THREAD: Domination Culture is What the GOP is Selling --
We’re up against a deadly dangerous enemy, and we’re still asking the wrong questions. medium.com/@remakingmanho… /1
As the Republican Party leans more and more into what seem to be impossibly contradictory positions, we need to understand Trump’s base isn’t about what’s rational. It’s about the visceral pleasure of domination. /2
It was repellent to me, when, during the 2016 primary, Trump created nasty little nick names for every other GOP candidate. Back then, the first time I heard him call Marco Rubio “Little Marco” I was disgusted. This was straight up playground bully talk. /3
One simple act would have changed everything in 2016. If Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz, who’s wife Trump openly insulted, had walked over and punched Trump in the face on national television, Trump's run would have ended. But they took hiss bullying, and Trump became president. /4
This is domination-based culture in a nutshell. Every existing understanding of political decorum, however frayed it may have already been by decades of Fox News disinformation, went out the window when Trump went full playground bully on national TV. /5
Trump’s domination-based MAGA supporters live by a simple set of rules. One punch in the face, and Trump would have been seen as vulnerable, weak, as a clown or a fool who can’t back up his words. Instead, something very different happened. /6
It’s time we understood what MAGA authoritarians love about Trump. The national debt is bad? Or is it good? It actually doesn’t matter. Which argument gives an authoritarian like Trump the advantage today? That’s the argument he’ll use. If it changes tomorrow, all the better. /6
Jerry Fallwell, Jr. gets caught in a compromising sexual situation? He will be back. It is hypocritical for evangelicals to have him return? Domination culture thrives on hypocrisy, on chaos, on creating rage in those who oppose it. It’s primary goal is to be destructive. /7
Hypocrisy is a prime expression of power in domination culture. Hypocrisy as the core expression of domination culture. Until we understand that domination in all it’s forms is now the defining Republican Party “value” we will not fully understand the threat we face. /8
A. R. Moxon writes: “So: attacking the very form of voting they themselves enjoy and utilize is indeed hypocrisy, but it’s entirely consistent with the only true fascist value, which is domination. Without the hypocrisy, how can you tell you’re truly dominating others?" /9
My own work is about our domination-based culture of masculinity. The links between masculinity extremism and white nationalism, racism, sexism, religious intolerance, all comes down to an appetite for dominance bred into us via trauma inflicted by a culture of disconnection. /10
The path that got us to a white nationalist GOP has been incremental, rooted in the Southern Strategy when Republican’s began to build a base among disaffected Southern racists. It was dramatically accelerated when Republican strategist Roger Alles took over Fox News 1996. /11
People pose the question, what would make working class Republicans consistently vote against their own interests? That’s the wrong question. The question is, how do we fight a culture based entirely on dominating others? Because that’s MAGA culture. And this is the end game. /12
MAGA voters don’t care about what’s rational. They don’t care about what’s coming next. They don’t care about anything but supporting Trump’s “strong man” authoritarianism, creating chaos and brutalizing others. /13
MAGAs are traumatized, damaged human beings, and only by traumatizing others can they feel validated, forcing the very culture of domination-based masculinity on others that has so deeply damaged them. It's generational trauma gone viral. It will never end of its own accord. /14
Trump’s MAGA, QAnon are not political movements. The GOP’s purpose has morphed into fostering a constant cycle of domination-based violence aligned with white nationalist domestic terrorism, corrupt frightened Republican politicians, and vast webs of far right wing media. /15
What each of us do next will decide the future of America. I’m voting for Joe Biden and praying to God that Democrats take the House and Senate. Because if we don’t, I fully expect that sooner or later, Trump’s yet to be invented Federal police will come calling for all of us /16
Trump will seek to shut down to vote count, file lawsuits, seek to push the election to his packed SCOTUS and more. He will encourage violence against elected Democrats and seek to overturn our election. This is all dominance behavior, so he will do it. /17
VOTE. Then be ready to peacefully protest by the millions to force every vote to be counted. If Trump steals the election, it will mark the end of America. Trump's white nationalist bullies will be coming for all of us. /18 TAKE ACTION. JOIN ProtectTheResults.com BE READY.
It’s time we understood what MAGA authoritarians love about Trump. The national debt is bad? Or is it good? It actually doesn’t matter. Which argument gives an authoritarian like Trump the advantage today? That’s the argument he’ll use. If it changes tomorrow, all the better. /7
Jerry Fallwell, Jr. gets caught in a compromising sexual situation? He will be back. It is hypocritical for evangelicals to have him return? Domination culture thrives on hypocrisy, on chaos, on creating rage in those who oppose it. It’s primary goal is to be destructive. /8
Hypocrisy is a prime expression of power in domination culture. Hypocrisy as the core expression of domination culture. Until we understand that domination in all it’s forms is now the defining Republican Party “value” we will not fully understand the threat we face. /9
Hypocrisy is a prime expression of power in domination culture. Hypocrisy as the core expression of domination culture. Until we understand that domination in all it’s forms is now the defining Republican Party “value” we will not fully understand the threat we face. /9
A. R. Moxon writes: “So: attacking the very form of voting they themselves enjoy and utilize is indeed hypocrisy, but it’s entirely consistent with the only true fascist value, which is domination. Without the hypocrisy, how can you tell you’re truly dominating others?" /10
My own work is about our domination-based culture of masculinity. The links between masculinity extremism and white nationalism, racism, sexism, religious intolerance, all comes down to an appetite for dominance bred into us via trauma inflicted by a culture of disconnection. /11
The path that got us to a white nationalist GOP has been incremental, rooted in the Southern Strategy when Republican’s began to build a base among disaffected Southern racists. It was dramatically accelerated when Republican strategist Roger Ailes took over Fox News 1996. /12
People pose the question, what would make working class Republicans consistently vote against their own interests? That’s the wrong question. The question is, how do we fight a culture based entirely on dominating others? Because that’s MAGA culture. And this is the end game. /13
MAGA voters don’t care about what’s rational. They don’t care about what’s coming next. They don’t care about anything but supporting Trump’s “strong man” authoritarianism, creating chaos and brutalizing others. /14
MAGAs are traumatized, damaged human beings, and only by traumatizing others can they feel validated, forcing the very culture of domination-based masculinity on others that has so deeply damaged them. It's generational trauma gone viral. It will never end of its own accord. /15
Trump’s MAGA, QAnon are not political movements. The GOP’s purpose has morphed into fostering a constant cycle of domination-based violence aligned with white nationalist domestic terrorism, corrupt frightened Republican politicians, and vast webs of far right wing media. /16
What each of us do next will decide the future of America. I’m voting for Joe Biden and praying to God that Democrats take the House and Senate. /17
VOTE. Then be ready to protest peacefully in the millions to force every vote to be counted. If Trump steals the election, the next four years will mark the end of America. Trump’s white nationalist bullies will be coming for all of us.
THREAD: I Do the Housework --
Why millions of men can’t muster the empathy to understand this issue shocks me. medium.com/@remakingmanho… /1
I’m a college educated white male. I have a deeply satisfying professional/personal life. I’m responsible for washing dishes, cooking, cleaning bathrooms, laundry, and general house cleaning. There are days when it is joyful and there are days when it feels bleak/oppressive. /2
I can not imagine what lifetimes of this work felt like for women of my mother’s generation. Trapped doing decades of this relentless invisible work. How it must have driven many women mad. /3
I'm primarily responsible for washing dishes, cooking, cleaning bathrooms, laundry, and general house cleaning. There are days when it is joyful and there are days when it feels bleak and oppressive. I CAN NOT IMAGINE what lifetimes felt like for women of my mother's generation.
Women of my mother's generation had a lifetime of this work forced on them, work which grew exponentially with each birth, many of which were unplanned. I'm looking at a few years of the current arrangement for a family of 3. My mother did it for 7 people for three decades.
If I had to stare down that 30 year tunnel, knowing full well my economic security hung in the balance, that my husband was missing in action much of the time, I'm not sure I would survive it. Men, do ALL the housework for a year. Only then will you understand what I'm getting at
NEW: Justice Department's FASCIST DECLARATION: NYC, Portland, Seattle "have permitted violence and destruction of property to persist and have refused to undertake reasonable measures to counteract criminal activities," leading to their designation as an "anarchist jurisdiction."
It's happening in real time. This is how fascists like Trump and Barr set authoritarian control into motion. Rest assured, New York City will be expected to continue to pay Federal taxes to Trump and Bar even as they defund our city. @resign_today
Right now, this is political theater, designed to function as a performance of dominance against political dissent. This declaration is designed to drive right wing media's narrative supporting law and order as the central political theme for 2020 instead of 200,000 covid deaths.
Domination culture never ends at gender, race or religion. Authoritarians and fascists like Trump, like the GOP, like MAGA, like white nationalists need every single human being subjugated, under the boot, fearful. They come for everyone sooner or later including their own base.
The laughable ideologies of racial or religious purity aren’t actually the point of authoritarianism. The bullying, control and domination of others is the point. Self perpetuating trauma created in domination based authoritarian cultures plays out over and over generationally.
The need to inflict trauma on others by fascists, white nationalists and authoritarians requires a perpetual outlet. No amount of conformity by their targets to racial, religious or political ideologies will be enough for them to stop committing violence. Violence is the point.
It’s not “hypocrisy” for McConnell to rush through Trump’s nominee for SCOTUS with an election in 40 days. It’s proof of his power to dominate us all. Fascists prove their power by showing how the rules they enforce *don’t apply to them.* THIS IS HOW FASCISM WORKS. @resign_today
Arguments like "that's hypocrisy" are no longer relevant with the GOP. We're now dealing with a full blown fascist movement. Fascists love the show dominance by flip flopping, denying what they previously said, and laughing in our faces for assuming they could be held accountable
Dominance based expressions of power are valued for their own sake. Policy is no longer relevant. The performance of fascist dominance is all that the base wants. The base no longer cares about their own well being, the future of the country, the own families. Dominance is all.
THREAD: When loved ones or friends are feeling distress, it can be very difficult for us to experience. We may feel unable to hang in with them, especially when we're stretched thin during difficult times. ⚓ anchor.fm/relational-pla… /1
We may try and quickly name and fix others' distress in order to manage our own anxiety at witnessing it. We may simply turn away or shut down. /2
How we can learn to better care for loved ones, friends, or co-workers who are feeling distress? Dr. Saliha Bava and Mark Greene, authors of The Relational Book for Parenting explore our relational capacities for for supporting our loved ones during crisis. /3