What's Pelosi's excuse going to be for not investigating the forced hysterectomies?
"It's very sad that a US federal agency was engaged in crimes against humanity reminiscent of those conducted by Nazi doctors, but our committee schedules are full until the election"?
"I'm sorry, I'd love to investigate the brutal medical torture being conducted by DHS. But it's going to be hard to call the secretary as a witness, seeing how he's illegally serving.
Also, we're really busy! We have to pass a continuing resolution, to fund DHS."
In hindsight, everyone condemns Abu Ghraib, they condemn Guantanamo, they talk about the Tuskegee experiments and Buck v. Bell as dark chapters in history to never be repeated.
And then it happens again - or worse! - and those same people say "We need to focus on the election."
This is exactly what I'm talking about. "Yes, it does seem important to investigate whether Mengelian human experimentation is happening at ICE. But the US House of Representatives only has 50 days"
Do people think think the US House is equivalent to a homeowners' association or something?
It's a massive, powerful institution with hundreds of members! Faced with allegations of crimes against humanity, it has the institutional capacity to respond quickly!
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
I am increasingly convinced that the thing that has driven politics insane is the growing ability of people to find ways to validate their beliefs, no matter how incorrect and irrational. It started in right-wing media but has become central to all political discussion.
Anyone can believe whatever they like and for the most part will never be confronted or challenged. Instead they’re likely to be funneled into or self-select into a social environment where those views are supported, treated as obvious, new facts are invented to support them.
You are encouraged to lie to yourself and endless resources will be provided to ensure that you can. Challenging other people’s false beliefs is deemed elitist. As a result everyone’s politics ends up mirroring whatever assumptions or resentments are lurking in their heart.
It’s clear that if the Holocaust happened today in America huge swaths of MAGA would describe it as “based,” say “this is what we voted for,” and do the “oh are you gonna cry, lib?” routine.
There’s zero reason their gleeful celebration of brutal deportations wouldn’t extend to actual extermination. The psychological mechanism is identical: they tell themselves morals are for suckers and empathy is for losers, so immortality and cruelty become a proactive good.
It’s the politics of sadism - hurting people for pleasure. Do we truly believe that they’d draw the line at killing? Frankly they’ve ALREADY killed and didn’t care at all.
The craziest thing that is actually true is that a relatively small group of very literal Nazis has completely seized control of the US government
They have accomplished by building a tight-knit community in the dark corners of the internet, then establishing a lot of influence over the inner circle of MAGA, especially Musk and Vance
Musk empowered them massively by taking over Twitter and then removing almost all restrictions on them, while promoting many of their most notable figures. Musk seems extremely taken with them personally and spends a lot of time trying to impress them
"I wonder what this relatively small account that Elon Musk follows is?"
"Oh I see, it just posts porn and Nazism only."
It's not subtle. This account tweets and retweets constantly about things like "not wanting to hear retarded blacks and their retarded opinions," the need to "make America blonde again," how America should be a "white nation," and celebrates Trump as the second coming of Hitler.
This account is followed by the most powerful man in America, who is running the government, who spends all of his time on Twitter, who gave a Nazi salute at the inauguration and who has espoused anti-Jewish replacement theory, whose underlings keep getting outed as Nazis.
People are delusional about what happens if Musk and Trump ignore the law, the Constitution, and court orders. Everyone is acting like this is a standoff over USAID and a few other programs, and then we'll go back to politics as normal.
But THERE CAN BE NO POLITICS AS NORMAL IF THERE IS NO LAW. Musk can cut anything. He can eliminate any part of the government. He can punish anyone. Who could stop him? Congress will be pointless theater. Why do laws matter if they can be ignored?
Your vote won't matter. You can elect someone to Congress, but he or she will be powerless. Trump can simply ignore what they say.
Your rights won't matter. The courts can say they've been violated, but the president can ignore them.
You need to take a step back, take stock of what's happening.
Trump took office and abruptly gave the richest guy on earth free rein to unmake the US government without any White House oversight or coordination. That guy has been publicly radicalized into an increasingly open white supremacist and conspiracy theorist.
Trump's plan here was concealed during his campaign and is historically unprecedented. No president has ever handed the US government over to his richest supporter before. It is also extremely far removed from the constitutional system: there's no role for someone like Musk.