I only wish I didnāt
Holy shitā¦
But but, I thought universities were spawning labs for cultural Marxism!!
Yes, which is why the right has so many well-funded sock-puppet āstudent groupsā tripping over each other on campus.
Freeze Peach, Trojan Speakers, Islamophobia, anti-LGBTQā¦ That matches so many outside groups funded by old rich white male racists.
Oh wait, the racists say that theyāre not racist!
Yep. Not to mention that even āpublicā state-funded unis are increasingly financed and run like businesses (with, for example, students increasingly referred to as customers).
Which makes it easier to far right groups to buy their way in, with a large grant or funding a chair or institute, without any of those moral choices involved.
Oh dearā¦
Apparently the caravan of Trumpers were shooting paintballs and pepper spray out of their vehicle as they drove through downtown.
Edit to add:
The dead man was wearing a hat with the logo of the far-right āPatriot Prayerā group. Iām not going to take any joy or comfort in his passing, but this deadly conflict was not just predictable, it was 100% inevitable and obviously the goal of the caravan people. Now things are only going to get worse.
Over the last week or two I have been getting a really nasty feeling about all this. Not saying he wonāt do something else, but I think the riots have handed Trump his Reichstag fire.
The incidents that led up to them were out of his hands, but from a month or so forward, the goal is to antagonize and provoke violence from now until the election. They saw the antifa fear people had, and now they will capitalize on it. They want blood in the streets.
If I were a conspiracy theorist, I would have serious questions about the Kyle Rittenhouse situation. The fact is though, they donāt have to inject an actor to do something into this situation. They just have to nudge their people to go armed into protests. What happens is almost inevitable.
This is a serious problem for the Biden campaign. If this goes on until November, I am not optimistic.
I really hate " 
"ing that, but it is way too true. Beau covered this today in a terrifying comparison to The Troubles in Ireland. God, I hope we are not headed that way, but we are a long way from November, it will get more intense over that time, and I suspect even more so afterward, especially if he loses or the elections are cancelled or the results disregarded. What we have left to our children is truly shameful, and we need to fix it. Now.
The disease of far-right idiocy continues to metastasise:
Damn, I would have thought the Qanon contagion had enough USian specifics to remain relatively contained. Has it mutated in Germany, or is it still Democratic cannibal child sex trafficking secret Martian slave camp idiocy?
I may be just ground down to total pessimism, but I donāt think thereās a leader who can bring us together, because the two sides cannot coexist. On the one side we have people who simply do not want to coexist with people of other cultures, races, and religions, and on the other we have people who are so sick of this shit that peace without Justice is ceasing to be an option.
I see no way for the two sides to coexist. The latter side should not have to coexist with the former. The former isnāt going away.
Itās more sympathetic expression, as Qanon is co-morbid with Covidiocy and fascist sentiment. Itās part of the international death cult thatās gained ground in recent years, but itās especially disheartening to see it in Germany.
Itās a tool, and as a tool it will be useful everywhere. So long as they can make people afraid and angry, they can use that to push people farther right. I have seen people call it an American problem, but, all they have to do is simply replace American names with Middle-to-Left figures from their own nation.
Relying on the emergence of a leader whoāll bring us together is never a good strategy. What we need are leaders who respect the institutions of liberal democracy and ones who place the interests of human persons over corporate ones ā taken together, thatās enough to create enough shared investment in the national project. If Il Douche gets a second term we get neither and an end to liberal democracy, if Biden wins we get half and (perhaps) a four-year reprieve.
Qanon in particular is a specifically American narrative, although I have no doubt that itās in the process of morphing into an international one with a cast of heroic right-wing populist leaders (Biff, de Pfeffel, Orban, Modi, Bolsonaro, etc., etc.) secretly joining forces to combat a bunch of rootless cosmopolitan liberal paedophile sex traffickers led by Soros.
Agreed. Additionally, replacing one cult of personality for another, even if itās a āgoodā cult, just sets up repeating this cycle. We need to repair the mechanism and root out the racism/sexism/omniphobia from our country. Not easy, but necessary.
When almost half the voting public wants Trump for a second term, I am not sure what that means for Democracy. What do you do if half the country thinks suspending Democracy is worth it to deny the other half a voice?
I mean, we canāt suspend Democracy to stop people from suspending Democracy, can we? What if there are truly enough of these people to win, and hold power? I grow more and more fearful that might be true.
Thereās a mighty big difference between that and half of the eligible voters in the country. 47% of the 2016 vote translates to 20-ish% of eligible voters or less. I object to over-stating his support, because it makes it sound like heās more reasonable; that he has more people behind him than he does.
He doesnāt. And at least half of the people ho voted for him in 2016 voted for Team R, not Turmp specifically. So his true supporters are a minority of a minority. Itās important to keep that in mind so that we know it is not just possible but highly likely that we can prevail. We need to work together an not get discouraged. And overstating the number and power of the MAGAts works against the cause of equality and justice.
