Thread by @JuliusGoat

None of that is true of Trump and to say so is to participate in a very dangerous lie.

https://twitter.com/albericie/status/1324101986241843200

And this is why the lie is dangerous.

https://twitter.com/_waleedshahid/status/1324134934752231425?s=20

Trump ran without any policy proposals whatsoever. The GOP "platform" distilled to "whatever Trump says." They ran on something best described as proposed national murder/suicide.

And: it's so close we still can't call it 2 days later.

We'd better remember how close we came.

If Trump wins, he won't hold the office for all Americans, he'll use it to enrich himself and his family and other rich people, and to harm and exclude and brutalize and kill marginalized people, and Joe Biden knows that, and so do we, and so do his followers, who cheer for it.

If Trump wins, he will commit himself to the unchecked spread of Covid, because to him anybody who dies is a weak loser anyway, whose life is not worth even the slightest inconvenience to his lifestyle.

And that's what his followers believe, too. They riot for the right to not give a shit about the lives of other human beings.

We are not going to find any solutions working with the people who want the problems.

We can wish we could. But we can't. It's not up to us.

If somebody is setting your living room on fire with a flame thrower, you can wish that you were playing chess, but you won't be playing chess, even if you set up the board and pieces and make the first move.

You'll just be setting up a chess board inside a house fire.

I very much hope Biden wins, restoring basic competence to the increasingly-powerful executive branch, which will save literally millions of lives.

But when he wins, we are going to have to raise absolute hell if we hope to get him to face the necessary reality.

And I'd really *really* like to see a growing awareness that our two "sides" do not live in two different realities.

We all live in reality. One 'side' categorically refuses to acknowledge it.

Their delusion is worth reporting *as delusion,* not validating as another 'side.'

No.

I'm describing one reality, in which Trump supporters are running rampage setting the house on fire, while claiming they're saving the house from me.

That's the one reality.

The fact they believe something false isn't a 2nd reality. It's a delusion.

https://twitter.com/guy_si/status/1324293179835899911?s=20

Every time I make these very obvious observations—that these are people who very much intend to harm us all—there's always somebody who decides to strawman into the conclusion that means I want them destroyed.

I want to make them stop harming us.

https://twitter.com/guy_si/status/1324293179835899911?s=20

You know what's funny with this sort of fellow?

"You have to win the other 50% over" is always true of us, and it never seems to be true of the other 50%, who (let's remember) ARE trying to criminalize us, harm us, destroy us.

Isn't that interesting?

https://twitter.com/guy_si/status/1324296620901601280?s=20

Now: here I am with you and Sam and Todd.

Sam and Todd want to burn the house down. You and I would like the house to not be burned down.

Are we going to work *with* Sam and Todd to accomplish that? What does that look like? Burn down *half* the house?

https://twitter.com/guy_si/status/1324296620901601280?s=20

Sam and Todd say, "the house won't burn," as they pour gasoline trails throughout the floor.

"Yes it will," we say, "if you light that match."

"No, it will save the house," they say.

We're not living in two realities. We're living in one.

Houses burn, if you light them.

So you and I decide we're going to prevent burning down the house by fighting Sam for the gas and Todd for the match.

Along comes Mitch.

"It's terrible," Mitch observes, "that you want to destroy Sam and Todd instead of work with them."

Thanks, Mitch.

https://twitter.com/guy_si/status/1324296620901601280?s=20

The way to prevent the house from burning *in that moment* is by fighting as hard for the gas and the match, not by working with Sam and Todd on something between a house fire and not a house fire, or debating whether houses burn.

Mitch is a dumb asshole.

Don't be Mitch.

"Help us out here, Mitch," we yell.

Mitch smirks. "Yes, but what do you propose to *do*?" he asks. "Bulldoze down their houses? Lock them in a cage of spikes forever?"

"What the fuck are you talking about, Mitch?" we ask, justifiably.

https://twitter.com/guy_si/status/1324298782788472834?s=20