Thread by @Manigarm

The Terror Memes have begun.

So, I've been casually watching my very Conservative Christian family members (and Trump supporters) react to the election results. Here's how it has played out so far.

(A Thread about social media, religion, and politics)

At first, there was silence. No posts. No responses. Nothing. Just a social media blackout that lasted from roughly November 5th to November 7th. Then, the first memes appeared. This was the one that came through my feed first.

This one soon followed.

Ironically, this one arrived on November 7th.

The added commentary on the bottom of this one helped to contextualize it.

(POST IT NOW....PLS....PLS....PLS)

And then, without a hint of irony, this one was posted.

The rhetoric that went along with these memes should also come as no surprise. Here's how one post read:

"I don't know what I'm going to do! Biden is going to take everything my husband and I have worked for. We're going to have to start over completely."

Here's another:

"Biden's coming for your wallet. Those socialist organizations too. They're going to steal what you earn for their own use." (with a link to a Libertarian website)

One more? There are just so many today.

"Oh look. 70 million angry conservatives and not a single riot. I guess we know who the real enemy is now don't we!"

(Meaning BLM and "antifa").

My point in posting all of this is to both document and demonstrate the particular narrative here that is already underway among the Conservative circles my rural, Midwestern, family traffics in.

Particularly, how it aligns with their previously complete disavowal of anything "bad" about Trump.

What I mean by this is that my family has spent the last 4 years DEDICATED to the idea that Trump is actually good, and not at all racist, and therefore, neither are they.

I recall one conversation with my mother, for example, that ended with an argument that Trump was suspending payroll tax because he "just wanted to help his people!"

No. He wants to permanently defund Social Security.

"Uh." She replied. "I hadn't heard that. That's not true."

Now, although Joe Biden has not quite yet come to inhabit the role of the Antichrist proper (as Obama did), the narrative of fear has already taken hold. And it is principally focused around the idea that Biden/Socialists/Progressives etc. will "take mine."

The "I got mine" ideology is probably already familiar to many of you. It's the selfish Individualist philosophy that as long as I get what I want, it doesn't matter what happens to you. Furthermore, it's the underlying approach that causes a great many white conservatives...

....to vote against social safety net policies that would help them but would also help **those other people** too.

That's why this problem can't be reduced to simple "economic anxiety." It's not JUST about the fear that material wealth or upward mobility will be denied them.

This "storm" is about the idea that everything they feel that they have earned (i.e., are entitled to) will be taken away by people who haven't earned (i.e., aren't entitled to) it. -- I mean, look at this ridiculous cartoon --

But it is framed as a direct attack against Christianity.

"Taking away God."

Unfortunately, discussing how End Times frameworks helps to inform the current rhetoric would be an entire...essay...on its own, what I want to emphasize here is that the fear being centered right now is something specifically derived from an ideology that links multiple ideas:

1.) That Trump was actually a good person and really just loved Americans and wanted to help them. (Sorry about the sarcasm)

2.) That anything bad that happened wasn't Trump's fault. It was the Democrats (or "Socialists") who made him look bad and stopped him from helping.

3.) Trump is semiotically associated with Jesus; America with "new Israel." I.e., a new "chosen" people.

4.) Conservative Christians are therefore righteous and correct in all of their personal perceptions. Because they are God and God is them.

So, why do I bother discussing any of this? Because this group of Conservative authoritarians aren't exactly the same thing as the outright Neo-Nazis and white supremacists we've been seeing aligned with the Right.

Directly attacking their racist ideologies (and they ARE racist and misogynistic) doesn't work. Because, here's the awful thing, **they don't think they are racist.**

They think they are objectively right.

They live without context. Oblivious of systems.

And they think they are being persecuted.

Just like Jesus.
Just like Trump.

Not because of what they did, but because of who they are.

And they will ALWAYS bring the argument back to that.

Don't let them.

This thread has now been up for just over an hour, and I am already seeing multiple quote Tweets regarding other's experiences with these same kinds of conversations.

I am so sorry. I wish it wasn't this way.

(This was another meme that just showed up in my feed)