Like a mind-blowing science fiction movie, the 74+ million people who voted for Trump live in an alternate universe where reality is completely reversed. They may walk down the same sidewalks we do, visit the same stores, and drive around on the same streets, but their country differs radically from the one the rest of us occupy.
Like a mind-blowing science fiction movie, the 74+ million people who voted for Trump live in an alternate universe where reality is completely reversed. They may walk down the same sidewalks we do, visit the same stores, and drive around on the same streets, but their country differs radically from the one the rest of us occupy.
These heavily deluded minds exist in a dystopian world where the economy is tanking, inflation is skyrocketing, tariffs aren't taxes on consumers, crime is rampant, cities are burning, illegal immigrants are surging over the border at astronomical levels, thieving, raping, and killing at unprecedented rates, NATO and Ukraine started the war with Russia, vaccines are killing people, Democrats are killing babies and hate God, women are second-class citizens with no rights over their bodies, Christianity is under attack, white people are superior, and brown and black-skinned foreigners are flooding into the country to vote illegally and replace righteous, wholesome Arians and their European cultural identity. Sieg heil!
Like an invasion from outer space, these fantasy-laden, alien-like brains floating down our sidewalks, hidden deep inside exceptionally thick skulls attached to normal-looking bodies, also think that wealthy elites are looking out for the best interests of common people, that Democrats are engaging in "lawfare," imagining the crimes Trump committed, weaponizing the Justice system against their political enemies, that Democrats are rabid socialists controlling the mainstream media, the universities, and the "deep state" (and even the weather, for chrissake!), that they have organized a years-long, massive election-fraud scheme to steal elections, that climate change is a manufactured plot by far left scientists and politicians to ruin capitalism, and that carrying weapons of war on civilian streets is a good thing.
Of course, on the streets in the real world, the complete opposite of everything listed above is the truth. So how will good Democrats and other sane people create a workable information infrastructure, flip the narrative, and convince enough of their fellow citizens to vote for politicians and policies grounded in reality before it's too late to save what's left of our dying democracy ...and the world?
"So how will good Democrats and other sane people create a workable information infrastructure, flip the narrative, and convince enough of their fellow citizens to vote for politicians and policies grounded in reality before it's too late to save what's left of our dying democracy ...and the world?"
Ans. I'm gonna zap 'em with my Jewish space laser.
Alternatively, as I said yesterday, Aristotle said that the 6th act of tragedy is comedy. Reminds me of existentialism. Comedy of the absurd.
Some pundits expect he will be martyred to the benefit of Vance the Terrible. "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown"
I doubt that the Dems will have to do much, if anything, to upend Trumpism. Like all fascist movements, they cannot, nor do they want, to govern. Voters will continue to be reminded what the federal government used to do for them as the economy slides into recession due to tariffs and lack of business guardrails. They will also start to miss the luxury of a hands-off government in which most decisions in life used to be personal. In 4 years, voters will want their freedom and standard of living back.
The big fight is coming to decide how much the USA will be like Hungary. Checks and balances? Political guardrails? They are composed of people. Trump is preparing to drive tank-tracked over democratic norms. As a starter, Trump will almost certainly pressure the Senate Republicans to remove the automatic filibuster and any other Senate rules that might slow the Trumpian juggernaut.
Acknowledging that everything from here on out that can be said about the past and how we got here is irrelevant, as we are faced with a “lawfull” self coup and that Democracy died on Nov 5th and autocracy rose like a vampire,out of the coffin.
I hereby add the Powell memo, which laid the blame for equality and student rebellion against the status quo on a healthy and wealthy middle class, that was so well off and “indolent” as to having “spoiled childen” disrupting the “natural” order of things.. the patriarchy.
While at it, the root of patriarchy and patriotismis patria, Latin for father, and one of the acts of Octavian, Augustus Caesar, was to promulgate the law of Pater Familia, in which the father had absolute power of life and death over wife and children.
Class did not replace race, Race is a subset of class, as is all of the other isms, but what Class really is, is a stand in for Patriarchy.
Here is a clue. Within a patriarchal society, There is no opprobrium . disapproval, with a man marrying down, Trump married a nude "model" and look at him and her, but a woman marrying down, below her social status, well that is a horror and shunning follows.
If anyone watched Downton Abbey, and recalls the chauffer that the daughter of the Lord of the Manor married, they know what I mean, even the series the Gilded Age.
Makes total sense. Trump is the ultimate Big Daddy for America's authoritarian followers, just like Putin is for Russia, Xi Jinping for China, Kim Jong Un for North Korea, Viktor Orbán for Hungary, Nicolás Maduro for Venezuela, Bashar al-Assad for Syria, Netanyahu for Israel, etc., etc. Authoritarianism also seems to be patriarchal.
Deepspace, there are examples which do not fit: Catherine the Great, Elizabeth 1, Imelda Marcos, Eleanor of Aquitaine, the authoritarian Indira Gandhi. These are only a partial list off the top of my head, as I have recently read their biographies. With a little digging I suspect there are more to be found.
Haha, right you are, Gerald; I missed those examples. Maybe the exceptions prove the rule, since most strongmen rulers throughout history were men, ergo "strongmen." Again, thanks for your clarification and insights. Always valuable.
You can do that if you wish. That is not a cross I will die on.
I just reduce every thing to human nature, our basic drives, hormones, one thing drives another, every child has a father, but not every father has a child.
Like a mind-blowing science fiction movie, the 74+ million people who voted for Trump live in an alternate universe where reality is completely reversed. They may walk down the same sidewalks we do, visit the same stores, and drive around on the same streets, but their country differs radically from the one the rest of us occupy.
These heavily deluded minds exist in a dystopian world where the economy is tanking, inflation is skyrocketing, tariffs aren't taxes on consumers, crime is rampant, cities are burning, illegal immigrants are surging over the border at astronomical levels, thieving, raping, and killing at unprecedented rates, NATO and Ukraine started the war with Russia, vaccines are killing people, Democrats are killing babies and hate God, women are second-class citizens with no rights over their bodies, Christianity is under attack, white people are superior, and brown and black-skinned foreigners are flooding into the country to vote illegally and replace righteous, wholesome Arians and their European cultural identity. Sieg heil!
Like an invasion from outer space, these fantasy-laden, alien-like brains floating down our sidewalks, hidden deep inside exceptionally thick skulls attached to normal-looking bodies, also think that wealthy elites are looking out for the best interests of common people, that Democrats are engaging in "lawfare," imagining the crimes Trump committed, weaponizing the Justice system against their political enemies, that Democrats are rabid socialists controlling the mainstream media, the universities, and the "deep state" (and even the weather, for chrissake!), that they have organized a years-long, massive election-fraud scheme to steal elections, that climate change is a manufactured plot by far left scientists and politicians to ruin capitalism, and that carrying weapons of war on civilian streets is a good thing.
Of course, on the streets in the real world, the complete opposite of everything listed above is the truth. So how will good Democrats and other sane people create a workable information infrastructure, flip the narrative, and convince enough of their fellow citizens to vote for politicians and policies grounded in reality before it's too late to save what's left of our dying democracy ...and the world?
"So how will good Democrats and other sane people create a workable information infrastructure, flip the narrative, and convince enough of their fellow citizens to vote for politicians and policies grounded in reality before it's too late to save what's left of our dying democracy ...and the world?"
Ans. I'm gonna zap 'em with my Jewish space laser.
Alternatively, as I said yesterday, Aristotle said that the 6th act of tragedy is comedy. Reminds me of existentialism. Comedy of the absurd.
Some pundits expect he will be martyred to the benefit of Vance the Terrible. "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown"
Thom's blog needs to go viral. 😁
I doubt that the Dems will have to do much, if anything, to upend Trumpism. Like all fascist movements, they cannot, nor do they want, to govern. Voters will continue to be reminded what the federal government used to do for them as the economy slides into recession due to tariffs and lack of business guardrails. They will also start to miss the luxury of a hands-off government in which most decisions in life used to be personal. In 4 years, voters will want their freedom and standard of living back.
I think we're fucked. I hope I'm wrong.
I give my proxy to Politicsgirl. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pcep4FNL54w
“No one ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”
It wouldn't hurt to give the public a big shove in the right direction.
The big fight is coming to decide how much the USA will be like Hungary. Checks and balances? Political guardrails? They are composed of people. Trump is preparing to drive tank-tracked over democratic norms. As a starter, Trump will almost certainly pressure the Senate Republicans to remove the automatic filibuster and any other Senate rules that might slow the Trumpian juggernaut.
Acknowledging that everything from here on out that can be said about the past and how we got here is irrelevant, as we are faced with a “lawfull” self coup and that Democracy died on Nov 5th and autocracy rose like a vampire,out of the coffin.
I hereby add the Powell memo, which laid the blame for equality and student rebellion against the status quo on a healthy and wealthy middle class, that was so well off and “indolent” as to having “spoiled childen” disrupting the “natural” order of things.. the patriarchy.
While at it, the root of patriarchy and patriotismis patria, Latin for father, and one of the acts of Octavian, Augustus Caesar, was to promulgate the law of Pater Familia, in which the father had absolute power of life and death over wife and children.
Class did not replace race, Race is a subset of class, as is all of the other isms, but what Class really is, is a stand in for Patriarchy.
Here is a clue. Within a patriarchal society, There is no opprobrium . disapproval, with a man marrying down, Trump married a nude "model" and look at him and her, but a woman marrying down, below her social status, well that is a horror and shunning follows.
If anyone watched Downton Abbey, and recalls the chauffer that the daughter of the Lord of the Manor married, they know what I mean, even the series the Gilded Age.
Class heirarchy is patriarchal
Makes total sense. Trump is the ultimate Big Daddy for America's authoritarian followers, just like Putin is for Russia, Xi Jinping for China, Kim Jong Un for North Korea, Viktor Orbán for Hungary, Nicolás Maduro for Venezuela, Bashar al-Assad for Syria, Netanyahu for Israel, etc., etc. Authoritarianism also seems to be patriarchal.
No seems about it, authoritarianism is patriarchal, cooperativism is matriarchal.
The female PhaRAoh Hatsheput, had to disguise herself as a man, Her statues show her with a fake beard.
Right — "seems" is too soft of a word. I think Lawrence O'Donnell also pointed that out about Pharaoh Hatsheput on his blog the other day.
Deepspace, there are examples which do not fit: Catherine the Great, Elizabeth 1, Imelda Marcos, Eleanor of Aquitaine, the authoritarian Indira Gandhi. These are only a partial list off the top of my head, as I have recently read their biographies. With a little digging I suspect there are more to be found.
AS Deepspace has said, Exceptions prove the rule.
Haha, right you are, Gerald; I missed those examples. Maybe the exceptions prove the rule, since most strongmen rulers throughout history were men, ergo "strongmen." Again, thanks for your clarification and insights. Always valuable.
I agree with everything here except the class-race-patriarchy statement. I would put class, race and patriarchy into a Venn diagram.
You can do that if you wish. That is not a cross I will die on.
I just reduce every thing to human nature, our basic drives, hormones, one thing drives another, every child has a father, but not every father has a child.
I've said this almost word for word but you wrote it far better. Thanks.
👍
Deepspace, may I suggest that you watch the movie THEY LIVE you'll love it.
That and The Arrival this one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Arrival_(1996_film)
Cool!
Will do. Thanks.