Paul Cantrell
I think there’s a lot to this metaphor from @julieofthespirits:
https://kolektiva.social/@julieofthespirits/110957317812935147
Trump’s version of fascism in 2016 was like a new COVID variant: a new form of an old disease that swept through like wildfire because people’s immune responses weren’t well-tuned to the spike proteins on its surface.
tj usiyan
@inthehands @julieofthespirits it’s pretty important to be more specific about who wasn’t well-tuned to the spike proteins because it wasn’t “people in general”
Paul Cantrell
@griotspeak @julieofthespirits
Yup, indeed. And (because running too far with a metaphor is my favorite pastime) it’s worth thinking in earnest about what helps different people achieve narrow vs broad immunity to fascism.
Masonic Cowgirl
@inthehands this is also why the far right is picking up critiques of trans people developed by radical feminists, or are pushing things like "gays against groomers" - a lot of people have antibodies against queerphobia when it comes in the guise of "adam and eve not adam and steve" but not when it comes in a more secular, even feminist discourse
Paul Cantrell
@julieofthespirits
That seems spot on to me. Something I keep noticing over and over — and am unsure how to combat — is that people respond much more strongly to the socio-political valence of •vocabulary• than to semantic substance. They’ll perceive word salad or even outright hostility that uses in-group language as friendly, but a sympathetic argument using opponent’s language as unfriendly. TERFism is a prime example.
Masonic Cowgirl
@inthehands or the way Rufo mobilizes racist narratives while making it appear that it's just a disagreement about educational policy, coming off as a pta busybody appealing to other pta busybodies
Paul Cantrell
@julieofthespirits
The current mayor of Minneapolis is super good at this kind of thing: slushy non-thoughts that sound progressive while his hard-to-follow process maneuverings serve non-progressive power. People around here eat that shit up. And it almost helps that he’s such an empty suit: it there were more substance to him, there would be more concrete warning signs to hold on to.
Paul Cantrell
@julieofthespirits
Oh fun. I haven’t even remotely followed that election….
Masonic Cowgirl
@inthehands the two likely candidates in next year's election in Mexico have absolutely no policy differences and it's entirely down to which ingroup their discourse is appealing to
dimsumthinking
@griotspeak @inthehands @julieofthespirits well we definitely hadn’t built up herd immunity so many politically vaxxed people suffered as well
Paul Cantrell
@dimsumthinking @griotspeak @julieofthespirits
Primarily it’s the “vaxxed” who’ve suffered, I’d say
(which is how this sort of thing typically works)
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