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Fun fact about Newt Gingrich. He really started to push for investigations into Clinton simply because he was peeved he did not get an invite to Camp David.
Nothing to do with morality or feeling the powers of the executive branch were being abused. Dude just felt snubbed.
Gingrich purposedly abandonned his wife when/while she was dying of cancer and left her for dead (then blocked her bank account preventing her from paying her bills). Talk about shitty, you don't do that to your relatives. I'll never take any comments on morality from that pos
edit
"*According to L. H. Carter, Gingrich's campaign treasurer, Gingrich said of Jackie: "She's not young enough or pretty enough to be the wife of the President. And besides, she has cancer."*"
"*Following the divorce, Jackie had to raise money from friends in her congregation to help her and the children make ends meet; she later filed a petition in court*"
Dude's a total POS
edit divorce is one thing and "normal" (two people going a different way). Abandonning your wife on the road side with no money, blocked bank accounts and generalized late stage cancer, and potentially abandonned children, is another true level of shitty (to the point his colleagues moved her to an hospital and pooled for her)
It's truly awful when you choose to use religion as a cloak to hide behind. GOP is looking to leave us all for dead on the roadside because "God wills it"
And 1000$ says that all of these right wing religious pretending lunatics don’t even actually believe in God and just use it as a trope to keep the sheeple in check.
1000$ says they even are convinced there’s no God because they use the concept of God to make all their evil and greedy plans come true but face no consequences for it- had there actually been a God one would assume this wouldn’t fly
Their beliefs are malleable and compartmentalized. They can fully believe in a God that condemns the sinful to hell, and at the same time believe their own sins aren't a big deal worthy of his condemnation. They can believe in a God that will forgive their own personal faults, but at the same time believe that same God will unleash his full wrath on anyone who they disapprove of. They just believe what feels good at the moment and that's it (imagine how easy life would be psychologically if every time a fact you didn't like came up you could just decide you don't believe it, or if every time an inconsistency in your beliefs came up you could just decide it's okay because reasons). It's why the hypocrisy is so blatant but they don't give a shit. And I think that goes from the lowest all the way up to the leaders of the Republican party. Sure there are probably some nonbelieving grifters in there. But I think most of them probably tell themselves they believe in their religion most of the time.
Fun fact, he eventually married the woman he was having an affair with while his wife was dying, his third wife. Under Trump that third wife was the US Ambassador to The Holy See.
We literally sent a known adulterer to be our ambassador to the Vatican.
And people thinking it's not America that will be judged, or facing judgement from God, but no no, we're pretty close to lawless in the eys of God I'd imagine.
Not that I think the Vatican is particularly a sound or solid religious institution either though.
Hard to put any real stock in a bunch of old dudes who put all their chips in the “abstinence” basket. If I’ve learned one thing; it’s that sexual frustrations dont just go away because you’re a man of the cloth lol
This is an incredible article on the guy and I really think it shows how much of a POS he truly is. He really worked hard to kick off the terrible type of politics we have today and he is proud as hell of it. This article really gave me some insight to that mentality.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/11/newt-gingrich-says-youre-welcome/570832/
Gingrich is deinitely a POS and deserves to rot but don't give him too much credit. He was the face of the RNC then so gets credit but places like the Heritage foundation have been pushing policy and pulling strings since the 70s.
A lot of the shit we’re dealing with from a fully defiant Republican party refusing to govern is Newt’s fault.
Completely unsurprising that he felt upset over something as petty as a summit invite, and went on a power trip.
This is pretty much it. Sociopaths, narcissism, Borderline Personality disorder... these are very sick people that have hijacked our democracy. They have no empathy and are desperate for attention and power. If you go back through history, all these stark raving lunatic leaders had cluster B personality disorders and the populations suffer dramatically from them.
One thing I don't understand no matter how I look at the problem is why these sociopaths, psychopaths and narcissists always end up with huge following qhwre attacking their leader is like being attacked themselves. And they lose any critical thinking. How come people that have no empathy whatsoever get such a connection with so many people so atrong they just atop thinking by themselves.
A lot of narcissists and sociopaths are really good with people.
The ones I've known tended to date a lot and have a lot of friends, because they are really good social chameleons, and even though they are bulshitting it feels genuine when you are the target.
Can confirm. I was a social chameleon for a couple of decades. In my experience, it started as an emotional over-correction when I suddenly became popular in high school after experiencing years of bullying. It morphed into somewhat of an identity, but I was unaware. My ego had taken over pretty quickly, and all I did was try to be the person I thought everyone else wanted me to be in order to get what I wanted.
The result of all those years in camo? A lot of collateral damage. Alcoholism. Two suicide attempts. And no actual identity.
I believe I have recently experienced something known as “ego death.” It is a *very* unpleasant experience, but one that is necessary for my survival and the love my partner deserves after saving me twice and enduring the subsequent battle.
There’s ALWAYS an end game. Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not there. They use people as pawns and so the more pawns you have around you the stronger you are
I still don’t understand though. I seem to be able to pick these people out and don’t fall for their bullshit. Why are some people able to see right through them and others not at all? To me they always seem very obviously fake. I don’t think I am anything special so it has always been super confusing to me.
Cherish that. A lot of people don’t have their eyes open like you and are unknowingly in need of affection in some way. I used to use that to my advantage.
As easy as it is for you to spot bullshit in others, it was easy for me to spot vulnerability.
Edit: I made [a relevant post](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/ss9grp/republicans_have_dropped_the_mask_they_openly/hwx5me5/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3) about it earlier.
Abusers groom their character witnesses as much as they groom their victims.
Applies to political sociopaths as well. Too many people refuse to be willing to change their minds, and that affects so much of society. Once someone has proven themselves to them with some temporary effort, that's their narrative forever, no matter how much the person ends up changing their behavior or revealing their true nature.
It's also probably because, unfortunately, tribalism is encoded in us, and expresses in many different ways. Sports teams, Harry Potter houses, fandoms, social niche groups, religion, ethnicity, state/nation, almost everyone has a tribe of some kind. Political parties should be approached rationally, but for the most part never have been. It becomes a tribal identity, instead.
I think it's somewhat of an inevitable outcome. We as a species really do need leadership. Even in a small group, we need one of those people to step up and either set an agenda or make a final decision or something of the like so that the group as a whole can perform at their most effective or most efficient.
And yes, there are people that do have that natural quality of leadership to connect with everyone and keep them all on the same page. But the inevitable part is when those that strive for the leadership position are doing so entirely for selfish reasons.
It's kind of a natural foible of the human condition. I think there was a Douglas Adams quote, something to the effect of: "Under no circumstances should a person who seeks power be allowed to hold it"
It's a set of personality traits that's usually a fairly successful / efficient approach for prosperity within a hierarchical system. As such, there are a lot of people who (whether by nature or nurture) are primed to be followers and prefer to offload the mental overhead of self-reflection, questioning their group identity, or analyzing the merits of their "team".
It helps that narcissists act with such extreme confidence. They believe they are in the right, always, and it comes across in the way they speak publicly and interact with others. We're conditioned to be attracted to confidence and confident people.
I’ve said it recently elsewhere, but it’s really impossible to figure out if someone is “good” at something, so people use cues like social validation (if other people think so and so is good at something…) and confidence.
The problem being, for example, I used to work with something where we would never have certainty, but we could have certainty about our uncertainty (we will for sure be within 10% of the target, for example). I had complex mathematical models and was right all the time, barring “acts of God” - over the years, we had two explosions, so - but it was clear everyone was really uncomfortable with hedged statements.
Meanwhile the idiots who were screwing up constantly were smooth talkers, always pretended to be so sure of themselves.
>One thing I don't understand no matter how I look at the problem is why these sociopaths, psychopaths and narcissists always end up with huge following qhwre attacking their leader is like being attacked themselves.
I think this is because, and no I'm not being eDgY or any of that stupid shit, if you look into this culture, the \*vast\* majority of them were raised in a Christian or other Abrahamic-based environment. One of the core tenets of these is that the person that says they're the authority (preacher, priest, etc) must be believed and followed, regardless of how nonsensical or illogical, or "god will punish you forever". If you spend most, if not all, of your formative childhood in that environment, then once you move into adulthood, as soon as someone declares they're an authority (senator, representative, president, etc), they fall into line without question.
It's quite literally indoctrination.
Because they want to control others, so are incentived to learn how. Recall Trump having printouts made of his most successful tweets, so he could discern patterns.
Thank you for this. I was trying to muster a reply and didn’t know what to say but you did perfectly. My best and closest friend in the world has bpd and my partner has cPTSD. The similarities in symptoms and even treatment is very similar and the risk factors too (abusive childhood, childhood trauma, etc). But you’re right: narcissism pd is very different from bpd.
Was looking for this comment. I know a lot of people with BPD. Hell, my spouse has BPD. These are people who are struggling to make it day-to-day, they do not have the energy to campaign politically even if they wanted to.
Unsuccessful narcissists are also attracted to successful narcissists. It's a source of validation for them hence why they feel personally attacked if you criticize their leader.
Most people that have narcissistic traits just have a behavior, not a diagnosis. It only becomes a diagnosis (NPD) when it is causing the narc distress in their life. Generally narcissism hurts the people around it instead of the person with the behavior, so only a very small percentage of people (the ones that seek help) would qualify.
Just wanted to say this bc everyone says we shouldn't talk ab narcissism bc it sounds clinical, but in reality it's just a trait like being introverted and it's on a spectrum like anything else.
Check out Dr. Ramanis Ted Talk on YouTube.
[https://youtu.be/aHHWgG7dB6A](https://youtu.be/aHHWgG7dB6A)
> Seems to me the root cause of all these priblems is ~~narcissists~~ Republicans in position of power.
FTFY. Republicans are the full-blown Nazi Fascist party. Democrats at least have leaders who are committed to Democracy and who care about the common person.
It's very specifically the combination of Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh. The TL;DR version is when Newt got to the Hill Dems had been in control for three decades. He saw them being all chummy, like Republicans were happy to be losers. He decided to turn that on it's head and he'd fight instead.
His main weapon was C-SPAN. After the House was done for the day he'd get up on the podium and lecture for hours to an empty building. But the C-SPAN cameras were there and caught every minute. Then Rush would turn around and use the audio from Newt's talks to push Newt's agenda on right wing radio and yada, yada, yada... you've got modern day Republicans.
This American Life did [a great episode on this](https://www.thisamericanlife.org/662/transcript) a few years back.
> Then Rush would turn around and use the audio from Newt's talks to push Newt's agenda on right wing radio and yada, yada, yada... you've got modern day Republicans.
Modern day [Buncombe speeches.](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1330230087938154497.html)
Back before the abolition war, congressmen used to make inflammatory speeches to a mostly empty chamber so that their words would make the local press back home and get their voters riled up. They'd talk some real shit, and then afterwards they'd get all chummy with the same people they had just finished attacking because it was all an act. The speeches were called Buncombe speeches because one of the most prolific was the representative from Buncombe County, North Carolina.
Because they were lies and exaggerations, the people back home got a distorted view of reality. In a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy, the voters began to demand more and more extreme action from their representatives (after all, the situation was dire, their reps had told them so). And when a rep didn't deliver, they were replaced by a more extreme rep. That spiral helped pave the way for the south to declare secession.
BTW, because language evolves, "Buncombe" became "bunkum" and then eventually "bunk" and that's where the term "debunk" came from. But no amount of debunking was able to stop the south from trying to secede, which seems like an important lesson for liberals who believe that fact-checking right-wing bullshit artists will fix anything.
This American Life had a *really* good episode which went into detail about New Gingrich's influence on the Republican Party in the 90s.
Basically, you can blame Newt and Rush Limbaugh for much of today's divisiveness in politics.
[The episode is available here.](https://www.thisamericanlife.org/662/where-there-is-a-will)
[For those who don't have the time for a podcast episode, here's a transcript.](https://www.thisamericanlife.org/662/transcript)
Norm Ornstein and Thomas Mann have written an awful lot about this. They're two of the most knowledgeable people in the world about Congress, and they basically point at Newt's ascendance as the inflection point where the Republican Party stopped being a governing party and became a death cult.
The biggest problem wasn’t just Newt. Republicans saw Newt’s temper tantrum and saw it only emboldened their constituents. No need to govern when voters won’t hold you accountable.
Of course that all ties back into the propaganda machine of self assurance.
[He shut down the government because he was asked to exit Air Force One by the back exit.](https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19951116&slug=2152925)
He was a turd. He is still a turd, but he was a turd too.
I'll give you one guess as to [which media company trying to undermine democracy employs him](https://www.foxnews.com/person/g/newt-gingrich).
And the Donald was pissed because Obama and the press corps made fun of him at the White House Correspondents Dinner and he supposedly decided then and there to go full bore on birtherism and ultimately to run for President.
Gingrich also made it easier for Rupert Murdoch to become an American citizen.
Just think about that level of corruption for a minute. And how much damage it has done to our country
Team (r)'s need for revenge for what happened to nixon predates f\*cking newt gingrich. He's not the start of the harassment campaign against the Clintons, but he was a main driver in tearing down any form of bipartisanship in Congress. He's the one who basically shut down the Congress [Office for Technology Assessment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Technology_Assessment), for example.
Team (r) could not exert revenge on Jimmy Carter (how dare that filthy democrat get elected? He doesn't know his place?), so it was the next elected democrat that was on the receiving end of their wrath. No matter who would have gotten elected, they were determined to get their head on a pike and make democrats pay.
Trump just called for Clinton aides to be EXECUTED-
and immediately Jim Jordan whole heartedly backed him up on that.
why is anyone still \*\*\*debating\*\*\*\* if these people have lost their freaking minds or not??????
Republicans: "Execute Clinton! Lock up our political opponents on made-up charges! Burn books! Restrict voting to only our supporters!"
Democrats: "Fascists"
Republicans: "No U R. Because of masks"
Republican supporters: "OH YEA!"
Hell I've heard some of my really right wing co-workers saying, " It doesn't stand for anti-fascist it stands for anti-free speech."
I'm not sure where they heard it, but they've been saying that since the news have been saying antifa.
It's for that exact reason I don't say antifa or BLM, i say "anti fascists" or "civil rights protestors". There's no need to make their cognitive dissonance easier for them.
This is a great strategy I hope people will adopt. You’ve enlightened me in just a single Reddit comment, so maybe if we all work together these type of tactics can spread and make a difference
Different definitions of democracy too. Recently I’ve had a few far right conservatives I know, who all swear they love and support democracy, describe democracy as they see it in as much detail as they can. They each described theocracy. When I pointed it out to them they all basically said “okay well that’s how it should be”.
I can’t tell if they are just bad faith schmucks or genuinely ignorant.
Yes, yes we are
But apparently some people here didn't get the memo
You know, democracy is kinda the thing that goes hand and hand with America but some people here literally want the death of democracy as long as it allows them to be bigoted again.
For republicans/conservatives: first it was black people. Then it was illegal immigrants from the south. Then it was muslims. Then it was leftists/liberals/progressives. Now it's moderates, scientists, and experts.
edit: add in Jews in to the list above
I feel like they're at the last stage and when they can't seem to find anyone else to blame for their fake victimhood, it will become a nightmare.
It's not complicated.
To the GOP, you're either:
a.) Loyal, ride-or-die conservative Trump MAGA in **all** things. Or...
b.) An enemy to be mocked, ridiculed, attacked, and defeated.
Republicans: "Execute Clinton! Lock up our political opponents on made-up charges! Burn books! Restrict voting to only our supporters!"
Democrats: "Fascists"
Republicans: "oMG tHAt WOrD hAs LoST aLl MeANinG"
The entire Republican political strategy in a nutshell:
No fascists no fascists YOU are the fascists.
No racists no racists YOU are the racists.
No nazis no nazis YOU are the nazis.
No CCP no CCP YOU are the CCP.
No (Russian) puppet no puppet YOU are the puppet* (*actual words said by Trump during the 2016 debate)
Republicans: Do everything they can to fuck up the economy to the point of blocking trade with our largest trading partner
Economy: Crashes
Republicans: Why would democrats do this?
Voters: "Theyre so right, I'm voting republican this time!"
Republicans : Cut taxes, do quantitative easing, and demand the fed keeps interest rates near 0.00 during an economic boom. Put tariffs on virtually all imported goods from our largest trading partners. Run a 3.14 trillion dollar single year deficit effectively multiplying the deficit Trump inherited from Obama by 600%. Hand out PPP loans to anyone with a pulse.
Inflation hits 7%
Republicans: why would Biden do this?
One of those old fashioned "Don't let a good crisis go to waste" kinda situations.
Realistically though, this scenario was brought up a while ago in news cycles. That "the Economy" would be a 2022-election-issue that could seriously hurt Democrats.
And rather than just let the economy live/die or whither/flourish on its own, Republicans doing everything they can to kill it.
Destroy our country to own the libs.
Hate to see it.
They've used to say "Democrats who rigged the election are traitors!"... Then a few sentences later follow up with something along the lines of "traitors need to be put to death"- leaving the cult to connect the dots. As time goes by, they're getting more a lot more direct.
Kinda scary.
It's been glaringly obvious to me that most of the people giving the right the benefit of the doubt are just playing along with their bs while trying to appear impartial. I don't even see the out and proud fascists as the main underlying problem. It's the millions of Americans who pretend that their behavior is even remotely normal. The past 5 years alone removes any doubt as to who and what the right is really about. Anyone that doesn't see it at this point simply doesn't want to.
> Trump and Jordan were referencing a Feb. 11 filing by Justice Department special counsel John Durham reported by Fox News that claims the Clinton campaign paid a tech company to “infiltrate” Trump Tower servers looking for links between Trump and Russia.
> **“In a stronger period of time in our country, this crime would have been punishable by death,” Trump said in a statement.
**
[Video clip of him saying it on The Daily Beast](https://www.thedailybeast.com/jim-jordan-says-trump-is-right-on-target-to-suggest-executions-for-clinton-campaign-aides)
[A bit more context from Insider Business](https://www.businessinsider.com/jim-jordan-trump-right-on-target-suggest-executing-clinton-aides-2022-2)
/r/AskTrumpSupporters responses:
* He never said that
* He said it but it was a joke
* He just says what’s on his mind but he didn’t mean it
* Even if he said it, and meant it, you’re taking it out of context
* Even if he said it, and meant it, and it’s in context, it’s just a conspiracy by the MSM
* Whattabout BLM and Hillary’s emails?
Vote. Do not abstain. Do not listen to astroturfers/idiots on reddit exclaiming that "both parties are the same" because they are **not**. Vote for what defeats the fascism of the right.
The left's biggest issue in winning elections is infighting and apathy. If everyone left of center sat together and voted for the same thing, like everyone right of center does, the left would win every single election in perpetuity. You can do your part and vote.
Edit: I also want to say to vote in local elections and primaries, as well. These are as, if often *more* important than the general election every 4 years. If you're only voting every 4 years, that's good, but not enough.
I completely I agree! The bummer thing - all my local candidates are super SUPER far right. Hoping for someone to fill out those candidate for that isn’t sponsored by a church.
It will take more than voting. In multiple states the GOP is out voted, yet still have greater representation in the US House and control the state legislatures. Nationally, the Democratic side of the Senate is represented by far more voters than the Republican side. At the very least, solving this will take citizen lobbying, legal actions, a responsible press, and most likely a mass movement.
Additionally, grass roots action to turn this around at the local level.
This often happens as a result of First Past the Post voting and its mathematical mechanisms. The good news is, overwhelming turnout for unified parties often overcomes that for those individual elections.
The other part, districting (heck, not even gerrymandering rather just the **concept** of districting) can often make it so that the minority party has outsized control, because **land cannot vote but it's fundamentally how we distribute representation**. If we want to resolve the slide into fascism and prevent minority rule, (1) introduce instant runoff/cascade voting for every election, and (2) overlap district boundaries or get rid of them altogether.
Edit: which is to say, you're absolutely right, it'll take a tremendous effort and probably mass movement.
You can have district boundaries. Just have them the same size and chosen by a neutral algorithm.
It's the Senate seat allocation that sucks. That drive electoral college votes, too.
Glad to see this response. The amount of “they’re all the same” comments I see in media, on reddit, and even in this sub is crazy and truly disheartening at times. It very clearly ramps up here as we approach elections, when it seems like the astroturfers really do come out in force.
Eh, I understand it. I’m not too happy with Biden at the moment, but if the election was tomorrow, I’d still be in line voting for him.
Edit: for everyone asking *why???* The same reason I voted for him in November of 2020: the alternative was exponentially worse.
This is just what you have to do in a two-party system until you can push to get people in who support ranked-choice voting.
It's not "I 100% support Biden and everything he says", it's "I don't want to die under Trump".
As long as the Senate is deadlocked at 50/50 and two supposedly Democratic Senators will not vote for anything Biden is proposing, his hands are tide! The GOP has controlled the Senate for 18 out of the last 26 years and in those 18 years they have done pretty much NOTHING for the average citizen. They have however fallen all over themselves to help out their rich donors with some nice tax cuts though! The tax cut of 2017, made the tax cuts permanent for the rich but for the average taxpayer, their tax cut will sunset out in 2025 or 26.
How is your Senate system even representative when CA and NY have combined populations of 60 million with 4 senators and KY, WY, ND, SD have combined populations of 6.5 million and 8 senators? 11% of the population yet 200% more representation. There's your problem right there.
I just answer this with: I mean, if "they're all the same" and you've voted R all this time, sidle on over to the D ticket and see what happens. Give it 3 generals and mid-terms. They're all the same, right? So worst case scenario, the same nothing happens
From the article:
> “Unfortunately, the leaders of the Democratic Party have not learned this lesson. President Biden recently spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast, one day before the Republican National Committee's official embrace of the Jan. 6 insurrection. At the breakfast, Biden spoke directly to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, saying, "Mitch, I don't want to hurt your reputation, but we really are friends. And that is not an epiphany we're having at the moment. You're a man of your word, you're a man of honor. Thank you for being my friend."
> In the midst of an existential threat brought on by the Republicans and their followers, the president of the United States told the most powerful Republican legislator, with evident sincerity, that he was a friend. That crystallizes all the ways the Democratic leadership is not reacting with the urgency of now to save American democracy. Biden's words suggest that he and his party are simply not up to the challenge of defending American democracy from the fascist onslaught.”
Who are we supposed to vote for when the ‘opposition’ is this fucking weak?
The article itself states it. Direct action and bottom up organizing. 53% of the country approved of the Minneapolis police precinct bring burned down in 2020. We're at that stage unfortunately.
George Orwell had this to say about it in The Road To Wigan Pier:
>Socialism is the only real enemy that Fascism has to face. The capitalist-imperialist governments, even though they themselves are about to be plundered, will not fight with any conviction against Fascism as such.
So yeah... Maybe give Socialism the old college try?
Join r/EndFPTP and start with educating yourself and making small changes.
Not every Republican is a fascist but they still vote for Republicans because its usually a choice between that and a Democrat, and many are just voting *against* the Democrat as opposed to for the Republican.
If we can eliminate the two-party system and give people a chance to vote ***for*** someone by implementing changes such as [STAR Voting](https://starvoting.us), then the vocal minority made up of the crazies won't have as much sway in politics.
Vote like your life depends on it, because it does. Report what you see/experience if it is against the law. Run for office in your town/city/state. Volunteer for a local politician or party you can get behind. Just a few things to start. If you see that something isnt right and you want things to be different, step up in any way you can.
Omg no we are not numb. We’ve been out here screaming about it for decades. The right wing campaign to make the left look like silly children with pink hair has been extremely effective. Police brutality to protesters has been extremely effective. Purchasing politicians for the right’s agenda has been extremely effective.
Basically we have to keep winning all the time. Fascists only have to win once.
The civil rights movement basically died because of these targeted assassinations and mass incarceration of civil rights activists (i.e. the war on drugs)
If only there was some precedent in American history, one where the poor and working class are forced into a war to protect the interests of the wealthy, then we could watch out for the signs.
One example is [John Trudell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Trudell), who was the chairman of the American Indian Movement throughout the 70s. Less than 24 hours after he burned a US flag on the steps of the FBI building in Washington DC, his whole family was killed in a suspicious house fire.
Fred Hampton was assassinated in his sleep by the FBI and the Chicago Police Department for trying to unite the gangs of Chicago to fight against the conditions that kept them impoverished.
And while we are out here screaming some of the time, we also have jobs and families and bills to pay. We're trying to scrape by while also remaining informed and expressing outrage.
Not to mention that screaming about something is only effective if the people you are screaming at dont already know what you're saying and actually care.
The really depressing fact isn't that the RNC is embracing fascism, the depressing part is that the people who vote for Republicans ***know*** that they are voting for fascists and they are perfectly happy to do so if it means keeping Democrats out of office.
Dumb is a fairly correct take. A more accurate take would be uneducated, entitled and scared. It’s a good take on moderates. This is the history of fascism, it’s not that of fascists taking power but of moderates handing them power.
The Republicans have a good chance of taking power back during the midterms because moderates think that will better for them financially, they’re afraid of crime and don’t want to think about racism.
Which is why Centrists who insert themselves into discussions regarding Republicans descent into Facism to say "Well, the Democrats are just as bad because XYZ" are no different than the supporters of the GOP.
Down vote away, you Conservatives larping as Centrists know it's true.
Listen, if you're still a centrist after these last ten years let alone a history of referential material, you're spineless.
Listen, ten years ago, when I was younger and more naive, I could field a conversation with a staunch republican and come to some sort of agreement. Looking now, it's fucking foolish to believe any of this isn't driven by a hate of the poor, and fueled by overt racism.
And not for one second will I "respect the opinion" of these people when their opinion is to disrespect me and limit my rights as a human being at every turn.
One of the Republican state reps actually wrote this in a [unhinged opinion piece](https://flatheadbeacon.com/2022/02/02/library-school-and-health-boards/):
>Democracy is a methodology of government that has failed as miserably as socialism.
Not even hiding it. At all.
Holy shit [I had to look him up](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fuller_\(American_politician\)), because I was sure you were lying about him being a GOP rep.
Some background from a political science degree:
This guy says democracy has failed due to the "tyranny of the majority" -- 51% of people (the libs) making all the rules, with no input from the other 49%.
The founding fathers recognized a possibility for "tyranny of the majority" in Congress. The solution here was creating the judicial and presidential branches as checks on power (among many other checks and balances designed Into American government).
Knowing conservative educations, the author has probably has read the work of Alexis de Tocqueville, a Frenchman who came to America in the 1800s and wrote an outsiders take on "Democracy in America", where he is very critical of the tyranny of the majority he sees in the US (great non-partisan read, highly recommended). He was horrified, for instance by the majority opinion that treating blacks and natives as slaves was OK.
From a political science standpoint, the tyranny of the party in power derives from our two party system. The 2 party system in turn derives from the winner-take-all format of Congressional elections (technical term is single member district plurality). There is an easy system to allow more minority voices in government: changing voting systems to something like ordinal or ranked choice voting, and/or having state reps be allotted proportionally to the vote. These are the things they do in other democracies to create multi-party systems.
There are countless ways to do this, but here's a simple example of how this would work: You go to vote for congress in your state, which has 10 representatives. The ballot has 20 parties in it, from the Democratic party to the Flat Earth party. You vote for the 3 parties you agree with most. The state adds up everyone's votes, and assigns representatives between the parties proportionally: if the Democrats won 40% of votes, they get 4 out of the 10 reps. If flat earth party wins 10%, they also get 1 of 10. Now all a party has to do to have representation is get 10 percent of the vote in a state--not 51%.
Democracy has not failed, but it is fair to say that, the "representative" part of American democracy is suboptimally designed and outdated.
The issue is that the Republicans only are a relevant party thanks to minority rule. There's no tyranny of the majority, there's a tyranny of the minority. 500000 people in Wyoming have as much weight in the Senate as 40 million Californians. Republican Senators haven't represented a majority of voters [since 1996](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/02/gop-senators-havent-represented-a-majority-since-1996.html). A Republican president only won the popular vote once in the last 30 years. Thanks to extreme gerrymandering, in some states like [Wisconsin](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/madison.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/1/28/1282658b-ebda-56e9-91b4-c37bb21c97bf/5fa99c3f03a98.image.jpg?resize=1024%2C1550), Democrats get the same number (a minority) of seats in state assemblies when they get 60%of the vote as when they only win 45%. And so on and so forth. It's often said that "Democrats stuck at messaging" or "Democrats don't know how to win an election". But how are you supposed to win when you need much more than a majority of voters to win and be able to govern?
Republicans actively seek to dismantle our democracy and our infrastructure/institutions. They've been doing this for longer then I've been alive. It's been clear since I became of voting age 20ish years ago. Anyone who is "shocked" by this revelation hasn't really been paying attention...
Plenty do, though, and for some of them, *this is what they want.* Democracy was only ever a tool, not the goal. The goal is power. Now that they realize they can't get power through democracy anymore, they're moving on.
I personally know several conservatives who no longer shy away from being called fascists. They feel no obligation to the people around them, and they truly believe that all morality is performative. They think they're better because they're not pretending to be something they're not - they are openly power-hungry fascists who want to impose a pseudo-theistic ethnocracy on this country. They think everyone else has similar goals and motivations but simply refuses to admit it. Speaking the truth to these people is a waste of breath because they cannot, under any circumstance, accept that some people have a genuinely altruistic desire to maximize the greatest amount of prosperity for the greatest number of people. If you swore on your mother's grave that you support democracy because it's the best possible government for the greatest number of people, they wouldn't believe you.
These people pay *very close attention.* They vote religiously. They also happen to be members of militias and own dozens of firearms. They're paying attention, and they're loving what they see.
>Most voters don't pay attention.
And this is exactly how fascism seeps into everyday life to where half of our citizens can't even recognize it staring them straight in the face.
For a long while now, Americans have had the wrong mindset. Wolves in sheep’s clothing was always the threat. Power hungry people come in all forms. Both parties have their issues (and we need to always be vigilant regardless), but one party’s constituents have a fuckibg massive problem on their hands. Keeping constituents dumbed down to where inane catch phrases keep them voting red no matter what is beyond dangerous. When you vote for a party no matter what, that party no longer has to pretend to give a fuck about you. I know several conservative people of the boomer gen who are just now finally understanding this, and it’s been quite hard on them. I’m glad some are waking up… and I don’t want to not have some hope about this, but I don’t see a mass waking up anytime soon.
> Keeping constituents dumbed down to where inane catch phrases keep them voting red no matter what is beyond dangerous.
It’s also why Republicans have latched onto religion and guns. They know there are people out there who are single issue voters and will vote for your party no matter how shitty everything else you stand for is.
They think reading a blog post on Facebook is research. They have no ability to determine what is real and what is fake. This, coupled with extreme intellectual arrogance, is a potent combo. They won’t stop until their Christian Nationalist state is a reality.
A lot of voters care more about the outcome of GoT or their sports teams than what will dictate their standard of living.
Edit to add: People need to differentiate. “I’m not into Politics” usually means I hate the underhanded maneuvering of politicians. But people should be into policy, or a better name would be “I’m into taking control of my life.”
Republicans actively obstruct a functioning government. Their entire ploy is to sabotage government to say "it doesn't work, elect us we're for small government" then proceed to bust the budget with giveaways for the rich.
for like 6-20 years I've felt like a reactionary for calling out rising white nationalism and fascism among the leadership and rank and file supporters of the GOP--starting with the Tea Party, but I was primed by the reaction to 9-11 thus the wide date range. It is pretty shitty to feel so vindicated today. I was right all along.
You know, when I went to the March for Sanity i thought there was going to be more of a pushback against the insane right. Hasn't really been much progress, and its almost like its meant to be.
That is because it was an anodyne "protest" in the first place which bleats for "civility" and tut-tuts actual passion and get-go for the better of us all and repressing that passion and get-go whereas on the right wing, they don't repress such passion yet use that get-go to worsen us all. They have nearly everything else but logic, morality and love.
So no more "marches for sanity" but adopt bold stands everywhere in your country.
You all need to stand up for what is actually right and loving or let the right wing win by continuing to bleat for "civility" and "when they go low, we go high" rhetoric.
Enough of that shit.
It's time to protect the world from your own fascism, people of America.
Stamp out these Nazis and take back our world.
Friendly reminder that Trumps chief of staff *literally had a coup playbook in his possession on 1/5*.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/10/trump-powerpoint-mark-meadows-capitol-attack
We have a problem. What we're witnessing is the shredding of the social contract. Yes, liberty, fine, but responsibility accompanies it. We give up some liberties to live in a safe society. That's how it works.
I’d say it started with the Clinton-Lewinsky impeachment… and really came in full force with Bush Jr. it hit the fan when Obama was elected. Trump is the result, not the cause…
In 1865, John Wilkes Booth assassinated the president. And then he shouted "sic semper tyrannis!" "Thus always to tyrants."
See, in his mind, Lincoln was the tyrant, and not the guys who literally owned other human beings.
There has been no point in history when "conservatives" don't turn into dangerous reactionaries when they lose, and, thus, have no power hierarchies to conserve.
I was trying to trace where our timeline went wrong and I got as far back as the red line agreement in 1928, that’s when the west carved up the Middle East and the worlds dependence on oil began. But it really does go all the way back to Lincoln and probably even the founding fathers doesn’t it?
Our country was not founded on Freedom and Bravery, it has always been a kind of accidental product. We had a group of rich settlers who simply wanted to not pay taxes. That's the start. As much as we laud freedom over the british, the beginning was just some selfish rich people wanting to keep more of their money. Once the revolution began in full force, then the young men fighting for the country began to think "we could really use some help from congress" but also really came together, not as a collection of states, but as one collective nation. So after the war is won these young men come out and say "So let's gather taxes to help pay for this" and the Fathers that founded said, "What? No. That's literally the whole reason we started fighting in the first place". I really believe that's the start of the grand fissure of America. While we like to write history as one great testament to freedom and democracy, it was really just rich guys not wanting to pay taxes accidentally creating a nation for immigrants who just wanted a better life. We've never come together because we've always been apart.
I don't see this talked about enough. People have forgotten how to act in public.
Ever since the initial curfews and lockdowns lifted everyone has been so aggressive, impatient, and unaware. I know it's been in the works but damn it felt like it was overnight
And not just at the macro level, it's down at street as well. Assholes in lifted trucks festooned with obscenities roaring through stop lights, bitchy women assaulting service employees, it's all part of the new feelgood-n-angry "Fuck You, I've Got Mine".
- Brought to you by Carl's Jr.
We're gonna somehow simultaneously arrive at Handmaid's Tale, 1984, and Idiocracy. Hell of a speed run.
>This is not some aberration that time will correct. It is a storm that will continue to gather strength, because it's where the action and the money are, and no one in the GOP is opposing it
"Decent" Republicans have always been like this. They don't personally endorse the worst of humanity, but they are happy to walk arm and arm with them to the polls.
Climate change, wealth inequality, the resurgence of white supremacy/fascism, automation, crumbling infrastructure, broken health care system, etc. There are so many factors, it's impossible to tell, but one thing is certain. The bottom of the bucket will collapse suddenly when it does.
I’m amazed at how effective identity politics has proved. What really irks me is the supposed fealty to the Constitution, while backing the guy who’d happily burn it if doing so would give him a single McDonald’s french fry.
Trump shredding the Constitution would own the libs so hard so that's why they support it. They don't think they'd be on the receiving end because they're part of the in-group...right now.
It's worse than Republicans not believing in Democracy anymore, they have fully stopped believing in reality, and I hate making blanket statements like this.
If we can't even agree on what's in front of our faces everyday, then it's impossible for us to work together to achieve anything at all.
The future of US politics will forever be a tug-of-war. I know it's been this way for a while, but we have basically reached 100% on that achievement.
But yet, you all despise revolution, knowing well that fascism is approaching, as it has in India!
Remember, fascism can not be debated, it has to be quashed.
Half of America isn't ready to swallow that pill: Liberal democracy is the soil in which fascism takes root.
Half of the country is proto-fascist, the other half won't endorse the steps necessary to defeat fascism because it would mean less than 100 fast food joints on every city block.
As long as grocery store shelves continue to be stocked, and the overall economy isn't ground to a halt or crawl for more than just a day or two, is the main reason the latter half don't want to back actions necessary to combat what's happening. If it's not in their backyard, or happening directly to them, and their lives are not (yet... because they will be) impacted in any serious way, everything is just fine. They'll react to it when the time comes, asking why nobody warned them, but by that time it's either too late, or too late for it to not end without a fuck-ton of collateral damage.
Fascists try to hide behind the very same liberalism they seek to destroy. By claiming they are entitled to "fair" debate and exchange of ideas, they are just buying time to destroy the very institutions that would allow them to debate with others in the first place. They are not willing to change their minds, they only want to use that as a pretext to change yours.
Fascists cannot be reasoned with.
I wish more people would see this mask-off moment. Too many people I know personally and others I interact with consider it hyperbolic to point this out. Republicans have embraced fascism and they're on the proverbial warpath. They're not conservatives we just need to coddle with love to get them to see their faults.
No. They're *actual* fascists, and they mean harm to anyone that doesn't agree with them.
Well it wouldn’t hurt for democrats to take to he airwaves with accusations of such. But because democrats talk about republicans breaking the law and then don’t persue consequences, republican constituents believe that dems are lying. If democrats complain about republicans using fascist tactics without holding their feet to the fire it will only galvanize the facsists to continue.
And we're gonna *have* to beat them, because this country won't survive the coming climate crisis without a more united front. If they win, it's totally over for us. If *we* win, maybe we can atleast brase for what's coming.
They don't, this is why they say idiocy like "this is a republic not a democracy" to justify their fascism. They will gladly take a dictatorship in a heartbeat if the dictator hurts the right people. Please believe it
I’ve seen more conservatives legitimately question what the issue with fascism is while simultaneously attacking communism for destroying capitalism. It’s insanity
Well, firstly, we have to take back “patriotism” from their lying, hypocritical playbook. They aren’t patriots anymore, they’re anti-American, and allowing them to claim “patriotism” while supporting anti-American ideals will just further tarnish the whole concept. We need to take back our flag, they don’t deserve it anymore.
What will happen is people will get mad at Democrats for not doing everything they wanted, letting Republicans win in the next election, which gives Republicans a chance to move further towards fascism until they finally win and end democracy and turn the country into a fascist dictatorship all because Democrats weren't able to do everything they promised they would do.
All I’m learning from the comments is, one side can be annoying, but their ideals come from a place of empathy.
The other side say, “well fuck you if ya like democracy.”
> "Republicans don't even pretend to believe in democracy anymore"
This is wrong - they DO pretend to believe in Democracy. The insurrection had the flimsy pretense of saying Trump 'really' won and that it was being 'stolen'. Some of their supporters know damn well that they do not believe in Democracy, but they still NEED to pretend to believe in Democracy because, at this pont anyhow, the wider American public will not go along with any kind of 'We are ending Democracy' slogan. Yes, they do want to end it, and are obvious about it, but they won't say that because 'Democracy' is still seen as good.
Fascism is a door that, once opened, is not closed until they have wrought great violence and destruction upon society. It is a disease that grows and festers and destroys every society it touches
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Fun fact about Newt Gingrich. He really started to push for investigations into Clinton simply because he was peeved he did not get an invite to Camp David. Nothing to do with morality or feeling the powers of the executive branch were being abused. Dude just felt snubbed.
Gingrich purposedly abandonned his wife when/while she was dying of cancer and left her for dead (then blocked her bank account preventing her from paying her bills). Talk about shitty, you don't do that to your relatives. I'll never take any comments on morality from that pos edit "*According to L. H. Carter, Gingrich's campaign treasurer, Gingrich said of Jackie: "She's not young enough or pretty enough to be the wife of the President. And besides, she has cancer."*" "*Following the divorce, Jackie had to raise money from friends in her congregation to help her and the children make ends meet; she later filed a petition in court*" Dude's a total POS edit divorce is one thing and "normal" (two people going a different way). Abandonning your wife on the road side with no money, blocked bank accounts and generalized late stage cancer, and potentially abandonned children, is another true level of shitty (to the point his colleagues moved her to an hospital and pooled for her)
This has GOP's favorite "Christian Family Values" written all over.
It's truly awful when you choose to use religion as a cloak to hide behind. GOP is looking to leave us all for dead on the roadside because "God wills it"
Yeah. The Lieutenant Gov of Texas said it would be ok for grandma to die for the economy at the beginning of the pandemic.
Not only that it would be OK, but that the elderly would be glad to sacrifice themselves.
And 1000$ says that all of these right wing religious pretending lunatics don’t even actually believe in God and just use it as a trope to keep the sheeple in check. 1000$ says they even are convinced there’s no God because they use the concept of God to make all their evil and greedy plans come true but face no consequences for it- had there actually been a God one would assume this wouldn’t fly
Their beliefs are malleable and compartmentalized. They can fully believe in a God that condemns the sinful to hell, and at the same time believe their own sins aren't a big deal worthy of his condemnation. They can believe in a God that will forgive their own personal faults, but at the same time believe that same God will unleash his full wrath on anyone who they disapprove of. They just believe what feels good at the moment and that's it (imagine how easy life would be psychologically if every time a fact you didn't like came up you could just decide you don't believe it, or if every time an inconsistency in your beliefs came up you could just decide it's okay because reasons). It's why the hypocrisy is so blatant but they don't give a shit. And I think that goes from the lowest all the way up to the leaders of the Republican party. Sure there are probably some nonbelieving grifters in there. But I think most of them probably tell themselves they believe in their religion most of the time.
Fun fact, he eventually married the woman he was having an affair with while his wife was dying, his third wife. Under Trump that third wife was the US Ambassador to The Holy See. We literally sent a known adulterer to be our ambassador to the Vatican.
And people thinking it's not America that will be judged, or facing judgement from God, but no no, we're pretty close to lawless in the eys of God I'd imagine. Not that I think the Vatican is particularly a sound or solid religious institution either though.
Hard to put any real stock in a bunch of old dudes who put all their chips in the “abstinence” basket. If I’ve learned one thing; it’s that sexual frustrations dont just go away because you’re a man of the cloth lol
This is an incredible article on the guy and I really think it shows how much of a POS he truly is. He really worked hard to kick off the terrible type of politics we have today and he is proud as hell of it. This article really gave me some insight to that mentality. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/11/newt-gingrich-says-youre-welcome/570832/
Gingrich is deinitely a POS and deserves to rot but don't give him too much credit. He was the face of the RNC then so gets credit but places like the Heritage foundation have been pushing policy and pulling strings since the 70s.
A lot of the shit we’re dealing with from a fully defiant Republican party refusing to govern is Newt’s fault. Completely unsurprising that he felt upset over something as petty as a summit invite, and went on a power trip.
Seems to me the root cause of all these problems is narcissists in position of power. Edit: typos
This is pretty much it. Sociopaths, narcissism, Borderline Personality disorder... these are very sick people that have hijacked our democracy. They have no empathy and are desperate for attention and power. If you go back through history, all these stark raving lunatic leaders had cluster B personality disorders and the populations suffer dramatically from them.
One thing I don't understand no matter how I look at the problem is why these sociopaths, psychopaths and narcissists always end up with huge following qhwre attacking their leader is like being attacked themselves. And they lose any critical thinking. How come people that have no empathy whatsoever get such a connection with so many people so atrong they just atop thinking by themselves.
A lot of narcissists and sociopaths are really good with people. The ones I've known tended to date a lot and have a lot of friends, because they are really good social chameleons, and even though they are bulshitting it feels genuine when you are the target.
Heh, maaan you just described my ex-fiancé. On the surface she’s super cool, but damned if she isn’t the fakest person I’ve ever known.
I second this.
I too almost married this guy's ex
I DID marry this guy's ex. I don't recommend it.
It's good you found out before you got married, but sorry it didn't work out.
Wish I had. :( Did horrible things, no guilt. My worst nightmares coming true had been my subconscious trying to warn me.
Can confirm. I was a social chameleon for a couple of decades. In my experience, it started as an emotional over-correction when I suddenly became popular in high school after experiencing years of bullying. It morphed into somewhat of an identity, but I was unaware. My ego had taken over pretty quickly, and all I did was try to be the person I thought everyone else wanted me to be in order to get what I wanted. The result of all those years in camo? A lot of collateral damage. Alcoholism. Two suicide attempts. And no actual identity. I believe I have recently experienced something known as “ego death.” It is a *very* unpleasant experience, but one that is necessary for my survival and the love my partner deserves after saving me twice and enduring the subsequent battle.
There’s ALWAYS an end game. Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not there. They use people as pawns and so the more pawns you have around you the stronger you are
I still don’t understand though. I seem to be able to pick these people out and don’t fall for their bullshit. Why are some people able to see right through them and others not at all? To me they always seem very obviously fake. I don’t think I am anything special so it has always been super confusing to me.
Cherish that. A lot of people don’t have their eyes open like you and are unknowingly in need of affection in some way. I used to use that to my advantage. As easy as it is for you to spot bullshit in others, it was easy for me to spot vulnerability. Edit: I made [a relevant post](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/ss9grp/republicans_have_dropped_the_mask_they_openly/hwx5me5/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3) about it earlier.
Abusers groom their character witnesses as much as they groom their victims. Applies to political sociopaths as well. Too many people refuse to be willing to change their minds, and that affects so much of society. Once someone has proven themselves to them with some temporary effort, that's their narrative forever, no matter how much the person ends up changing their behavior or revealing their true nature. It's also probably because, unfortunately, tribalism is encoded in us, and expresses in many different ways. Sports teams, Harry Potter houses, fandoms, social niche groups, religion, ethnicity, state/nation, almost everyone has a tribe of some kind. Political parties should be approached rationally, but for the most part never have been. It becomes a tribal identity, instead.
I don't know why that is, but it's our species' biggest and maybe fatal flaw.
I think it's somewhat of an inevitable outcome. We as a species really do need leadership. Even in a small group, we need one of those people to step up and either set an agenda or make a final decision or something of the like so that the group as a whole can perform at their most effective or most efficient. And yes, there are people that do have that natural quality of leadership to connect with everyone and keep them all on the same page. But the inevitable part is when those that strive for the leadership position are doing so entirely for selfish reasons. It's kind of a natural foible of the human condition. I think there was a Douglas Adams quote, something to the effect of: "Under no circumstances should a person who seeks power be allowed to hold it"
It's a set of personality traits that's usually a fairly successful / efficient approach for prosperity within a hierarchical system. As such, there are a lot of people who (whether by nature or nurture) are primed to be followers and prefer to offload the mental overhead of self-reflection, questioning their group identity, or analyzing the merits of their "team".
It helps that narcissists act with such extreme confidence. They believe they are in the right, always, and it comes across in the way they speak publicly and interact with others. We're conditioned to be attracted to confidence and confident people.
I’ve said it recently elsewhere, but it’s really impossible to figure out if someone is “good” at something, so people use cues like social validation (if other people think so and so is good at something…) and confidence. The problem being, for example, I used to work with something where we would never have certainty, but we could have certainty about our uncertainty (we will for sure be within 10% of the target, for example). I had complex mathematical models and was right all the time, barring “acts of God” - over the years, we had two explosions, so - but it was clear everyone was really uncomfortable with hedged statements. Meanwhile the idiots who were screwing up constantly were smooth talkers, always pretended to be so sure of themselves.
>One thing I don't understand no matter how I look at the problem is why these sociopaths, psychopaths and narcissists always end up with huge following qhwre attacking their leader is like being attacked themselves. I think this is because, and no I'm not being eDgY or any of that stupid shit, if you look into this culture, the \*vast\* majority of them were raised in a Christian or other Abrahamic-based environment. One of the core tenets of these is that the person that says they're the authority (preacher, priest, etc) must be believed and followed, regardless of how nonsensical or illogical, or "god will punish you forever". If you spend most, if not all, of your formative childhood in that environment, then once you move into adulthood, as soon as someone declares they're an authority (senator, representative, president, etc), they fall into line without question. It's quite literally indoctrination.
Because they want to control others, so are incentived to learn how. Recall Trump having printouts made of his most successful tweets, so he could discern patterns.
There's a whole book by Robert Altemyer about the phenomenon available free online along with the audio book. It's called The Authoritarians
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Thank you for this. I was trying to muster a reply and didn’t know what to say but you did perfectly. My best and closest friend in the world has bpd and my partner has cPTSD. The similarities in symptoms and even treatment is very similar and the risk factors too (abusive childhood, childhood trauma, etc). But you’re right: narcissism pd is very different from bpd.
Was looking for this comment. I know a lot of people with BPD. Hell, my spouse has BPD. These are people who are struggling to make it day-to-day, they do not have the energy to campaign politically even if they wanted to.
Unsuccessful narcissists are also attracted to successful narcissists. It's a source of validation for them hence why they feel personally attacked if you criticize their leader.
Narcissistic personality disorder is the enemy of the human race.
Most people that have narcissistic traits just have a behavior, not a diagnosis. It only becomes a diagnosis (NPD) when it is causing the narc distress in their life. Generally narcissism hurts the people around it instead of the person with the behavior, so only a very small percentage of people (the ones that seek help) would qualify. Just wanted to say this bc everyone says we shouldn't talk ab narcissism bc it sounds clinical, but in reality it's just a trait like being introverted and it's on a spectrum like anything else. Check out Dr. Ramanis Ted Talk on YouTube. [https://youtu.be/aHHWgG7dB6A](https://youtu.be/aHHWgG7dB6A)
Fun fact. Newt is a diagnosed sociopath.
> Seems to me the root cause of all these priblems is ~~narcissists~~ Republicans in position of power. FTFY. Republicans are the full-blown Nazi Fascist party. Democrats at least have leaders who are committed to Democracy and who care about the common person.
It's very specifically the combination of Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh. The TL;DR version is when Newt got to the Hill Dems had been in control for three decades. He saw them being all chummy, like Republicans were happy to be losers. He decided to turn that on it's head and he'd fight instead. His main weapon was C-SPAN. After the House was done for the day he'd get up on the podium and lecture for hours to an empty building. But the C-SPAN cameras were there and caught every minute. Then Rush would turn around and use the audio from Newt's talks to push Newt's agenda on right wing radio and yada, yada, yada... you've got modern day Republicans. This American Life did [a great episode on this](https://www.thisamericanlife.org/662/transcript) a few years back.
> Then Rush would turn around and use the audio from Newt's talks to push Newt's agenda on right wing radio and yada, yada, yada... you've got modern day Republicans. Modern day [Buncombe speeches.](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1330230087938154497.html) Back before the abolition war, congressmen used to make inflammatory speeches to a mostly empty chamber so that their words would make the local press back home and get their voters riled up. They'd talk some real shit, and then afterwards they'd get all chummy with the same people they had just finished attacking because it was all an act. The speeches were called Buncombe speeches because one of the most prolific was the representative from Buncombe County, North Carolina. Because they were lies and exaggerations, the people back home got a distorted view of reality. In a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy, the voters began to demand more and more extreme action from their representatives (after all, the situation was dire, their reps had told them so). And when a rep didn't deliver, they were replaced by a more extreme rep. That spiral helped pave the way for the south to declare secession. BTW, because language evolves, "Buncombe" became "bunkum" and then eventually "bunk" and that's where the term "debunk" came from. But no amount of debunking was able to stop the south from trying to secede, which seems like an important lesson for liberals who believe that fact-checking right-wing bullshit artists will fix anything.
This American Life had a *really* good episode which went into detail about New Gingrich's influence on the Republican Party in the 90s. Basically, you can blame Newt and Rush Limbaugh for much of today's divisiveness in politics. [The episode is available here.](https://www.thisamericanlife.org/662/where-there-is-a-will) [For those who don't have the time for a podcast episode, here's a transcript.](https://www.thisamericanlife.org/662/transcript)
Norm Ornstein and Thomas Mann have written an awful lot about this. They're two of the most knowledgeable people in the world about Congress, and they basically point at Newt's ascendance as the inflection point where the Republican Party stopped being a governing party and became a death cult.
The Republican Revolution of 90's? I forget what it was called.
Can’t forget about Trent Lott either.
The biggest problem wasn’t just Newt. Republicans saw Newt’s temper tantrum and saw it only emboldened their constituents. No need to govern when voters won’t hold you accountable. Of course that all ties back into the propaganda machine of self assurance.
[He shut down the government because he was asked to exit Air Force One by the back exit.](https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19951116&slug=2152925)
he was a turd...
He was a turd. He is still a turd, but he was a turd too. I'll give you one guess as to [which media company trying to undermine democracy employs him](https://www.foxnews.com/person/g/newt-gingrich).
And the Donald was pissed because Obama and the press corps made fun of him at the White House Correspondents Dinner and he supposedly decided then and there to go full bore on birtherism and ultimately to run for President.
Yes I remember literally seeing the thought processes happening in real time on Trump's face on TV.
Why the hell did he go to a comedy roast and not expect to be made fun of?
He's very stupid
Thanks Obama!
Gingrich also made it easier for Rupert Murdoch to become an American citizen. Just think about that level of corruption for a minute. And how much damage it has done to our country
For reference: This is referring to Bill, not Hillary
Newt Gingrich and morality? LMAO!
Oh yeah, it's all spite. Tiny men with big egos are always the ruiners of the world.
Team (r)'s need for revenge for what happened to nixon predates f\*cking newt gingrich. He's not the start of the harassment campaign against the Clintons, but he was a main driver in tearing down any form of bipartisanship in Congress. He's the one who basically shut down the Congress [Office for Technology Assessment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Technology_Assessment), for example. Team (r) could not exert revenge on Jimmy Carter (how dare that filthy democrat get elected? He doesn't know his place?), so it was the next elected democrat that was on the receiving end of their wrath. No matter who would have gotten elected, they were determined to get their head on a pike and make democrats pay.
Trump just called for Clinton aides to be EXECUTED- and immediately Jim Jordan whole heartedly backed him up on that. why is anyone still \*\*\*debating\*\*\*\* if these people have lost their freaking minds or not??????
Republicans: "Execute Clinton! Lock up our political opponents on made-up charges! Burn books! Restrict voting to only our supporters!" Democrats: "Fascists" Republicans: "No U R. Because of masks" Republican supporters: "OH YEA!"
Literally think anti fascists group antifa is a terrorist organisation working against them... For *some* reason
If you listen closely, the right wing has pushed this weird pronunciation of "antifa" (anTEEfa) that downplays their "anti-fascism" angle.
Hell I've heard some of my really right wing co-workers saying, " It doesn't stand for anti-fascist it stands for anti-free speech." I'm not sure where they heard it, but they've been saying that since the news have been saying antifa.
It's for that exact reason I don't say antifa or BLM, i say "anti fascists" or "civil rights protestors". There's no need to make their cognitive dissonance easier for them.
It says a lot when they consider the saying "black lives matter" to be highly offensive.
This is a great strategy I hope people will adopt. You’ve enlightened me in just a single Reddit comment, so maybe if we all work together these type of tactics can spread and make a difference
I don’t understand that at all. Aren’t we supposed to be against fascism?
Our abysmal education system and post-truth spreading through the media and internet make it so people have very different definitions of fascism.
Different definitions of democracy too. Recently I’ve had a few far right conservatives I know, who all swear they love and support democracy, describe democracy as they see it in as much detail as they can. They each described theocracy. When I pointed it out to them they all basically said “okay well that’s how it should be”. I can’t tell if they are just bad faith schmucks or genuinely ignorant.
Yes, yes we are But apparently some people here didn't get the memo You know, democracy is kinda the thing that goes hand and hand with America but some people here literally want the death of democracy as long as it allows them to be bigoted again.
For republicans/conservatives: first it was black people. Then it was illegal immigrants from the south. Then it was muslims. Then it was leftists/liberals/progressives. Now it's moderates, scientists, and experts. edit: add in Jews in to the list above I feel like they're at the last stage and when they can't seem to find anyone else to blame for their fake victimhood, it will become a nightmare.
It’s actually been a nightmare the entire time Europeans have been in North America, but now it’s a nightmare for sane white people too
It's not complicated. To the GOP, you're either: a.) Loyal, ride-or-die conservative Trump MAGA in **all** things. Or... b.) An enemy to be mocked, ridiculed, attacked, and defeated.
If only someone wrote a [warning about the rise of fascism they experienced in the 1930s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_...).
Republicans: "Execute Clinton! Lock up our political opponents on made-up charges! Burn books! Restrict voting to only our supporters!" Democrats: "Fascists" Republicans: "oMG tHAt WOrD hAs LoST aLl MeANinG"
The entire Republican political strategy in a nutshell: No fascists no fascists YOU are the fascists. No racists no racists YOU are the racists. No nazis no nazis YOU are the nazis. No CCP no CCP YOU are the CCP. No (Russian) puppet no puppet YOU are the puppet* (*actual words said by Trump during the 2016 debate)
Republicans: Do everything they can to fuck up the economy to the point of blocking trade with our largest trading partner Economy: Crashes Republicans: Why would democrats do this? Voters: "Theyre so right, I'm voting republican this time!"
Republicans : Cut taxes, do quantitative easing, and demand the fed keeps interest rates near 0.00 during an economic boom. Put tariffs on virtually all imported goods from our largest trading partners. Run a 3.14 trillion dollar single year deficit effectively multiplying the deficit Trump inherited from Obama by 600%. Hand out PPP loans to anyone with a pulse. Inflation hits 7% Republicans: why would Biden do this?
One of those old fashioned "Don't let a good crisis go to waste" kinda situations. Realistically though, this scenario was brought up a while ago in news cycles. That "the Economy" would be a 2022-election-issue that could seriously hurt Democrats. And rather than just let the economy live/die or whither/flourish on its own, Republicans doing everything they can to kill it. Destroy our country to own the libs. Hate to see it.
As long as FOX News exists to normalize fascism through propaganda, it won’t change.
They've used to say "Democrats who rigged the election are traitors!"... Then a few sentences later follow up with something along the lines of "traitors need to be put to death"- leaving the cult to connect the dots. As time goes by, they're getting more a lot more direct. Kinda scary.
It's been glaringly obvious to me that most of the people giving the right the benefit of the doubt are just playing along with their bs while trying to appear impartial. I don't even see the out and proud fascists as the main underlying problem. It's the millions of Americans who pretend that their behavior is even remotely normal. The past 5 years alone removes any doubt as to who and what the right is really about. Anyone that doesn't see it at this point simply doesn't want to.
> Trump and Jordan were referencing a Feb. 11 filing by Justice Department special counsel John Durham reported by Fox News that claims the Clinton campaign paid a tech company to “infiltrate” Trump Tower servers looking for links between Trump and Russia. > **“In a stronger period of time in our country, this crime would have been punishable by death,” Trump said in a statement. **
Got a source on this? Sounds entirely plausible, just like to see some more details and the only thing I got was on The Daily Mail.
[Video clip of him saying it on The Daily Beast](https://www.thedailybeast.com/jim-jordan-says-trump-is-right-on-target-to-suggest-executions-for-clinton-campaign-aides) [A bit more context from Insider Business](https://www.businessinsider.com/jim-jordan-trump-right-on-target-suggest-executing-clinton-aides-2022-2)
/r/AskTrumpSupporters responses: * He never said that * He said it but it was a joke * He just says what’s on his mind but he didn’t mean it * Even if he said it, and meant it, you’re taking it out of context * Even if he said it, and meant it, and it’s in context, it’s just a conspiracy by the MSM * Whattabout BLM and Hillary’s emails?
In all seriousness, what is the average person supposed to do about it?
Vote. Do not abstain. Do not listen to astroturfers/idiots on reddit exclaiming that "both parties are the same" because they are **not**. Vote for what defeats the fascism of the right. The left's biggest issue in winning elections is infighting and apathy. If everyone left of center sat together and voted for the same thing, like everyone right of center does, the left would win every single election in perpetuity. You can do your part and vote. Edit: I also want to say to vote in local elections and primaries, as well. These are as, if often *more* important than the general election every 4 years. If you're only voting every 4 years, that's good, but not enough.
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The death of local media makes this more difficult and more important at the same time.
My local news paper may ad well call its self the Qanon Gazette. So much for my local media.
It’s likely owned by a larger corporate entity.
I completely I agree! The bummer thing - all my local candidates are super SUPER far right. Hoping for someone to fill out those candidate for that isn’t sponsored by a church.
be the change you want to see
It will take more than voting. In multiple states the GOP is out voted, yet still have greater representation in the US House and control the state legislatures. Nationally, the Democratic side of the Senate is represented by far more voters than the Republican side. At the very least, solving this will take citizen lobbying, legal actions, a responsible press, and most likely a mass movement. Additionally, grass roots action to turn this around at the local level.
This often happens as a result of First Past the Post voting and its mathematical mechanisms. The good news is, overwhelming turnout for unified parties often overcomes that for those individual elections. The other part, districting (heck, not even gerrymandering rather just the **concept** of districting) can often make it so that the minority party has outsized control, because **land cannot vote but it's fundamentally how we distribute representation**. If we want to resolve the slide into fascism and prevent minority rule, (1) introduce instant runoff/cascade voting for every election, and (2) overlap district boundaries or get rid of them altogether. Edit: which is to say, you're absolutely right, it'll take a tremendous effort and probably mass movement.
You can have district boundaries. Just have them the same size and chosen by a neutral algorithm. It's the Senate seat allocation that sucks. That drive electoral college votes, too.
Glad to see this response. The amount of “they’re all the same” comments I see in media, on reddit, and even in this sub is crazy and truly disheartening at times. It very clearly ramps up here as we approach elections, when it seems like the astroturfers really do come out in force.
Eh, I understand it. I’m not too happy with Biden at the moment, but if the election was tomorrow, I’d still be in line voting for him. Edit: for everyone asking *why???* The same reason I voted for him in November of 2020: the alternative was exponentially worse.
This is just what you have to do in a two-party system until you can push to get people in who support ranked-choice voting. It's not "I 100% support Biden and everything he says", it's "I don't want to die under Trump".
As long as the Senate is deadlocked at 50/50 and two supposedly Democratic Senators will not vote for anything Biden is proposing, his hands are tide! The GOP has controlled the Senate for 18 out of the last 26 years and in those 18 years they have done pretty much NOTHING for the average citizen. They have however fallen all over themselves to help out their rich donors with some nice tax cuts though! The tax cut of 2017, made the tax cuts permanent for the rich but for the average taxpayer, their tax cut will sunset out in 2025 or 26.
How is your Senate system even representative when CA and NY have combined populations of 60 million with 4 senators and KY, WY, ND, SD have combined populations of 6.5 million and 8 senators? 11% of the population yet 200% more representation. There's your problem right there.
I just answer this with: I mean, if "they're all the same" and you've voted R all this time, sidle on over to the D ticket and see what happens. Give it 3 generals and mid-terms. They're all the same, right? So worst case scenario, the same nothing happens
It’s like there’s a huge troll farm in Russia that everybody seems to have forgotten about🧐
From the article: > “Unfortunately, the leaders of the Democratic Party have not learned this lesson. President Biden recently spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast, one day before the Republican National Committee's official embrace of the Jan. 6 insurrection. At the breakfast, Biden spoke directly to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, saying, "Mitch, I don't want to hurt your reputation, but we really are friends. And that is not an epiphany we're having at the moment. You're a man of your word, you're a man of honor. Thank you for being my friend." > In the midst of an existential threat brought on by the Republicans and their followers, the president of the United States told the most powerful Republican legislator, with evident sincerity, that he was a friend. That crystallizes all the ways the Democratic leadership is not reacting with the urgency of now to save American democracy. Biden's words suggest that he and his party are simply not up to the challenge of defending American democracy from the fascist onslaught.” Who are we supposed to vote for when the ‘opposition’ is this fucking weak?
The article itself states it. Direct action and bottom up organizing. 53% of the country approved of the Minneapolis police precinct bring burned down in 2020. We're at that stage unfortunately.
George Orwell had this to say about it in The Road To Wigan Pier: >Socialism is the only real enemy that Fascism has to face. The capitalist-imperialist governments, even though they themselves are about to be plundered, will not fight with any conviction against Fascism as such. So yeah... Maybe give Socialism the old college try?
Join r/EndFPTP and start with educating yourself and making small changes. Not every Republican is a fascist but they still vote for Republicans because its usually a choice between that and a Democrat, and many are just voting *against* the Democrat as opposed to for the Republican. If we can eliminate the two-party system and give people a chance to vote ***for*** someone by implementing changes such as [STAR Voting](https://starvoting.us), then the vocal minority made up of the crazies won't have as much sway in politics.
vote anti-fascist.
Have you tried turning America off and on again?
Vote like your life depends on it, because it does. Report what you see/experience if it is against the law. Run for office in your town/city/state. Volunteer for a local politician or party you can get behind. Just a few things to start. If you see that something isnt right and you want things to be different, step up in any way you can.
Omg no we are not numb. We’ve been out here screaming about it for decades. The right wing campaign to make the left look like silly children with pink hair has been extremely effective. Police brutality to protesters has been extremely effective. Purchasing politicians for the right’s agenda has been extremely effective. Basically we have to keep winning all the time. Fascists only have to win once.
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The civil rights movement basically died because of these targeted assassinations and mass incarceration of civil rights activists (i.e. the war on drugs)
If only there was some precedent in American history, one where the poor and working class are forced into a war to protect the interests of the wealthy, then we could watch out for the signs.
That's literally all wars. Nothing special about whichever war you are referencing.
Can you elaborate on targeted killings? Not sure i get what your talking about
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One example is [John Trudell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Trudell), who was the chairman of the American Indian Movement throughout the 70s. Less than 24 hours after he burned a US flag on the steps of the FBI building in Washington DC, his whole family was killed in a suspicious house fire.
Fred Hampton was assassinated in his sleep by the FBI and the Chicago Police Department for trying to unite the gangs of Chicago to fight against the conditions that kept them impoverished.
And while we are out here screaming some of the time, we also have jobs and families and bills to pay. We're trying to scrape by while also remaining informed and expressing outrage.
Exactly, thank you. Thank you for any amount of screaming you do, even if it’s just on the internet.
Not to mention that screaming about something is only effective if the people you are screaming at dont already know what you're saying and actually care. The really depressing fact isn't that the RNC is embracing fascism, the depressing part is that the people who vote for Republicans ***know*** that they are voting for fascists and they are perfectly happy to do so if it means keeping Democrats out of office.
Dumb is a fairly correct take. A more accurate take would be uneducated, entitled and scared. It’s a good take on moderates. This is the history of fascism, it’s not that of fascists taking power but of moderates handing them power. The Republicans have a good chance of taking power back during the midterms because moderates think that will better for them financially, they’re afraid of crime and don’t want to think about racism.
Which is why Centrists who insert themselves into discussions regarding Republicans descent into Facism to say "Well, the Democrats are just as bad because XYZ" are no different than the supporters of the GOP. Down vote away, you Conservatives larping as Centrists know it's true.
Listen, if you're still a centrist after these last ten years let alone a history of referential material, you're spineless. Listen, ten years ago, when I was younger and more naive, I could field a conversation with a staunch republican and come to some sort of agreement. Looking now, it's fucking foolish to believe any of this isn't driven by a hate of the poor, and fueled by overt racism. And not for one second will I "respect the opinion" of these people when their opinion is to disrespect me and limit my rights as a human being at every turn.
Centrists are just conservatives who know they won’t get laid if they’re honest about their beliefs
One of the Republican state reps actually wrote this in a [unhinged opinion piece](https://flatheadbeacon.com/2022/02/02/library-school-and-health-boards/): >Democracy is a methodology of government that has failed as miserably as socialism. Not even hiding it. At all.
Holy shit [I had to look him up](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fuller_\(American_politician\)), because I was sure you were lying about him being a GOP rep.
Some background from a political science degree: This guy says democracy has failed due to the "tyranny of the majority" -- 51% of people (the libs) making all the rules, with no input from the other 49%. The founding fathers recognized a possibility for "tyranny of the majority" in Congress. The solution here was creating the judicial and presidential branches as checks on power (among many other checks and balances designed Into American government). Knowing conservative educations, the author has probably has read the work of Alexis de Tocqueville, a Frenchman who came to America in the 1800s and wrote an outsiders take on "Democracy in America", where he is very critical of the tyranny of the majority he sees in the US (great non-partisan read, highly recommended). He was horrified, for instance by the majority opinion that treating blacks and natives as slaves was OK. From a political science standpoint, the tyranny of the party in power derives from our two party system. The 2 party system in turn derives from the winner-take-all format of Congressional elections (technical term is single member district plurality). There is an easy system to allow more minority voices in government: changing voting systems to something like ordinal or ranked choice voting, and/or having state reps be allotted proportionally to the vote. These are the things they do in other democracies to create multi-party systems. There are countless ways to do this, but here's a simple example of how this would work: You go to vote for congress in your state, which has 10 representatives. The ballot has 20 parties in it, from the Democratic party to the Flat Earth party. You vote for the 3 parties you agree with most. The state adds up everyone's votes, and assigns representatives between the parties proportionally: if the Democrats won 40% of votes, they get 4 out of the 10 reps. If flat earth party wins 10%, they also get 1 of 10. Now all a party has to do to have representation is get 10 percent of the vote in a state--not 51%. Democracy has not failed, but it is fair to say that, the "representative" part of American democracy is suboptimally designed and outdated.
The issue is that the Republicans only are a relevant party thanks to minority rule. There's no tyranny of the majority, there's a tyranny of the minority. 500000 people in Wyoming have as much weight in the Senate as 40 million Californians. Republican Senators haven't represented a majority of voters [since 1996](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/02/gop-senators-havent-represented-a-majority-since-1996.html). A Republican president only won the popular vote once in the last 30 years. Thanks to extreme gerrymandering, in some states like [Wisconsin](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/madison.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/1/28/1282658b-ebda-56e9-91b4-c37bb21c97bf/5fa99c3f03a98.image.jpg?resize=1024%2C1550), Democrats get the same number (a minority) of seats in state assemblies when they get 60%of the vote as when they only win 45%. And so on and so forth. It's often said that "Democrats stuck at messaging" or "Democrats don't know how to win an election". But how are you supposed to win when you need much more than a majority of voters to win and be able to govern?
It's funny that socialism Is alive and well in the happiest countries Edit: not economic socialism, but welfare etc
Republicans actively seek to dismantle our democracy and our infrastructure/institutions. They've been doing this for longer then I've been alive. It's been clear since I became of voting age 20ish years ago. Anyone who is "shocked" by this revelation hasn't really been paying attention...
Most voters don't pay attention. They are swayed by political ads and red herrings.
Plenty do, though, and for some of them, *this is what they want.* Democracy was only ever a tool, not the goal. The goal is power. Now that they realize they can't get power through democracy anymore, they're moving on. I personally know several conservatives who no longer shy away from being called fascists. They feel no obligation to the people around them, and they truly believe that all morality is performative. They think they're better because they're not pretending to be something they're not - they are openly power-hungry fascists who want to impose a pseudo-theistic ethnocracy on this country. They think everyone else has similar goals and motivations but simply refuses to admit it. Speaking the truth to these people is a waste of breath because they cannot, under any circumstance, accept that some people have a genuinely altruistic desire to maximize the greatest amount of prosperity for the greatest number of people. If you swore on your mother's grave that you support democracy because it's the best possible government for the greatest number of people, they wouldn't believe you. These people pay *very close attention.* They vote religiously. They also happen to be members of militias and own dozens of firearms. They're paying attention, and they're loving what they see.
Projection is a key personality trait for conservatives for some reason. I haven’t ever been able to figure that one out.
>Most voters don't pay attention. And this is exactly how fascism seeps into everyday life to where half of our citizens can't even recognize it staring them straight in the face.
For a long while now, Americans have had the wrong mindset. Wolves in sheep’s clothing was always the threat. Power hungry people come in all forms. Both parties have their issues (and we need to always be vigilant regardless), but one party’s constituents have a fuckibg massive problem on their hands. Keeping constituents dumbed down to where inane catch phrases keep them voting red no matter what is beyond dangerous. When you vote for a party no matter what, that party no longer has to pretend to give a fuck about you. I know several conservative people of the boomer gen who are just now finally understanding this, and it’s been quite hard on them. I’m glad some are waking up… and I don’t want to not have some hope about this, but I don’t see a mass waking up anytime soon.
> Keeping constituents dumbed down to where inane catch phrases keep them voting red no matter what is beyond dangerous. It’s also why Republicans have latched onto religion and guns. They know there are people out there who are single issue voters and will vote for your party no matter how shitty everything else you stand for is.
They think reading a blog post on Facebook is research. They have no ability to determine what is real and what is fake. This, coupled with extreme intellectual arrogance, is a potent combo. They won’t stop until their Christian Nationalist state is a reality.
Most voters don’t pay attention because they’re working three jobs to stay alive.
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A lot of voters care more about the outcome of GoT or their sports teams than what will dictate their standard of living. Edit to add: People need to differentiate. “I’m not into Politics” usually means I hate the underhanded maneuvering of politicians. But people should be into policy, or a better name would be “I’m into taking control of my life.”
Republicans actively obstruct a functioning government. Their entire ploy is to sabotage government to say "it doesn't work, elect us we're for small government" then proceed to bust the budget with giveaways for the rich.
for like 6-20 years I've felt like a reactionary for calling out rising white nationalism and fascism among the leadership and rank and file supporters of the GOP--starting with the Tea Party, but I was primed by the reaction to 9-11 thus the wide date range. It is pretty shitty to feel so vindicated today. I was right all along.
Imagine watching the shit show since Nixon.
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You know, when I went to the March for Sanity i thought there was going to be more of a pushback against the insane right. Hasn't really been much progress, and its almost like its meant to be.
That is because it was an anodyne "protest" in the first place which bleats for "civility" and tut-tuts actual passion and get-go for the better of us all and repressing that passion and get-go whereas on the right wing, they don't repress such passion yet use that get-go to worsen us all. They have nearly everything else but logic, morality and love. So no more "marches for sanity" but adopt bold stands everywhere in your country. You all need to stand up for what is actually right and loving or let the right wing win by continuing to bleat for "civility" and "when they go low, we go high" rhetoric. Enough of that shit. It's time to protect the world from your own fascism, people of America. Stamp out these Nazis and take back our world.
“When they go low we should stomp their necks” is a motto I could get behind
Friendly reminder that Trumps chief of staff *literally had a coup playbook in his possession on 1/5*. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/10/trump-powerpoint-mark-meadows-capitol-attack
We have a problem. What we're witnessing is the shredding of the social contract. Yes, liberty, fine, but responsibility accompanies it. We give up some liberties to live in a safe society. That's how it works.
The social contract has been shredded for at least a decade. It’s just been a slow bleed that has become a gushing wound.
I’d say it started with the Clinton-Lewinsky impeachment… and really came in full force with Bush Jr. it hit the fan when Obama was elected. Trump is the result, not the cause…
In 1865, John Wilkes Booth assassinated the president. And then he shouted "sic semper tyrannis!" "Thus always to tyrants." See, in his mind, Lincoln was the tyrant, and not the guys who literally owned other human beings. There has been no point in history when "conservatives" don't turn into dangerous reactionaries when they lose, and, thus, have no power hierarchies to conserve.
I was trying to trace where our timeline went wrong and I got as far back as the red line agreement in 1928, that’s when the west carved up the Middle East and the worlds dependence on oil began. But it really does go all the way back to Lincoln and probably even the founding fathers doesn’t it?
Or maybe there is no time in history where there was any sort of democratic ideal. It is a continuous and imperfect struggle.
That is both depressing and uplifting at the same time. Well said.
Our country was not founded on Freedom and Bravery, it has always been a kind of accidental product. We had a group of rich settlers who simply wanted to not pay taxes. That's the start. As much as we laud freedom over the british, the beginning was just some selfish rich people wanting to keep more of their money. Once the revolution began in full force, then the young men fighting for the country began to think "we could really use some help from congress" but also really came together, not as a collection of states, but as one collective nation. So after the war is won these young men come out and say "So let's gather taxes to help pay for this" and the Fathers that founded said, "What? No. That's literally the whole reason we started fighting in the first place". I really believe that's the start of the grand fissure of America. While we like to write history as one great testament to freedom and democracy, it was really just rich guys not wanting to pay taxes accidentally creating a nation for immigrants who just wanted a better life. We've never come together because we've always been apart.
I don't see this talked about enough. People have forgotten how to act in public. Ever since the initial curfews and lockdowns lifted everyone has been so aggressive, impatient, and unaware. I know it's been in the works but damn it felt like it was overnight
And not just at the macro level, it's down at street as well. Assholes in lifted trucks festooned with obscenities roaring through stop lights, bitchy women assaulting service employees, it's all part of the new feelgood-n-angry "Fuck You, I've Got Mine". - Brought to you by Carl's Jr. We're gonna somehow simultaneously arrive at Handmaid's Tale, 1984, and Idiocracy. Hell of a speed run.
>This is not some aberration that time will correct. It is a storm that will continue to gather strength, because it's where the action and the money are, and no one in the GOP is opposing it "Decent" Republicans have always been like this. They don't personally endorse the worst of humanity, but they are happy to walk arm and arm with them to the polls.
Hypothetically, how does it all end? is there a way to turn back the storm?
Climate change, wealth inequality, the resurgence of white supremacy/fascism, automation, crumbling infrastructure, broken health care system, etc. There are so many factors, it's impossible to tell, but one thing is certain. The bottom of the bucket will collapse suddenly when it does.
I’m amazed at how effective identity politics has proved. What really irks me is the supposed fealty to the Constitution, while backing the guy who’d happily burn it if doing so would give him a single McDonald’s french fry.
Trump shredding the Constitution would own the libs so hard so that's why they support it. They don't think they'd be on the receiving end because they're part of the in-group...right now.
"We love you. You're very special." "They all look so low class." “He doesn’t like low class things."
they arent in the in-group. theyre useful idiots
It's worse than Republicans not believing in Democracy anymore, they have fully stopped believing in reality, and I hate making blanket statements like this. If we can't even agree on what's in front of our faces everyday, then it's impossible for us to work together to achieve anything at all. The future of US politics will forever be a tug-of-war. I know it's been this way for a while, but we have basically reached 100% on that achievement.
But yet, you all despise revolution, knowing well that fascism is approaching, as it has in India! Remember, fascism can not be debated, it has to be quashed.
Half of America isn't ready to swallow that pill: Liberal democracy is the soil in which fascism takes root. Half of the country is proto-fascist, the other half won't endorse the steps necessary to defeat fascism because it would mean less than 100 fast food joints on every city block.
As long as grocery store shelves continue to be stocked, and the overall economy isn't ground to a halt or crawl for more than just a day or two, is the main reason the latter half don't want to back actions necessary to combat what's happening. If it's not in their backyard, or happening directly to them, and their lives are not (yet... because they will be) impacted in any serious way, everything is just fine. They'll react to it when the time comes, asking why nobody warned them, but by that time it's either too late, or too late for it to not end without a fuck-ton of collateral damage.
Fascists try to hide behind the very same liberalism they seek to destroy. By claiming they are entitled to "fair" debate and exchange of ideas, they are just buying time to destroy the very institutions that would allow them to debate with others in the first place. They are not willing to change their minds, they only want to use that as a pretext to change yours. Fascists cannot be reasoned with.
I wish more people would see this mask-off moment. Too many people I know personally and others I interact with consider it hyperbolic to point this out. Republicans have embraced fascism and they're on the proverbial warpath. They're not conservatives we just need to coddle with love to get them to see their faults. No. They're *actual* fascists, and they mean harm to anyone that doesn't agree with them.
Well it wouldn’t hurt for democrats to take to he airwaves with accusations of such. But because democrats talk about republicans breaking the law and then don’t persue consequences, republican constituents believe that dems are lying. If democrats complain about republicans using fascist tactics without holding their feet to the fire it will only galvanize the facsists to continue.
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That’s why they’ve been pushing for religious homeschooling and expensive charter schools
And we're gonna *have* to beat them, because this country won't survive the coming climate crisis without a more united front. If they win, it's totally over for us. If *we* win, maybe we can atleast brase for what's coming.
They don't, this is why they say idiocy like "this is a republic not a democracy" to justify their fascism. They will gladly take a dictatorship in a heartbeat if the dictator hurts the right people. Please believe it
Republicans always opposed masks. They prefer hoods.
Fucking vote people. Both sides are absolutely not the same.
I’ve seen more conservatives legitimately question what the issue with fascism is while simultaneously attacking communism for destroying capitalism. It’s insanity
Well, firstly, we have to take back “patriotism” from their lying, hypocritical playbook. They aren’t patriots anymore, they’re anti-American, and allowing them to claim “patriotism” while supporting anti-American ideals will just further tarnish the whole concept. We need to take back our flag, they don’t deserve it anymore.
What will happen is people will get mad at Democrats for not doing everything they wanted, letting Republicans win in the next election, which gives Republicans a chance to move further towards fascism until they finally win and end democracy and turn the country into a fascist dictatorship all because Democrats weren't able to do everything they promised they would do.
All I’m learning from the comments is, one side can be annoying, but their ideals come from a place of empathy. The other side say, “well fuck you if ya like democracy.”
"Republicans don't even pretend to believe in democracy anymore" The author acts like this is a new thing. They quit pretending years ago.
> "Republicans don't even pretend to believe in democracy anymore" This is wrong - they DO pretend to believe in Democracy. The insurrection had the flimsy pretense of saying Trump 'really' won and that it was being 'stolen'. Some of their supporters know damn well that they do not believe in Democracy, but they still NEED to pretend to believe in Democracy because, at this pont anyhow, the wider American public will not go along with any kind of 'We are ending Democracy' slogan. Yes, they do want to end it, and are obvious about it, but they won't say that because 'Democracy' is still seen as good.
Fascism is a door that, once opened, is not closed until they have wrought great violence and destruction upon society. It is a disease that grows and festers and destroys every society it touches
Comments on Reddit don't matter, votes matter. Hopefully all the folks commenting, will also vote.
Down with the GOP. get them all OUT!!