By Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
So. I had a wide-ranging political discussion with my Traditionalist relative this weekend and…it did not go well. Or, it did go well in the sense that we didn’t yell at each other. But I do think I got at least a little bit of insight into what the fuck is wrong with American politics right now.
The key thing we have to understand is the fascists are winning the propaganda battle. Republicans are good at latching on to a few concepts and banging them into the minds of Traditionalists in such a simplistic manner that the actual issue is conflated and lost. So even my relative — who is educated and just happens to be on the other end of the political spectrum as me — brought up those MAGA chestnuts like how “the woke cancel culture mob” is not only “grooming” little kids to be gay, but also he thinks that infanticide is something that people like me actually support. (I don’t.)
So, there are a number of key issues which MAGA fascists have managed to successfully lodge a Big Lie into the minds of people who should know better, but generally don’t have the time to come up with a complex political opinion. Traditionalists like my relatives are very, very, very receptive to fascist concepts — even though they don’t even know that they are.
There are two big issues to realize about this.
One, this is not an abstract to me. In the end, if we become a MAGA themed fascist autocracy, then I’m fucked. I’ve had the luxury of living in a Western democracy where I could be a drunk kook and rant at a bar about how much I think President DeSantis can suck my dick. When I’m no longer living in a Western democracy….uh oh. I may very well find myself throw into a Trump branded ICE camp because I shot off at the mouth.
That sounds hysterical at the moment, but that’s the ultimate endgame to living in a MAGA fascist state.
Meanwhile, the other issue is my Traditionalist relative, who works at a big multinational corporation, feels he has a personal reason to hate the “woke cancel culture mob” — apparently because of the “sensitivity training” of his huge company in a relatively conservative state, “there are so many things he can’t say.”
And THAT difference between what a Blues think is socially acceptable and what Reds think is socially acceptable in, say, a workplace environment has grown so different that Traditionalist conservatives feel they have no other choice but support the rise of fascism in the United States. Well, the whole country is in deep, deep trouble.
So, again, between now and spring 2025, the United States is going to face the issue of choosing between autocracy, civil war or military junta. And, at the moment, I think we’re just going to slip into autocracy in the context of millions of Blues simply leaving the country because they can.
I don’t know what else to tell you. We’re fucked. Good luck.
