William Lindsey :toad:
A large percentage of those gleefully playing this blame game right now, including here on my feed, are white men, young white men at that.
Here's the response of a young Black leader, Baltimore mayor Brandon Scott, to these folks:
"It is really on my heart this morning to say that as a man, but more importantly as a Black man, that this country does not deserve Black women or Black people, but specifically Black women."
William Lindsey :toad:
Another piece of eloquent testimony from a brilliant Black man that won't be taken seriously by lots of us as we engage in the futile game-playing of the circular firing squad:
"America deserves everything it is about to get. ...
The conversations about who is to blame, the hand-wringing about who showed up and who failed the moment are largely academic and pointless."
~ Elie Mystal
#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/5
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-is-america-not-a-fluke/
William Lindsey :toad:
"The fact is, is that they did everything that a campaign can do and more. But we as a country really have a lot of soul searching to do.”
But what Black people have to say isn't really important to a lot of us, right? Never has been. Never has been taken as seriously in the opinion pages of our major media outlets as the verbiage of any white person anywhere. Right? And it's never about racism or misogyny even when it's always about them.
William Lindsey :toad:
"The unfortunate reality is that this country is still steeped in racism, sexism and misogyny. I am personally proud of her, and I know that so many others are the same. We appreciate her tenacity, her focus, her decency and how she handled herself throughout this campaign. And I don’t want to hear anybody saying that they should have done something different, she should have been running longer."
William Lindsey :toad:
"America did this. America, through the process of a free and fair election, demanded this. America, as an idea, concept, and institution, wanted this. And America, as a collective, deserves to get what it wants. ...
Now that he is here, we deserve our fate, because the most fundamental truth about Trump’s reelection is that Trump was right about us."
William Lindsey :toad:
"He will be president again because he, and perhaps he alone, saw us for how truly base, depraved, and uninformed we are as a country. Trump is not a root cause of our ills. He did not create the conditions that allowed him to rise. He is, and always has been, a mirror. He is how America sees itself."
William Lindsey :toad:
And from Black historian Jemar Tisby:
"I find most of the postmortem pontificating about why Democrats lost the presidential election unpersuasive.
The reason, not the only one but a major one, Democrats lost the presidential election is disinformation and misinformation super-charged by billionaires and Russia through a network of right-wing media outlets and institutions."
#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/8
https://jemartisby.substack.com/p/why-democrats-lost-the-2024-presidential
William Lindsey :toad:
"An average of 86 percent of the global respondents said it is important to them to live in a country that is democratically governed, yet only 80 percent of Americans did. That put America in the bottom five of thirty countries, below Turkey, China, India, Egypt and Mexico, to name just a few.
Just 57 percent of 18- to 35-year-olds said democracy is preferable to any other form of government; 71 percent of older respondents said the same."
William Lindsey :toad:
"This includes a majority of white men and white women. Without that bloc, Trump never comes close to being President. This bloc also includes margins of Latino, Black and Asian men. The two groups that understood the assignment were 90% of Black and Jewish women who voted for Harris. A majority of Black men also came through. The two religious groups that voted for Harris were Jews and Muslims, although many defected from Muslim and Arab communities due to the Gaza war."
William Lindsey :toad:
And a Jewish American voice, Steven Beschloss:
"Now we have more evidence that the appeal of authoritarianism is on the rise, in America as well as globally."
He cites a poll last year by Open Society Foundations polling 36,000 people in 30 countries, which finds commitment to democracy strong but waning globally.
Two key findings that bode ominously for the future of democracy in America:
#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/11
https://www.americaamerica.news/p/what-i-wont-get-over-and-some-of
William Lindsey :toad:
From Wajahat Ali, son of Pakistani immigrants:
"We knew exactly what we were getting. And despite everything he’s done, millions of Americans would rather have a cruel, aging vulgarian than a competent Black woman become President. This is more a revelation of their lack of character than anything else. They chose to vote for him. No one forced them to do it."
#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/9
https://thelefthook.substack.com/p/america-shit-in-its-milk-but-the
Dianora (Diane Bruce)
@wdlindsy It's only a 'marketplace of ideas' when all vendors have equal access to the market. And Billionaires have achieved a near monopoly on the 'marketplace of ideas'.
William Lindsey :toad:
@Dianora Yes — an excellent point.
Dianora (Diane Bruce)
@wdlindsy Ellul predicted this would happen. Those that own the media control the propaganda.
Robert Link
@wdlindsy He's neither fluke nor is he America. He is the effect of a very successful decades long propaganda machine which dates back to the Rush Limbaugh show effectively being given away in a lot of markets (see https://www.huffpost.com/entry/limbaughs-dirty-little-se_b_185965) Arguably Trump is the result of the revocation of the Fairness Doctrine. And it didn't happen overnight, nor will any "fix" happen overnight.
Robert Link
@wdlindsy American journalism was broken with the revocation of the fairness doctrine, arguably, and the current election cycle is an effect rather than a cause of the decline of journalism in the post-Reagan age.
William Lindsey :toad:
"Trump broke American journalism; and it is likely to get worse as power and influence shifts toward platforms that honor algorithms more than truth. …
When we are done flagellating other institutions, we need to admit the possibility that something is profoundly broken in the American psyche and character. …
We found out last week that we are a profoundly unserious country."
~ Charlie Sykes
#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/19
https://charliesykes.substack.com/p/are-we-sanewashing-the-voters-now
William Lindsey :toad:
"His ownership and clear support for Trump on X also raises concerns he will use the social platform to push political narratives that further his business interests…."
But don't forget as you read this that the real problem is Democrats, and "wokeness," and "identity politics" centering people of color and women who have long been shoved to the margins. The real problem is Black women like Kamala Harris. /s (!)
William Lindsey :toad:
"Much of Musk's immense wealth comes directly from the federal government, which has handed billions of dollars in contracts and subsidies to Tesla and SpaceX, raising the potential for enormous conflicts of interest as Musk helps Trump create winners and losers of his new administration."
William Lindsey :toad:
And on the white male side of the ledger, there's Elon Musk — though remember that the Democrats are the problem, as lots of white male commentators (and fellow travelers who are white women) want to tell us now:
"Elon Musk's influence with Donald Trump is one of the biggest stories in media, tech and politics right now."
~ Brian Stelter
#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/16
https://view.newsletters.cnn.com/messages/17313334122092dcc361a5d62/raw
William Lindsey :toad:
"Musk has 'loomed over' all the action at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club since Trump's election night victory, CNN's Kaitlan Collins reported last night. Musk has been dining with Trump on the patio, hanging out on the golf course, and, more importantly, 'weighing in on staffing decisions, making clear his preference for certain roles.'"
William Lindsey :toad:
Another Jewish American voice warning of how disinformation not only corrupts our minds, but also erodes our hearts, the center of our moral awareness:
"As a matter of truth and morality, the idea that immigration hurts Americans, or that immigration is immoral, is just a lie."
~ Peter Beinart
#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/15
https://peterbeinart.substack.com/p/dont-confuse-popularity-and-truth
William Lindsey :toad:
"And more alarming: Asked for good ways to run a country, 42 percent of those 18 to 35 globally believe the answer is 'army rule' and 32 percent of that age group believe it’s 'leaders who do not bother with parliaments or elections.'”
William Lindsey :toad:
Another Jewish American voice:
"I don’t expect normal times ahead. I believe Trump when he tells us who he is. I believe MAGA when they tell us who they are. This wasn’t just a campaign where the winner takes office and we all move on happily together, shoring up our disappointment. We have to be prepared for that reality, and not get sucked into a 'business as usual' version of what Trump’s time in office will look like."
Robert Link
@wdlindsy I agree about that obligation! I think the ability to fulfill it is somewhat a matter of privilege, that is, not everyone is blessed with the intellect and experience to learn crap detection. (https://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/crap-detection-101-3227013.php)
Robert Link
@wdlindsy "They" don't "know who he is." "They" think Biden stole 2020, "they" think Trump is a successful business man (8 years of tv prove this.) "They" think and know all sorts of things you and I don't. He's not the face of any of these people, he's the mask and blindfold "they" have been seduced into wearing.
This probably won't correct itself during what is left of my life time. I cannot say I am undismayed. But I will not take my eye off of the basic goodness in us all.
William Lindsey :toad:
@phaedral Yes, I'd agree that a lot of us who chose to vote for Trump will be in for a rude awakening. At the same time, I'd argue that we have an obligation — to ourselves, first and foremost — to seek the truth, to seek good sources of information, to consume media and news critically (and self-critically).
William Lindsey :toad:
@phaedral He's clearly the face of over 74,000,000 million of us, or why else would those 74,000,000+ choose to vote for him, knowing who he is?
William Lindsey :toad:
"Instead of confronting systems, they give you enemies you can kill. This is disaster nationalism. …
This is a global social contagion."
William Lindsey :toad:
Far-right leaders are winning across the globe. Blaming ‘the economy’ or ‘the left-behinds’ won’t cut it. …
Trump warns of 'communist' takeover and amplifies the 'great replacement' conspiracy theory. His supporters rail against 'white genocide' and satanic child-molesting elites. Instead of opposing injustice, they vilify those who threaten social hierarchies like class, race and gender."
~ Richard Seymour
#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/25
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/11/far-right-leaders-economy-voters
William Lindsey :toad:
"No Dem can change the fact that millions of ungettable GOP votes are set in stone not because of economic conditions - which were the best any candidate could have hoped for - but because even relatively affluent voters have spent years marinating in complete craziness."
~ Tom Nichols
William Lindsey :toad:
"This election was a CAT scan on the American people, and as difficult as it is to say, as hard as it is to name, what it revealed, at least in part, is a frightening affinity for a man of borderless corruption. Donald Trump is no longer an aberration; he is normative.”
~ Peter Wehner
#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/22
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/06/us/politics/trump-america-election-victory.html
William Lindsey :toad:
And sometimes I can even find myself agreeing with Bill Kristol:
"It wasn’t the Democratic party that nominated Trump three times. It wasn’t Democrats who shied away from the fight against Trump. It’s the Republican party that has deeply, catastrophically, perhaps decisively failed America this past decade."
#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/23
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/stop-handwringing-start-fighting
William Lindsey :toad:
Trump proved proved "that the most vicious campaign of lies, misogyny, racism, and xenophobia ever waged—and yes, I am including his previous two campaigns—was not enough to stop nearly half the country from supporting him. …
It is a disastrous revelation about what the United States really is, as opposed to the country that so many hoped that it could be."
~ Susan Glasser
Second statement quoted by Charlie Sykes, /19 above.
William Lindsey :toad:
"Fascism is now in the algorithms, the neural pathways, the social interactions. How did we fail to see all this?"
~ Timothy Snyder
#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/20
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/dispatches/what-does-it-mean-that-donald-trump-is-a-fascist
William Lindsey :toad:
"Jeff Bezos, late to the party, jumped on the bandwagon with just days to go, ensuringhis Washington Post didn’t endorse any candidate.
These bros know. They don’t fear journalists any more. Journalists will now learn to fear them. Because this is oligarchy now. This is the fusion of state and commercial power in a ruling elite."
William Lindsey :toad:
"Mark Zuckerberg has ditched his suit, grown out his Caesar haircut and bought a rapper-style gold chain. He’s said one of his biggest regrets is apologising too much. Because he – like others in Silicon Valley – has read the runes. PayPal’s co-founder Peter Thiel, creeping around in the shadows, ensured his man, JD Vance, got on the presidential ticket. Musk wagered a Silicon Valley-style bet by going all in on Trump."
William Lindsey :toad:
"In hindsight, 2016 was the beginning of the beginning. And 2024 is the end of that beginning and the start of something much, much worse.
It began as a tear in the information space, a dawning realisation that the world as we knew it – stable, fixed by facts, balustraded by evidence – was now a rip in the fabric of reality."
~ Carole Cadwalladr
William Lindsey :toad:
'"And the turbulence that Trump is about to unleash – alongside pain and cruelty and hardship – is possible because that’s where we already live: in information chaos. …
The medium now is Musk. The world’s richest man bought a global communication platform and is now the shadow head of state of what was the world’s greatest superpower. That’s the message. Have you got it yet?"
William Lindsey :toad:
Mike Luckovich's commentary on what we've just seen millions of US voters choose.
#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/27
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/11/10/2284581/-Cartoon-Shattered-glass
Robert Link
@wdlindsy Reagan broke American journalism by getting the Fairness Doctrine repealed. The current administration is the beneficiary, not the causal agent.
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