It’s honestly better insight than you’ll get from a roundtable of pundits on CNN or MSNBC, musing about “What do MAGA supporters want?” instead of realizing they are just easily deluded saps and the occasionally willingly complicit follower who think that this scammy witch-king is going to pull them up on the dais with (at least in spirit) him to be fêted with him.
Stranger
And millions of people, including lots of young people, follow Matt Walsh, Ben Shapiro, Andrew Wilson, Posie Parker, Kaitlin Bennett, Jordan Peterson …
And yet, he’s still better informed on the major figures on the alt-right than you are.
Moderating:
Again, we’re drifting into personal attack space again, which @Aspenglow asked all to avoid just a few hours ago. In addition, I think the ongoing discussion of who is or is not a current influence is taking us away from the actual topic of the OP, which asks if the loss of a specific influencer/booster is likely to set off the next stage of the American Civil War/Breakup. Granted, if one of the other influencers are using Charlie Kirk’s death to set it off (as cited in the OP) that’s fair game. So lets gently head back on topic, and once again mind the gap between snark and attacks.
Nitpick: ‘Had’.
Charlie Kirk could have been President someday, but it was a long shot.
I don’t know. He would have turned 35 just in time to run in 2028. I think there were some who were starting to see him as DJT’s heir apparent. He certainly had more charisma and appeal to the MAGA/Evangelical Right than JD.
I thought it was obvious, but I guess not, since it’s the only thing anyone’s saying about my post. Republicans THINK they’re fighting evil. I’ve heard it said often enough.
^Yes. Christofascism is particularly insidious because its adherents get to feel that God is personally endorsing their politics, and they get to feel religiously persecuted by any opponents whose politics do not match up with their own (i.e., everyone else).
I’ve worried about Klepper’s safety while he’s “Fingering the Pulse”. Doubly worried now.
Bolding mine. Did I miss something? Did Taylor Swift repent from her Biden/Harris and Harris/Walz endorsements? Not sure how she belongs in that sentence…
He (and other TDS correspondents) travel with security on field pieces:
‘…which is bonkers…I was an improv teacher before I did this.”
Stranger
One of the biggest reasons why we’re fucked. The republican party went from humoring the true believers to help put them over the top, to making them their base. Even worse, many true believers have now been voted into office, and everyone who isn’t can’t afford to act otherwise.
Be careful what you pretend to be. Do it enough, and you become it.
And now we’re so very screwed. People who act in God’s name do not compromise, and when they act in horrible ways that are destructive to people, democracy, the country, and the Earth in general, the rest of us can’t compromise on very much either. You have two groups who won’t back down, who both believe they have too much on the line to lose. Each must win, but only one can.
Goldwater was right.
Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.
I think the last decade +/- proved something to us: faith – the belief in things for which there simply is no evidence – is NOT benign. It can be extremely harmful. It can tear a country apart. It can pave the way for an Authoritarian Head of State.
“Anyone who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”
–Voltaire
[Or, at the very least, tacitly accept the atrocities that happen]
The machinery behind MAGA, Project 2025, and the current iteration of the Republican party – Kirk included – know this extremely well.
Goldwater tried to use the Religious Right to advance his own hyperconservative agenda, and instead ended up ‘platforming’ them to his own detriment, setting up the same cycle during Reagan and the Moral Majority. That should serve as a cautionary tale for those who will align with anybody on the thesis that “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
I thought about that every time I saw Liz Cheney on stage with Kamala Harris.
Stranger
When was faith ever “benign”? These are the people who used to burn people at the stake for being the wrong kind of Christian.
I would guess that the vast majority of its adherents would characterize it as either benign or a force for good.
It’s the rest of us that know better.
Meaning: I agree with your point.
I swear, more and more it seems history is just a never-ending cycle of us failing to learn from the past.
To be sure.
Let’s say, though, that we’re comparing knowledge of baseball. I know the standing of all the teams, the schedule of the games, the major players, etc. This other guy, he knows who’s recruiting new talent for university baseball teams.
If he knows all of the other stuff as well, then to be certain, he knows more than me - and that’s fine, I didn’t claim to be the most knowledgeable person of all history, just pretty knowledgeable.
But if university recruiters, water boys, and which players are dating which models are most of what he knows about baseball and he’s not really aware of the listings and game schedule…well, that’s just a peculiar slant on this whole “sports fandom” deal. It is a form of being very knowledgeable, but a curious one.
I’m not catholic. I do take note when the Pope says something.
Influential people in a region are influential people in a region. The average MAGA is just some idiot working at an auto repair, not a philosopher who’s out there reading manifestos and subscribing to a self-selected pantheon of mortal godlings. He’s influenced by everyone of influence in his region - whether he recognizes it or not.
Elon Musk and Taylor Swift are both operating on everyone in the country, and hitting more MAGA than most MAGA.
You generally achieve MAGA by not paying attention, not by being studious.
I genuinely have no idea what you’re trying to say with this metaphor, or how it applies to anything in this thread.
That if a person can read the Financial Times, The Hill, Government Executive, Lawfare, and the Volokh Conspiracy and not heard of the guy, then he’s not terribly central to government and politics.
That many do seem to know of him would seem to say that a lot of people have been following a whole different and peculiar tangent on the whole matter - like being more interested in waterboys than pitchers.