Thread by @JuliusGoat

In my opinion anybody giving any Republican the benefit of the doubt at this point knows exactly what they're doing and why.

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1177787258176495618

The entire premise for many is this:

For people on a higher level of our socio-economic power structure there should be no consequence whatsoever for any antisocial behavior against anyone at a lower level.

Any consequence. Even criticism.

Any antisocial behavior. Even crime.

And in this age of blatant corruption and overt hate, this age of menace and theft, there are those whose overriding fear is that we might change that premise.

They aren't afraid of the danger of Trump.

They're afraid of the danger of consequence, as a general concept.

These are people who don't just lie. They've chosen quite deliberately to *occupy* a lie.

They use political power to compel and threaten and punish others to join them in their lie.

When anyone insists on living in any kind of truth, they publish it as an attack on themselves.

I'm glad I got this comment.

I want to talk about people who have chosen not so much to lie, but to live in a lie.

I want to talk about how they are friends and family. And often very fine people.

And I want to talk about love, and patience, and faith, and the process.

First, we're all well aware of this problem. People who have chosen to live in the lie aren't strangers. There are tens of millions of them. We know them. Friends, neighbors, family.

And they have many wonderful qualities.

That doesn't make this better. It makes it worse.

It's worse on a couple different levels.

First, it makes this all so much more painful. It would be easier if these were monsters.

More insidiously, their goodness hides the evil of the lie they've chosen to live. It can convince them (or even us) it's not a lie.

After all, no people ever committed atrocity until that people first convinced themselves they were exceptionally good.

Once you're assured you're too good a people to commit atrocity, you can rest assured that what you are doing must be good, since you are the people doing it.

So we shouldn't be surprised that our friends and family, who have chosen to occupy a lie, have their reasons for doing so, or manage to be very nice, or good, even admirable, within the parameters they've established for themselves.

But letting them live the lie isn't love.

Acting as if their reasons for choosing the lie are valid isn't love.

Nor is giving the benefit of the doubt, when they've proven beyond doubt they abuse their benefit.

Acting as if they aren't hurting people isn't love.

It's the opposite of love. It helps them live the lie.

And, it's the opposite of love, because it erases from the equation those that will be harmed.

What's this reflexive unearned benefit of the doubt? What's this patient silence?

Love? Faith? No.

It's choosing comfort over consequence.

Not for them. For yourself.

Remember how the lie manifests.

Using power to compel and threaten and punish others to join them in their lie.

Treating any publication of the truth as an attack on themselves.

When they do that, there's a consequence for the truth bearer. We'd rather avoid that.

That's how abuse and enablement work.

It's what our society is presently founded on.

Again, it's a time of menace and hatred, from power, targeting marginalized people.

And you can see people whose main concern is avoiding consequence.

You can see them easily.

If you love people who have chosen to occupy this lie, love them enough to call their lie a lie.

Tell them every human being is a unique and irreplaceable work of art carrying unsurpassable worth.

That we all belong to each other.
That life isn't earned through profit.

And, be willing to take the consequence that comes to truth-tellers.

Make the lie uncomfortable to live in.

Not only for them.

For you.

People don't change from a comfortable position, but an uncomfortable one.

If you have faith in the goodness of those you love, who have chosen to live in a lie of menace and domination and bigotry, have faith that truth's discomfort will lead them back to truth.

That's faith.

At least you'll have made it uncomfortable—and not primarily for others, but for yourself.

People don't change out of comfortable spaces, remember.

If you're putting yourself in a comfortable space, consider that.

I'm speaking from experience. And I have miles to go.

Last 2 thoughts:

1) I'm speaking to my experience, not my perfection. This is what I'm figuring out. I'm in this boat with you.

2) Stay healthy and set proper boundaries. There's a difference between allowing discomfort, and making yourself suffer or endangering yourself.

Seek and get help and support. We all need it.

And be excellent to each other.