Consistency in ideology, beliefs and actions are something everybody believes they strive for. I don’t know of a single person who goes out and lives life to be as inconsistent and contradictory as possible. While basically everybody believes that they are consistent, I find the ability to rationalize contradiction to be nearly limitless.
Nowhere more common and benign can this type of thinking be illustrated than in the sports world. The opinions held by people vary widely simply based on which team is being talked about. Seahawks fans roundly criticized Cam Newton for his smugness, his out of control ego, grandstanding and loud mouth – forgetting that Richard Sherman is one of the loudest mouths in the entire league. Some of Sherman’s antics make Newton look like a modest schoolmarm.
Newton’s actions at the postgame press conference at the Super Bowl were spoken against by basically the entire league and Seahawks fans specifically.
Newton is a role model, they say, who needs to show respect and humility and teach kids how to be mature, never mentioning that Marshawn Lynch had countless press conferences where he showed the media nothing but disdain.
The Seahawks have acted just as bad, if not worse than Newton and the Panthers. Seahawks fans are simply sore at the Panthers for knocking the Seahawks out of the playoffs – never mind the fact that it was the Seahawks’ fault for playing so incredibly badly during the first half.
Thankfully, sports are pretty inconsequential. Compared to other examples of this “us vs them” team-based thinking, nobody really gets hurt in sports. Some hurt feelings and occasional casualties, but that’s it. When it comes to politics, however, it becomes a matter of life and death.
The same progressive democrats who daily called for George W. Bush to be arrested for war crimes are quiet as mice when it comes to what atrocities have been committed under Obama’s watch.
When a politician acts poorly, members of the opposing party get completely up in arms and blast the miscreant across every medium of communication. When it’s their politician who acts poorly, the party is pretty much silent. What’s even worse is each party routinely points out the other’s inconsistency. People can see the double standards held by their enemies, gleefully calling it out but are blind to their own bias.
At least it can be entertaining. Not much is funnier than when members of one group turn on each other for whatever reason. Most recently, Caitlin Jenner’s endorsement of Ted Cruz has sent the progressive world into chaos. As soon as an award-winning transgender hero expresses their political views, they are tossed to the wolves. Bring up Jenner’s negligent car accident that killed someone and the progressives scream transphobia.
When Jenner expresses a desire to be Ted Cruz’s “trans ambassador,” progressives say she is not a hero and her actions are disgusting. As soon as Jenner publicly supported the “other team,” her most ardent supporters become her most vocal detractors.
Actions should be judged by its consequences, not the associations and characteristics of the individual responsible. There is no inherent qualities to anybody that make their behavior any more or less acceptable.
The only thing that this shortsighted way of thinking does is divide humanity. Consistency and equality that doesn’t take one’s “team” into consideration is true social justice, anything less is idiocy.