“You might want to believe that everyone has their breaking point where there's no choice left but to resist. That's simply not true, though.”
Please never forget how adaptable we are. Which isn’t good. mashable.com/article/throug…
Please never forget how adaptable we are. Which isn’t good. mashable.com/article/throug…
And the Republican senate is going to get us closer to Nazi Germany than we’ve yet been. I can’t stress enough how not-hyperbolic that is.
Hitler rose to power through elections and political manipulation. It was not a coup.
Hitler rose to power through elections and political manipulation. It was not a coup.
Ironically it was exploitable flaws in the Weimar constitution that made a lot of that possible. Which... yeah.
He didn’t charge in and take Germany by force. He seduced it. For the most part it gave itself up voluntarily.
He didn’t charge in and take Germany by force. He seduced it. For the most part it gave itself up voluntarily.
Unfortunately I think a lot of our task between now and November is going to be convincing checked-out people just how much this fucking matters and how much is at stake. The trouble is going to be that the truth sounds... well, hyperbolic.
People have been saying forever that you shouldn’t carelessly invoke Naziism because it means that when we actually arrive there no one would take it seriously, but you know, that was going to be a huge problem no matter what.
Because no one wants to believe it. No one wants to believe we actually could be there. It’s too huge and too scary; it’s like how people prefer to turn away from the starkest realities of climate change. It’s so bad that it’s far easier to say “oh come on, it’s not that bad.”
You talk about your opponents as being fascists and the accuracy of that gets swallowed up in talk about civility and both-sidesism and how terrible it is that we can’t all just come together and get along.
Imagine saying that to a German in the 1930s about an actual Nazi.
Imagine saying that to a German in the 1930s about an actual Nazi.
You sound crazy. I’m using that word intentionally and meaningfully. You sound absolutely insane. You sound detached from reality, because you are.
In hindsight.
In hindsight.
But there were people trying to warn everyone then, and there are people trying to warn everyone now, and it’s the exact same damn thing. Don’t believe me. Go actually read the history. Although when a huge number of historians are saying the same thing, I’d listen.
What I think, for whatever my opinion is worth, is that right now we’re still in a phase where it’s possible to solve this by peaceful political means. We can still stop the emergency with elections.
After 2020 that changes.
After 2020 that changes.
I don’t know how to get past the hyperbole problem. I’d just say... you know the people around you. You know what they might respond to. Play to your crowd and say whatever you need to say to make them care, even if it’s not the full brutal truth.
The important thing is that *you* know where we are, and what’s at stake, and where this goes if we can’t win in November.
The Republicans are a few very small steps from being the wholesale Nazi party. Get them out while we still can.
By the way, I’m saying that because a lot of Nazis started out as “merely” enablers or people who wanted to jump on the relevancy bandwagon. A huge number of Nazis were indistinguishable from Mitch McConnell. A huge number of them were indistinguishable from Lindsay Graham.
They played the exact same roles, did the exact same things. They weren’t all super dramatic. They were feckless and lazy and amoral and cared only about holding onto their own little patch of power. That’s all it took.
They’re Nazis, and they can’t be reasoned with or worked with or gotten along with, and they won’t suddenly do the right thing. They’re Nazis, and they have to go.
God sometimes I wish I had done my PhD on anything else
Like I said. Thread.
And also. Goddamn I went from a decent mood to being fairly depressed.
DON’T TELL ME TO NOT BE DEPRESSED, WHAT OTHER STATE OF MIND IS RATIONAL
DON’T TELL ME TO NOT BE DEPRESSED, WHAT OTHER STATE OF MIND IS RATIONAL
But again: *we can still stop this*. We can still drag it back from the brink. You are not helpless in the face of this. None of us is.
Donate, volunteer, organize, vote, make sure every single other person you know votes too.
We’ve got about nine months. Let’s get to work.
Donate, volunteer, organize, vote, make sure every single other person you know votes too.
We’ve got about nine months. Let’s get to work.
