Matthew Sheffield Profile picture
Dec 28, 2020 8 tweets 6 min read Read on X
What's known as American conservatism is mostly rural white cultural sensibilities that have been marketed as a political philosophy. This is nowhere more evident than the many children's books that have been published to fulfill a supposed need for "godly" kid-lit. ImageImageImageImage
A few more. Please note that these are all real and that I've provided only a small sampling here. ImageImageImageImage
More: ImageImageImageImage
Still more. You'll notice that Rush Limbaugh has an entire series of kids' books. ImageImageImageImage
The content of some of the books is terrible as well. The "Pepe and Pede" book is anti-Muslim propaganda and promotes white nationalist themes. It was written by a (since-fired) junior high assistant principal vice.com/en/article/vbb…
And then there's the author of the Donald the Caveman series, Trumpvangelical radio host Eric Metaxas.

He hosted Alex Jones and other crazies to call for a coup against the election and has said he'd be "happy to die" for Trump religionnews.com/2020/11/30/eri…
This is cultic politics, something you dedicate your entire life to, & the lives of your children, whether they want it or not.

Adults listen to Rush at work, the kids homeschool and read My Parents Open Carry, & everyone gathers round at night for Carlson, Ingraham, and OAN.
Via @tina_nguyen, here's another addition to this thread. Mike Huckabee has decided to get into the kiddie Trump worship business. ImageImageImage

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More from @mattsheffield

Nov 6
🧵 The election is going to be decided by people who don't like the candidates. Donald Trump always had a core of voters who don't like him but vote for him anyway.

It seems that the Harris campaign wanted to build a group of this kind for herself.
But the two parties' possible voter universes are not the same and cannot be motivated with the exact same tactics.

Historically, speaking, American political parties were multi-ideological. But the right wing activists who took over the Republicans changed the party.
They changed the nature of who was in the party. As the inventors of cancel culture, they kicked out all of the liberal and moderate Republicans who used to be very common.

They did this through relentless media propaganda aimed at Republicans to make them more reactionary.
Read 22 tweets
Nov 4
🧵 After 9 long years, it's starting to look like Donald Trump has become overexposed to his fans.

Democrats have been significantly more enthused since Kamala Harris entered the race than Republicans have.

In a base turnout election, Trump loses. Image
Trump lost in 2020 because he failed to get some of his 2016 voters to come back to support him. You can slice who these people were, but demographically it was primarily white men. Trump improved his share among most other demographic groups.
These former voters either chose to vote for Joe Biden or they stayed home.

In 2024, he is trying to bring them back but Trump has not modified his message really at all. So why would they return?

As the race ends, Trump is playing to empty seats
Read 21 tweets
Oct 29
🧵 CNN just removed a far-right panelist for a racist remark against progressive commentator @mehdirhasan.

This was the right decision. But as a former TV booker, what happened is part of a much bigger problem...
Before going independent, I used to be a producer at @thehill on its "Rising" program.

Like all mainstream media shows, we were constantly trying to have balanced panel discussions. But we always had a problem: It was very difficult to find Republicans who weren't crazy.
@thehill Frequently, my colleagues would book right wing commentators and as someone who'd come out of conservative media, I often had to review them before they were put on air.

More than a few times, people who were "alt right" activists were booked before I removed them...
Read 15 tweets
Oct 3
🧵 The science behind why Donald Trump 'loves the poorly educated'

Far-right people are often obsessed w using so-called "race science" to prove that non-Europeans are less intelligent. Amusingly, the real science shows that right-wingers have lower cognitive abilities…
This thread is a summary of the latest @TheoryChange episode, continue along here or click through if you just want to watch, read, or listen to the whole thing: plus.flux.community/p/the-science-…
Since Donald Trump began his political career, a college degree has become a sort of proxy for "Trumpiness."

But education is not the primary divide. It's cognition.

Intelligence and cognition are often mistaken for each other, but they are not the same thing.
Read 16 tweets
Oct 1
🧵 The Republican party's specific ideas are horribly unpopular. Everywhere, it does almost nothing for its voters' economic or social interests.

Identity politics are the primary reason that Republicans are a competitive political party. Democrats know this but rarely say it...
Democrats have been stuck in a messaging trap for decades. They know their policies are more popular so they think they should run on them.

It doesn't work, because it doesn't answer the Republican message: Life sucks and will never get better. We'll respect you at least.
Of course, Republican elites do not actually respect their voters. They find them to be pathetic mouth-breathers who will believe whatever they're told. This is why they are such shameless grifters, scamming their followers with shitcoins, sneakers, gold scams.
Read 13 tweets
Sep 18
🧵 This Wall Street Journal deep dive into the Republican lies about Springfield is a must read look into JD Vance's total dishonesty.

After spreading vague rumors for days, Vance's staff provided one verified name, Anna Kilgore. Her cat was perfectly fine. Image
Vance also lied about diseases supposedly increasing in Springfield.

They are their lowest since 2013. Vance is trashing his own state and his own constituents to help his insane orange boss. Image
Vance was privately warned off the story before the debate by Springfield officials. He hadn't even checked before he slandered a city in his own state.

Despite the correction, he refused to retract. Then Trump promoted the lie as well.

Free link: msn.com/en-us/news/us/…
Image
Read 4 tweets

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