by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Here are some of the current MAGA talking points as best I can determine. I’ll try to address them as best I can.
“We’re A Constitutional Republic, Not A Democracy’
If someone is using this to defend Trump, what they’re really saying is when Trump brazenly steals the election in the fall, all that matters is he stays in power and fuck you. In fact, I would go so far as to say this is something of a fallback position while they think of some other bullshit reason to defend the indefensible. They want to get into a squabble over terminology and not address the issues at hand.
As always, Trump himself does them no favors when he tweets out a suggestion that the fall election be “delayed.” This goes beyond simply laying the groundwork for being cool with Trump outright stealing the election because “we’re a constitutional republic and not a democracy” straight to outright fascist thuggery. Usually, when you bring such things up, they say Trump is “just joking” and you’ve fallen for his trolling again, libtard.
Trump As Master Troll
For this to work, you have to essentially posit that nothing Trump says should be taken seriously, even after he makes it clear it IS meant to be taken seriously. Trump does this constantly to his supporters. They call you a fool for falling for Trump’s trolling then he turns around and makes it absolutely clear that he was not joking. In fact, he doubles down, triples down in all seriousness the thing that his followers throw in your face as simply a “troll” that has “triggered” you. Remember, all MAGA talking points are based on the concept of “owning the moment” on a tactical level. Strategically, they could care less. Fuck you. This leads them to some pretty astonishing self-owns on a strategic level, but lulz, they have no shame and don’t care about anything but power and greed.
“Trump Is Protecting My Family From Violent Communists And Anarchists“
This is straight out of the fascist playbook. Fascists want to draw the lines of political debate so absolutely on an abstract level that there is absolutely no room for compromise or debate. This is why Trump sent his Little Green Men to Portland — he wanted to feature the resulting violence in campaign ads.
MAGA wants to conflate violent protests with peaceful protests. It’s like whenever gun control is brought up, gun rights advocates immediately go insane with notions that you want to “take” their guns not “control” them. There are plenty of valid concerns that conservative-but-not-MAGA people about how swiftly perceptions have changed about some things. Usually, this is more a result of them being zoned out because they’re so busy raising their kids and paying their mortgage that they “don’t have time for politics.” When that bubble is pierced by this or that thing on Fox News, they get all upset and pretty much are so overwhelmed with their abstract fears about what MIGHT happen, that it’s difficult — if not impossible — to talk to them about the actual fascist behavior of Trump.
Projection
This is another tried and true form of gas-lighting on the part of MAGA these days. What they want is to have a big argument about what Biden has — or hasn’t done — so you spend a lot of time fighting over this and not the very concrete fuckups that Trump has done. That’s why Hunter Biden and the Durham Investigation are so existential to MAGA — they want to distract the average person who “doesn’t have time for politics” with the things that Biden may have done wrong, so there’s no time left over for the obscene amount of things that House Trump has, in fact, done.
“You’re Going To Have To Learn Chinese And Russian If Biden Is Elected”
This talking point is so delusional and beyond any basis in fact as to be darkly comical. Now, I will admit that over the last five years, I’ve probably come across as rather hysterical about our march towards fascism. But, in hindsight, I wasn’t wrong, I was just wrong about chronology. That and Trump simply is too stupid, incompetent and lay to do much of the stuff he obviously wants to do. And, lulz, he always has a stolen second term to do all the stuff I’ve feared he would do in his first. All the indicators are pointing in a very, very dark direction
But the point of this talking point, I guess, is that Biden is soft on Russia and China. This talking point, like so many of MAGA’s talking points, is meant to either make you so angry that you just start screaming at each other, or to muddle the waters while you attempt to explain that, if anything, it’s Trump who is extremely “soft” on both China and Russia. Trump begged President Xi to help him win re-election and said he was cool with concentration camps. Meanwhile, Trump has always been soft on Russia and has called him about every two weeks since March. But by the time everything gets sorted out, they either walk away, have attacked you personally, or have pull some other bullshit out of their ass
Lastly, there’s The Big Lie
This talking point reminds you that the lines have been drawn and there’s no going back. This talking point is pretty much just “Fuck you” dressed up in any number of extremely stupid or surreal gross misinterpretations of facts that are pretty much just “I’m scared of the Browning of America” said with different words.
In the end, there’s simply nothing you can do with MAGA people. There are some extremely complicated, existential flaws in the American political system that aren’t going anywhere. And demographic trends don’t suggest liberal democracy in the United States is going to survive MAGA.
