I’ve been struggling with how to make sense of what the far right likes to call patriotism. Our democratic system of government is at the core of what defines America, but many of them are willing, and in some cases eager, to destroy that.
It finally hit me that what they love is not their country. They love their control of it. That is why racism, misogyny, homophobia, and other irrational hatreds are so deeply tied into far right movement. Only people like them should be allowed to have a say. The acceptance of diversity that began as religious freedom and has expanded to encompass all differences, directly threatens their control.
I wish that insight pointed a way to deal with the problem, but it really points up how intractable the problem is. There is no compromise that will satisfy both sides when one side is demanding complete control over the other.
This may be one of those problems that can only be solved by newer generations, who tend to have less rigid views of the world, gradually replacing the hard liners.
Unfortunately I think history shows us that there is always a portion of the population which, through fear or greed, wants to dominate the rest. The constant battle against authoritarianism may be just part of human existence.
Reactionary ideology means they feel entitled to be in charge. They genuinely believe that they should have more privilege than others solely because of their identity as a white person or a Christian, or a man but most often a combination of the three.
Their whole motivation is that they believe the country is being stolen from them, who are it’s rightful rulers.
They will do anything it takes to retain their privilege to tell you what to do. They’re desperate due to the energy and demographics on the left rising to a level we haven’t seen in decades; they don’t intend to lose even if it means violence and/or overthrowing the government.
One of the reasons they attack critical race theory with such ferver is one of its absolutely true sociological tenets:
When you’re accustomed to privilege, equity feels like oppression.
Regardless of the facts, regardless of the way human beings have been treated like animals and need societal protection, modern reactionary conservatives only care about those feels.
The truth is, if you want to play the rightful rulers game, the only ones with a valid argument are the Native Americans, the ones that are left I mean. It’s gallows hilarious how many groups of European white people have taken turns declaring themselves the true natives of this giant genocide graveyard built by literal slaves.
This may be one of those problems that can only be solved by newer generations, who tend to have less rigid views of the world, gradually replacing the hard liners.
Unfortunately this isn’t true. Many of these MAGAs are indoctrinating their children to believe the same lies, and some are getting more radicalized.
I’m becoming more and more convinced that it’s going to take another civil war and if liberals win (and that’s a big if), we need to reconstruction right and guillotine treasoners.
Yeah I don’t see why people under-40 on here have such a hard-on thinking their generations will be the one to solve this. I worked with a large number of under 40s who were very vocal right-wingers, often tied to gun ownership, they would often parrot the same fox “news” sleepy Joe BS, boycotted Bud Light, were vocal about how gays/trans existing were “shoving it down their throats”, see almost as many pro-orange-turd/lgbfjb hats/shirts on them as I did over-40s. Keeping in mind the new plastic mouth spewing hate into the cheetoh’s ear is only 31…
Don’t sit back and think your generation will magically change this. Get out and vote. And encourage everyone you know and can interact with to do the same
I’m more hopeful about this. Some of the next generation are being indoctrinated, but that certainly not all and not all successfully. All indications are that most of them are still far more progressive than their parents. The problem isn’t going to go away, but I think it will fall below the level of being a competitive voting block.
Bare in mind that the problem isn’t lowering their voting bloc.
Republicans, by in large, are in the minority. It’s gerrymandering and the electoral college that elevates them to public office.
