The way liberals and conservatives act about cops makes more sense when you realise that both groups look upon criminals as an existential class rather than a label assigned to you by society

They believe being a criminal is a thing you are irrespective of actually doing crimes

Does it matter that a criminal hasn't actually broken any law? No, because they're a criminal, and they will inevitably break the laws.

Since police enforce the law, to liberals and conservatives, "real" cops can't be criminals, because they're incompatible existential states.

Both groups will tend to deny this if you confront them with it, but the conservatives less so than the liberals, because the only reason a conservative has to deny it is that they know it sounds bad to say it out loud.

Liberals don't know they believe it, but they do.

The worst thing I think my mother has ever said to me was many years ago, when I was in my early teens, and we were listening to the evening news on the radio.

An article came up about two boys who had successfully sued to get their names removed from a sex offenders register.

Now, they had sued because they... hadn't actually been convicted of any sex crimes.

And she said, out loud, "what, so we just wait for them to actually commit a crime?"

I was appalled, even at my young age, that my mother would say this. They'd been convicted of no crime.

I immediately objected, following that same logic: they'd been convicted of no crime, so why were they on a register for criminals?

(It was so many years ago that I don't remember the exact facts of the case, so I literally don't know why they were on there to begin with)

Now, to be fair, this was many, many years ago, and I think my mum is a lot more woke on these issues nowadays, so I don't wish this to be seen as a criticism of her. I used to believe things much shittier than that.

BUT.

It's a good example of the liberal mindset on crime.

The reason you can't explain why Trump and Biden are basically nearly as bad as each other to liberals is because to them, Trump is A Criminal, and Biden is Not A Criminal.

Did Biden break the law? Sure, I mean, probably, but come on, he's not a criminal.

For conservatives, criminality is mostly about race, social class and political outlook. It's why they're fundamentally unable to look at white mass murderers as harshly they look at black people who sell drugs, or anarchists breaking shop windows.

For liberals, criminality is almost entirely about attitude and decorum.

If you have ever wondered why liberal media writes breathless articles about how shocked they are that such a quiet, mild-mannered boy could have murdered his entire class, this is why.

They're not faking it - they really are genuinely surprised that quiet, mild-mannered boys just suddenly bring a Glock to school one day and start shooting.

Because "quiet and mild-mannered" DOES NOT FIT THE IDEA LIBERALS HAVE OF WHAT CRIMINALS ARE LIKE.

Of course Trump is a criminal - look at how he swaggers, look at how he mistreats women, look at how he belittles and mocks his opponents, look at his violations of procedure! He's nothing like Obama, notoriously un-criminal Obama, who built detention camps for migrants.

Notoriously un-criminal Obama, under whom drone strikes multiplied.

Notoriously un-criminal Obama, under whom surveillance laws were broadened.

Notoriously un-criminal Obama, who tried to prosecute whistleblowers like Snowden.

And then you see that liberals dislike Bush, but accept him as an ally.

Because, for all his faults, for his foolish gaffes, Bush still maintained decorum. Do you remember when he had that impersonator on at the White House Correspondent's Dinner?! The man has a sense of humour!

Never mind that he colluded with a family member in a position of political power to rig an election which is functionally similar to what Trump's trying to do right now.

Never mind that he brutally tortured detainees in violation of the Geneva Convention.

Never mind that his administration literally fabricated evidence to start two highly illegal wars.

Arguably, Bush did more damage to America and the world than Trump has, and continues to do so in his long retirement! But he's Not A Criminal. He's urbane. Diplomatic. Folksy.

You want the PERFECT example of this?

OJ Simpson.

Many conservatives automatically assumed he was guilty because he's black.

Many liberals automatically assumed he was innocent because he's charming, friendly and he was in a bunch of fun movies.

The way this relates back to cops is because liberals have this... mental image of what a cop should be - courageous, just, even-handed, reserved protectors.

Now, there's ample evidence of cops who are cowardly, abusive liars who break the law. This does not sway a liberal.

This mental image of what police are supposed to be is so strong that instead of accepting that it doesn't match reality, they'll dismiss contrary evidence as not being "real" cops, even though evidence of bad cops always vastly outweighs evidence of good cops.

And the thing is... liberals and conservatives kind of agree that the protestors seeking justice are criminals.

Conservatives because of the race, class and political outlook of the protestors.

Liberals because the protestors refuse to act with "civility."

Conservatives are actually a little bit more honest about cops. They're not embarrassed by police brutality - they're delighted by it. To them, criminals deserve to be brutalised, and again, it really doesn't matter if they've actually broken any laws. They're criminals.

Liberals don't object to police brutality on general principle. They just think it's not being applied to the right people.

I guarantee you if cops treated Trump or McConnell like they treat black people, liberals would be cheering "our boys in blue" like there was no tomorrow.

The thing with the liberal fixation on decorum is that a lot of it's based in western (which is to say, white) understandings - how, when and to what degree to express emotion, what targets are acceptable, which words to use, how to speak, etc. etc.

I break from some leftists in that I genuinely believe a lot of liberals when they say they don't mean to be racist.

It's just that an insistence on "civility" will always favour white people because they have the institutional power to decide what is and isn't "civil."

We should also talk sometime about the way liberals, even when they actually take breaking the law into consideration, put too much faith in the law.

But this thread is super long already so let's just leave it here for now.

One last thing, though:

To quickly explain the whole "existential class" thing, if you're convicted of a crime, both liberals and conservatives view you as retroactively always having been a criminal, because someone who wasn't a criminal wouldn't have broken the law.