There’s nothing like elite, mediocre columnists and public “intellectuals” pretending like conservatism was some kind of noble pursuit and completely covering up the racism, patriarchy, elitism, and wild-eyed conspiracy theories that have been a bedrock since the very start.
And every single one of these WASP-y elites cite Edmund Burke and a flowery philosophical tradition as antithetical to QAnon and the Big Lie while neglecting to talk about how Burke’s philosophy depended on a belief the French Revolution was a Jewish/Illuminati plot.
The truth is that conservatism as a philosophy is rife with conspiracy theories and authoritarianism because it is concerned with one thing: maintaining of power by a small group of white, male elites by peddling fear to keep control.

jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/a-long-and-f…
Trumpism and QAnon and this authoritarian movement we’re dealing with are all firmly in the conservative tradition and have gained purchase as elites used fearmongering and racism and conspiracy theories to win elections, destroy government, and ramp down progress.

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More from @JYSexton

3 Dec
With continual and intentional obstruction and the total capturing of federal government by special interests, not to mention intractable political differences, it feels like a shift is happening that will throw more power to the states and more or less cleave us in two.
Already there is a marked difference in how people live in states based on political control and that difference is only going to grow as this shift picks up momentum and the federal keeps kicking responsibility back.

Red and Blue Americas would only grow further apart.
If Roe v Wade were overturned, and if state laws disenfranchising voters and overturning elections continue to go unchallenged, we’re going to see a disturbing amount of unadulterated oppression, continuing radicalization, and illiberal democracy on an unheralded level.
Read 6 tweets
2 Dec
With the corrupted Supreme Court flirting with ending Roe V. Wade, it's time to face facts.

The GOP has so thoroughly attacked liberal democracy in order to establish racist, sexist, aristocratic rule that it has shredded the notion of a shared society.

jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/the-crisis-o…
The dismantling of liberal democracy and open society has been part of the GOP's playbook for forever. They've pitted us against one another, leveraged our differences, and radicalized their base all to prepare them to accept violence and oppression.

And it's working.
When we talk about this issue, about abortion, about this absolutely vile and repulsive Supreme Court using the law to oppress, we're also talking about the consequences of a years' long operation to systematically takeover politics and the judiciary.

That's where we are.
Read 5 tweets
2 Dec
“Originalism” is a complete fabrication, a fiction intended as a weapon to stem progress and reform and hide the fact that a shrinking minority of wealthy, white reactionaries want to restore the white supremacist, patriarchal, aristocratic oppression of the Founding.
All of this fabricated nonsense of Originalism was cooked up to allow reactionaries to advocate for racist, sexist, classist positions while throwing up their hands and claiming they’re mandated by history. It’s cowardly cruelty.
The truth of the matter is that the Founders were elitist, racist, sexist oppressors. They intended a one-party state ruled over by an aristocratic class that benefitted from slavery, genocide, and oppression. The question is whether we should move beyond that madness.
Read 4 tweets
1 Dec
Okay.

We need to talk about how the Republican Party absorbed the QAnon conspiracy theory in order to enrich and empower itself, and how it's shedding the name but keeping its features for purposes of radicalizing its base.

This has happened before.

1/

jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/on-the-outsi…
What's happened with the paranoid lawyer Lin Wood recently is instructive in understanding how this works, and how the GOP has brought QAnon and other conspiracy theories in for its own purposes while pushing out the people who infected the public with it.

2/
People want to pretend the QAnon conspiracy theory is just an absurdity we don't need to think about, but like other paranoid narratives it isn't about the original movement, it's about how it prepares populations for violence and antidemocratic actions.

It lives on.

3/
Read 24 tweets
16 Nov
We need to be very frank about where we are and what we're facing.

With Bannon framing himself as politically persecuted and the Right embracing Rittenhouse as a hero, tensions are poised to boil over into widespread political violence.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ban…
Years of conspiracy theories and fearmongering by Trump and the GOP have so radicalized a base that they're calling for military coups, widespread violence, and the systematic destruction of democracy.

History tells us where this goes, and we're heading towards chaos.
This moment we're living in looks a lot like the moments in the past before sectarian violence began and widespread civil war commenced. It's honestly really, really disturbing how much so.

We need to understand exactly how much danger we're in at this time.
Read 6 tweets
10 Nov
All right.

We need to talk about the GOP sharing images of themselves killing political rivals, the history of conspiracy theory as a political appeal, and how all of this puts us in extreme danger and almost ensures bloodshed.

1/

jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/the-fantasy-…
Of course, we're talking about Rep. Paul Gosar, who widely shared a video of himself decapitating AOC and attacking President Biden.

It's an absurd thing, but part of a larger trend of escalating violent rhetoric and fantasies that inspire violence and antidemocratic actions

2/
The video is repulsive and childish, but is part of an ongoing narrative the GOP uses to win elections.

That narrative promises that Democratic victories will lead to an apocalypse, which necessitates a war the American people must fight, legitimizing violence.

3/
Read 20 tweets

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