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Post: amandamarcotte
Bluesky: @amandamarcotte.bsky.social
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May 19 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
RFK and Casey Means are both using woo-woo and "wellness" aesthetics to repackage Christian right views.
It's part of a larger trend of the Christian right borrowing tropes from "alt medicine" and even pagan-esque communities, to sell its toxic ideas.
salon.com/2025/05/19/rfk…
Why read past headlines: I was struck by how evangelicals seem fine with Casey Means, even though she practices what they consider witchcraft.
So I dug in deeper, and discovered that they're fine with witchcraft, as long as it's anti-feminist.
Gov. Abbott supports a bill in Texas that is being hyped as a "furries" bill.
When you read it, it's a draconian ban on a common form of children's play: dressing up.
But really, the goal here is to stoke anti-LGBTQ hysteria.
salon.com/2025/05/12/tex…
Why read past headlines: I lay out how Republicans create fake "problems" to justify "solutions" whose actual goals are unacceptable to most Americans.
Children are not "identifying" as animals. But the lie is dangerous.
The death of Virginia Giuffre exposes cracks in the MAGA base's faith, which has merged completely with QAnon.
Their disappointment over the fictional "Epstein files" is a sign that even the diehards are struggling to keep the Trump faith.
salon.com/2025/04/30/sti…
Why read past headlines: The MAGA obsession with Epstein is a Rosetta stone that helps explain how they manage cognitive dissonance and the lies they tell themselves to keep going.
The stress of the self-delusion is starting to show. I dug deep on this.
After an especially ear-splitting week of tantrums from Nancy Mace, Pete Hegseth, and Stephen Miller, I explore the question: Why does MAGA love adults throwing childish fits?
It's connected to the Mar-a-Lago face and Trump's love of bad music.
salon.com/2025/04/28/mag…
Why read past headlines: Yes, Republican leaders have poor emotional regulation skills. But I think there's a performance aspect to this.
MAGA craves behavior that would embarrass normal adults. I have some theories why.
In the melee, you may have missed it: Rubio is telling State employees to snitch on colleagues for "anti-Christian bias."
Said "bias" is defined as not agreeing that right-wing Christians are superior and get to dictate the choices of everyone else.
salon.com/2025/04/15/mar…
Why read past headlines: You may think I'm exaggerating on how they define "anti-Christian bias."
Reading this short, punchy article shows otherwise. The order defines keeping a Pride flag, even if your colleague complains, as "anti-Christian bias."
Mainstream media took RFK's "endorsement" of vaccines at face value.
In reality, his Texas trip was focused on sending a different message: Only weak people use vaccines, and morally superior people tough out letting kids die.
salon.com/2025/04/08/don…
Why read past headlines: Kennedy has mastered the art of speaking out of both sides of his mouth. He gets flattering press coverage, while still sending his real message: Don't vaccinate.
I lay out how this works. It's disturbing, but important.
I joined the discourse on "Mar-a-Lago face" and the MAGA love of weird AI art. The hideousness of Cybertrucks also matter.
Yes, it's all gross and ugly. That's the point. The visual assault is yet another fascist display of power.
salon.com/2025/03/24/fro…
Why read past headlines: You, extremely online, have heard of "Mar-a-Lago face". You've seen Cybertrucks and bad AI art and whatever happened to Elon Musk.
But why do fascists love grotesquerie so much? I have theories. And I quote other theories.
No one has wanted to be a "victim" of "cancel culture" more than Musk.
But while he has successfully gotten liberals to hate him, his efforts at being a MAGA martyr are....lacking.
Even the redhats struggle to make a hero out of this whiner.
salon.com/2025/03/20/the…
Why read past headlines: I lay out how Musk's need to be a martyr is backfiring. He's firing up the opposition, and he's so whiny, so uncharismatic, and so rich he's hard to defend.
Trump pretended he was "moderate" on abortion and supports "exceptions" for "rape, incest, and the life of the mother."
This week, he backed states that ban abortion for women who show up at E.R. in crisis, needing an abortion to survive.
salon.com/2025/03/07/qui…
Why read past headlines: I get into why it's so important to Trump and the Christian right to make sure women die needlessly in emergency rooms.
It sends a message to women: You're disposable. Even if you follow all their rules.
I spoke with @kathsstewart about her new book, which she wrote after spending much of the past couple of years embedded with the movement to end democracy.
It's called "Money, Lies and God" and is a ground's eye view of American fascism.
salon.com/2025/02/18/his…
Why read past headlines: Most media treat the new right, white evangelicals, and Opus Dei-style Catholics as separate and even imply they are at odds.
Katherine sees right through that. Through careful reporting, she shows how they are connected.
Musk is trying to destroy the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which would regulate any "e-wallet" he starts.
How does he trick his fans into hating an agency that protects them from scams?
He tells them it has girl cooties. And they fall for it!
salon.com/2025/02/12/let…
Why read past headlines: You, savvy, know Warren had a hand in forming the CFPB.
New info: Tech billionaires are working the same angle, using outlets like Joe Rogan to exploit MAGA sexism to demonize an agency that prevents them from scamming users.
Trump's flurry of anti-trans executive orders is justified as "protecting women."
In reality, they are an attack on all women and girls, cis and trans. They make sexual abuse easier. And they're targeting research into women's health care for defunding.
salon.com/2025/02/10/wom…
Why read past headlines: Details, receipts. The "anti-trans" order led to canceling sexual assault prevention in the military. Title IX rules to prevent sexual assault are gone.
It also put "women" in the list of banned words for medical research.
It was a good theory: That calling Elon "President Musk" would get under Trump's famously thin skin, causing division.
But it's not working. I have a theory why — and it helps explain why Republicans in Congress are okay with giving up power, too.
salon.com/2025/02/07/why…
Why read past headlines: This analysis is informed by years of reading about Trump's business failures and time on "The Apprentice."
Jon Ronson's "Psychopath Test," which looks at how sociopaths are obsessed with surface over depth, also helped.
At this point, Republicans are fighting so hard to spread disease, you'd think germs were campaign donors.
I look into how the eugenicist impulse, which was once on the fringe of the GOP, is fueling this "unleash the plague" era for Republicans.
salon.com/2025/02/05/ush…
Why read past headlines: I go beyond just chronicling how RFK's views and Musk's assault on USAID will bring many diseases roaring back.
I look at how this foolish notion that disease can be used to "cull" people they don't like is undergirding this.
Musk has rejected Congress's powers and appointed himself illegally as the sole arbiter of federal spending.
What makes it even scarier: He's crowdsourcing his ideas of what to cut to the Hitler fanboys and QAnoners that make up his Twitter following.
salon.com/2025/02/04/hit…
Why read past headlines: Musk and his team of 6 barely-legal dweebs cannot singlehandedly find every "woke" program in what are millions of grants and loans.
So they're letting random white nationalists pick stuff, because YOLO.
