Yeah I would NEVER put up any signs or indication of my politics these days.
Lots of brownie points to you for holding your tongue on that one.
What makes you think I held my tongue?
(I did though. It was just too sad all around.)
I figured you’d tell us if you said something! Besides, your willingness to give in to the lure of a yard sale despite the political signage suggests you have a strong practical streak, and we all know that nothing you could have said would change that person’s mind.
Quite correct. That was one of the sad parts.
Judd Legum at Popular Information lists 50 companies that have donated $23 million to election deniers, despite statements coming immediately after Jan 6. Are they fascists?
Well they support fascism. [1] Since we’re here to fight ignorance, I believe it’s helpful to distinguish between MAGA-Republicans and the other kind of Republican who may or may not know better, but very much should know better. The latter are not cultists: they may like tax cuts or they may dislike or fear regulation. The latter are susceptible to propaganda though, specifically from Fox News or the Wall Street Journal.
My take is that the Maga cultists can’t help themselves. So the go-along Republicans are worse. Both are fascist, the first enthusiastically and the last passively – much like the typical German business conservative of 1933.
[1] Quick definition of fascism for the purposes of this post. An anti-democratic movement grounded on scapegoating out-groups. Not all fascists are Nazis: some support Franco or Mussolini or the WWII Japanese military government.
I’ve pondered this truth and I have yet to come to an understanding. I do not know how anyone can listen to Donald J. Trump speak and not walk away knowing he’s a liar. Even worse, I don’t understand why they believe Trump cares for them or their problems. He’s not going to help them.
It’s easy to understand.
It’s
A
Cult.
In a very literal sense, and showing all the traits we associate with cults.
I think I understand how MAGA folks can believe that the last election is stolen.
If you have 10 people, and three of those people wear red MAGA hats, and shirts with “Let’s Go Brandon” logos, and confederate flag belt buckles, and they’re loudly yelling about how the country is being invaded by foreigners and kids are being groomed by the gays in schools… And the other seven people are dressed like regular adults, keep their mouths shut and just peacefully go about their business. Those three MAGA folks might think there were no Biden supporters around, and were certain Trump should have won in a landslide.
On top of that, a lot of MAGA-ism is presented as “common sense.”
“It’s common sense to not let illegal immigrants in.”
“It’s common sense to have family values.”
“It’s common sense that a man who undergoes surgery to look like a woman isn’t a REAL woman.”
“It’s common sense that black people would succeed if they just behaved well and studied hard.”
“It’s common sense that heavy prison sentences would deter crime.”
“It’s common sense that drag queens are bad.”
“It’s common sense that a kid’s parents should be a man and a woman.”
“It’s common sense that if you take guns away, then only criminals will have guns.”
Etc. etc.
“Common sense” implies that a majority of people understand it and support it. That’s why Trumpers were holding signs like “The Silent Majority Stands With Trump.” So when the common sense (MAGA) side loses, they are dumbfounded and convinced there must have been cheating. How could the majority lose?
It may be no consolation, but many (all?) countries have people with those sorts of issues - different in different countries, of course, but all basically driven by a simplistic “Stop the world, I want to get off” tendency.
Around 1/3 of all people everywhere just want somebody who tells them what to do.
For those people “A Brave New World” sounds like an Utopia.
The trick is to keep the other 2/3 interested enough and united enough to actually vote, then you get result like we recently saw in Poland, Britain, France and hopefully this fall in the US.
You cannot debate those 1/3, you cannot stop them from voting against their own interests.
You can only out-vote them.
Else you get Trump, Berlusconi, Boris Johnson, le Pen, Orban, Putin. - everywhere there are “strong men (women) standing ready to take over if the coalition on the sane fails.
Friedrich Schiller had it right:
Folly, thou conquerest, and I must yield!
Against stupidity the very gods
Themselves contend in vain. Exalted reason,
Resplendent daughter of the head divine,
Wise foundress of the system of the world,
Guide of the stars, who art thou then if thou,
Bound to the tail of folly’s uncurbed steed,
Must, vainly shrieking with the drunken crowd,
Eyes open, plunge down headlong in the abyss.
Accursed, who striveth after noble ends,
And with deliberate wisdom forms his plans!
To the fool-king belongs the world.
- Die Jungfrau von Orleans (The Maid of Orleans) (1801), Act III, sc. vi (as translated by Anna Swanwick)
Very much so. I was seeing more Biden/Harris signs before, and I’m seeing even more Harris signs than I did Biden/Harris signs. I’m in Dekalb County. Things may be different in parts of Cobb or Gwinnett counties.
It just needs a comma.
I live in a gated community with only about 25 other homes. In our little enclave, people are fortunately keeping their opinions to themselves. But outside of that, I see nothing except Trump flags and bumper stickers. On the NextDoor app, occasionally a discussion will start up that brings a few Democrats out of the woodwork to push back, so they’re out there. I think we’re all just lying low in order not to piss off the crazy folks. Besides, I’ve never advertised my opinions to the neighbors and don’t see any reason to start now.
That’s pretty much the dynamic in most states which have both urban areas and more rural areas. Typically, the urban areas skew blue, and the rural areas skew red.
I know, right? One thing I’ve found distressing is the extent to which tradespeople seem to want to ferret out my political views. They’re not shy about it. Really, why do you care? You’re here to clean my gutters/repair a water leak/fix my satellite/spray for bugs/wash the windows, not have a chat about politics! Let’s leave it at, “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” can’t we?
Here on the west side of the Cascades even in a rural setting, the Trumpage isn’t too bad. I know most of my neighbors at least enough to wave and most of us are liberal-leaning. Thanks to their virtue-signal tendencies with the flags and signs, I know who all the nutty neighbors are. They are far outnumbered, I’m happy to report.
Like elsewhere, the only ones displaying are the nuts. I see no Biden-Harris signs.
But each of any three trump supporters is DUMBER than the other two.
It’s absolutely the case here in Washington State. But we have so many more people in the urban areas that this is a pretty solid blue state.
There are giant (sparsely-populated) patches of the state that are red though. If you go east of the Cascades in particular, you have some pretty rabid MAGA areas.
Even where I grew up, which isn’t particularly rural, there’s a strong Republican leaning (but I think some of that is the military influence due to it being a Navy town). I definitely grew up raised as a Republican and both my parents (divorced for the past 30 years) are independently right wing. (My dad is a lot more vocal about it than my mom.)