The Liverpool FC Forum > News and Current Affairs
The state Of The States. How Has America Got To Now?
Mumm-Ra:
I think about this topic a lot though - too much, really. How have things got to this point?
I saw this exchange on reddit recently, and agreed with every word - the first quoted block is from a WaPo editorial about the newest GOP psycho Madison Cawthorne, who gave a nazi-esque speech with ominous warnings of more violence to come if elections keep getting 'stolen':
--- Quote ---WaPo editorial: There you have the reigning ethos of today’s right wing laid bare: If we keep lying uncontrollably to our supporters about the totalitarian left’s repression of them, they just might resort to violence, and gosh almighty, wouldn’t that be just terrible!
The big truth captured here is that for many right-wing personalities, the lying about the left is prior and essential to their radicalization, abandonment of democracy and increasing embrace of authoritarianism. The former inspires and justifies the latter: Once you unshackle yourself entirely from any obligation to reality in depicting the leftist menace, it’s a short leap to envisioning and then justifying pretty much anything in response to it.
The Cawthorn dust-up captures this nicely. His spokesman says he “fears” that “others” will “erroneously choose” violence, as long as “election integrity questions” remain unresolved.
But Cawthorn himself cheerfully does all he can to give life to those “questions,” even though they’re based in lies. He says our elections continue to be “rigged” and “stolen,” and that the only way to avert violence is to insist that “we have election security in all 50 states.”
We do have election security, of course. The 2020 voting was scrutinized to an extraordinary degree, subject to numerous intensive reviews by elections officials and litigated over in dozens of nationally watched court battles.
So at best, there’s a vaguely extortive element to this: If you don’t give us more election security — i.e., more voter suppression, more “audits” designed to cast doubt on the election’s outcome, more doubling down on counter-majoritarian tactics — the millions of Americans unfairly victimized by the last election’s outcome just might resort to bloodshed! And that would be just awful!
You see versions of this constantly from the right’s superstars. Remember when Tucker Carlson agreed that virtuous conservatives just might get pushed into fascism if and when the left’s excesses require it? This was justified by the invention that the left is already perilously close to this point, creating a perfect feedback loop of self-justification.
Similarly, when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) flirted with political violence, she did so by seemingly agreeing with the need to combat various leftist tyrannies that were simply invented.
And when Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) sought to justify his lead role in trying to invalidate President Biden’s electors in Congress, he claimed to be merely giving voice to constituents who had doubts about the outcome. In reality, of course, he actively fed those doubts, and then used them to reverse-justify his effort to subvert the outcome, an effort that helped inspire Jan. 6.
--- End quote ---
...and then this response from u/frostfall010:
--- Quote ---This article really gets at what the right wing media machine has been doing for years: creating this absurd and completely detached-from-reality caricature of the left. They legitimize it by cherry-picking examples of the left's hypocrisy or by pretending that extreme examples of behavior from some on the left is representative of everyone on the left. Millions of right wing Americans are fed this daily and they see democrats and people on the left as anti-American and a threat to the "real Americans'" way of life.
They're being radicalized by these insane lies and January 6 and other examples of right wing violence are evidence that they're taking up this "reluctant" mantle of having to defend America from internal enemies. And people like Trump and virtually every other member of the GOP perpetuates this idea, that democrats are extreme, dangerous, and should not govern.
It's not much more of a reach from there to say, the every day democrat is destroying the country and we have to do something about them. Clearly, not one single republican voiced any meaningful rebuke of Trump allowing unmarked officers grabbing protestors off of the street into unmarked vans (which should be the exact thing all these 2nd amendment-obsessed people should be upset about). So long as right wing media is allowed to continue spreading misinformation and propaganda this will only get worse.
--- End quote ---
Fromola:
--- Quote from: oldfordie on September 2, 2021, 03:53:07 pm ---Freedom of speech abuse.
Religion gone mad. add gone given right to anything somebody wants and they think right is on their side.
Add Patriot to any view they support makes then feel are doing something nobel, something they feel they are justified in feeling proud over.
--- End quote ---
Democracy in general is in a shambles over there. Every Republican president since certainly Reagan has been highly destructive. On the other side you've got all these one-party Democrat cities that are in a shambles and taken over by anarchy, poverty, crime and homelessness, with the solution of 'defund the police' proposed as some kind of solution.
Nobby Reserve:
--- Quote from: Mumm-Ra on September 2, 2021, 04:12:47 pm ---
--- Quote ---This article really gets at what the right wing media machine has been doing for years: creating this absurd and completely detached-from-reality caricature of the left. They legitimize it by cherry-picking examples of the left's hypocrisy or by pretending that extreme examples of behavior from some on the left is representative of everyone on the left. Millions of right wing Americans are fed this daily and they see democrats and people on the left as anti-American and a threat to the "real Americans'" way of life.
--- End quote ---
--- End quote ---
You could apply exactly this to the UK
oldfordie:
--- Quote from: Fromola on September 2, 2021, 04:40:38 pm ---Democracy in general is in a shambles over there. Every Republican president since certainly Reagan has been highly destructive. On the other side you've got all these one-party Democrat cities that are in a shambles and taken over by anarchy, poverty, crime and homelessness, with the solution of 'defund the police' proposed as some kind of solution. :no ,
--- End quote ---
I had a few little arguments on freedom of speech with someone from the US a few years back when discussing Hillsborough trolls. he was making a case of us not seeing the bigger picture, how silencing these trolls will limit our freedom to attack politicians, :no . why do people accept these ridicules arguments without considering if they are right? the UK has far stricter laws than the US on freedom of speech, I assume anyone who thinks this stops us attacking our politicians never watches the news or reads opinions on UK forums.
The "13th" is brilliant documentary, Clinton should take some of the blame but at least he had the guts to admit he was wrong. yet 3 strikes and out law still in use today in most States. stand your ground law is obscene. I fully support BLM but they have argued a couple of things that have made it easier for the right wing to attack them, made it harder for the center left to endorse a couple of arguments they've made. which makes it easier for the hard right to exploit to use fear.
Lone Star Red:
--- Quote from: Only Me on September 2, 2021, 03:03:45 pm ---They appear to be a brainwashed, North Korean type cult of a country.
Making large numbers of kids pledge allegiance to a fucking flag every day - knob heads.
And the obsession with religion and God that millions of them seem to go in for. Obviously only the white, English speaking God, like.
And then there's the gun fettish. Something very Freudian about all that nonsense. if you ask me.
There's no hope for them. They are the very definition of a lost cause.
Pity the Atlantic isn't a few thousand miles wider.
Its a real shame. I've been to the US about 10 times on various holidays. But no more. Nutters, the lot of them.
--- End quote ---
:lmao
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version