So there I was… listening to a bunch of semi-professional historians with anime avatars (and one large pig) riff on Tucker Carlson’s painful interview with Vladimir Putin and the aftermath of same. The conversation moved to the reflexive right-wing edgelord tendency to take a contrarian position for no other reason that because the leftists are for/against it.
Unfortunately, this really isn’t any different than the current leftist fixation on Orange Man Bad and automatically taking the opposite side because, well, if the Orange Man said it, then it must be wrong.
Basically, no one’s gotten any smarter politically than ninety-three years ago, when Horse Feathers premiered in theaters and the Marx Brothers (the funny ones, not the commie bastard) gave us this gem.
The more things change…
Actually, things really haven’t changed much at all, considering that the Apostle Paul took the time to warn both Titus and Timothy against making foolish and time wasting arguments.
“But avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and useless.” – Titus 3:9 (NKJV)
“But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife.” – II Timothy 2:23 (NKJV)
Look, I’m certainly not one to suggest not taking an opposing position when it’s the right one. As one of my other favorite quotes goes: “Truth never depends on someone’s willingness to believe it.” – John Walker, WSJ Letters to the Editor 9/23/18.
Likewise, I understand the urge to take that reflexive, contrarian position. Lord knows I certainly did my share of that kind of thing various long-dead Usenet boards and PHP forums. I’d like to thing that current me has learned a few things along the way though, and one of them is that unless you’re a Larry Correia-type who can make a public sport of hunting idiots, hopefully in a way that is sufficiently humiliating as present them as a negative example to others with similar inclinations, it’s best to not waste the time and energy which could be put into more constructive pursuits.