It appears that the original violators of the norms nevertheless expect their opponents not to violate the same norms.
Tel Aviv, June 22 – A new study confirms what many had assumed or intuited for years, namely that unsavory, unethical, impolite, and, sometimes, illegal behavior on the part of people on the other side of the political aisle from you justifies your adoption of the same or worse behaviors in response.
Writing in the journal He Started It, a team of researchers from the University of Racetothegutter in Cellar, Germany, published an article detailing their discovery that when anyone prominent in a political camp, however loosely defined, violates norms that until than many had assumed govern the rhetoric and actions of political expression, that violation gives a moral, interpersonal, and ethical imprimatur for those in the opposing political camp to engage in either those violations themselves, in service of their political cause, or, preferably, to engage in different and more egregious violations of norms.
“We found that while norms are supposed to be a good thing,” the authors wrote, “in fact they only serve a good purpose if other people, in particular the people with whom you disagree, adhere to them. Norms serve no real purpose once even a single high-profile – or, let’s be honest, low-to-medium profile, if you dig long enough – figure on the other side disregards them. Once that happens, poof, the norm is gone, but it was important until that moment. Now, with the norm gone, you are free to be a jackass with hemorrhoids. It’s science.”
The norms, the article explained, can feature in the realms of political protest, politicians’ conduct in their official capacities, adherence to unstated or customary rules in legislative proceedings, etiquette, vocabulary, and debate, among others.
The writers acknowledge their puzzlement at an important fact that remains unexplained. “It appears that the original violators of the norms nevertheless expect their opponents not to violate the same norms,” they wrote.
They theorize that the initial violation of norms took place in a unique or special context that justifies that violation, a justification that their opponents willfully fail to admit pertains only to the original norms violation and could never justify those opponents’ violations of the norms, which of course are still sacred.
Thus, only your side may ignore, dismiss, or justify such phenomena as riots, looting, trespassing, vandalism, or assault in the pursuit of political goals or ideologies that you favor, or that your allies favor, but if the other side does anything similar, that only shows how uncivilized and wrong they must be.
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