#magas are a hate group

[sjw-irritant]

This appears to be the liberal objectives of mass immigration--the destruction of peoples and communities that they hate.

SJWs are quite literally a hate group.

[beauty-funny-trippy]

[gothicvalentine]

Must watch video compilation. They're coming out and saying they want to go back at least 100 years, before women had rights, one guy said they want to go back to the middle ages and another that things went wrong when "we" stopped burning women at the stake.

Mention was made that they want to make The Handmaid's Tale real--and worse. What the guy means by "and worse" can only be imagined, but considering the actual state sanctioned r*pe in the book and show, it really makes me concerned about them trying to implement forcing women to submit to having sex with (yeah r*ape) men who are not able to get laid, but also feel like they should be able to have sex with supermodels. There's obviously more men than not who will never be able to have sex with super hot women and not all of them can become wealthy enough to make their grossness irrelevant. I've seen articles where it's been stated that some incels have proposed the government "give" them hot women. Like we're nothing more than animals or food.

I know younger people keep complaining that Democrats keep saying that elections are "the most important ever." And I guess it sounds like we're "The Boy Who Cried Wolf."

But it's shit like this that has become more and more open and mainstreamed. So much so that every future election may continue to be "the most important." Because at this point, we're just trying to keep America a democracy (or Democratic Republic or whatever the fuck the legal def is).

These people are the enemy of our country and anyone who wants freedom for women, POC, LGBTQIA, men who don't fit their criteria of "manly men," the lower classes, immigrants, disabled people, neurodivergent people--and anyone I may have forgotten. We have to remain vigilant!

Sadly, for anyone who isn't convinced, I think the only thing that would convince them is if we do lose our freedoms, and I, for one, am not willing to let things get that far! It's enraging enough to me that they've rolled back civil rights and Roe despite everything I've been doing to try to at least maintain the status quo. I'll keep fighting though.

Because I may not fit into most of these groups, but just because someone is different from me, does not mean they should not be able to live happy lives, be the person they are and love who they love. All of you who are dissimilar to me are just as important as I am and the law should consider you all as such. When it doesn't, that's when I have a problem with any of those legislators, even if they are in different states. I wish I had billions of dollars so I could at least try to counteract all the douchy billionaires! 😭

[rabidhiss]

Stigmatize MAGA.

MAGA has stigmatized: Abortion, BLM, CRT, Drag Queens, LGBTQ, Women, DEI.

Stigmatize MAGA

MAGA IS A HATE GROUP.

Vandalize their trucks.

Spit in their faces.

IT IS OK TO PUNCH FASCISTS.

It is ENCOURAGED to attack and remove hate groups.

Stigmatize. Ban. Remove. Cancel.

MAGA is a HATE GROUP.

[samasmith23]

I’ve gotta say, Persona 5 Royal’s penultimate boss battle with the corrupt politician & candidate for Japanese Prime Minister, Masayoshi Shido, was FREAKING phenomenal!

Not only did I love the unique music for this fight, but the symbolism embedded in Shido’s golden lion & pyramid statues comprised of hundreds of regular humans was brilliant in conveying his distorted desire to both ride & subjugate the masses towards ruination for his own self-gain, and his Bane-like roided out second form showcases just how deep his ultra-nationalist “might-makes-right” ideology truly goes! And getting to fight Shido one-on-one as Joker in the final stage was so intense that I had to constantly stay on the defensive whilst timing my offensive techniques just right in order to avoid fatal damage from his powerful arsenal of special attacks!

You better believe that beating the royal crap out of and changing the heart of this dirtbag Donald Trump-wannabe fascist was oh so satisfying! Yes I know that Shido was meant to be a pastiche of Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe, but every time I heard Shido’s dialogue I got some seriously uncomfortable “Make Japan Great Again” vibes from the bastard! I mean… Shido might as well wear that ugly red MAGA cap, he gives off the same kind of hatable energy…

Plus, it was satisfying getting revenge on Shido since he was also the one responsible for giving the protagonist Joker a false criminal record at the start of the game because the latter rightfully tried to stop a drunken Shido from sexually harassing a random woman on the streets, but Joker accidentally broke the Shido’s nose when he tried to pull the latter away from the woman. Unfortunately, Shido then used his powerful political & police connections to try and ruin Joker’s life by falsely accusing him of assault & battery, even blackmailing the woman he previously harassed to publicly testify against Joker.

So having the opportunity to beat the living crap out of Shido's shadow-self in the Metaverse was unbelievably cathartic!

And as I previously alluded to, the soundtrack for this fight, “Rivers in the Desert,” only serves to elevate the tension & atmosphere of this boss battle! BOTH the instrumental & vocal versions!

[renegadeurbanmediasource]

Broke White Supremacist Claims Black People Are A Hate Group

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. So let’s see just who the real hate group is! Kanye told him and other White males they were “oppressed”! I’d be glad to compare notes! Let’s do it! Now show me yours!

[lenbryant]

Coyote Annie on the Sure Foundation Church hate group.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

John Pavlovitz at The Beautiful Mess:

Yesterday, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz would be her running mate in the coming presidential campaign.

The decision was met with effusive praise from both Blue voters, as well as a disparate group of politicians and commentators. Walz’ effortless warmth, his heart-on-sleeve demeanor, and his undeniable joy for life, which have been apparent for a long time in his home state—have suddenly become a national story. In a matter of hours, millions of people fell in love with the Governor, sharing videos of he and his daughter on thrill rides at the State Fair, and photos of him being joyfully embraced by a group of school children and cheerfully holding a tiny, sleeping piglet. And in the wake of the announcement and of his and Kamala' Harris’ electrifying appearance in Philadelphia at their first rally, the “Christian” MAGA Right rolled out a telling reply that they surely imagined was a real zinger: They created the hashtag #TamponTimmy. Really. That’s where they went. That’s all they got. Not only does this desperate response underscore the reality that Republican voters have nothing left but sophomoric name-calling in an effort to emulate their emotionally-stunted orange messiah in the absence of substantive critique, but it reveals how hateful toward women and how threatened by non-toxic masculinity they are.

MAGAs don’t see how much they expose themselves by using a female medical product as a slur, the way it reveals their complete contempt for women and their agendas toward them. They are so intimidated by a man this confident in who he is and so endowed with natural humility, that they have to attack these things as if they’re some sort of character flaws. Emotional maturity is a red flag for them.

[...] They are fully fed up with Trump and his surrogate’s contrived John Wayne dudebro American tough guy cosplay, and they are ready to embrace a better kind of manhood: one that doesn’t need to prove how tough it is, doesn’t have to be the center of attention, and most of all, is not concerned about showing its deep humanity because it revels in it. Tens of million of boys and young men of this nation have been irreparably harmed by the sexist dehumanization of Trump and the MAGA movement, which have been reinforced by Dark Ages theology, culture war politics, inherited/internalized misogyny, and good ol’ fashioned fragile masculinity. This nation is ready to embrace a masculinity embodied in Tim Walz and Doug Emhoff: one that does no harm, one that gladly defers to a strong, capable, talented woman, and one that makes all of us better.

John Pavlovitz nails it. The masculinity of Tim Walz is what’s needed for America, instead of the kind of masculinity the likes of Donald Trump, Andrew Tate, and Elon Musk push.

[still-searching-for-something]

I want to go back to how things were.

I want to go back to when I believed that the progressives were on the right side of history, fighting against oppression in all its forms, and had critical thinking, honest compassion, and understanding in a way that the right--inundated with racist conspiracy theories and absurd lies--did not.

In many ways, I'm a perfect demographic fit in the pro-Palestine circles. I'm bisexual. I'm a young university student who's been progressive for as long as he knew what progressivism was, and I never experienced genuine economic insecurity or wondered if I'd eat that night. In another timeline, maybe I'd be there marching and shouting their horrible slogans. But there's one, teeny little thing that ruins it, which makes me fall through the cracks and renders me politically homeless, outcast by the progressive left and the MAGA right.

I'm a Jew.

And I'm trying so, so hard to hold compassion for the suffering of minorities who have not extended us that same compassion. I'm trying to maintain my progressivist urge to go out and help minorities in solidarity, but it's so hard when they make it clear that they hate us and want our state dead and gone. I supported BLM, but Al Sharpton, Leonard Jeffries, Alice Walker, James Baldwin, Louis Farrakhan, Malcom X, Jesse Jackson and many others either were or are wildly antisemitic, especially Sharpton and Walker, and so are the BLM movement's leaders, who openly sneered at Jews for being shocked by them by announcing, "I guess their activism was just transactional. How (((Zionist))) of them!"

And the queer community forced me out of their ranks for merely questioning whether the war in Gaza is a genocide, for pushing back against them saying that Hamas is fighting oppression. And spread antisemitic lies about me, claims of harassment and supporting genocide to my friends because I dared to question them. And they've chosen to side with those who would throw both of us off roofs for being queer. Cast out by the outcasts.

Like, what do I do? Our only allies are Hindus, Iranians, Kurds, Republicans, and Christian Zionists (respect to all of these groups for that... even you Republicans. This is one of our only points of agreement). That's literally it. No loud show of from indigenous nations supporting what is effectively the most successful anticolonial land back movement in human history. No push from "antiracist progressives" against rising antisemitism and genocidal terrorism from a reactionary fundamentalist group against a historically discriminated group.

And they aren't even just leaning back and being silent--many members of these groups are being actively antisemitic--especially the progressive left, which has morphed into the most antisemitic mainstream political movement since the Nazis. Instead, we're 'Zionazis' and genocidal colonizers who aren't even oppressed anyway, that's just evil Jewish Zionist lies designed to stoke sympathy for their unrelentingly evil nature, which we can't even help. The notion that Jews are intrinsically predisposed to evil acts and deception--never heard that one before.

So now, when I look at pictures of Pride Parades, a celebration of an identity of which I am a part and would have previously killed to attend--I wonder... would I be allowed to hold up a rainbow flag with a Magen David on it? If I asked any of their views on the state of Israel, what will they say? What about on Zionists who support its existence? Would all parts of my identity be respected, valued, and celebrated? Or would I be forced to leave the Star of David flag at home, pretend I don't notice their antisemitic views, and pass the litmus test of disavowing Israel before being accepted?

I feel suspicious and wary of the very community which I am 'supposed' to belong in. I feel uncomfortable. I hate, hate, hate that I feel this way. That I've become more closed, more cynical, more angry. Those of us who fall through the cracks, who hold multiple marginalized identities--queer and Jewish, black and Jewish, Indigenous and Jewish--we are ignored and silenced, our voices and experiences entirely spat upon as being a front for 'Zionist crimes' or whatever new buzzwords they create.

I've decided that first and foremost, I am Jewish. The me that was proud to be a part of the queer community is dead. I want to support the progressive causes of antiracism and social justice, but they hate us. They want us dead. They wouldn't view my participation as being a genuine gesture of solidarity, but an evil Jew Zionist seeking to con them and co-opt support in order to aid our evil apartheid genocidal settler-colonialist white supremacist illegitimate entity in a land that should really be given to Hamas anyway.

How am I supposed to hold space for other minorities when nobody is holding space for us right now?

[thashining]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by MeidasTouch (@meidastouch)

[qqueenofhades]

I love your essays; they are fascinating. Thank you for sharing your perspective! I have a follow up question, if you have the time or energy: in your last, you said, “It's a blueprint for a tiny group of extreme right-wing theocrats and fascists to get their way regardless of what the broader public says about it…”. Who ARE the tiny group of extreme right wing theocrats and fascists? Is it the politicians whom we see all over the news, like Vance and Boebert ands Haley and DeSantis? Or are they puppets whose strings are being pulled by donors behind the scenes, like…I don’t know, the Koch brothers and the Uleins (sp?)? I feel like whoever it is must have mind boggling amounts of money, to overcome the sheer number of people who don’t think like that, even people nominally republican who believe in traditional low taxes and small government, but are not completely bananapants. Or maybe that’s why they tagged trump, bc no one before him was willing to act like enough of an outright gangster to seriously move the needle…? How much more rich than disgustingly rich do they need to be?

Perhaps surprisingly, it's fairly easy to identify the Hall of Shame who are busily trying to end American democracy, not least because they have become increasingly open about it. Their motives are diverse but all terrible. The quick rundown is as follows:

First, the alt-right billionaires club such as Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Harlan Crow, and Leonard Leo (the last two are some of the chief funnelers of dark money to SCOTUS; Crow is Clarence Thomas's sugar daddy). They have reasons ranging from grandiose delusions about "remaking" the world in their preferred image (not at all terrifying) to attaching themselves to fascist politics in order to defeat workers' rights and labor unions, who they view as a threat to their mega-wealth. Thiel is the primary sponsor of JD Vance and the alt-right cryptobros clubs that draw the young right-wing white men who also primarily form the membership of neo-Nazi and white nationalist groups. They want to end democracy in order to punish women, minorities, LGBTQ+ people, and anyone else who Nazis always hate. Crow and Leo have lavishly funded the corrupt SCOTUS in order to influence their preferred right-wing rulings, and there are undoubtedly more who we don't even know about. This is just the tip of the iceberg and I have no doubt that it's far, far worse than anything that has been publicly reported.

Next are the extremist right-wing interest groups that have cohered around and advocated for Project 2025, which is basically just the conservative-extremist wet dream put in one place and written down. They include the Heritage Foundation (the primary Project 2025 author) the Federalist Society and the John Birch Society of right-wing judges and policymakers, and Opus Dei, the secretive Catholic right-wing influence group who are straight out of a Dan Brown novel but are in fact some of the most consequential and powerful players in MAGA World. Their name means "work of God" in Latin, which is very much what they see themselves as doing, and their reach in DC is vast, particularly in the far-right evangelical and fundamentalist Christian groups that have attached themselves to Trump as a vehicle to push through their regressive-reactionary social and cultural politics, especially on abortion, women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and other things that they view as "unholy." These are the diehard true believers who really, truly think that it's better for the US to be a fascist theocracy espousing "Right and Moral" religious views than a flawed, pluralist, and secular democracy. Hard Yikes.

Thirdly we have the useful idiots, such as Vance, Ron DeSantis, Boebert, Greene, basically pick-a-Republican-politician-here, who are pursuing fascist politics out of careerism, opportunism, some amount of genuine belief, and exploiting the age-old fissures of American racism, nativism, xenophobia, and other original sins that have dogged the country since its founding. Of course, Trump himself is chief among these useful idiots, because he's completely willing to end American democracy and install himself as Dictator-for-Life if it exempts him from having to face the consequences for all the crimes he did last time (and frankly, his entire life, which is now catching up with him). I don't think Trump has an actual consistent or coherent policy bone in his body; witness how quickly he was willing to flip-flop on the Florida abortion issue depending on what he thought was useful (and then after the backlash he received from his base). He's a malignant narcissistic sociopath who is incapable of complex reasoning and long-term planning. His only and overriding interest is himself, he will do absolutely whatever he has to in order to save himself, and as long as he has his death grip on the GOP, everyone who wants to succeed in the party or even have a future in it has to slavishly kiss Don Corleone Trump's ring. That is why many lifelong Republicans have been breaking ranks to say they will vote for Harris, because "being a Republican's" one and only qualification is now "being utterly loyal to Trump." That's it.

These are all actors based more or less in the US, but we also can't forget the fact that basically the entire Republican Party is in deep, deep hock to Vladimir Putin and other foreign autocrats (but most especially and dangerously Putin). We just had the DOJ indictment of MAGA influencers who were taking Russian black cash by the bucketload in order to spread damaging lies about Biden/Harris and pump for Trump, and this is consistent with Russia's pattern of extensive interference in American elections going back to at least 2016. It is hard to overstate how much Putin hankers to end American democracy for many reasons. He is a former KGB agent trained in the black-and-white us-and-them logic of the Cold War where the US was the USSR's archenemy, his constant mourning for the USSR's collapse has been well documented, and it would be the absolute defining and singular achievement of all of post-imperial Russian history for Putin to effectively end American democracy with a second Trump term.

This is for the simple reason that Trump is utterly in thrall to Putin and will do whatever he asks, whether it's cutting off aid to Ukraine and forcing them to accept annexation by Russia, pulling America out of NATO and letting Putin set his invasion sights on Poland and the Baltic states, and anything else. That is genuinely terrifying but very likely if Trump was re-elected, aside from the end of American democracy and the worldwide ramifications it would have to empower fascist authoritarians everywhere. Putin is trying to achieve this through a combination of good old-fashioned Soviet-style dezinformatsiya, paying off MAGA influencers, putting the entire resources of the Russian state into defaming Harris-Walz, and recruiting useful idiots like his asset Jill Stein, who has extensive Russian ties and only pops up every four years for idiot leftists to spoil their vote and ruin Democratic electoral prospects. So. Again. Hard yikes.

So that's the quick rundown of the people who are vested in Trump and Project 2025's success and why, and as you can see, while they're all different, they're all terrible. But yes: that really is a very, very small group of people, relatively speaking. And a vote for anyone except Kamala Harris and Tim Walz is a vote to empower them and also to ensure that you will never have the chance to vote again, due to living in an authoritarian fascist regime. Choose wisely.

[thewoodbine]

Despite being for the peace and safety of Palestinians and against the Israeli government I do not trust " Pro Palestine" people anymore.

They've (speaking to the movement as a whole rather than individuals) proven over and over to have a mob mentality, support terrorism for the sake of terrorism, allow/perpetuate extreme and rampant unchecked antisemitism in their communities, base many arguments on/spread complete and total missinformation, and in general seem more enthusiastic about burning everything down than they are about actually helping people or improving the situation.

Nothing displays this better than people trying to sabotage the US election to achieve ???? No president ???? Absolutely no candidate is good enough for them so they'd rather let Trump win (which would be horrific for Palestine btw) than accept that doing good is always better than theoretical perfect. They're not involved in any meaningful way with local elections, I haven't seen any tangible efforts to encourage peace talks, I've seen no discussion on what comes after the ceasefire (beyond calls to destroy Israel and effectively reverse genocide half of the Jewish population). It's all grandstanding with the only calls to action being destructive ones.

Any attempt to critique the movement or check and balance any of the growing toxicity is met with violent and hysterical backlash about how the other person must love genocide and hate babies. It's their winning hand to take this ridiculous idea of some assumed moral high ground and use it to inflict as much harm, hate speech, and discord as possible. I could honestly go on and on from a rehtoricians point of view on why their arguments are almost always leaning heavily on some time of fallacy or manipulation rather than the very real, very valid factual situation which is terrible enough to be compelling on its own.

It's turned into an extremist movement that the left can hide behind but people are beginning to see it for what it is and it's the progressive lefts very own MAGA group poisoning it from the inside out under the guise of a cause reasonable people find very sensible and good at first and get sucked under before they know it.

[johannestevans]

had a Great experience the other day where i was at a trans event and started talking to this woman who was also Jewish, and so we were talking about like, Jewish movies and gender roles in different Jewish and Ashkenazi spaces and antisemitism and like, broader philosophical concepts and it was genuinely really nice

and at some point this other girl came over and mentioned wanting to be a cop, and when she was resolutely shut down by everyone else in the social circle, she started dropping "fun facts" about hitler's regime

such as that "hitler didn't really hate jews, his second in command, himmler, did, and he led the whole thing. hitler was just the face of it" and then at some point said something like "you know, people say even churchill was kind of racist"

and i was like. "yeah. churchill did multiple genocides and also hated jewish people."

and she replied, "yeah. makes you think that no one's actually good, doesn't it?"

and i went, "no. that's a very cowardly position to take, i would posit, by someone too lazy or too spineless to make an effort to be "good", as you say."

and that shut her up for a bit

and then the conversation moved on a bit more, and got onto the topic of israel, and she said something vaguely to the effect of like. jewish voices where she - to her credit, i do believe unintentionally - implied that a Jewish group were Zionist when they weren't, they were just Jewish

and i corrected her, and she went "well, yeah. Israelis aren't real Jews anyway"

and i said, "can you tell me what you mean by that?"

and she said, "well, like. loads of jews oppose israel actually being and having a state, right? like that's part of the scripture, and has been for ages. and loads of israelis are just americans and they're just racist"

and so then i like. explained that yes, when it came to the formation of israel, many Jews opposed it because jews aren't meant to have their own state until after the coming of the messiah, and also that yes, a lot of criticism of israel should rightly be made as to the way it's colonial in its nature and its desire to form a white jewish ethnostate

eugenics have always been part of the israeli mentality, not merely in wanting to be like, broadly white, but also in the ideology around israelis being "super Jews", and a large part of this came as israel tried to establish itself as a more positive territory worldwide through the '60s when it was pushing itself as a tourist destination

many orientalist tropes were taken on, the positive ones, israeli women being presented as desirable and exotic, israeli men as strong and lethal; the focus on the IDF and krav maga and the depiction of palestinians and other arabs as monsters they're triumphing over, the push to define israelis as having a "middle easten" identity when the choice was made to take over palestine over various other locations around the world, in part to legitimise the israeli identity by establishing it as a literal homecoming, and attempting to redefine Jews coming to israel as a return to their indigenous roots

but to say that by virtue of being israelis no israeli jew is a "real jew" is a pretty thorny area, because "jewish" has always been a religion and an ethnicity, and a complexedly policed and examined one. israeli jews will often claim that non-israeli jews or particularly anti-Zionist jews aren't real jews, and that kind of attitude of attempting to delegitimise the other group's identity rather than grappling with the actual harms of their politics or identities is not like. valuable

and then i was telling her a little bit about the history of like. not only the constructed israeli identity, but also forms of racism within the jewish communities - pushing forward modern hebrew whilst pushing back yiddish, ladino, and other jewish languages, because languages associated with poverty, the shtetl, the shoah, or with being too brown or too foreign, undercut the "super jew" idea, even without getting into israeli treatment of ethiopian jews and other Black and darker skinned jews

and i was just like. i don't care that you're bored, i don't care that this is more complicated than you cared for, bc like. attitudes that end up dismissing all jews as supporting the state of israel and therefore evil, or like. atttiudes where you end up really racialising and getting into ethnic condemnations of jews without understanding the history or implications of what you're saying are a large thing of what makes leftist and queer spaces feel so unsafe for jewish people across the board

and i was then like. "do you understand that the modern state of israel has always wanted people to believe that nowhere but a state run by jews is safe for the jewish people? that when you make even leftist and anti-zionist jews feel unsafe in leftist spaces, that's what some israelis want, in the hopes that that lonely experience of antisemitism will be harmful enough to have them go to zionist spaces instead?"

and she really did seem to have a moment of. oh.

because like. fucking yeah, babe. obviously.

but it's just so exhausting bc i went from some really fun and exciting conversations about jewish cinema and antisemitism on the screen and like. jewish gender and gender roles and how they relate to diff experiences of being racialised or pushed into an underclass

and then i had to pivot into giving some ABCs of not talking like a fucking nazi to some goyische 4channers

and i know that being pushed out of a space like this is likely to radicalise the nazi cop girl more, that it's better for her to be in a trans space and be told some of her opinions are shitty and harmful than to be like, excluded and then made to seek out even more racist spaces to exist in, but it's just like. shit. it's just really shit

like it's great to care about your leftist politics but sometimes your reading needs to be more than like. your specific hyperfixation/special interest anarchist who took part in fucking pogroms

[socialjusticeinamerica]

New Apostolic Reformation.

Evangelical Christian supremacy movement. Authoritarianism based on Old Testament bullshit that is preached by non-affiliated local southern and rural churches (and Mega-Church televangelists) that is not connected to mainstream, establishment, hierarchical religions.

These for profit, start your own, local evangelicals are easy to manipulate as is any grouping without an established hierarchy and a code of rules. This is how dictators and terror movements have high jacked Islam. Find a cleric that is sympathetic, or can be bribed and then use them to rubber stamp your agenda.

Evangelicals truly are the Americans Taliban. Anyone who labels themselves as simply Christian is likely to be one of the most un-Christian people you could ever meet. Their goal is to stomp out all established religions and create a Taliban style authoritarian dictatorship. Republican politicians are riding their coattails. Both sides are playing a dangerous game. Republicans and their oligarch puppet masters think they can manipulate and control all these evangelical terrorists, Neo-Nazi, Neo-Confederate, armed militias, and other hate groups. But there is the chance that these Theocrats could seize control of those very un-Christian groups and eliminate them first. This is Dominionism on steroids.

Do you want to return to Puritan times with an un-healthy dose of racism/bigotry/misogyny/xenophobia/ and the Crusades tossed in for good measure? Republicans are always playing with fire and will risk any consequence in their insatiable lust for greed and political power.

The far-right Republicans have been highly organized with nearly unlimited dark money from Neo-Nazi oligarchs since the 1960’s. Their goal has been to restructure America into a conservative dystopia where commerce has no restraints and workers and citizens have no rights.a dystopia where everyone is of European ancestry and is kept in line by an Old Testament based form of evangelicalism run by the oligarchs/aristocracy a plutocracy with draconian authoritarian powers.

They now control so many states that it is unlikely we will be able to stop their restructuring of America in our lifetimes. Republicans control 60% of state legislatures. If they can get it to 75% they can change or even scrap the Constitution and write a new one. Republicans control just over half of the seats in the House of Reps and the Senate. If they can move that number up to 66% they could change or scrap the Constitution.

Remember that many Republican voters rejected Trump personally in 2020 but not MAGA Republicanism. They actually picked up a few seats which allowed them to seize the House. Meanwhile the Senate is tied with the Democratic VP necessary to pass most bills wanted by us on the Democratic side of the aisle.

The next time you’re dragging Biden remember you are giving the keys to the kingdom to a Theocratic totalitarian government owned by Neo-Nazi oligarchs. Trump next year followed by Dominionist bastards like Ted Cruz and MAGA Mike Johnson.

[curioscurio]

Why we have to start being nicer to eachother:

I know it sucks and is hard, but I think we really do need to start treating techbros and incels and our fellow humans with a bit more compassion, empathy, and understanding before we jump to bad faith interpretation. Especially when seeing a bad take online used as bait for arguments. We have to give other people the opportunity and knowledge to think for themselves, and make the choice to become a better person on their own.

"Hold on! Why should I be nice to people like that? THEY'RE the ones who are being bigoted to US!"

Well, I'll try and answer that question below! I ended up writing a lot, so check out the "read more" if you're curious. At the end of the day, I'm not an expert or a professional on human behavior, so keep that in mind. This is just something I've been thinking about based on my own past experiences.

Conspiracy theorists, the far right, gun enthusiasts, and even MAGA's all operate on the belief that modern society hates them for who they are. They think the entire world is against them.

And, looking at the kind of hate rhetoric and harmful ideologies they talk about; the cruel acts of casual and extremist violence that stem from that community, it easy to see why the world has turned its back on them. Right?

It makes you wonder: "Why are they like this?"

The easy way out is to simply hold on to the belief that they are behaving this way because they are bad people. Bad people do bad things, after all.

But when the world turns its back on a group of people, those people turn their backs on the world. They will naturally gravitate towards whichever group of accepting humans they come across first. Whoever validates their feelings and makes them feel accepted and safe instead of rejected and fearful.

The far right preys on young men who don't know know any better because they are never treated any better. They have influencers, exactly like Donald Trump, that make you feel safe. They also are lying to these people and using their fear of rejection to control them.

It's very similar to how the Church will help you out and feed you if you're homelss... as long as you join the church and donate 10% of your earnings to "God." (The churchs bank account. )

That is to say, people don't usually pop out of the womb with these prejudices and fears programed into their heads. It's something that has to be taught to them by somebody else. Their parents, the church, their school, their friends, youtubers, etc.

"So, what do we do? How do we save future and current generations from being sucked into this hateful spiral of far right bigotry?"

"How do we help our conservative parents, who we know love us but are absolutely convinced that they need guns to keep their families safe? How do we help our Trump Train family members who used to be loving, compassionate, people?"

Well, you're not gonna like the answer. We have to start being nicer to everyone. We have to be nicer to incels, dude bros, techbros, Karen's, and yes, even your average Republican voters. We have to show them compassion and empathy when they're expressing their fears, without immediately attacking them for it. We have got to prove to them that there's a place for them to come back to.

Their fears are being taken advantage of by a system that benefits from pitting the general population against each other. If we're too busy fighting eachother, we can never join forces and fight the system.

And so it turns into a self-sustaining system of fear and reactive lashing out. They start believing that everybody is against them, except the few people who understand. Until the only safe place left for them is the Q Anon message boards. Quite literally an orobourous of hate.

"But Curio! They literally want us dead! These people are violent and irredeemable!"

Many of them are. So many of these people are groomed into believing that the only way they can keep themselves safe is by killing anything they think has caused them harm. It's an intentional system maintained by those in power to control those who are not.

Some of them, however, are just normal people who got in with the wrong crowd or are too young to know better. Some people were never given the chance to be better.

"So, what SHOULD we do? Be nice to our oppressors? Let them get away with hate crimes and bigotry?"

No. But we DO need to stop thinking of "them" as this massive malevolent demographic who have no souls and are inherently evil. The majority of these people were lied to and manipulated and groomed into these beliefs.

We have to try harder to stop ourselves before we start calling them names and attack them, regardless of if they deserve it or not. We have to engage with them on good faith. Learn about WHY they believe conspiracy theories and why it stems from fear.

"Why? What will this help?"

Because you're quite literally showing them that there's another option available for them to take. You're showing them that, if they do change their minds and want to change their behavior, that you are a safe person to approach with these thoughts. You have the power to create a space for them where they're allowed to think for themselves without punishing them for it.

Once you create that connection, it's like you're showing them another road in life they can explore. They now can see a new future for themselves. A future where their kids start talking to them again. A future where they're not terrified of being humiliated for being soft. A future where they feel listened to.

And that's all. You just have to give them that chance. It's not your job to change their mind, or to tell them that they're wrong for thinking thoughts. In fact, trying to do just that will usually encourage them to double down.

But what you CAN do is build an environment where they have the OPPORTUNITY to change their mind. You can be kind, empathetic, and educational. Be patient and listen and have a respectful conversation with them.

It is especially important for people with privilege to step up and be those kinds of diplomats. People who are able and willing to look past the surface bigotry to address the scared humans underneath. People who can do this without endangering themselves or their community. This may be other cis straight white people who can get away with bringing these topics up gently, without triggering reflexive defensiveness. Who then have the patience to gently educate them and steer them towards a better path.

"But Curio, I can't do this. I've been hurt too many times by these people, and doing this would cause me significant mental distress."

Then don't. You're not obligated to be the better person for every situation and circumstance. Nuance must be taken into account. You don't have to be nice to every troll or ragebait Twitter post. I certainly don't want you to put yourself in a situation that causes you emotional, physical, or mental harm. Hell, you don't even have to give them the time of day. It's your own responsibility to make the judgment call regarding your health.

But people simply won't change if there's no room for them to change. And some people have the power to make that room for them little by little.

"I've tried everything. I've begged, cried, been nice, and shown them that we won't reject them. They won't change their minds no matter what."

And that's also ok! It can happen. When you give people the opportunity to make choices for themselves, there will always be people who still choose to believe the system they were groomed on. They can do that because thats free will, baby. There will still be people who will not change their minds and who will actively choose to become more radicalized.

And it's sad to see. But you also have to respect that sometimes people aren't ready to change at the same time that you're ready to help them change.

But you should try to do it for all the young men and children who are being taught by their parents that White Genocide is real. You should do it for the parents who love their kid so much, but are so terrified when they say they're transgender because they don't know what to do. Because they know the world will not treat them fairly or are afraid of ruining everything.

You should do it for your 10 year old nephew who watches Andrew Tate because their mother doesn't give a damn enough to check what kind of YouTube videos their kid is watching. You should do it for the depressed and hurting teenager who thinks they have no option left but to buy a gun and shoot up their school, because no ones listening to them. You should do it for the tradwife who's alone and hurting after her conservative husband cheated on her and left her with nothing; because she thought she would be the exception.

"...How do you know this will work? What if you're wrong, and nothing changes?"

I don't! I'm just a random person on the internet. I dont know who might read this. It's just my opinion.

But at least, at the end of the day, you tried your best to be a good person to another human being, and I don't think that's such very a bad thing. For me, I'm going to try because I don't want to lose my father to that kind of environment. I want to be able to have a normal conversation with him again.

There's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for.