Some on the Right Are Having a Moral Meltdown

[corbe]

Some on the Right Are Having a Moral Meltdown

The hard truth about Truman's decision to drop the atom bombs on Japan.

May 8, 2024 by Dennis Prager

My disdain for the Left began at a young age. From as early as I can recall, I hated evil, and I therefore always hated communism. When I realized the Left either supported communism or, at the very least, opposed anti-communism, I understood that leftism was a force for evil. Liberals and conservatives hated communism; leftists did not.

As liberals began their leftward drift in the 1960s — to cite one example, virtually all liberal media condemned President Ronald Reagan’s description of the Soviet Union as “an evil empire” — I came to regard conservatism as a moral refuge in a dark world. In the conservative moral universe, America was essentially a force for good; communism was evil; liberty, most especially free speech, was a supreme value; Western civilization was a morally superior civilization; the Judeo-Christian value system was the moral bedrock of the West; and Islamic violence — as exemplified by al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, Boko Haram, the Taliban, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Iranian regime — was the great religious threat of our time.

That conservative moral universe is in decline. Some leading figures on the Right are as confused as the Left on some of the most important moral issues. This was made manifest last week when Tucker Carlson told Joe Rogan that any person who defends the dropping of the atomic bombs over Japan is evil.

Here is what he said:

“People on my side … on the Right, you know, have spent 80 years defending dropping nuclear weapons on civilians. Like, are you joking? That’s just like prima facie evil. … It’s wrong to drop nuclear weapons on people. And if you find yourself arguing that it’s a good thing to drop nuclear weapons on people, then you are evil. Like, it’s not a tough one. It’s not a hard call for me. So, with that in mind, like, why would you want nuclear weapons? It’s, like, just a mindless, childish sort of intellectual exercise to justify — like, ‘Oh, no, it’s really good because somebody else will get it.’ How about ‘no’? How about, like, spending all of your effort to prevent this from happening? Would you kill baby Hitler, you know, famously?”

<..snip..>

https://www.frontpagemag.com/some-on-the-right-are-having-a-moral-meltdown/

[DB]

Tucker has been on the dark side of many things over the last several years.

[LMAO]

Many years ago, I had a pt whose unit was one of those that we going to be invading mainland Japan

Unlikely he agrees with Carlson

[Kamaji]

Many years ago, I had a pt whose unit was one of those that we going to be invading mainland Japan

Unlikely he agrees with Carlson

I have a family member, now since deceased, who would have been in the first wave; he most definitely did not agree with Carlson.

[DefiantMassRINO]

F Carlson Tucker.

1.) Harry Truman was a Democrat - no need for bleeding heart Republican guilt and self-loathing.

2.) The Japanese chose to invade the Philippines and Guam, and to bomb Pearl Harbor - Japan was the agressor.  It was Japan's mistake to start a war they could not finish.

3.) Those two atomic bombs, by convincing the Japanese to surrender sooner, saved millions of American, Allied, and Japanese lives.  A land invasion of the Japanese Home Islands would have been a meat grinder, with the Japanese fighting to the death, maximizing Allied and Japanese casualties.

America needed to do what it did in the moment to protect American lives.

We used to have a Government that worked in the best interest of America and Americans.  Not anymore.

If Ukraine had kept its nukes, the Russians may not have invaded.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

My grandfather was in WW2 I believe, he never had any problem with it from what I can remember. I can certainly understand the problem with it some people have, we hit civilian centers. WW2 was another time and place, a truly horrific and evil but also a just war. I wonder if we might have done better to mass produce A bombs and just wipe out the Japanese military. Not sure, anyway, what's done is done and it ended the war early, which is never a bad thing IMO.

[the OlLine Rebel]

Wonder how FR feels about Tucker lately?

They were all in that it’s the last straw for evil Fox to fire Carlson.

[the OlLine Rebel]

This brings up the age-old argument about if one would do this or that.

The real question is always “who is better?”  Who gets to survive?  That is what it comes down to. Now, if it’s literally JUST you, a single individual person, feel free to turn the other cheek.

But if it’s more people, a whole society, you have to choose who is going to survive.  I prefer Americans, eg.  if there is a fight, I will choose my family. It’s that simple.

So it’s not about how they die or are injured, it’s whether you must oppose an aggressor.  As a society always protect yours.

[berdie]

My grandfather was in WW2 I believe, he never had any problem with it from what I can remember. I can certainly understand the problem with it some people have, we hit civilian centers. WW2 was another time and place, a truly horrific and evil but also a just war. I wonder if we might have done better to mass produce A bombs and just wipe out the Japanese military. Not sure, anyway, what's done is done and it ended the war early, which is never a bad thing IMO.

They were civilian centers with military factories and functions.

[Cyber Liberty]

They were civilian centers with military factories and functions.

That is correct.  All the Axis powers were willing to bomb the crap out of civilians working in those factories.  No UN to bitch and complain about it.

This is where the concept of "Total War" comes in.  Simply put, "Nobody is innocent, everything is a target because it adds to the enemy's war efforts.

BTW, Nagasaki was NOT the primary target for Bock's Car.

[cato potatoe]

The deliberate targeting of civilians in the 1940s was an act of desperation, and should not be used to justify total war in Gaza or elsewhere.  It’s more than a little alarming to see politicians calling for something that will turn Israel into a pariah state. 

[Maj. Bill Martin]

Compare the total number of people killed in the Pacific theater during the war with the number killed at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and it is pretty clear that the bombs were the cleanest way to end the slaughter quickly.

[catfish1957]

I used to be a fan of Carlson at Fox, but something strange happened to him

Back then he was a great voice for conservative cause.  Now he takes these strange tangents that just don't make sense.  Even though his podcast is consistently near the top ranking, I don't think he is reaching the same level of audience. 

I think I listened to his 1st 2, and then stopped.

[Smokin Joe]

The deliberate targeting of civilians in the 1940s was an act of desperation, and should not be used to justify total war in Gaza or elsewhere.  It’s more than a little alarming to see politicians calling for something that will turn Israel into a pariah state.

I doubt Israel is waging total war on Gaza. It's just that the Muslim terrorist types (in this case, Hamas) seem to routinely site their offensive equipment in schools, hospitals, etc. and in this instance burrow beneath such civilian sites likely to cause outcry when the underlying forces and facilities are destroyed. Hamas is not the first to use human shields (even their own people) to try to deflect offensive operations directed toward the combatants. The Chinese troops in Korea marched entire village populations ahead of their wave attacks on US positions. No doubt, they were neither the first, nor certainly, will be the last to do so.

If Gaza wants fewer civilian casualties, they need to get out of the way.
If the civilians are there of their own volition, they are screens for the combatants and are not innocents.

War is Hell, especially for the civilian population in contested areas. This is no exception. That said, I seriously doubt no one saw anything, no one heard anything...we just know no one said anything. As such, that population is part of the picture.

The same logic was used to conventionally bomb much of Europe to ruins, and to firebomb most of the cities in Japan to ashes. 
How much evil does it take to justify some 'collateral damage'?
How bad does your enemy have to be before you can risk killing civilians to get the enemy?

[Sighlass]

In the camp of the hardliners here.... If they are protecting terrorists, then they deserve all that comes their way.

Concur that Tucker is just starting to talk without direction, has been from around the time he was fired (perhaps a month or two beforehand).