• Hyperreality
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    1 year ago

    Not a conservative, but that’s not particularly hard, so I’ll play Devil’s advocate.

    AOC is idealistic, but sometimes naive and ill informed.

    She referred to a statue of Father Damian as an example of white supremacist culture. Damien spent the last 16 years of his life ministering to a leper colony on Hawaii, acted as a doctor, dug graves, eventually contracted leprosy, and died as a consequence of it. Lili’uokalani herself honoured him. He is honoured to this day in Hawaii.

    Calling a statue honouring a man who died helping non-white people, in the anything but enlightened 19th century, an example of white supremacy comparable to statues of racist leaders of the confederacy is absurd. Lincoln was more of a white supremacist than someone like Damien. If anything, if people followed Damien’s example, the world would be a better and less racist place. It’s also a self-own, that was widely reported on in right wing media, helping them to support their narrative that it’s wrong to remove statues of bonafide racists. “See! They call all white men racists!”

    The not wearing a mask thing and crossing state lines in the middle of an epidemic, then contracting covid? Also not a good look. Once again, widely reported on in right wing media. “See, she isn’t a wearing a mask either. She’s a hypocrite!”

    I personally also find AOC’s self lack of knowledge or clear positions on foreign policy troubling, if unsurprising. IRC she also voted against seizing the assets of Russian oligarchs, which I found troubling. Her excuse for that, something about civil forfeiture, also seemed to suggest she hadn’t properly read the bill, as it only applied to non-US nationals, and not Americans like she claimed.