If there is one political position that both liberals and conservatives can agree on, it is this: that “politics” as a cultural phenomenon exists to be engaged in solely for the purpose of deriving enjoyment out of witnessing your proscribed enemies experience pain and suffering. The old adage of “the cruelty is the point” lobbed at the Trump administration now applies just as well to mainstream liberalism. Suffice to say, the liberal reaction to the dozens of deaths in Texas due to extreme weather, the announcement of the Biden administration continuing detention camps for migrant children and the recent bombing of Syria will more than demonstrate this point.

Of course, liberal disdain for the working class is nothing new. Neither is liberal disdain for the entire populations of states that happen to, on the whole, vote for Republicans. Simply recall the talking point a few years ago about the fact that “blue” states generated income for the federal government, while “red” states were the ones that expended more than they brought in. Every right-wing trope about welfare leeches is now being parroted by liberals, who were morally condemning “red” states for receiving welfare, ultimately condemning people in poverty who happened to live in states that, overall, voted Republican, for receiving welfare. This narrative can only exist if it presupposes who is and isn’t virtuous, and then only extends the rights and privileges of society to those who it deems virtuous.

In the liberal conception, anyone who lives in a state that votes Republican is not virtuous. Yet, these Democrats could just as easily be Republicans, because they are mobilizing the same logic of sadism as the right. We saw this exact same narrative play out as regards to the Texas, with liberals blaming Texans themselves for voting for Republicans, which is what led to the privatized and deregulated electric grid that caused the power failures. While it is true that Republican legislators are to blame for the power failures, for the lack of response and for the general inaction on climate change – the lack of empathy for victims, most of which are probably non-voters and some of which certainly voted for Democrats, is appalling. The idea that people deserve what they vote for presupposes a level of transparency and conscious decision-making when it comes to voting that simply does not exist. I am certain that people would not vote a certain way if they knew that that vote would directly lead to their own deaths, so it is sufficed to say that that is probably not why these people voted as they did.

In concerns to the liberal defense of Biden’s concentration camps, sadism is the only term to describe it. Rather than interrogate the underlying reasons that unaccompanied minors are entering the country, some merely noted that since this is the situation, they have to be held somewhere (apparently, the distinction between housing someone and detaining someone has eluded them). Perhaps the worst take of all was the suggestion that only from a position of privilege can migrant detention facilities appear as such, which points to a more general failure with privilege discourse as such (this can also be seen in the assertion that calling for minimum wage increases or stimulus checks is “egocentric”). Whereas liberals decry “privilege,” communists (such as myself) fully embrace it. Migrant children should have the “privilege” of not being detained! Just as minimum wage workers should have the “privilege” of being paid a living wage, at this point probably well north of $15 an hour. The only way to stop detentions at the border is to grant full citizenship immediately to every undocumented person currently residing in the United States, and to extend that to anyone who arrives at the border seeking it. Furthermore, the military and economic imperialism waged upon Latin America by the United States (and other actors) should cease immediately, so that the specific countries experiencing emigration can be safe environments that their citizens will want to continue living in.

Finally, while the air strikes of Syria under Trump were rightly condemned, in addition to pointing out that they were illegal under both US and international law, that same logic has apparently not held for many when it comes to Biden. The glibness with which many liberals have dismissed this exact same critique of Biden seems to stem from the fact that the Middle East is seen as a violent, terrorist-ridden landscape, and as thus is virtue less. Therefore, no moral consideration need be granted to Arabs. After all, in the mind of a U.S. liberal, none of them have voted for Democrats, so none of them have properly demonstrated their virtue.