"The antisemites who called themselves patriots introduced that new species of national feeling which consists primarily of a complete whitewash of one's own people and a sweeping condemnation of all others." (The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt, 1994; page 99).
Antisemitism thus becomes an instrument in the radical's attempt to conceal the disease in one's own society so as to allow the people to continue to believe that all is basically well except for the minor problems, all of which come from one's political adversaries.
The conservative impulse encourages a sort of political myopia that allows traditionalists the (self-serving) out of excusing one's own felonies by identifying one's opponents’ minor misdemeanors.
Culture warfare comes in periods of decline when the politics of desert is suborned in a corruption of the mechanisms of credit and blame. By debasing the process of tokhacha the ruling elite retains its power position because all criticism has now become disqualified.
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