Ironically, such people often immediately follow up their “democracy is already dead” statement with, “Make sure you show up and vote in the midterms!”
Good ol’ Der_Trihs, always ruining everyone’s “this is a strawman” posts.
For context, “they” refers to Christian Dominionists here. And there is some evidence that a not-insignificant percentage of CDs like the idea of hastening the End of Days.
But while there are a few kicking around the current administration, I’m not seeing signs of them within finger-pushing distance of the button. Although they’re probably happily supporting the genocide in Gaza in whatever way they can.
I want to generally apologize for not responding to everyone’s posts. I did not imagine this thread would have over a hundred posts within twenty-four hours. I feel like this kid.
That gave me a chuckle.
I guess where I come down on this is, even if it were true that Trump planned to take these extreme measures, is it useful to talk about what Trump might do? Or is it better to talk about what he is doing? Nobody on the right has ever taken seriously any of our past dire predictions even though they came to pass. Of course they seem pleased with what he’s doing now, so I dunno.
Personally I find hysteria hard to take even if true. I had a friend in one of my message groups freaking out on the daily. It’s like, you’re not wrong, but you’re (unintentionally) screaming at me for not being in a constant state of panic and I don’t think it’s helping anybody. Panic doesn’t make me more effective. I doubt it makes anyone more effective. We need something more like clear-eyed awareness and deliberate action.
Most definitely the latter, and might I suggest that the next time you have a complaint where the problem seems to focus mainly on one or two people (like Der_Trihs) you just address them directly and skip all this misunderstanding?
Most definitely, because it is easier to stop it (or at least slow it down) before it happens, rather than after the fact when it is usually too late.
My hope was to target the behavior rather than pit an individual.
Your “hope” included an unnecessarily broad brush.
I’m not an Historian, but can someone who is look up what happens when you appease fascists?
Pretty much the same thing that happens when you “compromise” between telling the truth and telling a lie, I would guess.
The way I see it the things Trump and the Republicans are doing are necessary steps on the path to the far more extreme things that people can imagine they might do. They can’t, for example, skip right over abolishing civil rights protection and go directly to restoring slavery.
So if we focus on the here and now and stop them from abolishing civil rights protection we will also be stopping them from any hypothetical possibility of restoring slavery.
The reverse is not true. If we waste efforts on preventing the restoration of slavery, the Republicans will still be able to go halfway and abolish civil rights protection.
If we stop the Republicans in 2025, we won’t need to worry about the things they might have done in 2028. But if we worry about all the things the Republicans might do in 2028, they have a better chance in succeeding at the things they are doing in 2025.
It was alluded to in post four, but ignored.
Anyway, it brought us peace in our time. Didn’t it?
In general, I appreciate the intent. That said, though, there are legitimate concerns about crimes against humanity when it comes to Gaza. I wouldn’t say that it’s clear that the administration is actively interested in committing any, just that it’s an accusation that does bear an amount of scrutiny and that’s worth keeping an eye on.
Trump shouldn’t get keelhauled for imaginary things. But, likewise, he shouldn’t get a pass on grave crimes because crazies highlighted pretend variants and distracted from the plausible ones.
I would like to avoid arguments from the right claiming that “Because these (rare and sparse) statements about Trump aren’t true, that must be evidence that other things about Trump also aren’t true!”.
Reread the OP. I didn’t say this was a widespread problem.
Yes, it would be a shame if Republicans did something to, say, the Voting Rights Act in some distant future.
Exactly. This is the kind of real threat we should be worried about and working against.
You are the one that controls what you drop a note about versus what you create a thread about, not me.
But if you misunderstood the post, that’s on you.