ck4829
ck4829's JournalCan you do the Make America Great Again Challenge?! Pass this on
So when was America great before? What does that mean exactly? Sometimes you get vague replies of some before-time that was apparently so awesome it knocked your socks off, I remember a video of a Trump supporter chuckling and then saying "Well... before the gays", so I decided to help Trump supporters out.
Pick the year America was great and give up the horrible things associated with everything after that, and please add as you see fit.
2015 - Same sex marriage legalized in all states and territories
2013 - Black Lives Matter movement
2008 - First black president
2006 - Twitter founded (Give it up)
2004 - Facebook founded
2003 - Same sex sexual activity made legal in all states and territories
1991 - World Wide Web is open to the public
1973 - Roe v Wade
1968 - Last year it is legal to discriminate against someone trying to buy or rent because of the color of their skin
1954 - Last year it is legal to have separate schools for white and black students
1950 - BEST YEAR EVER (Excluding Roy Moore Voters)
1940 - About half of Americans have indoor plumbing (Flip a coin to see if you still have it, heads you do, tails you give it up)
1928 - Penicillin (Give antibiotics up)
1920 - Women get the right to vote
1916 - First billionaire in the US (So give up your already fantasy dreams of being a billionaire)
1914 - First flight service with passengers
1902 - First modern air conditioning unit
1885 - The first car
1868 - Being born in the US means you are a citizen
1865 - Still legal to own black people as slaves
1860 - The year right before the Civil War started, this is when America was great according to Roy Moore
1846 - Anesthesia in surgery
1776 - US declares independence from Britain
Before 1776 - First Muslims in America
Can Trump supporters dare to make America great again and live without the people... and things... after the year they say America is great?
Are you going to be a 'good American' and boo and hiss when you hear "socialist" or "liberal"?
Because you're supposed to... That's what normal people do according to the groups I am going to mention next.
Years of conditioning by Fox News, talk radio, right wing pundits, radical right groups seeping into the mainstream, right wing religious leaders, politicians, media, astroturf efforts, etc. have led to this.
You're supposed to boo and hiss the liberal, the socialist and the perceived 'socialist', the Democrat, GLBTQ people, the poor, the person with pre-existing conditions, the refugee, the Muslim, the black civil rights activist, the activist in general, anyone who is against system justification, etc.
Years spent normalizing and creating outrage, finding the one person who is most outraged about these groups who doesn't look like a deranged killer, making opposition to these 'other' groups seem normal and more normal than these 'other' groups, associating hating these 'other' groups with pleasant-sounding groups like the Family Research Council, making it seem abnormal to associate with these 'other' groups (Who wants to be a snowflake, right?), providing rewards and 'rewards' like with feeling a sense of belonging or a vague notion of 'national security', providing a scapegoat for their troubles, etc. I could go on and on... this isn't political, this is purely physiological in many ways.
Here's the thing: We can argue what socialism is and what the definition of it is until the cows come home. We can move to the center or, heck, even be on the right. You can be the perfect anti-socialist. We can have tough border policies. We can do all sorts of things to appeal to people on the other side of the aisle. But as we approach November, here's what will happen... Fox News, Breitbart News, Republican politicians, the White House, Christian right leaders, and others of the first group I mentioned will say "SOCIALIST", "DIRTY LIBERAL", "OPEN BORDERS", etc. and it will be just like Pavlov ringing the bell, one segment of Americans will go into visceral hatred of the 'other' (AKA you), and another segment will not say anything because they don't want to make a scene or look 'different'.
We've got to call it out, we've got to cause the 'extinction' of this conditioning. That's all there is to it, refusing to be a 'good American' is a first step, because I'm not going to wait for 'heretic against Trump or Trumpism' to be the next bell.
RW: Democrats need to stop bringing up Russa... yet Trump has tweeted more about Russia than Dems
That's right, I waded into Trump's twitter account just for an experiment I thought you all might find find interesting using the ctrl+F function.
Trump: Tweeted about "Russia" 28 times in the month of July at the time of this experiment
And for comparison:
Nancy Pelosi: Tweeted about "Russia" 19 times in the month of July at the time of this experiment
The Democrats (Official twitter account for the Democratic Party): Tweeted about "Russia" 20 times in the month of July at the time of this experiment
But Democrats keep getting told voters in the midwest aren't talking about Russia though, right?
Be sure to use this when you see a right winger making one of those memes where concern about Russia is dismissed, thanks.
Vladimir Putin is not a stupid man, when he talked about "George Soros", he was gloating
“You have a lot of individuals in the United States, take George Soros, for instance, with multibillion capitals, but does it make him — his position, his posture, the posture of the United States? No, it does not,” Putin said.
George Soros is the Emmanuel Goldstein of the right wing, he's that shadowy figure who controls everything.
There is George Soros, the mortal man.
And then there is "GEORGE SOROS!!!", the illusion the hard right uses to justify fear and as they make conspiracy theories up about as a "deep state" and Soros, and liberals, and Jews, and immigrants, and Muslims, and GLBTQ people, and the EU, and Martians, and Antifa, and Pizzagate, and Satanists, and the kids who survive school shootings, and the Freemasons, and on and on are all conspiring against them.
When they frame it about Soros and the Deep State, they don't have to talk about the Council for National Policy or Groundswell.
When they frame it about Pizzagate, they don't have to talk about Josh Duggar.
"GEORGE SOROS!!!", not George Soros, is the mirror of the right wing. This constructed image of George Soros is as much a part of the extreme right wing as confederate flags, "good national security" meaning "Yeah there's a mass shooter, but the shooter's not Muslim, so win!" or "If you get sick and don't have health insurance, just don't make a mess as you die, k? Thanks."
And so... what are hackers to the Putinist regime?
At a certain point, there has to be a public declaration that Trump's WH no longer represents us
No longer represents the United States, that it is not a moral or political voice or symbol for the United States; that at most, he just signs legislation.
We have a President who:
* Sees himself as President of a select few, a privileged minority.
* Sees himself akin to a boss or the CEO of the country rather than a chief public servant.
* Is a symbol for an irrational backwards era and frankly psychotic demographic of the country (This alt/far right element that should be isolated and contained far away from any vestige of power rather than embraced) rather than a symbol ALL Americans can rally behind in times of trouble.
* Instead of a beacon of hope has enabled and empowered autocrats across the globe, be it Putin or Duterte.
* Trusts these autocrats more than our intelligence community and media.
If not here and now, I ask you all, when will that point be that we publicly say to each other, to our legislators, and to the rest of the world that "respect for the office" has officially ended?
Foucault said the Victorians weren't puritans at all and were actually obsessed with sex
And so I wonder if something along those lines can also be said about the nationalist or so-called "anti-globalist" fervor, in particular the kind in particular that got Trump (s)elected...
The nationalist is not against "globalism" at all, but they want an unrealistic one where their nation is given preference above all other nations.
The nationalist is not concerned with purely insular affairs but is actually concerned about what is going on with the other side of the world, they want a clash of civilizations... West vs East, North vs South, White vs Dark Skinned, Christian vs Muslim, etc.
Quite simply, the concern with borders to a fault does not mean you are making your own country better, you are always looking out, you are always seeing what 'they' are doing.
So maybe instead of "nationalist" or "anti-globalist", we should start calling them for what they are... Irrational Globalist, Unworkable Globalist, but still very much a Globalist, they really are as globalist as they say others are.
It should be apparent now that the right doesn't think things through
When you treat black athletes kneeling as "disrespectful" to America, but do or say nothing about confederate flags and even Nazi flags being waved alongside the US flag...
When you are torching the environment...
When you say "NO! All Lives Matter!" but shrug and run away when refugees need help...
When you treat Muslims and immigrants as some sort of super-danger, but do nothing when white non-Muslim men are slaughtering innocent people in churches, movie theaters, and schools...
When the same Evangelicals who supported the disastrous Iraq War "because End Times" are now celebrating this government regime...
When you are enabling sexists and racists who should have nothing to do with authority and should instead be isolated far away from everyone else for everyone's safety...
When you demand respect but vote for the most disrespectful President in American history...
Did you think people weren't going to notice? Did you think people weren't going to notice the inconsistencies? Did you think people were just going to throw their hands up and stop caring? Did you think people were going to be OK with the disparity and double standards? Did you think we should just embrace "civility" after you have rejected it for so long?
Open Borders
What are "Open Borders"? I can tell you what open borders will be. Any position Democrats take, anything they put on their platform, any word, any number of words, no matter how we say it, no matter what Democrats will campaign on, no matter how nuanced, soft, or hard-line, no matter how many headers, no matter how many sub-headers, no matter how many sections, no matter what the approach or how many approaches Democrats will or could possibly take will be declared to be a policy of "open borders" by Republicans, by Trump, by Fox News, by Evangelicals, and by the rest of the 'liberal' media.
Realize this now.
There is nothing that no Democratic incumbent, candidate, pundit, strategist, activist or anyone else can do or say that Republicans will not just say "Well that's open borders!" to.
Realize this now.
"Open Borders", this is an absolute, you will not find absolutes in reality, that is perhaps the only absolute. So we need to ask "What's wrong with more open borders?" We need to speak louder when they talk about immigrants and open borders and remind the American people that immigrants are the American people and are part of this country's spirit. And yes, we do need to point out the reality that more open borders would decrease the demand that human traffickers and smugglers would have.
Instead of talking about borders and walls, let's talk about doors.
