my parents have been pretty responsible about COVID for Boomers living in what was a red state before this election, but my sister tracks their phones just to be safe because a lot of their friends aren't taking it seriously and I really have to admire her commitment
and I know if I were either her or my parents I'd be exhausted (her from trying to make sure they stay safe, because they have a hard time saying no to their friends) and them from basically being spied on
but from half a continent away it's hilarious
like, understand, my sister is in a different city from them
so, SCENE: my mom sitting in the car at the Starbucks drivethru
she gives her order. her phone rings.
SISTER: (sans small talk) Mom, are you at Starbucks?!
My mom jumps. Peers out the car windows, as if my sister might be hiding in the bushes.
MOM: ...yes?
SISTER: You're supposed to stay home unless it's ESSENTIAL.
MOM: I'm going through the drivethru.
SISTER: (long, considering pause) I guess that's ok.
MOM: (peering into a particularly robust bush) Are you here?
SISTER: I am EVERYWHERE. (hangs up)
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So I finally started listening to @yourewrongabout's series on the DC snipers and the first episode is a *masterpiece* of structure. (Thread)
I hadn't gotten around to listening to the DC snipers episodes because it was a series, and I didn't really remember anything about the DC snipers beyond that they'd shot a bunch of people in DC.
The episode starts off by asking why, when the DC snipers:
A) killed a lot of people
B) left behind Tarot cards and engaged in the sort of cryptic, active back-and-forth with police that serial killer stories LOVE
C) were really damn good at being unpredictable...
I actually agree that he was a competent fascist. My fear is that having fired up the extremists, he’ll make way for a Reagan-esque figure, who will do all the same stuff but sound Nice And Polite enough to win over moderates, who’ll denounce the Proud Boys without doing anything
And no, that sort of figure might not have the same pull over Trumpists that Trump did, but they’ve already come into being. They don’t need someone to empower or encourage them from the White House any more: they just need someone who won’t try to stop them.
And again: the old guard Republican Party leadership’s issue with Trump wasn’t that he was too fascist for them—they want all the same things. It was his lack of loyalty to them and his saying the quiet parts out loud.
Yup. Time to review why you can't let fascists have even an inch, why we have to make it ACTUALLY socially unacceptable to be a Nazi. theestablishment.co/why-punching-n…
Beware "those who see Nazis as perfect foils for their ideological posturing rather than very real genocidal extremists with a long and bloody track record," because they're going to wring their hands at the idea of shunning these people.
Fascism's not one political ideology among many. It is "specifically engineered to attack the weaknesses of democracy and use them to bring down the entire system, arrogating a right to free speech for itself just long enough to take power and wrench it away from everyone else."
like, weird, *I* thought it was the constant treatment of fascism as a legitimate point of view and giving fascists time on the news and doing fawning profiles of them and otherwise normalizing their participation in society that gave us Trumpism
like this both-sides-ism is coming from someone who claims to be a civil rights attorney