It’s important to reflect on where we started and where we are.
We started with Trump entering politics pushing Birtherism, the racist lie that Obama wasn’t a legitimate president.
When he ran in 2016, he ran on a platform of “locking up” his opponent… 1/ 🧵
Now, it’s 2024, and we’re at a point where Trump is threatening the life of his opponent, the current president. And of course, don’t forget January 6th, when he sicced a mob on his Vice President and the entire Congress.
So in other words … 2/
…we’ve gone from racist accusations against those legitimately in power to threats of violence (and ACTUAL violence on Jan 6th ) against those legitimately in power… 3/
Trump is only getting worse, more emboldened, more violent, more lawless.
Is there anyone who thinks that if he once again could wield state power, that he wouldn’t try and use it VIOLENTLY against his opponents? 4/
Is there anyone who thinks that he wouldn’t try and use it VIOLENTLY against the media?
Is there anyone who thinks that he wouldn’t try and use it VIOLENTLY against ordinary citizens who speak out? 5/
The thing is there are still so MANY people in the media, so many establishment voices, and so many others with power and influence in our society who still don’t believe it.
They platformed Trump when he lied about Obama’s birthplace...6/
…They normalized Trump when they made a bigger deal about Hillary’s emails than his demagoguery. They forgot about Jan. 6th because we “had to move on” and it “wasn’t really an insurrection.” And they’re dismissing the threats now cus “It’s just a meme. He doesn’t believe it.”7/
Maybe these people don’t believe Trump. Maybe they just don’t care because it’s in their self interest not to care.
Maybe there’s nothing I can say or anyone can say to change these folks’ minds…8/
Maybe the only thing that can change their minds is to see Trump actually do these terrible things. Maybe experience is the only way they can learn this lesson.
But given the stakes, it’s hard for me to accept this. And so I’d ask these folks to consider the following. 9/
What if you’re wrong? What it we’re not overreacting? What if this dynamic with the press and the establishment acting like this is an ordinary election and telling everyone else to calm down is how so many dictators throughout history have come to power? 10/
All we’re asking is for you to be vigilant. Is that too much to ask? And again… What if you’re wrong? Do you want to look back at this moment and think of yourself as someone who didn’t take this threat seriously? Who didn’t do what was necessary for your country? END 11/11
The reason I remain hopeful about the future of our country, despite all that is unfolding in America today, is that everywhere I look I see people acting with the courage and heroism that this moment requires.
Whether it’s the Los Angeles Dodgers or the 60 minute anchors...
1/5
Whether it’s faith leaders standing up for immigrants. Whether it’s universities that have refused to bend the knee to Trump, like Harvard. Whether it’s attorneys like Danielle Sassoon, Hagan Scotten, and so many others who have taken a stand for the Rule of Law… 2/5
Whether it’s the ordinary Americans who flooded the streets for #NoKingsDay. Whether it’s lawyers who took part in #ReaffirmTheOath…
Americans of all political stripes are not acting like our democracy has died or is dying. Far from it. 3/5
My 2 yr old dismantled a remote when I wasn’t looking and pointed at a circuit, asking me what it was. As someone who spent years studying physics, I could answer that question, not that she understood.
But beyond just a technical explanation, a circuit represents progress…1/
… Thousands of yrs of human progress that led to the Scientific Revolution and the rejection of superstition, conspiracism, and cult worship in many parts of human civilization.
Certainly, those kinds of “thinking” were not totally abolished. In many places, they never left. 2/
You can probably see where this is going. This moment in our society, we are seeing an explosion of the conspiracism, superstition, and cult worship, the kinds of behavior that have historically made scientific achievement, and really achievements of all kinds so much harder. 3/
The whole “The Rule of Law is dead” narrative is so toxic because if we’re supposed to give up here, what about people in Hungary, Turkey, Venezuela, and nations far more authoritarian than those? What about Black Americans decades/generations ago in the Jim Crow South?
1/🧵
It’s just kinda gross as privileged Americans to be complaining so much about our supposed plight.
You know a country where the Rule of Law is dead? North Korea. Other than some Republicans pathetically treating Trump like Kim Jong Un, our countries have no similarities to one another.
2/
I don’t begrudge people for being sad and angry and having doubts about our path forward as a country. I have felt and feel those emotions. But as flawed as our democracy is, I refuse to give up hope in it. I refuse to give up hope in America. I refuse to give up hope in my fellow Americans. 3/
I’ve been thinking a lot about our country recently given the the quite deliberate attempt to dismantle it. Well, here are my thoughts:
Our country isn't just our government, even when the government is acting for the common good… and especially at a time like this. 1/🧵
Our country is not just our institutions. Or our democracy overall. It’s not just the collection of 50 states across America or our political parties. It's not all the people who voted in the election or even all the people who live in our country... 2/
Fundamentally, our country is so much bigger than how we’re made to feel at a time like this.
Our country is everyone who lives in it and their relationship to one another. Families. Friends. Communities. And yes, towns and cities and states and so on and so forth... 3/
In case anyone is struggling with what happened last week, like I am, I’ve written ten ways we can take care of ourselves. I sent it to my friends, but posting here as well. I hope it's helpful. Be well, ya'll.
#1. Exercise. At a time like this when the world feels so uncertain, when we can’t help but let our thoughts get carried away with themselves, and when reality itself is pretty stark, we have to do what we can to get out of our own heads. Meditation could work, but I’m not good at that. I know how to exercise. Exercise also helps make our bodies strong to persevere through a highly unpredictable future.
#2. Meals with friends and family. I could have said time with friends and family, and of course, that’s a good idea as a general proposition. But I like big meals to balance out exercise. I also think there’s something very joyful about eating with people you love. We also need to create environments that are conducive to real laughter and meals are perfect for that.
#3. Shift your time horizon for change. Don’t get me wrong, doing well in the midterms is important, but we (everyone who cares about democracy) are not going to fix our country in the next two or four years. It could actually be far longer than that. This is about making sure America is strong, prosperous, and free for the next generation. Think long term. We won’t feel so tethered to any given election outcome, and it’s a more realistic perspective.
The truth is, it was apparent from the beginning that Trump was a fascist. And it was apparent that many of the same dynamics that led to Nazism were enabling Trump's rise. These labels and comparisons could have been powerful tools to nip this threat in the bud 9 years ago. Instead, those that saw the truth were dismissed or ignored.
1/🧵
Even now, when Trump is quoting Mein Kampf ("poisoning the blood") and praising Hitler, when his enablers bear a striking similarity to those who enabled the rise of Nazism, when Trump is running to lead his country even after a failed coup, like Hitler with the Beer Hall Putsch, when Trump is promising violence and mass camps, when racism and antisemitism are defining features of his movement, even now, we are told by many mainstream voices that drawing these kinds of comparisons is unacceptable.
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The fact is that we will likely prevail over this threat, for now, with one arm tied behind our back. We will likely prevail over this threat, for now, without even being able to call it what it is. What's more, we are told "People don't care about democracy. They care about about gas prices." I don't agree, but even assuming this is true, fascism isn't good for gas prices. It's not good for inflation. It's not good for the economy.
3/