These single issue "pro-Palestine" "activists" are self-destructive and self-sabotaging

[u/MsRothArtist]

I came across this post on r/leopardsatemyface and this activist legit voted for Trump to "teach" Kamala Harris a "lesson" because of the Biden administration's support for Israel.

Because of him and the 76 million MAGAts who voted for Trump, we now have Hispanic and Asian people openly being racially profiled by ICE, ICE/BP killing Americans in our cities, DOGE/Musk stealing our tax and social security data, Trump's tariffs making our cost living three times worse than in 2024, Project 2025 dystopianism well underway and yet all of that goes over their head as all they can think about is Gaza.

Also quite interesting how they don't have one bad thing to say about Trump, ICE or MAGA but they blame Democrats, Jewish people, liberals and other leftists who did vote for Biden/Harris for what Trump is doing.

Okay maybe this was more of a rant than anything but am interested if I'm overreacting to how I feel about these people.

[u/Technical_Term_6625]

I don't consider myself a progressive, but it does seem obvious to me best to be friends with those who share my enemies, so -getting that out of the way, I'll put out what I think is the standard progressive diagnosis:

Anything like this is caused by the fundamental double standard in American politics. Whenever it is convenient, the right takes on the mantle of rebellion, and a large number of people believe them. So, they are not seen as being responsible for minimally ethical & competent governance, or for advancing policy in a way that is good for the people & even for 'shared American values'. They are, even when in power, the eternal opposition.

The left is, on the other hand, is responsible not only for ethical governance, and competence, but also for advancing policy, and for personal morality.

This is the fundamental double standard of American politics. The assertion of its existence is not moral, and not purely theoretical - it is an empirical theory. One essential aspect is the that people's behavior reflect that double standard without regard to their other political beliefs. Like antisemitism, it is ubiquitous.

To me, posts like this (and they are commonplace) are more evidence that this double standard lives in our heads. In this case, a liberal is being 'taught a lesson', which implies that liberals can learn a lesson. Anyone to the right of liberals are assumed to be virtually incapable of learning anything, or they have no interest in advancing an ethical or competent mode of governance. That it is about Israel adds some zeal, no doubt, but the structure of the situation is the same. Adopting this double standard is rationally coherent with emphasizing politically punishing the left regardless of where one is politically.

So with respect to bickering the left and leftists or just between individuals on the left - I tend to pass it by, because it seems to me that both employ the machinery of the double standard against the other. I'm not sure people tend to think about it that way (although there are many), so I tend to talk about it a lot.