What is the compromise that could be made between those two positions? I think that if we want to address racism in our country, then our country’s citizens need to have a good idea of the depth and breadth of the problem. Republicans are passing laws forbidding any teaching about race.
The “bargain,” such as it is, is that we let them destroy some people’s lives and maybe they won’t destroy ours. And meanwhile, good people like David Plazas are running around like victims who aren’t ready to face squarely what is happening to them — Oh, they don’t mean it; oh, everyone does it; they’re really nice one on one; they just don’t know how much it hurts us. It’s a superstition, this belief that targets of abuse can prevent abuse by just conceding and contorting and viewing everything in the best light, or in this case, by using a rhetorical device of setting up a thing that doesn’t actually affect anyone’s life — Rep. Johnson sending an angry tweet — as equivalent to the actual vile and harmful legislation being passed by Republicans.
It’s quite a rhetorical feat to write a whole column about all the ways Republicans are screwing up our country while providing cover to Republicans with this “both sides” framing.
Does this ever work? Has there ever been a moment when people have found common ground with people who don’t want them to exist, thus changing the minds of the eliminationists? How much of my humanity do I have to concede to make that work?
Whatever the answer is, I say no, thank you. I’m not as bad as the people who call librarians pornographers. My rhetoric isn’t as inflammatory as “take Hitler as your example.” And I refuse to accept the fact that the people who are actively harming children — trans and cis kids alike — with their laws have a legitimate point of view when they call me and people like me groomers. And I’m not willing to pretend I am so that these ridiculous villains might, maybe, perhaps concede that I, too, am a human being worthy of respect.
Whatever’s wrong with conservatives right now, that’s their problem and they need to fix it internally. The rest of us need to stay as safe as we can from them until then, not give any more time to this ridiculous idea of them having legitimate points of view that the rest of us need to consider.
