I'm more than 70 years old and I can tell you with no hesitation or doubt that the man who now is the president of the United States is the most frightening and dangerous individual who has ever held that position in my lifetime. I suspect he's the absolute worst in the history of the U.S. but I haven't been around that long.
My wife is shocked and upset, I'm upset but not shocked. I had a pretty good suspicion that Clinton would lose. The flow of the society in the U.S. has been trending toward some sort of open eruption of white supremacist, patriarchal, capitalistic and imperialistic horror for quite some time and now it's here.
If you've followed this blog, I was writing about such stuff 2 years ago, here's a link from a year ago, and another link from the same time period. But...being aware of what's brewing doesn't do much except preclude my being shocked.
The enactment of the ban on immigration from some countries by the president is, I fear, just the beginning of what is likely to be a long and awful line of acts that unravel the myth that many held about this being the land of "liberty and justice for all".
It's never been that and it never will be that unless the majority of people here, mainly the white people, decide for that to be true and do the work that it will take to make it true. That will be painful and difficult and I really don't know whether we white people have what it takes to do the job.
Every day that the bigoted fools are in power means that more effort will be required to stop the damage.
The new phrase for lying from this administration is "alternative facts". We're in for a long siege of "alternative facts" and horrid deeds.
Get ready for lots of "political language"...and suffering and death.
Resist. Support and protect those in all marginalized groups. And, stay safe, if you can.
(Note: if you voted for the man who is president, and we survive all this, don't vote anymore...ever...please. Your judgement is so deeply flawed that remediation is unlikely and even if you do achieve some remediation...well...you've screwed up so badly that proper atonement would, at a minimum, mean you never ever vote again. Jeez.)
(As always, I'm floundering around trying to figure this stuff out and...I'm limited by my being socially positioned as a white male...therefore...my comprehension/understanding is necessarily constrained by that positioning. So, any omissions, errors or screw-ups you might detect in this post and that you're willing to let me know about will be respectfully appreciated. Thank you.)
3 comments:
Deep doo doo is right. What I find frightening too is the rapid pace of democratic dismantlement, because Feb 4 (when this post appeared) already seems like a lifetime ago. While I knew that this administration was going to be scary, I didn't think it would be and feel this surreal. What especially worries me is people's inability to distinguish between fact and fiction. I find it incredulous that folk can hear people in office blatantly lie, and either not know that they're lying, or seem not to mind. It's a topsy-turvy political arena by design now, and that's alarming as hell.
But I have to say that as much as I detest the Donald, it's the folks behind him that terrify me even more. And I do believe that they're using him to push through their own agenda, and when he's outlived his usefulness will kick him to the curb and take credit for doing so. I believe they're more than happy to let Donald's wild rhetoric and antics distract the public while waiting for the guy they really want to see in power -- Pence. And folk may even be happy for a while as Pence seems more stable and presidential, but boy, is he even a scarier dude than Don. Rabidly anti-gay, anti-women's rights, and a Christian dominionist to the core, social justice for ALL groups and species (except rich white men of course) will be set back decades.
I saw a variation of an acronym today that while meant to be funny -- Post Trump Stress Disorder -- has more than a kernel of truth to it. Even for those living outside of the States there's a level of anxiety I haven't seen before. And unfortunately, a willingness to be more open about expressing the hatred underlying the administration's actions. The one good thing is that more people are discussing politics now (and taking action) like it actually matters. Because you're right, it's going to take the majority of people to take a stand and fight for liberty and justice, as the current admin certainly won't.
Thank you for commenting HGV. I find it difficult to respond to parts of your writing...for instance you wrote: "What especially worries me is people's inability to distinguish between fact and fiction. I find it incredulous that folk can hear people in office blatantly lie, and either not know that they're lying, or seem not to mind." I struggle to respond because, from what I have come to appreciate, it is the case that the whole idea of this country (at least the "liberty and justice for all" part of it) has always been a lie...an untruth. We white folks are trained from birth to believe lies and to pretend that untruths were reality. Given that we're trained to value fantasy and untruth, it doesn't strike me as surprising that a large segment of citizenry has poor (or non-extant) skills at discerning the difference between lies and truth. We white people have grown up lying to ourselves (and to others)...yes...the lies of the "leaders" this time around are so bizarre and divorced from reality that more are recognizing them as untruths...but...we've always subsisted on lies albeit maybe they were more believable lies than this current administrations The current administration is just (maybe) the most extreme version of all the administrations that have been in power in the U.S. We're immersed in an open eruption of that which has always been...we previously were just been a little more adept at glossing it over (at least to ourselves). Native Americans and African Americans have always known (many of them anyway) that white Americans were two faced liars (and many of us white folks believed our own lies) who talked one way but operated in a very different way. It could be argued that the current administration is the most closely allied to the truth of the U.S. that has always been, at least that we've ever seen in our lifetime (and maybe ever, I don't know). That should scare the crap out of anyone not committed to violence and oppression. The current admin really does "tell it like it is"...and what it "tells" is both repugnant and horrid.
Hi veganelder, yeah, I was referring not so much to the regular systemic lies if you will, but to the blatant over-the-top lies that are transparently false at a glance. I would add to this the all too numerous 'oh, but we didn't mean what we said' back-pedalling as well. The fact that numerous people seem to accept at face value even the easily disputed within 10 seconds lies, suggests that exposing larger ideological untruths will be that much harder.
You're right though that the current admin is more obvious about its actual agenda, and in that sense, more truthful. A situation then of not caring about spreading false information while at the same time accusing mainstream media of being fake. More honest and dishonest at the same time. Which means that uncovering deeper truths will be difficult if even surface truths, if you want to call it that, are so expendable. But yes, everyone should be frightened methinks.
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