Yet such fantasies are now the common currency of politics on the American right. Remember the days when pundits solemnly declared that Trumpism was caused by economic anxiety? Well, despite a booming economy, there’s still plenty of justified anxiety out there, reflecting many people’s real struggles: America is still a nation riddled with inequality, insecurity and injustice. But the anxiety driving MAGA isn’t driven by reality. It is, instead, driven by dystopian visions unrelated to real experience.
That is, at this point, Republican political strategy depends largely on frightening voters who are personally doing relatively well not just according to official statistics but also by their own accounts, by telling them that terrible things are happening to other people.
No shit. Why is this worth writing about? If you didn’t realize this already then you’ve already decided on what you want to be truth.
i’m so tired of these “duh, no shit” headlines. are we still trying to educate a swathe of kids? i thought we all knew this. why don’t we have more headlines about how to deal with idiot conservatives in a way that avoids an extinction event?
Said the New York Times in 2024.
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No one ever addresses the fact that the same people driving the fear are the same people who own and control the country’s main media companies that blast the public day and night with propaganda.
This article could have been written in 2017 and everybody would have gone “no shit Sherlock”
Took you this long to notice, did it NYT?
They had another article today that effectively said “yes, the insurrection is made of insurrection.”
Is it possible they fell into some kind of time warp, and are perceiving the universe at a slower rate than the rest of us?
It’s more that the NYT is studiously centrist and is getting to the point where it is OK for their left-of-center opinion writers to say this kind of thing
it’s BS for polite white NY society and it’s garbage. give my grimy seattle anarchist zines, pls. oh wait, that got taken over by the trans movement focused on gender terms or some BS that has nothing to do with victory.
i remember when i believed in ppl.
It’s not like trans people matter and they are being seriously oppressed right now or anything, am I right?
Man… first it was the blacks, then it was the gays, now it’s the trans? Who are we supposed to care about next? Poor people? This is BS that has nothing to do with victory!
ride that bandwagon to nowhere!
edit: look, i get it. it’s another class of people conservatives hate and make their lives a living hell. well, guess what? they do that to all of us! get on the bus with the rest of us and let’s make way towards changing it. i’m just sick of focusing on a narrow segment of the population and losing sight of the big picture.
What ‘bandwagon’ would that be, the human rights bandwagon?
i remember when i believed in ppl.
Same homie, same
the NYT is studiously centrist
More center-right to right wing. Just like the DNC leadership and strategists with which they’re joined at the hip.
Kinda been a theme for Krugman for a while.
Ugh, it’s a Paul Krugman piece? He’s such a pro-corporate establishment hack 🤢
Nobody should ever look to him for anything, much less timely analysis of what’s going on in the real world.
Whaaaaat
This sounds woefully inadequate in it’s understanding of this new incarnation of fascism. It works by fostering inequality based on a myth of an “essentialized identity”. Us vs them. So fear is just one of the tools.
And a massive driver for this is the increasing wealth inequality and sinking quality of life and prospects of prosperity. Because the old systems of propaganda do not work anymore (which the journalist is a representative of) the system “responds” by using fascism because that still works. For many decades they lie and cheat and this creates the fertile ground.
You can’t have working democracy without prosperity, security (!= constant wars) and education (!= decades of propaganda in consolidated mainstream media)
They are in a cult and cults cannot exist without rigid hierarchy based on lies. If the cult the leader told his flock 2 + 2 = 5, that has utility the truth could never have. Cult members can repeat that lie to prove loyalty, the basis of a cult’s heirarchy.
When a Trumper tells you a crazy statement like 2 + 2 = 5, don’t look at it like they are an idiot. They understand they are telling you something normal people would find outrageous and they are testing to see how you react.
It’s almost funny to see corporate outlets like the NYT try an explain the GOP. Flat admitting half of the duopoly is in a cult and has been in a cult 40+ years does not mesh with the supposed meritocracy we live in. So these media narratives like to edge around the truth, never quite getting their because reality is a challenge to our corporate run system as well.
You mean the group of people, who are so afraid they need to carry guns everywhere, are based in fear
that seems to be the operating principle of right wing politicians in general. bitch and moan about whatever gets the most attention, get elected, fuck over the voter and take people’s rights away. rinse and repeat.
Water is wet
Can we stop commenting this on every single political post? It just implies that the behavior in the article should be treated as normal by now. It’s not normal, no matter how common the media makes it seem.
This behavior isn’t normal, but it’s the MAGA morons who try to normalize it.
Fear and anger with absolutely no critical thought put into the issues. The two most primal feelings somebody can have.
In other surprising news, water is wet.
If you don’t say “water-wise”, how can I know what you are referring to?
Um, this is the GOP as a whole, not just maga.
Isn’t the core personality trait for conservatives fear? Like it all basically stems from that justified or not.
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Others: |~~|
GOP. : |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just because “everybody does it” doesn’t mean they are equivalent. It’s like saying we both break laws when I’m speeding and you’re robbing banks.
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