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Kathy Tankersley's avatar

Hi, this article is so important to understanding the current white fascist backlash going on in our country. It’s disgusting and upsetting to realize the depth of racial hatred and fear mongering by so many Americans. I grew up during the 50’s and 60’s also. I went to public schools in a suburb of Los Angeles. My school experience was exposure to kids of many races- African American, Hispanic, Japanese, Chinese, Phillipino, etc. To this day I don’t understand the fear and vitriol from the right wing at all. I am really disgusted at the Fox broadcasting networks (I won’t call it a “news”network) and the corporate sponsors that enables their trash to be spewed out daily. It’s a continuous propaganda and half-truth garbage bending the lazy and gullible to believe in an altered reality that allows them to hate and fear “the other” half of Americans. I subscribe to “The Bulwark” for rational articles from “never tRumper” conservatives even though I am thoroughly Democrat. Today’s articles called out Tucker Carlson’s scary power over the Fox network spewing out racist ideology and lies. I am disheartened to realize how powerful Fox and similar far right outlets are- family and friends watch those sources and for example-I was recently told by a longtime friend/coworker that President Biden has dementia and she was afraid “he has control over the nuclear buttons and we should all be worried. And that he’s messing up the country “. Really! Even though tRump was committing crimes and demonstrated lying to an art form his whole presidency she’s swallowing the right wing propaganda. So I worry for America and I didn’t expect to enter my senior years watching family and friends turn into cult members. I don’t understand their mindless acceptance of the right wing lies. Where’s critical thinking in this country? Fact checking sources instead of wholesale swallowing of misinformation? Rational policy debates? What’s happened to putting the welfare of the majority over the privileged minority? Thank you Thom for your continual contribution to accurate historical and political information-and for letting me vent my frustration.

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SuZieCoyote's avatar

I grew up in the 50's as well. America is not going back to that time. Women are not going to give up birth control and go back into the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant, as unpaid servants. Not even the most vocal and vicious of the female Republicans (Boebert, MTG, etc) will go back to that, despite their rhetoric. Can you imagine Ingraham putting on the prairie dress and becoming a good submissive wife? Gays are not going back into the closet; the are done with that. They now have families, children, marriages and a stake in the national identity. Blacks will no longer sit at the back of the bus, as they did when I was a small child. They won't use the back door, drink from separate water fountains or stop protesting police brutality. The hateful 30% can cause sporadic civil unrest and likely kill innocent people, but they can't stop history, no matter how hard they try. Hitler tried. It worked for a while and then fell apart. Many died in his attempt. Perhaps this is a lesson that needs to be relearned every 60 years or so. I hope not. You mentioned the church as being part of the hate-generating dynamic. I posit the evangelical twisting of scripture as the *source* of most of it. Anyone who's spent any time driving across the "heartland," and tuned their radio to the AM right-wing hate broadcasts by grifting "pastors" knows exactly where the sickness originates.

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