I thought I would share and comment on a few pre- and post-election quotes and memes that came through my social media feed.
Yes, I have always thought it’s absurd and nonsensical and aimed at hijacking people’s emotions to distract them from the real and more fundamental issues. In this context, the far more important issue is the systemic funneling of wealth to the already super-wealthy and away from the middle and working classes.
The neo-liberal ideologies of the last several decades, popularized by people like Reagan and Thatcher, are far more to blame for the problems of most people than unisex bathrooms, transgender people, or even immigrants.
Of course, that’s a pattern in history. People think the bad things will happen to others and not to them. In this case, many Latinos, women, and other groups Trump publicly disparages assume bad things will happen to other Latinos, other women, and so on, and not to them. Don’t be too certain.
Even if it was accurate, is that how you want to live your life? Supporting policies born from xenophobia, misogyny, racism, and scapegoating?
Many if not most of the people voting for Trump will not benefit from his policies and will be hurt by it. For instance, Trump plans to massively cut taxes for the super-wealthy. How is he going to balance that budget? Either by cutting services to ordinary people or by raising taxes for ordinary people. It’s just another example of the right-wing “austerity” policies that benefits the already wealthy and hurts everyone else.
This reflects the weird anti-expert and anti-“elite” sentiments among some people. If your car breaks down, would you go to a random person on the street to get it repaired? If you need surgery, would you go to someone shouting in a bar? If you need to engineer a bridge, would you go to a gardener for advice? No, you would go to someone who is qualified in the area, has gone through extensive training, and knows what they are doing.
This is an example of the classic fallacy of right-wing scapegoating of marginalized groups. Immigrants are not the problem. (Unless you count yourself and your ancestors who actually were and are a real problem to the people who already lived in North America.) They are overwhelmingly, law-abiding, they work for less than others would find acceptable, they pay taxes, and they take jobs others don’t want. They don’t want to rock the boat because they have everything to lose.
Yes, if we look at history, we see that the undoing of democracies often happens through people and parties voted into power through a democratic election. People vote for dictators, either because they don’t think they will actually do what they say they will do, or because they think the bad things will happen to others.
This is an example of the absurdity of the “culture war”. Gay marriage is just two ordinary people who, hopefully, love each other deciding to spend their life together. That’s all. If you happen to not like gay marriage, for whatever weird reason, you are free to not get one for yourself, that’s all.
This is from before the election. Why would you think that someone who is clearly in it only for himself, and perhaps his millionaire and billionaire buddies, would do anything for you? Someone who has a long series of bankruptcies behind him? Someone who is a convicted felon?
Yes, hate is a distraction from our own pain. It’s scapegoating. It’s not taking responsibility for what we are doing to ourselves.
If we rely on scapegoating to distract ourselves from our pain and take that crutch away, we have to face our pain.
Yes, real and responsible therapy will always look at the social systems we live in, how they impact us as individuals, and what we can do about it.
This is very important. That’s why I am making it a practice to rephrase how I think and talk about it for myself. When I feel overwhelmed, I make myself feel overwhelmed. If I feel anger, it’s because I make myself angry. And so on.
That’s a more accurate language, and it reminds me of what’s actually going on.
It aligns my conscious view more with reality.
Woke means kindness, inclusivity, and human rights. The disparaging use of “woke” comes from the right wing in an attempt at discrediting it. Weirdly, it has been adopted by some progressives.
This is why I share, whether it’s here, on social media, or in person when it makes sense.
I don’t do it to convince anyone about anything since that’s very unlikely to happen. I want people who have the views authentic to them.
I do it to show others that they are not alone and it’s OK to speak up.
This is true for any fundamentalist version of any religion. They teach hierarchy, dominance, and that others are wrong. They use fear and intimidation to keep people in line. That’s what we see in Trump and MAGA as well.
Something similar is true for Christianity in general, apart from perhaps some of the more liberal versions. Christianity is fundamentally a post-truth religion in that it asks people to (pretend to) believe in third-hand info they cannot check out for themselves. The Christian church teaches people that others are wrong, or at least not as right as they are. It all too often teaches not to question authority and not to ask difficult questions.
Christianity has often emphasized and exemplified the exact opposite of what Jesus lived and spoke about.
I have always found this ironic. White supremacists in the US, and the ones who scapegoat immigrants in general, seem to forget that they are immigrants too.
They are descendants of illegal and unwelcome immigrants. Immigrants who committed far worse atrocities – genocide, theft, lies, rape – than the current immigrants who are overwhelmingly peaceful, law-abiding, and hard-working.
It seems like a clear case of the pot calling the kettle black when the kettle isn’t even black. It’s a clear case of projection.
It’s often difficult to differentiate between intentional ignorance and just plain ignorance. Often, it’s a mix. People don’t want to know so they don’t set out to know.
People in the US who scapegoat immigrants know they too are immigrants. They are descendants of immigrants, and they are descendants of immigrants who actually did what they accuse current immigrants of doing.
People who support Trump know, or could easily know, what he wants to do, that he will very likely do it, and what the consequences are for themselves and especially for marginalized groups.
I didn’t do K-12 education in the US, which is probably a blessing. Instead, I had a very good education in Norway with highly educated teachers, many of whom were critical thinkers and taught critical thinking to the students. What I know about US history is from there and what I have picked up from books like A People’s History of the US by Howard Zinn.
If it’s true that schools in the US do not teach its full, and pretty grim, history, and the grim history of the world, then there is no wonder why people vote for someone like Trump.
If they knew the history of fascism, it’s difficult to imagine many would support or vote for Trump. Very little good has ever come from fascism, for anyone, including the ones who see themselves as privileged and insulated from the horrors of it. Even for the leaders, very little good has ever come from fascism.
If they knew the ugly history of scapegoating, it’s unlikely that many would vote for Trump. They would see through his cheap tactics of scapegoating to blame vulnerable minorities for systemic problems.
If they knew about the history of tariffs, it’s similarly difficult to understand why someone would vote for Trump. If he imposes the tariffs he promises, which he likely will do, the cost is passed on to the consumers, to the ones voting for him.
Also, if they had taken five minutes to learn about his tax plans and his plans to dismantle social safety nets (including the Affordable Care Act / Obamacare), not many would have voted for him. Why would they vote for someone who will cut taxes for the super-wealthy and increase it for the rest? Why would they vote for someone who will remove the few social safety nets they or someone they love depend on?
It takes just a few minutes to learn about this, although if they never learned the importance of gathering information before making important decisions, that may be why they didn’t do it.
Also very true. The apocalypse is already lived by many beings. It’s lived by the billions of non-human beings imprisoned and living in horrible suffering so we can make clothes out of them, eat them, or do something else to them for our own benefit. It’s lived by the billions living in poverty, hunger, and with treatable illnesses. It’s lived by those severely impacted by our ecological crisis, which is often the already poor. It’s lived by the ecosystems unraveling because of human activity.
This is likely not from Ram Dass but it’s certainly a good pointer.
