anyway for me the way I square my political principles with being a vindictive little hater is by divorcing all sociopolitical theory from the concept of 'deserving'. deserving is a moral judgment, it's the province of religion and retribution. when we talk about politics I don’t give a rat’s ass about deserving, I care about building a better society for everyone in it.
some examples:
do trump voters deserve to be plunged into poverty by predatory laws? honestly yeah. I want them to suffer. I want them to feel the sting of what they have brought upon us. I think it would be poetic justice. should they be plunged into poverty by predatory laws? no! no one should be plunged into poverty by predatory laws! I want to live in a society that doesn’t do that to anyone, no matter how much they suck as people.
do unrepentant violent rapists deserve to be tortured? yeah. I think so. I think they’ve earned it. should they be tortured? nope! no one should be tortured! I want to live in a society where no one is ever tortured. (I definitely want to live in a society where the state, responsible for enacting criminal justice, is not torturing anyone. like holy shit guys that one’s a biggie.)
do diabetics deserve free insulin? no, it’s not like anyone goes around earning insulin. the insulin wasn’t free to produce or distribute, someone needs to pay for that. no one deserves free stuff. should diabetics get free insulin? absolutely oh my god. everyone should have free and easy access to whatever they need to live a healthy life. insulin is expensive to produce and distribute, and I think the government should pay every red cent. I want to live in a society where all medical care is free for everyone who needs it!
you get the picture. politics is about building a better society, no matter what it costs in cosmic justice. when people are cruel, I want them to suffer for it, but I want more for all of us to live in a society that treats everyone kindly, including those bastards. I think the role of government should be to create that society, as much as humanly possible. deserving doesn’t come into it at all.















