If you want to see some weapons grade (pun not intended but I will leave it) sane washing this interview on the "moderate" bulwark network had my jaw on the floor.
There is something creepy about the calm, smart and sane (sounding) people talking about US foreign policy as if it isn't outrageous.
This kind of inability to recognize a crisis, a violation of the social order, a crime is what has us in this mess.
It's every person who thought "well he won't run again no need to put him in prison that's so extreme and makes me feel bad"
Some of it really felt like "but you know, maybe the trains will run on time soon" to me.
@futurebird @thomasjwebb @aaron.rupar oh, it's even worse than that. Firstly, no small percentage are invested in supporting fascism. Because if they say the 'bad things' then that may have consequences, but if they say 'good things' then surely they will be rewarded.
And nearly 100% of them are complete fucking idiots who in fact, are completely detached from reality. They believe that 'oh, next election will fix everything.' And they are so super-intelligent, they are never wrong.
@futurebird @thomasjwebb @aaron.rupar and to be clear, these are not people with actual moral or ethical stances of their own at all. They do not have any deeply held belief other than in their own 'wisdom.'
Though in the case of the NYT, they are unquestionably and provably on the side of not just fascism but Nazism. The evidence is well past overwhelming and incontrovertible. The NYT is a mouthpiece for Nazi ideology.
@rootwyrm @futurebird @aaron.rupar oh yeah many competencewash simply because they want to let him do his thing. I know the mentality of many of them is that they don't support his agenda wholesale but quietly see it as a counter-balance to scary young people getting their way.
But I'm just fascinated and disturbed by the people who seem to mostly know better and make their well-being and privileged inability to imagine shit hitting the fan everyone else's problem.
@thomasjwebb @futurebird @aaron.rupar see, that's exactly my point. You are giving the benefit of the doubt, that they "know better."
These are idiots who are so utterly full of themselves, and have such an inflated sense of their importance, they truly believe that they can never be wrong. If they say it will not happen, then it will not because it cannot. There will be elections with no problems because they say so. Everything is fine for them, so it's all fine.
@thomasjwebb @futurebird @aaron.rupar there is also a small segment that might actually know better, but will slobber all over the nearest boot because they think this will improve their survival chances. (See also: NPR.)
That's a whole other, even more dangerous kind of delusional behavior.
@thomasjwebb @futurebird @aaron.rupar that's exactly where the harmful delusion lies. It's not a 'blind spot.' And to be clear, I am using it in the terms of actual mental illness.
"It would never happen" here is a delusional belief, especially when the evidence is right there that it already has or is. "People are overreacting" is delusional behavior as well.
@thomasjwebb @futurebird @aaron.rupar there's a three part test that must be passed, and they consistently pass all three.
- certainty (held with absolute conviction)
- incorrigibility (not changeable by compelling counterargument or proof to the contrary)
- impossibility or falsity of content (implausible, bizarre, or patently untrue)
e.g. "They would never interfere in elections" and sticking to it IMMEDIATELY passes all three tests.
@thomasjwebb @futurebird @aaron.rupar another good example of delusion is "the courts will stop him" or "they can't do this because it's illegal."
Again, the full three-part test is instantly passed. They are certain the law will stop them. It doesn't matter that they are doing the illegal thing or ignoring the courts. Your proof that they are violating court orders doesn't matter. "They can't do that."
@rootwyrm @thomasjwebb @aaron.rupar
Yeah. I was listening to that segment doing the dishes and I started to feel so hopeless. Because, maybe, from their perspective which is NOT that of a migrant in a detention center, some guy in a tiny fishing boat, an engineer who just helped complete her first project, a school teacher at an all girls school, a young man in the army... all of us maybe, it does 'all work out.'
"markets stabilize" or whatever.
And THEY aren't dead forever.
@futurebird @thomasjwebb @aaron.rupar
Not sure I follow. Every person with any power to put him in prison was hammering home win after win to put him quite firmly into prison. It was like clockwork.
@todymotmot @thomasjwebb @aaron.rupar
I think the biggest killer were the delays. They waited to the last moment to bring the cases, the last credible moment where it might still work and then ... oh no ... it failed. Was that intentional? Just fear? I can't read minds. I do not agree that there was focus.
@futurebird @thomasjwebb @aaron.rupar
Think about what you're saying. Set aside Jack Smith and how fast his team was flying. Trump was already convicted of *34* felonies. A prison sentence was already locked in, the judge specifically delayed sentencing *for the election.*
Trump's prison sentence was literally placed in our hands. We all knew it.
But somehow the real problem is that someone was supposed to give us a good feeling about voting? But they couldn't because delays?
@todymotmot @thomasjwebb @aaron.rupar
The election was another point of failure. Though I've heard many people say things like "if he committed so many crimes why isn't he in prison?" which doesn't excuse not being informed, but it also makes a kind of sense.
Republicans in congress deserve the most blame. They could have stopped this, should have stopped this but did not. But, there are other enablers beyond them.
@futurebird @thomasjwebb @aaron.rupar
"If he committed so many crimes, why isn't he in prison?" That's the part I'm talking about.
Yes, Republicans deserve some blame. But I'm trying to highlight the emotional insanity of voters.
We were handed the keys to a progressive utopia, on a pretty plate with a bow. The power to end genocides, put Trump in prison, build rural economies, continue global peace processes that worked, dramatic steps to make the military fully woke...
1/2
@futurebird @thomasjwebb @aaron.rupar
But we couldn't, because feelings.
It felt last minute, it felt rushed, it felt like we didn't have control, it even felt like Biden didn't really get nearly 200 billion forgiven in student loans.
We have got to figure out why the @# we were feeling all that.
2/2
@futurebird @thomasjwebb @aaron.rupar
You said it "kind of made sense" to ask why Trump wasn't already in prison.
But Trump wasn't in prison *specifically* because the system protects voter power. It should be a shocking question, if not horrifying, coming from an adult. The system gives people, not courts, the greatest power over the POTUS.
Every media outlet should have printed headlines like, "Judge delays sentencing, voters to help decide Trump's fate."
3/4
@todymotmot @thomasjwebb @aaron.rupar
This is a bad theory because it means that the most powerful people, the exact people least likely to be held accountable in a court of law can avoid the consequences of their crimes by running for office.
You are worried about what? The *appearance* of undermining the democratic process? What about undermining the law?
And he could have still been on the ballot after being impeached or from prison. Unless the punishment precluded that.
Ok I've been talking about whether a democracy can depend on voters to protect it.
And it sounded like you're saying we can't, that would be corrupt.
But I think we've talked past each other?
Maybe you're talking about the DoJ policy memo, that said not to prosecute a sitting president?
Am I on track?
I'm talking about the supreme court ruling and the failure to impeach him by the Senate.
Ah, ok. thank you. I strongly agree those were horrifying failures.
But you also mentioned many voters reacted to the perfectly normal, legal, required "delays" in the justice system as a reason not to vote. How is that sane?
It's like saying, "My neighbor is murdering his whole family in the front yard, but I can't call the police because that one officer from a different county gave me an unfair ticket last year!! It's all corrupt!!"
I should clarify, I know millions of people face voter suppression and they have every right to be fed up and complaining loudly about the corrupt system.
But those of us who can easily reach the polling booth seem to be under a very strange, unrealistic delusion that lines up perfectly with billionaire messaging via headlines in the MSM.
I saw the warning signs as MAGA formed over my lifetime, and no one listened. It is happening again.
@todymotmot @thomasjwebb @aaron.rupar
How much do you know about Aileen Cannon the judge he appointed who did not recuse herself?
@futurebird @thomasjwebb @aaron.rupar
But instead, corporate media relentlessly sold us anger, fear and rage against Democrats as a whole, and they ignored and shunned every major victory. Nearly everyone ate it without questions, without fighting back.
I already watched the same thing happen in real time with Fox News and MAGA. I've already seen exactly how this works.
It is intolerable.
4/4
Ahh yeah!! I keep forgetting!!
We gotta stop voting because we all know that Dems end wars, increase wages, expand medical care, decrease prescription meds, reduce global exploitation and slavery through trade, anti-money laundering, and getting over 100 countries onto a corporate minimum tax is because THEY SECRETLY WANT TO LOSE TO MAGA!!
That's it! You got it! Thanks buddy. I was wondering WHY they forgave around 200 billion in student loans! cool thanks man 😎
There are all kinds of democrats. Including some who are only a little better than "never trump" republicans... the kind who still enable this regime.
It's not the whole party but some of the rot is near the top. But ... not for long i think.
But it already happened.
Why do you think Biden ended the Afghan war? Everyone knew it was political suicide.
Just like choosing a woman of color as VP, blocking weapons from Israel, stopping the drone wars, achieving the global corporate minimum tax, getting lead out of water pipes in rural schools, fiiiiiinally overhauling the military justice system so rape victims weren't forced to report to their rapists...
And voters rejected it all.
@futurebird @thomasjwebb
The sane-washing has a large component of normalcy bias. Like the experiment where the participants sit in a waiting room and smoke is puffed under the door, but some of them are planted to sit there calmly and ignore it, so as to see how long it takes for the others to start acting as though there might be a fire and they should do something.
So yeah, some of the media ignoring the smoke are definitely doing it deliberately, and regrettably, there is a real fire.
It’s a case of postponing maintenance and repair, yesno?
This is one of my hobbyhorses so I see it everywhere, though. Certainly in physical infrastructure, why not social infrastructure?
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