The NRA used to say, “An armed society is a polite society.” The truth is that an armed society is a fearful, dangerous, and — eventually — authoritarian society
Jul 14, 2022·edited Jul 14, 2022Liked by Thom Hartmann
Gun control or just simply control?
Either or both, there is no excuse for grown ass-people posing with their armed children. They look pathetic. They want the left to fear them, but seriously, I pity the kids and I find them disgusting. No fear involved. Thankfully this is a subset of their party.
But then there are the rest of the Republicans not posing as tough guys and gals, the ones that want to use the Supreme Court to bully the rest of us. They too don't make me fearful, they just make me furious, because my nature is to protect the most vulnerable.
Your through line is accurate, Thom. Republicans have reached a point where they have failed to disavow or keep in check their bad actors. Instead they endorsed a psychopath after his mental state was on full display. The Klan, Germany, and authoritarianism is exactly where the line leads.
And now, this 35-40 percent of Americans are all armed with weapons of war, and live in their own media bubble.
They are highly segregated within the US in rural places. 40 years ago, when I lived in the rural part of Ohio that now votes about 70-90 percent Republican, were the authoritarians already self-segregated then, before right wing propaganda began radicalizing them?
I think they always were self-segregated to rural places, but there used to be non-authoritarians who also lived there. These have all moved to the cities and their suburbs now, leaving behind those who want nothing to do with the cities and suburbs because brown and black people live there. Columbus, my home town, is unique among big US cities, in that it's robust growth in recent decades has almost all been due to migration from rural parts of the rest of the state where population has dropped, rather than from other states.
How many of those smiling people in the millions of photos like the one above have a vision in their heads of their first targeted human being black? When they walk armed into a Wal Mart, people of color are who they want to intimidate. It's time this elephant in the room sees the light of day.
The common thread is the power of the Billionaires. They have have been quietly behind this NRA scheme since Eisenhower scared the HELL out of them with his farewell speech. They understood if they could divide us thru fear and lies they could do anything including destroying Democracy. Plus they got richer while the rest of us got poorer. The only hope for the world is another BIG asteroid direct hit and let the cockroaches rule
Nice idea, I agree the NaziRepublican Party shouldn't have brownshirts, but I don't think they have any choice. Cows were chosen for their placidity. When you tie firecrackers to their tail, OF COURSE they will stampede as a group with no understanding of - anything. In many ways it's advantageous if the NaziRepublican leaders guide them, as long as they don't delete the emails and if we had a DOJ, or at least an AG. Maybe if we bring a lawsuit against Garland for dereliction of duty..............
The interesting thing I'm seeing is it's not just the fanatic radical right arming themselves, the same thing is happening among progressives, the US center-right, what the media calls the "left", but in the USA it's the center-right, progressives who have almost the same agenda as Eisenhower.
We are arming ourselves, but we aren't stupid enough to buy zero mpg trucks and put huge flags on them declaring "I'm a fool".
I'm just saying, when the fan turns brown, the NaziRepublican Party thugs will find themselves outnumbered 5:1, and outnumbered by people who can reason. Watch them run like a Hawley.
The most imporatnt thing is to have Trump followers' faith shaken so they no longer follow him. Right? Better to have him rpuondly humiliated than to put him out of pbusinessm or out of politics or in jail. Right? So let's talk about that.
Really. Let's be smart. Better than being vengeful. Get Trump to show up, on a ruse, for an intervention. Get the Republicans who are testifying against him now to read him chapter and verse. For what the country needs, offer him total immunity from all prosecutions to admit he knew he lost but didn't want to give up power -- omg, a Trump mea culpa would be an event! He 'd be speaking for the good of the country, to unite us, and he might love being that kinky hero. No? I'd see his speech at a stadium with fireworks afterwards and a huge celebration of the country once more united. A side benefit would be to free up all the energy from the IRS, the justice system, and all the many worlds he's intertwined with that could sink him. It makes me light-headed to just think about that.
Gun control or just simply control?
Either or both, there is no excuse for grown ass-people posing with their armed children. They look pathetic. They want the left to fear them, but seriously, I pity the kids and I find them disgusting. No fear involved. Thankfully this is a subset of their party.
But then there are the rest of the Republicans not posing as tough guys and gals, the ones that want to use the Supreme Court to bully the rest of us. They too don't make me fearful, they just make me furious, because my nature is to protect the most vulnerable.
Your through line is accurate, Thom. Republicans have reached a point where they have failed to disavow or keep in check their bad actors. Instead they endorsed a psychopath after his mental state was on full display. The Klan, Germany, and authoritarianism is exactly where the line leads.
How did the Dennis-like people, those with authoritarian brains, get self segregated to the extent they now are?
That question intrigues me.
America now has many more of them than five European countries and Canada, and Germany now has many fewer:
https://theauthoritarians.org/lessons-of-the-2020-american-election-january-6th-and-beyond/
https://theauthoritarians.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/RWAs-International.jpg
And now, this 35-40 percent of Americans are all armed with weapons of war, and live in their own media bubble.
They are highly segregated within the US in rural places. 40 years ago, when I lived in the rural part of Ohio that now votes about 70-90 percent Republican, were the authoritarians already self-segregated then, before right wing propaganda began radicalizing them?
I think they always were self-segregated to rural places, but there used to be non-authoritarians who also lived there. These have all moved to the cities and their suburbs now, leaving behind those who want nothing to do with the cities and suburbs because brown and black people live there. Columbus, my home town, is unique among big US cities, in that it's robust growth in recent decades has almost all been due to migration from rural parts of the rest of the state where population has dropped, rather than from other states.
How many of those smiling people in the millions of photos like the one above have a vision in their heads of their first targeted human being black? When they walk armed into a Wal Mart, people of color are who they want to intimidate. It's time this elephant in the room sees the light of day.
The common thread is the power of the Billionaires. They have have been quietly behind this NRA scheme since Eisenhower scared the HELL out of them with his farewell speech. They understood if they could divide us thru fear and lies they could do anything including destroying Democracy. Plus they got richer while the rest of us got poorer. The only hope for the world is another BIG asteroid direct hit and let the cockroaches rule
An armed society is a society that has lost it'd mind and soul.
Nice idea, I agree the NaziRepublican Party shouldn't have brownshirts, but I don't think they have any choice. Cows were chosen for their placidity. When you tie firecrackers to their tail, OF COURSE they will stampede as a group with no understanding of - anything. In many ways it's advantageous if the NaziRepublican leaders guide them, as long as they don't delete the emails and if we had a DOJ, or at least an AG. Maybe if we bring a lawsuit against Garland for dereliction of duty..............
The interesting thing I'm seeing is it's not just the fanatic radical right arming themselves, the same thing is happening among progressives, the US center-right, what the media calls the "left", but in the USA it's the center-right, progressives who have almost the same agenda as Eisenhower.
We are arming ourselves, but we aren't stupid enough to buy zero mpg trucks and put huge flags on them declaring "I'm a fool".
I'm just saying, when the fan turns brown, the NaziRepublican Party thugs will find themselves outnumbered 5:1, and outnumbered by people who can reason. Watch them run like a Hawley.
The most imporatnt thing is to have Trump followers' faith shaken so they no longer follow him. Right? Better to have him rpuondly humiliated than to put him out of pbusinessm or out of politics or in jail. Right? So let's talk about that.
Really. Let's be smart. Better than being vengeful. Get Trump to show up, on a ruse, for an intervention. Get the Republicans who are testifying against him now to read him chapter and verse. For what the country needs, offer him total immunity from all prosecutions to admit he knew he lost but didn't want to give up power -- omg, a Trump mea culpa would be an event! He 'd be speaking for the good of the country, to unite us, and he might love being that kinky hero. No? I'd see his speech at a stadium with fireworks afterwards and a huge celebration of the country once more united. A side benefit would be to free up all the energy from the IRS, the justice system, and all the many worlds he's intertwined with that could sink him. It makes me light-headed to just think about that.
Some good imaginative thinking; at least someone's thinking out of the box. Cheers.