Calling bullshit when authoritarians mewl ‘states rights!’ to excuse their horrifying abuse does not, in fact, require a strong and conveniently opposite opinion about the lie they used as pretense.
In other words:
If you mug someone and declare ‘eminent domain!,’ the police arresting you are not somehow opposed to eminent domain.
More generally, people like when good things happen, and dislike when bad things happen. Fixating on the mechanisms instead of the outcomes or the intent is what crazy people do. If you applaud when police arrest a mugger, you are not honor-bound to endorse arrests, in general. Presumably you weren’t doing it because you’re a big fan of handcuffs. Nobody gets to sneer ‘I thought you liked arrests!’ when police arrest an innocent person and you call bullshit.
Calling bullshit when authoritarians mewl ‘states rights!’ to excuse their horrifying abuse does not, in fact, require a strong and conveniently opposite opinion about the lie they used as pretense.
In other words:
If you mug someone and declare ‘eminent domain!,’ the police arresting you are not somehow opposed to eminent domain.
More generally, people like when good things happen, and dislike when bad things happen. Fixating on the mechanisms instead of the outcomes or the intent is what crazy people do. If you applaud when police arrest a mugger, you are not honor-bound to endorse arrests, in general. Presumably you weren’t doing it because you’re a big fan of handcuffs. Nobody gets to sneer ‘I thought you liked arrests!’ when police arrest an innocent person and you call bullshit.