George Takei  🏳️‍🌈🖖🏽Feb 27
Community note FTW.
Show threadSoozcatFeb 27

@georgetakei I wish I could say I did NotSee that coming from the likes of Ann Coulter, but let's be honest, she's been working her way further and further Reich for years.

Also, considering how many Americans are not that far removed from immigrant ancestry, I guess she's in favor of Native Americans being the only presidential candidates from now on?

Show threadSoozcatFeb 27

@georgetakei Sorry folks, but I have more to say about this, so hang on.

This admittedly stupid Coulter comment actually represents a marked shift in American conservatism. It used to be that we focused not on our shared ancestry (because that's not something Americans have ever had in common), but our shared belief in the Declaration, the Constitution, the championing of individual rights and the legal and social norms that made America possible. Being American was NEVER an ethnicity, it was an ideology. (more)

Show threadSoozcatFeb 27
@georgetakei But I guess conservative beliefs have to shift now because frankly, when you read the Declaration you can see the similarities between King George and would-be King Trump. When you read the Constitution, you can spot the difference between the requirements of federal law and the way "the party of law and order" has treated that document as optional or as an outright hindrance for the last year-plus. (more)
Show threadSoozcat
@georgetakei Principled conservatives would have to jettison Trump because he doesn't care about conserving anything except his own freedom from prison. Because Trump is... well, the way he is and because his status as head of the GOP makes him the de facto leader of the conservative movement, conservatism itself has to twist itself in knots around his beliefs, not the other way around. And it means that conservatism no longer means conserving the things that are important about American life. It starts to be about blood and ethnicity and love for your country being "in your genes." (more)
Feb 27 at 2:34amWeb
Show threadSoozcatFeb 27
@georgetakei I considered myself a conservative voter until 2016, when I found Donald Trump so repulsive I chose to vote for someone else. Looking in from outside, remembering what it used to mean to be a conservative, I have come to the conclusion that a large percentage of American conservatives, trying to syncretize their beliefs with the absolute nihilism of Trump, have gone completely insane. As their Dear Leader would say, "sad!" (end)