#louder than a dogwhistle honestly

[abigailspinach]

Multiple outlets reported that Republican leadership has implored the conference to quit attacking Harris in racist and gendered ways, encapsulated by the shorthand of calling her a “DEI hire.”

Republican lawmakers…aren’t listening.

Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) today: “Intellectually, just really kind of the bottom of the barrel,” she said, adding: “I think she was a DEI hire. And I think that that’s what we’re seeing, and I just don’t think that they have anybody else.”

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) Monday: “The incompetency level is at an all-time high in Washington. The media propped up this president, lied to the American people for three years, and then dumped him for our DEI vice president.”

Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI) over the weekend: “A lot of Democrats feel they have to stick with her because of her ethnic background.”

Bonus from former Trump administration official and now Fox Business commentator Larry Kudlow: “Her whole history is DEI.”

We’ve been talking about this since way back when Harris was elevated (ha). Racism and sexism are baked into the MAGA movement; “fuck your feelings” and the freedom to express those bigotries are part of its appeal. Trying to get its members to sublimate those beliefs for a general electorate is a toothpaste/tube situation.

[eclipsecrowned]

like honestly i don’t care if people write dark content within reason. so long as someone isn’t fetish mining, actively trying to harm or trigger others via the content they produce, or actively pushing a hate agenda, no one should be stopped from writing things. my point of contention is that i personally find it tasteless to write about the th*rd re*ch when the wounds it produced are still wide open -- and that it’s so much worse if your aim is to humanize or idealize those who served it, even if through a fictional lens. 

the main reason people say this is because those beliefs are still alive, and well and if you give their adherents an inch they will take a mile. you are actively engendering a space where they think it is safe to come in and engage with people because you treat people who think and act like them as ‘cool’ and ‘cute’ and ‘interesting.’ yes, it’s all just fiction. yes, this fictional war troupe never hurt anyone, because it is fiction. but i just wish i could impart to people that your real world response to that fiction is the problem, not the media itself. you are providing silent support for hate speech to roam free, and i have seen a lot of roleplayers in that space sounding neon*zi dogwhistles, and given how insidiously hate groups set up on online spaces, i can’t even trust that someone is doing so out of ignorance.

i just wish people would keep n mind that reality speaks louder than fiction, and reaction to fiction is a language that bad people will capitalize on.