All right. Happy Sunday. I am annoyed. As always, social media has against presented itself as a completely inept platform for discussing larger and important issues. Following a long and…interesting thread from Tom Nichols on whether MAGA / the current GOP is a “fascist” movement, I grabbed my cup of coffee and weighed in.
Found the video so fascinating. Was not that familiar with your work. Now I'm a paid subscriber and have order The Midnight Kingdom. Look forward to reading it and more of you substack writings.
If we give names to political movements, if we say fascism or MAGA or whatever, we are applying concepts we understand and drawing borders around these movements so that we feel we're in control of the narrative. What the Republicans seem to be trying to do is to instill puritanism, a version of Christianity that is meant to lure in the right wing dimwits who don't understand that the GOP doesn't give a shit about them. Yes, it's about racism. And it's about misogyny, a 2,000 year old ideology as busy as ever in working for its goal of shutting down feminism.
I agree with Russ Adams...an excellent rant and explanation. I also throw up my hands when arguments devolve into squabbles about all sorts of obscurities and away from the big picture. Actually what happens is I get sucked into a squabble and think “How the heck did I get here!?” For instance on the issue of reproductive rights someone tosses out a bible verse and what am I supposed to do what with that? Drives me nuts when that happens. We need to discuss underlying structures and paradigms (like patriarchy and colonialism, capitalism etc), not just gossip, complain or condemn. This gets to exactly why I am no longer relying on mainstream corporate media (and that includes Twitter as far as I am concerned) to find out what’s going on. Thankfully I found Substack and your newsletter among others. You are thinking.
Found the video so fascinating. Was not that familiar with your work. Now I'm a paid subscriber and have order The Midnight Kingdom. Look forward to reading it and more of you substack writings.
If we give names to political movements, if we say fascism or MAGA or whatever, we are applying concepts we understand and drawing borders around these movements so that we feel we're in control of the narrative. What the Republicans seem to be trying to do is to instill puritanism, a version of Christianity that is meant to lure in the right wing dimwits who don't understand that the GOP doesn't give a shit about them. Yes, it's about racism. And it's about misogyny, a 2,000 year old ideology as busy as ever in working for its goal of shutting down feminism.
Excellent rant/explanation!
I agree with Russ Adams...an excellent rant and explanation. I also throw up my hands when arguments devolve into squabbles about all sorts of obscurities and away from the big picture. Actually what happens is I get sucked into a squabble and think “How the heck did I get here!?” For instance on the issue of reproductive rights someone tosses out a bible verse and what am I supposed to do what with that? Drives me nuts when that happens. We need to discuss underlying structures and paradigms (like patriarchy and colonialism, capitalism etc), not just gossip, complain or condemn. This gets to exactly why I am no longer relying on mainstream corporate media (and that includes Twitter as far as I am concerned) to find out what’s going on. Thankfully I found Substack and your newsletter among others. You are thinking.