1/ I can’t believe I have post this to the universe, but, people:

Trump & his thugs have SAID they intended to destroy the govt & democracy OUT LOUD, in Project 2025, & in speeches (JD Vance), and more!

Why is this just now dawning on my ❤️ DEM FOLLOWERS?

It’s been out there for yrs. They’ve been aiming for this for decades. I’ve posted about Yarvin (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/21/curtis-yarvin-trump?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other) & the rest on Mastodon & elsewhere for a long time

Maddow covered it extensively

Did you really not realize this?

He’s anti-democracy and pro-Trump: the obscure ‘dark enlightenment’ blogger influencing the next US administration

Key figures in the incoming administration follow Curtis Yarvin, who’s pushing for an autocratic takeover of the US

The Guardian

2/ People, I’m not referring to MAGAts or Republicans here, I’m referring to my own followers!

I get reply after reply from my FOLLOWERS who seem to have just figured out that it’s about ending democracy/the government.

It ALWAYS has.

Where have they BEEN for the past decades? Esp the past few years!

3/ I edited the first post to clarify, these are my Dem followers I'm referring to, not Trump voters.

@GottaLaff Most people -- even liberal people, even smart liberal people -- just don't pay much attention. There's so much most out there, easiest to tune it out.

This is a reason why the right has worked so hard to make politics nasty and partisan. They *want* folks to disengage.

@zenkat But my own followers read my stuff, which means they should know better.
@GottaLaff I asked a friend that when they said they had just figured this out. Their response was that since MAGA seemed so ‘gung ho’ on USA and flags and stuff that it didn’t make sense to think they would support someone who was going to destroy the country they loved. I always point out they DON’T LOVE the USA, they love the Confederacy, so destroying the Union and installing the Confederacy is okay with them.
@ChuckMcManis Your response was great
@GottaLaff It is maddening. I spent years telling my own friends how bad this would be and still got the “oh you’re over-reacting” response. Or “she’s just as bad as him” or “She’s too close to Netanyahu so I just can’t vote for her.” And now all I can say is “told you so.”
@GottaLaff Wow! I thought everyone but Republicans and MAGAts knew that. They've been saying it for years. That whole quote about shrinking government until you can drown it in a bathtub?

@GottaLaff Most U.S. folks treat democracy like air. It just "is". It always has been. It may be less clean at times, but it will be there. Honestly, most folks don't even think about air quality.

And, they think of it as something baked into the U.S.A. — i.e., immutable.

Never were taught or realized that it was/is just a fragile set of commonly agreed upon norms.

This is a really suboptimal way to learn that lesson.

@hrbrmstr @GottaLaff
We (and I include myself) have always wanted a nice, boring, quiet government that tamely accepts those commonly accepted norms.
To be rudely and roughly awakened and told, "No! We are now in charge. We are rich and think that democracy doesn't give us enough of what WE want; well we see it differently. Too bad." has shaken many people.
They are only now rubbing the sleep out of their eyes.
I woke up several years back, but no one listened to me either.

@NorCalWineLady It's so frustrating... so scary

@hrbrmstr

@NorCalWineLady @hrbrmstr @GottaLaff The thing is, these people are not trying to govern. They are trying to RULE. There is an important difference.
@GottaLaff
Not really sure the democratic party itself gets it yet.
@simmagolda I agree with that. But they don't follow me, lol
@GottaLaff I guess it must be the "ah but he's just being trump. You know what he's like. He doesn't really mean it, he's just being outrageous" etc syndrome.
Edit: we had that effect with johnson here in the UK. Bumbling along making outrageous comments, forgetting or misusing words, treating it all as a great joke, taking every chance to be on TV. And people took it as "well we know he's a fool but he's a laugh isn't he. He shakes up politics and makes it less boring". All the time he wasn't a fool - he was a cunning political operator who had created this persona. He was dangerous enough, imagine if he'd actually been competent enough to follow through and not lazy. That's the danger of electing a TV personality.
@capnthommo Again, these are my followers, not the average Joe.
@GottaLaff frustrating, isn't it. I may not get it right all the time, but at least I never doubted the threats or thought everything would be fine.
@GottaLaff It's not just your followers. Large chunks of the UK media seem to have been acting with surprise about The Rapist siding with Putin over the Ukraine war.
@statsguy That too, but that's to be expected. The journalistic malpractice has always been appalling. These are my informed followers, who understood that Project 2025 was a thing.
@GottaLaff I think a lot of people thought it would be bad, but like trump 1 bad.
@peribotsarah Then they totally ignored the entire election cycle news about Project 2025 and Trump and Vance's own words
@GottaLaff Apparently anything other than registering new voters.
@GottaLaff Thank you. The denial and disconnect have been heartbreaking and enraging for years now. Especially with the ones who survived his first term. 5 years ago is too far away to remember for these people. 😡
@mfennvt Forget 5 years. Project 2025 has been all over the news during the entire election cycle. We saw this coming!
@GottaLaff I know!! Argh!
@mfennvt Arghhhh on steroids
@GottaLaff I just want to smack people. So damned hard.
@GottaLaff
Denial isn't just a river in Egypt. As long as Trump doesn't declare he's suspended the Constitution and will rule by decree, they'll treat all this stuff as exaggeration for rhetorical effect.
@VATVSLPR My own followers though! They're informed. How can they be so naive?
@GottaLaff
It isn't about how well informed people are; it's about being unwilling to accept that our democracy is in imminent peril. There are none so blind as those who will not see. It doesn't help that the majority of the news media has spent the last decade downplaying the risk Trump poses.
@GottaLaff The mere fact that you have to post this is, sadly, why we've reached this point.

@GottaLaff Going to say it because no-one else has: it's internalized whiteness. I don't just mean having white skin, I mean being fully invested in and benefiting from the institutions and societal norms that perpetuate white privilege. Liberals aren't immune.

Not saying they're racist. It's more like the sublime complacency that comes with never having felt *you or your* family are the ones imperiled by an authority. They don't pay attention because they'll always be safe.

Until they aren't.

@GottaLaff The smartest thing the heritage foundation did was to put project 2025 in a 900 page volume, knowing that very few people would bother to read something that massive. Same thing with the Mueller report.

and if you did happen to start reading it, you’d be so horrified after 30 or 40 pages that you’d stop in disgust.

#IgnoranceIsNoExcuse

@grammasaurus I don't know how smart it was. Just savvy.

@GottaLaff I see a lot of arguments about how GOP policies aren't going to work, as though the failures were just a misunderstanding rather than intentionally breaking things.

Nobody misunderstands this much on this consistent a basis and still gets to live as an independent adult. They would have been institutionalized.

@GottaLaff
PS, Wait, until they start killing off the wild horses. (P 2025, pgs 528-529)
@GottaLaff <<Puts on #psychology hat>>
It’s a failure of imagination. It is also a fact that the vast majority of people have a very hard time understanding and reasoning about hypotheticals. (Formally, we call it non-monotonic logic.) Despite understanding that they cannot predict the future with certainty, people expect tomorrow to be like today. Certainly it won’t be something they never experienced! Bottom line: people are by nature unprepared for change. They simply can’t think it through. None of the shocked toots we see surprised me.
@GottaLaff
Now you know how Trump won. People are clueless.
@Oldfartrant These are followers who are replying, not MAGAts.