It’s hard to articulate, but it’s that classing of a worthy foe or something. Like people say “say what you will about x but he does y good” (something said by someone about Rommel by Patton (at least in his movie))in a way that’s meant to sound begrudging but just makes them sound like they want to be them if you get me
Witness it once in a blue moon
People genuinely without political awareness do not believe they have existential enemies. They think all it takes to change a Nazi’s mind is a sound and well-structured argument, for the sake of which they are willing to let them talk back and entertain their talking points, as if anyone ever becomes a Nazi on the basis of rational consideration. This wishful thinking may be exacerbated by a common liberal fallacy that balanced equals unbiased and that unbiased equals true or trustworthy.
Right-wingers on the other hand do everything they can to try to rehabilitate and excuse even the worst figures amongst their ranks, because it broadens the acceptance their ideology can find. If someone points out Rommel’s colonial aspirations and murderous exploits to expand the reach of Hitler’s empire into Africa, they fall back on saying they’re not an expert and did not know about his crimes, even immediately after telling their “nuanced” stories about him.
I mean, the politically ignorant you talk about still have their own ideas of “existential enemies.” They just all happen to be bogeymen- “evil seeseepee” Chinese getting uppity and resisting the “rightful world order” of western diktat, “Putler” and Russia acting “unprovoked,” nebulous ideas of nefarious brown Muslims hating the west for “their freedoms,” uppity “authoritarian, backwards” Africans/Asians/Latinos rejecting the “benevolent” and “enlightened” west’s meddling and looting, and of course all the nasty godless gommunist “tankies” whose existence and critique reveals inconvenient truths about their empire and privilege.
The politically ignorant (willful or otherwise) in the west absolutely do have their own ideas of “existential enemies.” And in settler-societies (as a Canadian- as someone who has seen just how the First Nations are treated and seen in this country) that understanding of “existential enemies” extends also to the indigenous peoples (or at least, any of those who are not totally defeated and “put in their place,” who seek their own autonomy and/or genuine equality and reparations/land back/etc). Because they understand- subconsciously or otherwise- that their very existence and dignity poses a challenge to the continued settler thieving and squatting and exposes their guilt.
The politically ignorant across the west fall near entirely into two camps- those sheltered, ignorant, or genuinely “apolitical”/nihilistic who have not had their understanding of the world challenged yet or who have washed their hands of the matter (understanding just how crooked the system is and leaving it at that)- and those who are willfully ignorant and hateful towards any or all of the groups mentioned above or more.
Though- then, I suppose I am talking about right-wingers, as such people are effectively and inherently right-wingers (even when they pretend to be “progressive,” and when they entirely wrongly consider themselves left). But these are indeed a very large portion of the “politically ignorant” in the west…
Communists actually are existential enemies to the existing liberal order, so that one isn’t just a bogeyman
While I agree, I’d also say- all those I mentioned above (people desiring their own sovereignty, security, their own resources and the fruits of their labor, those desiring equality, and those who just so happen to be indigenous) also are existential enemies to the existing liberal order as well; the “liberal order” is maintained through stolen land, exploited labor, and rivers of blood, and all those seeking to end any of the above are inherent enemies.
This is the end result of genocidal, hegemonic, thieving and arrogant liberalism; the very nature of human dignity, and the desire for it from the exploited masses stands against them. There’s not a single enemy out there that they did not create the conditions for, through their barbarism; communists included of course, as it is their oppression of the proletariat across the globe, and beyond that their imperialism (the highest form of capitalism, of course) that has created such conditions that were responsible for every communist uprising, and every creation of every AES state out there.
If you ask me, “humanity” is an existential enemy to the liberal order; all those with decency, and all those who desire decency, are their enemies, whether they have recognized it yet or not. They have made enemies of everything and everyone, save for themselves and their collaborators; and at this point I think it can be said that they (the liberals) are even the enemy of the human species altogether, as they work to plunge the world yet again into a world war (and this time, a nuclear armageddon), as they rapidly destroy the planet’s ecosystem, and as they proliferate all of the most dangerous ideologies (fascism, religious extremism, tribalism, etc) and play with all sorts of horrific WMDs (and are quite possibly the cause for cv19, AIDS, etc).
Well said, I didn’t read your comment that closely