Saturday, October 27, 2018

The War Comes Home

Enough imagining, enough asking questions, enough coddling violent and deranged republicans. Once they start mailing bombs, we have passed the point of civility or unity or reconciliation. Of course it was a trump supporting republican who sent them. Who is limbaugh trying to kid?

It seems redundant to ask everyone reading this to make doubly-damn sure they are registered to vote and get a friend or ten to go with them to vote, but here we go. MAKE SURE YOU VOTE! And vote straight Democratic, the time of protest votes or other excuses has passed. We have this one chance to restore the rule of law through the system. Say it. Say it loud. Republicans are fucking fascists and don't give a shit about the Constitution. Now Republican stochastic terrorism has manifested in the most cowardly, right wing authoritarian way: bombs through the mail. I tweeted it, I Facebooked it:
Mailing bombs is the exact method a right wing authoritarian follower would use. He has been given explicit permission from all of the authorities he respects and maintained cowardly distance from the violence i e taken great steps to not be held accountable. These are all hallmarks of high RWAs, they are burning up with hatred toward the scapegoat du jour, abhor a fair fight, and dogmatically believe they are in the right.
This is probably the Fort Sumter of the new (cold) civil war. This time, the elite has to wake up and take notice. It probably won't be a shooting war, though this kind of random violence will continue. It's a dangerous time to be a journalist, they are going to be squeezed from both sides even more than before. To be a journalist is to report what is going on, and what is going on is continuous aggression by republicans (I refuse to use any permutation of the word "trumpism"). The maga hats will continue to threaten journalists physically and journalists' bosses will continue to threaten their jobs and censor their work. Doughface Donny and the republican talking heads have practically begged the disposable chumps who blindly follow whatever the party line of the day happens to be to assault and murder as many reporters as they can. Now some drooling reprogrammable meatbag has attempted to do just that, and threw in a bunch of prominent Democrats just for kicks.

I have noticed that very few of the white racist maga hats that get caught on video screaming at minorities for parking while black or speaking spanish in public actually seem to get punished. There seems to be very little repercussion for acting like a jackass in public these days. Sure, their flailing in plain sight goes viral and occasionally merits a few seconds of coverage on TV news, but have any of them lost jobs or been charged with crimes? If they have it hasn't made as big a splash as the viral videos. So what exactly is the negative reinforcement mechanism for right-wing violence? They certainly couldn't care less that people they consider subhuman enemies are shaming them on teh interwebs. And here we are, there is certainly a species of republican who can't wait to be caught and enshrined in martyrdom, but most just know that there is no punishment for authoritarian behavior.

And the result is the feeling of impunity among would be assassins of the Dunning-Krueger variety. The right wing noise machine barely wasted a moment before calling the entire episode a "false flag" operation by Democrats to bomb themselves and gin up sympathy before the election. Because why not? 'What are you gonna do about it lefty?'

That is the only question to ask anymore, how to punish them. What can be done? Sure, there's voting but let's be serious; Democrats don't show up in midterms, young people barely show up at all. We have to proceed with the assumption that team blue falls short, that any gains at the state level will be challenged and harrassed by republican lawyers and officials. That the election happens and nothing changes. Will it be the Russians again, or simply the voter suppression and dissuasion campaigns run by republicans? Respectable leftists don't seem to want to admit the central premise that we are an occupied nation, occupied by the zombie corpse of the Confederacy and it's Doughface apologists. As such, what do tyrants care about rules and norms?

Violence won't work, these meatbags thrive on violence. It has to be an escalation of what has sporadically been occurring already, public shaming, noncooperation, boycotts, disrupting family "peace". How many years have the civility police been wagging their fingers at liberals for responding to crazy uncle liberty at the stereotypical Thanksgiving dinner? "Sorry dad, I don't want my children associating with traitors and fascists. Sorry mom, maybe you should have thought about the grandchildren before supporting sexual predators, unrepentant drunks, and utter corruption." Leave no baseless assertion unchallenged. I've heard people trying to build support for a Lysistrata campaign, obviously that wouldn't work for the already captured white women who have been brainwashed by their husbands etc. but the sentiment is good. That won't have any effect on the "incel" goons or loners but this has gotten so far beyond the "shop at farmer's markets" level of resistance that the campaign will have to reach into unconventional areas.

Remember, the intent of the bomber was to kill. He wanted to hurt his arbitrary enemies, the "them" whom he had been brainwashed by fox and the noise machine into hating. There is a level of authoritarianism in most men but when it is egged on by the leaders they respect their aggressiveness, dogmatism, and conventionalism escalate. Every trump supporting republican is a potential bomber. Or shooter, or brawler, or member of a lynch mob, or just a plain old internet troll and they enthusiastically perform these services for their masters without pay in many cases.