Stop Being Nice About COVIDIOTS and Other Liars
When we don’t speak up, only one voice gets heard.
The President of the United States has “floated” the idea of delaying the November, 2020 elections. His sycophants have harrumphed, raised their eyebrows, and tried to tell us it’s all just a joke designed to “trigger” the news media.
In a few hours--likely by the time you read this-- our commander in chief will have made it clear he wasn’t kidding. The idea of extending his reign will become normalized, with Serious People saying the times call for such a measure.
It’s time to step up, folks. Here’s Josh Marshall, speaking to the many spineless creatures in the nation’s media:
All of this comes from Trump’s weakness rather than strength. A sinking ship. The answer in any trial of strength or right is to maintain the initiative rather than cower. Every reporter working a beat today should be asking Republican elected officials … asking isn’t even the right work – giving Republican elected officials their one chance to denounce and disassociate themselves from the President’s words. They have one chance. Tomorrow won’t cut it. If they want to go down with the President’s sinking ship, get their answer and lock them in. Democrats should be prepping ads about how Joni Ernst refused to back holding the election in November. She was ready to sign on. I hope her opponent is prepping that ad right now.
This is a hard moment. Not because of this morning’s nonsense but because of all the threats we face through this election. We cannot control everything that happens to us, either individually or in our civic existence. But we can avoid losing battles in our own heads before they even start. Let’s not do that. Don’t cower.
***
Soldiers in the Civil War voted by mail, re-electing Abraham Lincoln and saving the republic. Soldiers in World War two voted by mail even as they fought fascism. More than one hundred millions votes in Oregon have been cast by mail without an issue. I could go on, but these facts don’t apparently matter.
Now we’re hearing a lie about voter fraud repeated on a near daily basis.
How did we get here?
I get it that Donald Trump made this statement on this particular day to obscure news about the biggest drop of GDP in history, to distract from the power and love coming out of Rep. John Lewis’ funeral, along with pausing the growing concern about his mismanagement of the current pandemic.
This is called controlling the narrative.
Once upon a time in this country there were gatekeepers at strategic points in society who limited discourse on topics contrary to the generally accepted norms of the time (even if they were horribly wrong). American exceptionalism, militarism, patriarchal and racist standards as upheld by the establishment, and a semi-benevolent capitalism were among the places where deviation brought on retaliation.
The rules of the game have changed. Hypercapitalism has sacralized profit as the highest virtue, replaced the idea of a common good with extreme individualism, and the institutions of the industrial age crumbled with the ascent of information as a commodity.
There are no bounds to what is considered real and rational. Conspiracies and/or provocative statements for the sake of provocation are the new normal. The need to cooperate in moving society forward has been replaced with the urge to divide.
Truth is no longer considered a virtue. Repeated stimulation of the fear or flight response has citizens craving an adrenaline rush just like a junkie looking for their next fix.
So here we are, with billionaires funding press conferences by snake oil purveyors who claim to represent the best interests of our health and safety. In a nation with a collapsed retail sector --which has long been an economic driver-- we have legislators saying that Americans would rather live on the dole than be productive. As we enter an era where Black Lives Matter means something, the federal government has juiced up the mechanisms preventing people of color from advancing.
All these scenarios are based on layer upon layer of lies. Some of these falsehoods go back generations, others are the delusions of humans with serious mental health issues. “Whataboutism” is the blanket protecting these liars from the cold reality of truth.
Nowhere has this obscenity been more evident than with the manner in which our nation has responded to the COVID-19 crisis.
The numbers are incredible. By every measure our country has failed, especially in relation to the rest of the world. The very foundations of our society and economy are endangered as a manufactured debate rages on; the purveyors of these untruths can not win, they can only prolong the pain and suffering to the point where a societal collapse occurs.
The “freedom” of not wearing a mask, of placing profit over humanity, of denying needed medicines to those suffering from immune system based illnesses, of sending school children to certain tragedy, is evil in its essence.
These contemptible actions have a higher (or should I say lower?) purpose, though there may be disagreements in how they are characterized. Accelerating the divisions in America, lies becoming truth, and the vilification of the “other” are supposed to hasten the destruction of the present order.
Those of us who believe in truth and justice have been too accepting of the right of these liars and nihilists to spew their fake news and not suffer the consequences.
I’m not saying we need to start building guillotines, nor do we have to burn their structures to the ground. Please don’t take it upon yourself to confront the unmasked. Don’t yell at the MAGAt waving the battle flag of historical traitors. (Unless you are willing to suffer the consequences.)
It’s time to start saying no more. We have institutions paid for with our tax dollars and enabled by our ballots that need to step up to the plate. And we have the ability as activists to take collective actions in opposition to this foul tide of falsehoods.
https://twitter.com/KUSINews/status/1288859487055405063?s=20
KUSI, as purveyors of this banality, Supervisors Jim Desmond and Kristin Gaspar, former Congressman Darrell Issa, need to hear the message of “no more,” “not now,” and “no you don’t.”
When we don’t speak up, only one voice gets heard.
As I’m writing this I’m listening to the memorial service for Rep. John Lewis, so it only seems appropriate to quote from his final op ed for the New York Times:
Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble. Voting and participating in the democratic process are key. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it.
You must also study and learn the lessons of history because humanity has been involved in this soul-wrenching, existential struggle for a very long time. People on every continent have stood in your shoes, through decades and centuries before you. The truth does not change, and that is why the answers worked out long ago can help you find solutions to the challenges of our time. Continue to build union between movements stretching across the globe because we must put away our willingness to profit from the exploitation of others.
Though I may not be here with you, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe. In my life I have done all I can to demonstrate that the way of peace, the way of love and nonviolence is the more excellent way. Now it is your turn to let freedom ring.
***
Finally, here's a snip from former President Barack Obama’s eulogy for Rep. Lewis. It was a barn burner of a speech that didn’t mention the Dear Leader’s name once. Meanwhile, the White House called an unannounced press conference starting at the exact time Obama spoke.
https://twitter.com/PodSaveAmerica/status/1288901202348924929?s=20
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Email me at WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com
Lead image by Scott Richard via Flickr