Thread by @sunnshiiny

Please read this thread. Then repeat after me.

Conservatives and a republicans have been overtaken by Neo Nazis and FASCISTS using Christian faith as a shield from scrutiny.

This isn’t funny. It’s not hyperbole.

https://twitter.com/muellershewrote/status/1365382546544992256

It’s absolutely terrifying how easy it was for fascists to sneak in the back door using religion and Christian faith to go largely unnoticed.

It’s horrifically shocking that we are so far along in a fascist uprising before the public begins to sense something is wrong with the right side of the political spectrum.

It’s mortifying how quickly this behaviour is normalized by the majority.

It’s sickening to think what lies ahead for the US, for Canada, for several other western nations that stood by and watched this slow motion coup occur with little pushback.

For whatever reason, leaders have permitted the destruction of free speech, decorum and law and order.

No one is blameless. No one can say they tried and got nowhere and so gave up to the growing trend of autocracy.

We were lured into false security. Certainly.

But there are people whose job it is to protect us from this outcome. Where were they? Why didn’t they do their job?

Was it too hard, too messy, too threatening to their pensions and comfortable lifestyle?

Was it encouraged by funding, blackmail, extortion? Or was it with tacit or full approval?

With only open source material and my past experience as a mid level bureaucrat for the federal government, the whole process was openly available and easy to observe to an analytical eye.

I understand national security but that’s not my background.

Yet it’s painfully obvious what has happened to get us to this point.

Those who carved out colonial and imperialist advantage feel threatened by the progress made in human rights.

Our human rights limit their wealth and power.

The last 40 years has been a coordinated and organized attempt to “right the ship” and return to the patriarchal hierarchy that’s defined the last 2500 years of human existence in most civilizations on earth.

Through incrementalism and covert operations, democratic institutions have been destroyed, freedom of thought has been curtailed and democracy has been limited. Mostly by the very people and their progeny who advocated for status quo in the 1960’s civil rights movement.

We got lazy, comfortable in our belief that fascism was destroyed. It was never destroyed. It just rebranded. Chose another name. Neo-liberalism, paleolibertarianism, anarcho-capitalism, Austrian economics, Ayn Rand ideology. The list of rebranding is endless.

We ignored the multiple canaries in the coal mine, repeatedly. Never learning the lessons of history.

Egotistically believing until it impacts me, it’s not worthy of my time and effort to address.

It’s impacting everyone now.

There is no escape from it. The entire globe is enveloped in an autocratic surge. Those who look beyond their local existence have been aware of this for decades.

But it happened over there. In far off places.

Where people are not sophisticated in regards to democracy. They’ve never tasted true freedom, so they acquiesce to autocracy. They don’t know the difference.

Can anyone see how arrogant and imperialistic that belief is?

The human race has evolved in every part of the world in the same timeframe. The desire for personal autonomy, fairness, justice and equity, access to prosperity and a supportive community is universal. But we explain away others misfortune believing they deserve it somehow.

We had our opportunity for doing the right thing for 60 years. Instead we left those oppressed by tyrants to their own defences. Or worse, our leaders secretly undermined those attempting to claim democracy and freedom for themselves.

We were confident it could never happen here. Repeating our well engrained belief in exceptionalism. While we oppressed the original inhabitants of this continent for personal gain.

There’s a video about consequentialism I frequently use to explain the term. It makes an argument that consequentialism is not supported by the majority.

It’s less than two minutes.

But if you look at the last 2500 years of human history, in most civilizations, consequentialism is used to establish and maintain a tyranny of the minority. A very small minority.

They hold all the power and wealth. The other 99% fight over the crumbs.

The only significant deviation from this formulaic arrangement has been western civilization in the mid to late 20th century. The golden age of modern democracy. Brought on by a wealthy magnate who chose not to watch people suffer and die in misery during the Great Depression.

The New Deal.

FDR began a revolutionary approach to human suffering. He didn’t turn away. He didn’t expect the destitute and impoverished to die so he may remain wealthy and powerful. It created a ripple effect across western civilization.

We are currently experiencing backlash from the established wealth class whose wealth and power were curtailed by the New Deal.

Viewed from a consequentialist perspective, fascism has always existed and fascists have designed the system to benefit themselves.

They didn’t just enslave 2%, they’ve continuously set the parameters for 100% of the population.

Except the last 75 years or so.

Modern humans aren’t exceptional. Women had property rights and personal freedom during the Roman Republic. Imperial Rome removed them.