Thread by @KrisAtLarge

let's enlarge on this matter: the fact that @jordanbpeterson or @elonmusk or @jonathanchait feel *entitled* to spew the same sort of abuse on @Twitter that any of their gutter fanbase might offer up. Peterson's a dramatic example, because he's supposed to be a professor.

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https://twitter.com/KrisAtLarge/status/1631818483699953666

Western professional standards, especially American standards, have been in freefall ever since @RonaldReagan and the gang of crooks that the @GOP planted into the White House in 1980 led to a general *normalization* of trashy, boorish behavior from people in leadership.

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@RonaldReagan and his cronies were, for the most part, scumbags—corporate criminals and Christian extremists for the most part. the @GOP _coup d'etat_ in 1980 led to a general coarsening of the texture of American leadership, which took a turn for the arrogant and brazen.

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they could take the lead from the typically fascıst swaggering of @RonaldReagan's administration—repression at home, unprovoked aggression abroad. Reagan and the @GOP declared that they were entitled to do what they want and take what they want because America was Great™.

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(@shadihamid of @BrookingsInst, you may wish to take notes here.)

and *take* is exactly what @RonaldReagan and the gang of criminals he brought with him did—from the people. the Reagan administration looted the treasury; crooked officials cut sweetheart corporate deals.

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this is why @shadihamid and his conservative friends dislike democracy—it gets in the way of @RonaldReagan-style kleptocracy. both @TheDemocrats and the @GOP are deeply entwined with corporate corruption but the Republicans are far more crooked and disloyal in this regard.

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it's the #Christianity that does it: unlike @TheDemocrats, which at least *try* to represent everybody, the @GOP is strictly an extremist #Christian instrument, and Christians (e.g. @MattWalshBlog and @DavidAFrench) feel entitled to do whatever their impulses say is okay.

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if they do it, God must have wanted them to do it—that's the right-wing Christian method of "morality", and it's one of the many reasons there's no reason to assume that @MattWalshBlog hasn't molested his children: nothing would have *stopped* him. he has no real morality.

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anyway that also was, and is, the @RonaldReagan / @GOP method of leadership: declare that God gave you the privilege of doing whatever popped into your head. fascıst @FloridaGOP tyrant @RonDeSantisFL, whom @shadihamid of @BrookingsInst loves so much, is a good example.

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always remember (@shadihamid would like to forget) that fascısm is a strictly #Christian thing. fascısm and Christianity have always coexisted; fascısm likes enforcing conservative Christian values. German Nazısm, for example, grew around German Protestant antisemitism.

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hence the mere fact that the @GOP solely represents extremist Christian interests is a signpost of fascısm: they're following the same pattern as Franco and Pinochet and a host of other fascıst autocracies that posed as the restorers of ancient Christian virtues.

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anyway I'm wandering off my point—I'm weary from yesterday.

fascıst rule means rule by *bullies*. that's how fascısts lead—they bully and threaten, they propose "compromises" and then break them immediately, they rub their purported superiority in others' faces.

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in other words they act like @jordanbpeterson: sneering, jeering, feeling like they've got every right to accuse people of being "idiotic" or "insane" or "braindead". Peterson, like any fascıst, thinks he's intrinsically superior to everyone on @Twitter (and elsewhere.)

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the fact that @jordanbpeterson's spewing abuse is clean contrary to the professional standards that he's supposed to be maintaining as an academic and psychologist *doesn't matter to him*.

he's an authoritarian—he thinks you OWE him respect, whether or not he merits it.

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he feels entitled to be maximally abusive, like any bad #manager—or any abusive parent like @MattWalshBlog, or any abusive executive like @elonmusk, or any abusive Christian celebrity like @pastorlocke. none of these folks feel they're obliged to be polite with the plebs.

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@shadihamid and @jonathanchait and so many other people like them have offered numerous examples, in their recent conduct, of how they feel entitled to behave in public—like sulky sarcastic children, refusing to give their detractors even the barest minimum of respect.

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and they're *free* to do that! I can't stop @jonathanchait or @shadihamid from making inane jokes and rolling their eyes when someone asks them questions they're too scared to answer honestly. but I sure can point their cowardice out to them! more people should.

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because these people claim to be the *tough* ones, the hard thinkers and risk-takers and all that. but they're all, in their various ways, soft and timid.

yes, even @DavidAFrench is soft and timid—the mere fact that he was able to kill some people doesn't change that.

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he, like all the right-wing commentariat, have been spending far too many decades schooling themselves in how to avoid thinking too hard about the inanity of their own beliefs. they've trained themselves to run away from critics and intellectual attacks. they're _weak_.

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@jonathanchait &c. think that bleating "pronouns in bio" ought to end arguments—well, that was never true.

and now, the party's over.

~Chara of Pnictogen