Thread by @Nick_Carmody

A recent Trump rally was a sobering reminder of what’s at stake in 2022/2024.

In his speech, Trump openly attempted to obstruct justice, tampered w/witnesses, and, similar to the 1/6 insurrection, encouraged widespread “protests” if he was indicted. 1/

https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1251103630419062784

Seemingly every week, there is new evidence further exposing the orchestrated attempt by Trump/GOP to undermine democracy.

And yet, it’s Republican voters who overwhelmingly believe democracy is facing a major threat. 2/ grinnell.edu/news/52-americ…

The absurdity of this is that Republican voters’ belief that democracy is threatened is what actually creates the threat:

Trump’s/GOP’s lies about the 2020 election have manipulated Republicans into thinking it’s patriotic to “steal it back”, & therefore undermine democracy. 3/

This mass delusional belief in an alternate reality was the predictable insanity that would result from electing a president as pathologically disordered as Trump. 4/

https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1225030897184886786

A few weeks back, the NYT ran an article about the “defunct”, “anti-Trump” group, the Lincoln Project.

Lost in the misstatement about the viability of the organization is the characterization of the movement as a whole: 5/

https://twitter.com/reedgalen/status/1481810465843937282

This isn’t just about being anti-Trump, this is about being pro-democracy.

And to the extent the Republican party has authoritarian aspirations, it’s about being anti-Trumpism/anti-Republican.

Trump is simply a symbolic representation of those authoritarian aspirations…6/

We are at a point where the preservation of democracy must be the primary objective over all other issues and interests, because……7/

…..as analyzed in this thread, the Right is highly effective at demagoguing issues, manipulating narratives, and nationalizing local issues in a way that exploits neuropsychological fear responses and creates emotional reactivity. 8/

https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1391378914132463620

This has repeatedly occurred with various issues associated with the border and in major cities…..9/

https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1384842159896076289

As a result, it was insanely counterproductive for New York to allow non-U.S. citizens to vote……and hand the Right Wing Media Echo Chamber countless hours programming narratives about the Democrats using immigrants to “replace” white people. 10/ nytimes.com/2022/01/09/nyr…

People are legitimately frustrated with society seeming to have to constantly accommodate, appease, or take into account the emotionally reactionary, the unstable, and/or the malicious factions of the country because it’s “unfair”, or because "we shouldn’t have to do that". 11/

One of the life philosophies that I teach people I work with is, “Don’t dismiss the truth for what you want to be true”.

Basically, the essence of the message is that you have deal with life as you encounter it, not as you wish it were.....or as you feel it “should” be. 12/

Is it "fair" or “just” to have to constantly contemplate the manipulative/exploitative weaponized countermove of the Right Wing propagandists?

No. It isn't.

13/

Is it "fair" or “just” to not only have to carefully craft policy messaging to try to prevent the Right from gaslighting the country with propagandized narratives…

…but to also have to consider delaying/abandoning the issue altogether?

No. It absolutely is not.

14/

But we are not living in “fair” or “just” times.

We are living in existential times.

And as such, we must not dismiss the truth for what we want to be true.

15/

And the “truth”....is that one of the two major political parties in this country has turned into a cult of personality with authoritarian aspirations...

...where the pathology of the leader (Trump) has not only “trickled down”… 16/

https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1194586898334793730

….and been weaponized by anarchists and opportunists…. 17/

https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1449712834238050310

…but the “fight”, through the use of purpose/meaning-creating perpetual victimhood & identity politics, now at recruits many who were previously politically unaware/inactive, as analyzed in this thread about the anti-vax identity politics coalition: 18/

https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1462415083917565959

Even worse, the politicization of masks in schools are fueling the tribalization of children.

This could have a catastrophic effect on society going forward. 19/

https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1453691196371468288

The most recent example of the Right inciting/exploiting/weaponizing the anti-vax coalition is the Canadian truck convoy.

FOXNews was not only obsessing about the convoy “protests”, but…… 20/ mediamatters.org/coronavirus-co…

…the “patriot”, @TuckerCarlson, gushed about the “Canadian trucker convoy [being] the single most successful human rights protest in a generation…a very useful reminder to our entitled ruling class that working class men can only be pushed so far”… 21/

https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1491942668049412097

….and attempted to incite a similar road-obstructing, supply chain-choking, inflation-exacerbating event in the U.S. 22/

https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1491945532201209857

Remember, this is the same guy/party that rail against inflation and “economy-crippling” covid lockdowns, and who supported anti-protest laws. 23/

https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1491758246478041088

A couple of months ago I had a conversation with an unvaccinated Republican.

I’ve repeatedly explained to this person how neuropsychology may explain how and why the political climate causes people to feel and believe the way they do. 24/

https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1404066644524101643

I explained that, due to political realities, my position on covid was evolving to the point where I am against mask/vaccine mandates, against lockdowns, against school closings, etc. Here’s why: 25/

The lockdowns were necessary when we didn’t have vaccines. But now, we do. For the most part, anyone who wanted the vaccine has already gotten it. Everyone else from this point forward who gets it, will have to be “forced” to do so. 26/

Democrats are essentially trying to protect people who not only resent the efforts taken to protect them, but who will “punish” them at the ballot box for trying to do so.

A couple of months ago, I described the false “choice” of this trade off. 27/

https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1470041807622848514

Circling back to the conversation mentioned above, I often find myself having to refute “whataboutisms” when I point out the neuropsychological underpinnings of the Right’s tribalism. 28/

Basically, I have to respond to the “what about you?!” accusations about both the Left’s tribalism….as well as my own. Here was my response, and my position:

“We have reached a point where, due to the respective echo chambers… 29/

….the Left is terrified of the virus…and the Right is terrified of the vaccine. I’m not scared of the virus, and I’m not scared of the vaccine. And the reason I’m not scared of the virus is because I respected the virus enough to take the vaccine….” 30/

The sooner that Covid is depoliticized, and therefore, de-weaponized…the better.

Yes, there will be additional breakthrough infections/hospitalization/deaths without mask/vaccine mandates…….31/

…but, does anyone believe that there will be less breakthrough infections under the authoritarian aspirations of a Republican party that has shown a propensity to mandate AGAINST masks?

No, there won’t.

32/

Basically, we are at a point where nearly every issue must be prioritized along the lines of whether spending time, energy, and political capital on the issue furthers the preservation of democracy…or furthers the erosion of it when that issue is weaponized by the Right. 33/

For example…

Transgender Rights are an important issue.

But does anyone believe that the rights/pronouns of transgender people are going to be better protected/respected under the authoritarian aspirations of the Republican party?

No, they won’t.

34/

The history/current state of race/race relations are important issues.

But does anyone believe history will be more accurately preserved/taught, or that race relations will improve under the authoritarian aspirations of the Republican party?

No, they won’t.

35/

Immigration is an important issue.

But does anyone believe that immigrants will be treated better under the authoritarian aspirations of the Republican party?

No, they won’t.

36/

The Build Back Better bill attempted to fund/address many important societal issues/problems.

But does anyone believe those issues/problems will improve under the authoritarian aspirations of the Republican party?

No, they won’t.

37/

Similarly, does chasing down @joerogan further the preservation of Democracy?

No, it doesn’t.

If anything, it probably furthers its erosion.

Rogan has an audience of 11 million.

It is 71% male.

The average age is 24.

38/ mediamonitors.com/audience-demog…

Many/most of Rogan’s listeners probably don’t vote.

They will now.

But not necessarily for Republicans.

They’ll just be voting against the Left/Democrats.

It’ll be 2016 all over again: 39/

Rogan has said and done a lot of dumb things.

He’s a comedian/former host of a game show that required contestants to eat camel spiders…..turned podcaster….who wanted to talk to cool/interesting people about cool/interesting topics. 40/

The fact that Rogan is so influential on society says less about him, and more about society….(Remember, we had a reality TV show star as president)

….and society's politicization of EVERYTHING. 41/

Yes, Rogan bears responsibility for the people he has on…. (Alex Jones should not have been invited once, let alone three times)….42/

…but at a time when contrition is considered weakness, & apologies are for suckers…Rogan repeatedly does so w/apparent sincerity, when the easiest thing to do would be to throw up double middle fingers, & settle into the warm embrace of MAGA.

He hasn’t done that.

Yet.

43/

Like most things/people in life, the Rogan situation is a complex, nuanced, “square”…..

….. that society is trying to force through a binary, “black & white” round hole.

44/

Circling back to the prioritization of democracy, one of my frustrations over the first post-Trump year was the lack of focus on protecting elections, in favor of a fractured, distracted focus on spending bills, culture war issues, etc.
This plays into the Republicans hands…
45/

….because the Culture War is all the Republicans have. This is a screen shot of an email I wrote last June analyzing how the Right and Republicans were salivating over the opportunity to exploit Critical Race Theory….which eventually occurred: 46/

https://twitter.com/PMatzko/status/1402635941970329603

There have also been times over the past year where it frustratingly seemed as if the Left/Democrats had given up, and were conceding the inevitability of Republican “rule” (thread on both parties’ “smash-n-grab” mindsets): 47/

https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1468937861625888769

Although demographics are not absolute when it comes to ideology, society is becoming more liberal.

The challenge is to preserve democracy until the demographics, and more importantly, the younger generation “ages in” as a constituency. 48/

https://twitter.com/MattGrossmann/status/1490668695634563072

....49/....

https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1480191435483717636

Relevant thread: 50/

https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1443249592904994820

Relevant threads:

Starting on February 29th, 2020 (the day after Trump called Covid "their new hoax") until January 6th, 2021 (I wrote and linked 70+ threads on Covid, Trump's response, Republicans, etc.: 51/

https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1346788319812730880

Expanding upon the thread above: 52/

https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1495397457408061445

Relevant thread on Trump's CPAC speech:

https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1497747397803270150