Right Wing Diehards, Should I Be Worried?

[jab]

First of all, comparing Barry Goldwater to today's Republioturds is like comparing a pussy-cat to a rattlesnake. Goldwater had more integrity and more humanity in his little finger than the entire GOP has today.

Goldwater was a life-time member of the NAACP; he helped integrate Arizona schools BEFORE Brown v. Board. His views evolved over the years — unlike today's Republioturds who can't "evolve" their thinking because they don't think at all — he was eventually in favor of gay rights, women's rights and legal marijuana. And he always opposed the sale of semi-automatic rifles.

Yes, Goldwater was considered an extreme right-winger 60 years ago. Comparing that with his actual views — and more importantly with his integrity, authentic patriotism, and humane values — just shows what the GOP has become today.

The phrase "Right-wing diehards" in thread's title does injustice to real right-wing diehards like Goldwater. The Proud Boys, FoxNews and GOP are united by hatred, hypocrisy and criminality. It is playing into their hands to pretend they have a political ideology. As for the question in thread's title "Should I be worried?" the answer is Yes. Tens of millions of Americans are infected with Republioturd hatreds and ignorance, and are continually being deluded by Internet liars. Beyond dropping bombs on Facebook HQ as a starting point, I have no solution to offer. American democracy, in the form we oldsters are familiar with, will not survive. Recent reports confirm that Trump was almost a hand-picked stooge of Vladimir Putin, yet hardly anyone cares.

It would be interesting to look for historical precedent. Richard Nixon, a known criminal and bigot, would be a better example than Goldwater, but Nixon was hardly the first President to engage in criminality (at least in the benign "rat-fucking" form) or in bigotry.

I'm no historian, so the only incident that comes to mind for me is the 1856 near-fatal bludgeoning of Senator Sumner (R-Mass) by Congressman Brooks (D - SC). This attempted murder was applauded throughout the South! (Today there is at least one Congresswoman threatening to kill fellow Congresspeople.)

An oft-overlooked historical detail is that the " Pottawatomie Massacre" began just one day after, and was an escalation in response to, the bludgeoning of Senator Sumner. Those executions, led by John Brown, were to punish ruffians who themselves had abetted the murders of anti-slavery Kansas settlers. Arguably, it was an act of justice; yet John Brown is often condemned while Brooks was never prosecuted.

(John Brown is my nomination to replace Jackson on the $20 bill! I am proud that he is my close blood relative.)

This congresswoman apparently just had a very supportive phone call with dear loser/leader. Perhaps she was congratulating him on his upcoming March 4 inauguration.

 

[Angry Floof]

They're off the leash thanks to Trump. They are every compulsion and stupidity in the vast repertoire of human thought and behavior set loose, relieved of conscience and cooperation.

I've been mulling about this for years now. For most of us, creativity (as in creative problem solving and decision making as well as general creativity) is a matter of being open to possibilities and new ideas. The more open and unrestrained you are in your creative efforts, whether brainstorming or painting, the more ideas and connections come to you, thus more possibilities for solutions and invention.

But when you're more the closed, narrow minded kind of mentality, and events unfold in ways that push you back into more closed and narrow thinking, you kind of become dumber in a very real sense. Closing off possibilities means closing off opportunities and ideas and creative solutions.

So previously I just assumed that this kind of mentality was just kind of dumb and mean and not good at solving real problems and there wasn't much more to it than that. But the last five years have shown that there IS a kind of counterpart to wide open creativity in right wing mentality run amok - when the last vestige of conscience is forfeited in favor of the thrill of riding the wild coattails of an utterly conscienceless strong man leader type who hijacks your fears and prejudices and then promises you relief and reward in giving the finger to everyone else, that truly does blow open the doors of possibility, only it's the kind of possibility that includes murdering whoever the revered strong man tells you should be murdered.

That's gotta be a massive and thrilling sense of liberation and endless possibilities in how you can beat and carve up the world to your liking. It's also evil in action.

My only hope is that this has shown how malleable this whole society is. Maybe it can morph back into a more congenial form if conditions change. Hoping just getting a functional government back in place would have some effect, but that's doubtful.
Maybe it means a small-medium sized bloodbath - Dear Leader once said that 1-200,000 dead would be a "very good job". Sure, bloody trauma is more unseemly than quietly croaking in a hospital bed, but perhaps the shock value therein would be the catalyst for a changed condition.
Over 2800 people were killed today by Covid-19, just like any other recent day. Imagine if more than 2800 people were gunned down, blown up, run over or burned to death every day for a few months... what effect would that have? It probably depends on who was getting gunned down, blown up, run over or burned.

It'll never happen as long as right wing media and conspiracy theorists have the ear of America. It will take a massive atrocity on their own doorsteps or one so big they can't ignore it before they'll snap out of it.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

The most interesting aspect of this GOP phenomenon is however how easily they are taken in with conspiracy thinking. For me that's simply a symptom of scientific illiteracy, something that has become a problem in the U.S.

The rubes, yes. The decades-long GOP anti-education campaign is paying off for the 'pugs.
But their elected officials are another story. They are willfully hypocritical, knowing liars.

View attachment 31681

The key to the Capitol invasion is not only his incitement of it... but Congress (including themselves!!!) had to evacuate. And they still don't give a damn.

 

[lpetrich]

(LP: snipped for brevity) The key to the Capitol invasion is not only his incitement of it... but Congress (including themselves!!!) had to evacuate. And they still don't give a damn.

I notice the lack of outrage in the Republican Party at Trump. Almost as if they are not very bothered by the prospect of being lynched as RINO's. They don't talk about purging him from the party. Imagine Mitch McConnell or Kevin McCarthy being asked about that choice of words and their saying "If that means him being sent to an Alaskan prison camp, then why not?"

 

[ZiprHead]

Fact check: Congress expelled 14 members in 1861 for supporting the Confederacy

 

[TomC]

Fact check: Congress expelled 14 members in 1861 for supporting the Confederacy

I'm curious.
Were those congressmen expelled for supporting the Confederacy or opposing an invasion?
I don't see those as the same thing.
Tom

ETA ~looks at date again~

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Another Republican Paycho

A California man charged with possessing five pipe bombs talked about targeting Democrats, Twitter and Facebook as part of a discussion about going “to war” to ensure former President Donald Trump remained in the White House, court documents reveal.

“Sad it’s come to this but I’m not going down without a fight ... These commies need to be told what’s up.”

Just another run-of-the-mill republican crazy. There are so many of them it gets unsurprising when another one shows up. For starters these people need a life.

 

[Elixir]

The GOP has now become the GQP

Welcome, Grand Qonspiracy Party

 

[southernhybrid]

Republicans are afraid of Stacey Abrams!

From what I know of Abrams, she is brilliant and reasonable. When she was the minority leader in the Georgia House, she was respected by both parties, for her intelligence and willingness to work across the aisle. Apparently, the fact that she was able to get out the vote in Georgia, helping Biden and the two Democratic Candidates for Senate win, the crazy Republicans now consider her a scary socialist who is going to destroy America. As usual they project too much.

So, out of fear that Stacey will run for governor of Georgia next year, they are already trying to stop her.

https://stopstacey.org

Funded by Hollywood and billionaire socialists like George Soros, radical leftist Stacey Abrams is on a mission to destroy our country. She “flipped” Georgia for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. She delivered two Senate seats for Chuck Schumer. Now, she’s aiming for total control. We have to Stop Stacey and Save America before it’s too late!

WHO IS STACEY ABRAMS?

✓ Leader of the Radical Left

✓ Founder of Shady Voter Registration Network

✓ Champion of Socialist, anti-American Agenda

There were so many threads where I could have put this, so I thought this thread was as good as any of them.

Stacey Abrams is far from a radical socialist. All of the claims on the Stop Stacey website are lies. The fucking Repuglithans are so afraid of a Democrat winning in Georgia, or perhaps they fear a brilliant , Black female having some power. She hasn't even announced if she is going to run and already they are working on making up shit about her. Call me disgusted. And, yes. I think we probably should be worried.

I do wonder who they will make their demon after poor old George Soros dies.

I don't get angry easily, but after reading about this, I'm livid!

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

To be fair, Stacey Abrams err'd in naming her political organization the "Shady Voter Registration Network". Definitely sounds shady.

This propaganda on socialism and how anyone who isn't a Trump dimpled chad sucking syncophant.is an Anti-American socialist is reaching the level of disturbing and despotic. The stuff they did in Burma.

 

[laughing dog]

The rabid right has always been around. What I am worried about is the GOP's embrace of these lunatics. Because of fear, the GOP is giving these people legitimacy.

 

[bilby]

To be fair, Stacey Abrams err'd in naming her political organization the "Shady Voter Registration Network". Definitely sounds shady.

This propaganda on socialism and how anyone who isn't a Trump dimpled chad sucking syncophant.is an Anti-American socialist is reaching the level of disturbing and despotic. The stuff they did in Burma.

Or in America in the mid-20th Century.

You don't need to look overseas for examples of ideological purity campaigns. There's an historical reason why, in the USA, the word "communist" simply means "anyone who doesn't agree with every minute detail of my political position".

 

[ZiprHead]

FCC slaps Montana man with $9.9M fine for racist robocalls that included Adolf Hitler recording: 'New levels of egregiousness'

A Nazi sympathizer from Montana has been slapped with a $9.9 million fine from the Federal Communications Commission for racist and harassing robocalls across eight states that targeted political figures and attempted to influence the murder case against an avowed white supremacist.

Scott D. Rhodes made thousands of calls in 2018 harassing Black and Jewish politicians including Stacey Abrams, then the Democratic nominee for Georgia governor, and Andrew Gillum, the Democratic candidate for governor in Florida, as well as California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, another Democrat, according to an FCC complaint.

He also sent more than 800 robocalls to Brooklyn, Iowa, a week after the murder of college student Mollie Tibbetts. Relatives of Tibbetts were among those who received Rhodes' robocalls, telling the Des Moines Register of the USA TODAY Network that the "profoundly racist" calls were "twisted and grotesque."

And he inundated residents of Charlottesville, Virginia, with more than 2,000 robocalls before and during the jury selection and criminal trial of James Fields, who murdered Heather Heyer when he drove into a crowd at a 2018 "Unite the Right" rally.

Good.

 

[Politesse]

This is nothing new, but you should be worried. People like them have slaughtered their way through all of American history, turning every bill we print into blood money. They do not plan to stop.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

To be fair, Stacey Abrams err'd in naming her political organization the "Shady Voter Registration Network". Definitely sounds shady.

This propaganda on socialism and how anyone who isn't a Trump dimpled chad sucking syncophant.is an Anti-American socialist is reaching the level of disturbing and despotic. The stuff they did in Burma.

Or in America in the mid-20th Century.

...or the early 20th Century with the original Red Scare, if we must get pedantic.

You don't need to look overseas for examples of ideological purity campaigns. There's an historical reason why, in the USA, the word "communist" simply means "anyone who doesn't agree with every minute detail of my political position".

The difference here is that socialism/communism is a rear mirror thing and the entire GOP is going for it. McCarthy was a wing in the Republican Party.

There has been a transition in America where the GOP has sounded like their AM radio counterparts circa 5 to 10 years in the past. As the AM radio crews have gotten more and more hyperbolic, the GOP has been following up from the rear. And now, the GOP, nearly en masse are making with the McCarthy talk. And that is a new level of infection.

 

[marc]

Get ready for right wing heads to explode. Stacey Abrams nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Lars Haltbrekken, a Socialist Party politician in Norway’s Parliament, said Monday, the first day of Black History Month in the U.S. and the last day for someone to be nominated for the prize, that “Abrams’ work follows in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s footsteps in the fight for equality before the law and for civil rights.”

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Dems deliver GOP ultimatum over Marjorie Taylor Greene

The Democrats’ move comes amid intense fury within the Democratic Caucus over Greene’s long record of incendiary rhetoric, including peddling conspiracy theories that the nation’s deadliest mass shootings were staged. Greene also endorsed violence against Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats before she was elected to Congress.

Last week, Greene was officially awarded seats on the House Education and Labor Committee and the House Budget Committee.

Republicans, meanwhile, have been slow to act, with McCarthy saying only he’s planning to have a “conversation” with Greene about the mounting controversies sometime this week. And Greene has shown zero contrition for her past actions, tweeting over the weekend that she will “never apologize.” The meeting with Greene has still not been scheduled, but could take place as early as Tuesday evening.

This needs to happen. The Dems need to grow a pair and maybe some of the GQPers will grow a pair too. In all honesty fuck them and their bullying.

 

[Gospel]

Greene should be grateful that Nancy Pelosi is brave and doesn't pull the "fear for my life" card like our police force does. With all the evidence Greene has laying about, Nancy would get off scot-free.

 

[southernhybrid]

Get ready for right wing heads to explode. Stacey Abrams nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Lars Haltbrekken, a Socialist Party politician in Norway’s Parliament, said Monday, the first day of Black History Month in the U.S. and the last day for someone to be nominated for the prize, that “Abrams’ work follows in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s footsteps in the fight for equality before the law and for civil rights.”

I'll tell you how they're responding. They have a list of bills that might pass in the Georgia Congress that are all about suppressing the vote. They want to ban drop off ballot boxes, make it difficult to vote absentee, ( must be over 75, disabled or prove you have to be out of town ), end automatic voter registration when you renew your driver's license, and require some sort of ID to send in with your absentee ballot. They also want to ban non profit organizations from sending absentee ballot applications to citizens. That's something that several organizations did during the last election, including Abrams, Fair Fight. This is such a blatant attempt to keep people from voting. I've never seen anything like this in my life, not even in any of the other Southern states that I've lived in. The Republicans in Georgia don't like the fact that so many young people and Black people have finally learned the importance of voting. Until recently, voter apathy was a huge problem in Georgia and I assume Republicans liked that. Their excuse is that we must make it look like voting is fair. The polls report that the majority of voters in Georgia already think it's fair. These creeps just want to make it more difficult for people to vote. *sigh*