Notices by Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social), page 13

In order to justify sticking with Trump, conservatives have to find ever more extreme justifications for why he is, at worst, the lesser evil compared to the “leftist” enemy. That is partly why rightwingers are constantly playing up the threat of “woke” radicalism and the “illiberal Left.” 2/

The perfect manifestation of the permission structure that governs rightwing politics: Nikki Haley and Bill Barr both giving us versions of “Trump is totally unhinged, but I’m voting for him anyway, because Joe Biden is a radically Un-American woke leftist extremist.

Remarkable.

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https://www.npr.org/2024/02/22/1232961899/nikki-haley-south-carolina-primary-super-tuesday-biden-trump

Conservatives say “Project 2025” is their “Promise to America.” But from the perspective of multiracial, pluralistic democracy, it is more aptly described as an aggressive threat.
 
New piece:

https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/project-2025-promises-revenge-oppression

If there are people around you who believe “it won’t be *that* bad,” people who are annoyed by what they perceive as liberal “alarmism,” just read this out loud to them a few times and force them to actually reflect on what Miller is outlining here. It’s utterly terrifying.

The biggest challenge in 2024 is to get enough people to actually listen to what Trump and those around him are openly, consistently, and explicitly promising to do once they get back to power.

It is utterly deranged, and discounting it as just rhetoric would be a disaster.

A deliberate campaign to create a permission structure to support rightwing extremism for people who don’t want to think of themselves as supporting rightwing extremism - combined with the eternal mainstream media quest to demonstrate “neutrality” and “balance.”

The result is a bizarre monstrosity.

Republicans believe they don’t have to accept difference and compromise, regarding it as their prerogative to shape the nation in their image, to define the boundaries of “real America.”
 
If they don’t get to rule, they’d rather ruin what they no longer regard as “America.” 3/

The American Right is fully devoted to a fundamentally anti-pluralistic political project. They steadfastly refuse to accept the complicated process of balancing interests, of reconciling different ideas, values, and aspirations that a pluralistic society necessarily depends on. 2/

The Right Is Not Actually Seeking “Divorce” – But Domination
 
The fantasizing about secession and civil war – long tradition on the extreme Right – has been fully mainstreamed among conservatives. Because they will not, under any circumstance, accept pluralism.
 
New piece:
 
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https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/domination-or-dissolution-rule-or

Domination or Dissolution, Rule or Ruin
 
The Right is fantasizing about secession, “national divorce,” and civil war – because they will not, under any circumstance, accept pluralism.
 
New piece:
 
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https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/domination-or-dissolution-rule-or

While it’s the obvious surface-level hypocrisy in Ackman’s behavior that is so stark and annoying, it’s the ruthlessly consistent commitment to the underlying worldview, to the reactionary political project of maintaining discriminatory hierarchies that is the real enemy of egalitarian democracy. 1/

Neutrality-theater journalism gravitates towards the “polarization” narrative precisely because it obscures rather than illuminates, dissolves the specifics of the political conflict into a vague lament over “division,” allows journalists to signal how above the fray they are. 1/

Today, the anti-“woke” crusaders on the Right got what they wanted – and it would not have been possible without the mainstream media eagerly propagating, laundering, and legitimizing a disgustingly disingenuous rightwing campaign. 1/

Remember, this all started with Republicans trying to get the Black woman fired by accusing her of antisemitism - a brutally cynical attempt by the party of Trump, “Jewish space lasers,” QAnon, and “Great Replacement” theory to use Jews to strike against “leftist” institutions. 3/
 
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/we-are-falling-apart

None of this is surprising – although it is still shocking to see it play out like this. It is indicative of larger issues: The media’s obsession with proving its “neutral” credentials, an increasingly reactionary, anti-“woke” stance on the center, and America’s elite accommodating extremism. 2/

When that didn’t work, the Right seamlessly pivoted to the accusation of plagiarism. Once again, Christopher Rufo, one of America’s most successful far-right activists, played a crucial role in this pivot, never hiding his true intentions – and yet, the media did exactly what he wanted. 4/

A while ago, I wrote about Rufo as a figure emblematic of the counter-revolutionary zeal, desire for vengeance, lust for radicalism, and brutal cynicism that characterizes the Right today.
 
Rightwing Dreams of American Reconquista: 7/
 
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/rightwing-dreams-of-american-reconquista

Rufo is celebrating. Note how he is explicitly pointing to one of the New York Times’ anti-“woke” columnists, standing in for the mainstream media as a whole, as having played a crucial role in his plan. And in the replies, his extremist fans demand more blood: “Who’s next?” 6/

Rufo has always been completely transparent about the entirely dishonest nature of his reactionary projects. That he’s been so tremendously successful in poisoning the polity and manufacturing nationwide crusades is a devastating indictment of our political and media culture. 5/

Please read this fantastic piece by @donmoyn – a dissection of the disastrous role of the mainstream in this whole affair. It’s just not plausible anymore to assume the media “got played”: They deliberately contributed, again, to a breathtakingly disingenuous rightwing assault.

https://donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-campaign-to-remove-the-president