The coup is ongoing, and Republicans will do anything to maintain power. To do that, that need a culture war, and CRT is, to them, the perfect villain. The authoritarian tendencies are so overt and un-democratic that the fact most haven’t been driven from the public square shows just how dangerous they are—and how close we are to losing our liberty.
Excellent article. I've long called conservatives "cultural communists" but "collectivist" works just as well, if not better.
One of the worst misfires "the Left" makes in messaging is to constantly dismiss conservatives as "stupid" or "ignorant". While there may be some truth to that (and yes, there are plenty of dummies on "the Left" too), it fails to hold all the intentional liars to account.* And the Right has those types in spades. I mean, is Josh Hawley (Yale), stupid? Is Ted Cruz (Princeton) an imbecile? Tucker Carlson (Trinity)? Is Sen. John Kennedy (Oxford) a low IQ bozo? Dinesh D'Souza (Dartmouth)? The list goes on and on and on. I submit that most (or at least half of the conservative movement) know exactly what they're doing. They're not dummies, they're bad faith actors and abject liars who relish being propagandists for their movement. Again, they know exactly what they're doing.
*The problem with calling conservatives "stupid" is that it lets them off the hook for anything they say, believe, endorse, or vote for. Calling them "stupid" absolves them from any responsibility for what they advocate. After all, if someone is stupid, that's not really their fault, is it? Stupid isn't a choice, it's a condition or a trait and, as such, we shouldn't be too hard on them for being "wrong". It also implies that the "stupid" person is arguing in good faith, which is so often not the case. I believe this attitude has caused a ton of apathy on "the Left" because it fails to take the opponent seriously. When you dismiss your opponent as "stupid" or "ignorant", you're basically telling everyone on your side that there's really nothing to worry about, these idiots couldn't legislate their way out of a paper bag. Such an underestimating attitude breeds apathy, and I believe conservatives have capitalized on that over the last few decades.
Unfortunately, I don't see people backing off calling conservatives "stupid" anytime soon (it's too fun, I guess), so the least people can do is remember their Carlin: "never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups."
The coup is ongoing, and Republicans will do anything to maintain power. To do that, that need a culture war, and CRT is, to them, the perfect villain. The authoritarian tendencies are so overt and un-democratic that the fact most haven’t been driven from the public square shows just how dangerous they are—and how close we are to losing our liberty.
Excellent article. I've long called conservatives "cultural communists" but "collectivist" works just as well, if not better.
One of the worst misfires "the Left" makes in messaging is to constantly dismiss conservatives as "stupid" or "ignorant". While there may be some truth to that (and yes, there are plenty of dummies on "the Left" too), it fails to hold all the intentional liars to account.* And the Right has those types in spades. I mean, is Josh Hawley (Yale), stupid? Is Ted Cruz (Princeton) an imbecile? Tucker Carlson (Trinity)? Is Sen. John Kennedy (Oxford) a low IQ bozo? Dinesh D'Souza (Dartmouth)? The list goes on and on and on. I submit that most (or at least half of the conservative movement) know exactly what they're doing. They're not dummies, they're bad faith actors and abject liars who relish being propagandists for their movement. Again, they know exactly what they're doing.
*The problem with calling conservatives "stupid" is that it lets them off the hook for anything they say, believe, endorse, or vote for. Calling them "stupid" absolves them from any responsibility for what they advocate. After all, if someone is stupid, that's not really their fault, is it? Stupid isn't a choice, it's a condition or a trait and, as such, we shouldn't be too hard on them for being "wrong". It also implies that the "stupid" person is arguing in good faith, which is so often not the case. I believe this attitude has caused a ton of apathy on "the Left" because it fails to take the opponent seriously. When you dismiss your opponent as "stupid" or "ignorant", you're basically telling everyone on your side that there's really nothing to worry about, these idiots couldn't legislate their way out of a paper bag. Such an underestimating attitude breeds apathy, and I believe conservatives have capitalized on that over the last few decades.
Unfortunately, I don't see people backing off calling conservatives "stupid" anytime soon (it's too fun, I guess), so the least people can do is remember their Carlin: "never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups."