This all makes so much sense to me. As someone deeply committed to truth, truth seeking and truth telling, I found that aspect the most resonant. So much of what is happening is because we live in this “post-truth” world where people think it’s ok to just “agree to disagree” on something as foundational as the truth. I don’t know how people will ever find their way out of this thinking though. It’s so hard, when people’s identity is entrenched in their ideologies. Which reminds me of a conversation I had with my partner a few months ago. For context, he is high school educated, blue collar and recovered MAGA 😊. We were watching a clip of Rachel Maddow discussing something the regime was doing and it was so unreal, so outrageous… that I turned to him and said “if I were MAGA watching this I’d think she lost her mind completely.” I thought about it a bit more and started to panic and said “How do I know I’m not crazy? How can I tell what I believe is true? How do we know for sure we are on the right side of this?” He said “Think about what you believe to be true. Is it good? Is it love? Is it kind? Does it uplift or help others?” I said “Yes.” “Then, you are on the right side of this,” he said. “Thanks,” I said “but wait, where did you get all that from?” He said “I DO listen to you, goofy.”
I think that right there at the end is what is key. To really ask yourself if at the core of the thing you’re looking for, does it fall within these values.
I think if you ask most MAGA (except for the hardcore who think we should be ruled by Musk and other billionaires), they will tell you that someone who works 40 hours a week should be able to afford a dignified life, and they’ll say yes. Ask them if they think that what matters is whether someone is willing to work hard or where they come from or the color of their skin, and most will say whether or not they’re willing to work hard (but for the white-supremacists). I think a lot of how Dems have lost a lot of people that went to MAGA is because in a world where we are truly fair, a lot of the people who went to MAGA would not be living in the kind of despair that they live now for all the different reasons. And when they look at us (Dems) and don’t see us pushing for a world that is actually working for them, they come to the conclusion that we don’t actually believe in these common shared values, but rather that we only want to take what we can for the groups we claim to care about. So then, they in turn see all those groups we talk about, whether it’s immigrants, or LGBTQ+, or African Americans, etc. as inherent enemies (rightwing media pushes this hard of course because it’s in their best interest, but at the end of the day it’s up to those of us who believe in Democracy to make sure that Democracy works for everyone, and unfortunately, Dems have too often capitulated to different interest groups).
This might be a bit confusing but it’s 3AM and I’ve been debugging a couple of my servers for the last few hours. 😀
Yes, it was a North Star moment for me, something I can use to navigate. And I think you’re right about the rest. Hope you got some sleep and woke to a bugless server ☺️
Comedian John Fugelsang was on Comedy Central interviewed by Jordan Klepper (https://bit.ly/42LNWsg) talking about his best selling book Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person's Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds It’s a great short interview about the book that displays the consistent hypocrisy that the far right and the current Nazi regime exhibits every day and twice on Sunday
It's fun but also lays out the selfish hypocritical interpretation of the fascist Christian Nationalist Movement(CMN) that their interpretation is for political purposes not a spiritual one Orban rode this pony to power in Hungary and Hitler in Germany As Der Fuhrer said “We tolerate no one in our ranks who attacks the ideas of Christianity. Our movement is Christian.” Adolph Hitler 1928
This all makes so much sense to me. As someone deeply committed to truth, truth seeking and truth telling, I found that aspect the most resonant. So much of what is happening is because we live in this “post-truth” world where people think it’s ok to just “agree to disagree” on something as foundational as the truth. I don’t know how people will ever find their way out of this thinking though. It’s so hard, when people’s identity is entrenched in their ideologies. Which reminds me of a conversation I had with my partner a few months ago. For context, he is high school educated, blue collar and recovered MAGA 😊. We were watching a clip of Rachel Maddow discussing something the regime was doing and it was so unreal, so outrageous… that I turned to him and said “if I were MAGA watching this I’d think she lost her mind completely.” I thought about it a bit more and started to panic and said “How do I know I’m not crazy? How can I tell what I believe is true? How do we know for sure we are on the right side of this?” He said “Think about what you believe to be true. Is it good? Is it love? Is it kind? Does it uplift or help others?” I said “Yes.” “Then, you are on the right side of this,” he said. “Thanks,” I said “but wait, where did you get all that from?” He said “I DO listen to you, goofy.”
I think that right there at the end is what is key. To really ask yourself if at the core of the thing you’re looking for, does it fall within these values.
I think if you ask most MAGA (except for the hardcore who think we should be ruled by Musk and other billionaires), they will tell you that someone who works 40 hours a week should be able to afford a dignified life, and they’ll say yes. Ask them if they think that what matters is whether someone is willing to work hard or where they come from or the color of their skin, and most will say whether or not they’re willing to work hard (but for the white-supremacists). I think a lot of how Dems have lost a lot of people that went to MAGA is because in a world where we are truly fair, a lot of the people who went to MAGA would not be living in the kind of despair that they live now for all the different reasons. And when they look at us (Dems) and don’t see us pushing for a world that is actually working for them, they come to the conclusion that we don’t actually believe in these common shared values, but rather that we only want to take what we can for the groups we claim to care about. So then, they in turn see all those groups we talk about, whether it’s immigrants, or LGBTQ+, or African Americans, etc. as inherent enemies (rightwing media pushes this hard of course because it’s in their best interest, but at the end of the day it’s up to those of us who believe in Democracy to make sure that Democracy works for everyone, and unfortunately, Dems have too often capitulated to different interest groups).
This might be a bit confusing but it’s 3AM and I’ve been debugging a couple of my servers for the last few hours. 😀
Yes, it was a North Star moment for me, something I can use to navigate. And I think you’re right about the rest. Hope you got some sleep and woke to a bugless server ☺️
Comedian Takes On Hypocrisy
Comedian John Fugelsang was on Comedy Central interviewed by Jordan Klepper (https://bit.ly/42LNWsg) talking about his best selling book Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person's Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds It’s a great short interview about the book that displays the consistent hypocrisy that the far right and the current Nazi regime exhibits every day and twice on Sunday
It's fun but also lays out the selfish hypocritical interpretation of the fascist Christian Nationalist Movement(CMN) that their interpretation is for political purposes not a spiritual one Orban rode this pony to power in Hungary and Hitler in Germany As Der Fuhrer said “We tolerate no one in our ranks who attacks the ideas of Christianity. Our movement is Christian.” Adolph Hitler 1928