I hear a lot of people, even who skew left, saying "Stop saying it was misogyny and racism!" And while I agree, it wasn't 100% racism and misogyny, when Matt Wolfson of Scranton says the election is between Hitler and Harris, and he just had to go with Hitler, I have a hard time thinking his decision is based on policy, whatever justific…
I hear a lot of people, even who skew left, saying "Stop saying it was misogyny and racism!" And while I agree, it wasn't 100% racism and misogyny, when Matt Wolfson of Scranton says the election is between Hitler and Harris, and he just had to go with Hitler, I have a hard time thinking his decision is based on policy, whatever justifications he may offer out of his mouth. A lot of it was racism and misogyny. No one is calling for mass deportation of Canadians or Northern Europeans here illegally.
And I'm in no mood to make excuses for FIFTY FOUR PERCENT of Americans who are in favor of mass deportation but didn't really think it through. For one, a large percentage did think it through, and as Adam Serwer wrote, the cruelty is the point. But what did these people think they were in favor of? How did they think this would go, you just get Samantha from Bewitched to twitch her nose and suddenly millions of people vanish and reappear in their country of origin, no mistakes, no family separations? Did they not hear anything about the children in cages during the first Trump administration? How do they think mass deportation will be a clean and painless enterprise? How do these people dress themselves in the morning? FIFTY FOUR PERCENT!
I want to observe what happens AFTER the initial round of deportations occur. I want to observe how many rationalizations occur on the next rounds of pain to the American public. I FEAR that rationalizations will be the order of the day as friends, neighbors, acquaintances and even loved ones are punished in small and then not-so-small ways. And mostly, I believe all will be forgiven as long as it isn’t “me” that suffers punishment. The people, ‘will never let you down’.
I have seen, over the past months, your quote and truly believe we are headed this way. I also believe that history does repeat and we, as a whole, learn nothing from it. And lastly I weep for our country, because we know little to nothing of real suffering. But we are in the process of FAFO
The deportations will likely cause pain for everyone; whether people make the connection is another matter. There is the purely human toll, which won't affect most of us directly. But there are the ripples that will emanate throughout the economy, as housing supply dwindles and housing costs rise because the people who build the houses are no longer here. No one will be around to work the fields, causing disruption in the food supply and further cost increases for everything we eat. But as you say, while people seem to have learned nothing over the last ten years, they have certainly learned one thing: how to rationalize.
I mean, I could ask MAGAs what they think mass deportation means. It's not hard to do if you have the stomach for it. I don't have the guts to ask my family. I suspect I know the answer, but I don't think I could hear it today, and I certainly couldn't reprint it. Maybe you could ask them, and I could ask the MAGAs in your family?
I just googled "interview with an american who supports mass deportation" and got nothing. Hmm. Maybe I do need to ask my family and share the answers. But it'll be ugly, like really really ugly. Is sharing racism a benefit to anyone? You know, probably not.
I wouldn't ask my brother or his wife. We've coexisted for decades not talking about politics. My brother has progressed to full conspiracy believer. Our dad was a quiet bigoted racist. Guess some acorns don't fall far from the tree.
Yeah, there's really no mystery where the MAGAs stand on mass deportation. It's not some misunderstanding. It's unwavering support for the "bloody hour." Seems kinda Kristalnacht to me but we're not supposed to say stuff like that.
I'm leaning toward Democrats sitting out the election or worse defecting to Trump because they thought Biden was supporting genocide in Gaza being a key reason why Harris lost. Racism and misogyny go a long way toward explaining votes for Trump in my book. Add the Gaza story to that (and I believe it will be born out) and it makes the whole Democrat postmortem fairly useless along with pundit's opinions on it.
There is that, but also Democrats are pretty lackadaisical voters in general.
And there was a ton of news (likely in their curated Social Media bubbles) that Harris was rocking it, tons of vibes, and exuberance at events, so they likely felt that they didn't need to be inconvenienced to go to the polls, or to read the voter information packets.
Catherynne Valente's Substack, Welcome to Garbagetown had a prescient post on November 4 with this paragraph:
"I trust Democrats’ deep, passionate, and powerful longing to not vote. I don’t understand it, but it’s as reliable as sunrise and the tide and white male comics complaining that their warmed-over take my wife, please jokes are being silenced to millions of views and dollars. Democrats FUCKING LOVE not voting. At the drop of the smallest and most irrelevant novelty hat, Dems seem to start celebrating, throw up our hands and joyfully not the fuck vote because…blue state so it doesn’t matter (yes it does, downballot dingus)/I got stuff to do and it’s a done deal (it isn’t, and we will all have a lot more shit to do if Elon Musk gets to Twitter our economy while RFK leaves the rotting carcass of public health in a park for fun and Trump sells the entire country to Putin for $599 and a kiss)/electoralism doesn’t work (oh my god hold my earrings)/my not voting sends a message to the establishment (they have no way of knowing why you didn’t vote, it could have been because Chipotle had a BOGO deal that day, your message is just a blank, subjectless email sent to no one)if Trump gets in it will accelerate us toward the revolution and people will rise up (he was already in power and there was no glorious leftist revolution, just the breakdown of society and suffering, also a revolution would not turn out with gentle loving progressives in charge)/the candidate isn’t perfect and will win anyway so I can stay pure (they won’t necessarily win anyway and not doing the bare minimum of saying please not fascism though is literally the opposite of political purity) or whatever reason seems fun that day."
"At the drop of the smallest and most irrelevant novelty hat.......joyfully not the fuck vote"
And if you truly thought that Biden was supporting genocide (which I don't), then this would not in fact be a small and irrelevant novelty hat. It would be a huge deal.
I hear a lot of people, even who skew left, saying "Stop saying it was misogyny and racism!" And while I agree, it wasn't 100% racism and misogyny, when Matt Wolfson of Scranton says the election is between Hitler and Harris, and he just had to go with Hitler, I have a hard time thinking his decision is based on policy, whatever justifications he may offer out of his mouth. A lot of it was racism and misogyny. No one is calling for mass deportation of Canadians or Northern Europeans here illegally.
And I'm in no mood to make excuses for FIFTY FOUR PERCENT of Americans who are in favor of mass deportation but didn't really think it through. For one, a large percentage did think it through, and as Adam Serwer wrote, the cruelty is the point. But what did these people think they were in favor of? How did they think this would go, you just get Samantha from Bewitched to twitch her nose and suddenly millions of people vanish and reappear in their country of origin, no mistakes, no family separations? Did they not hear anything about the children in cages during the first Trump administration? How do they think mass deportation will be a clean and painless enterprise? How do these people dress themselves in the morning? FIFTY FOUR PERCENT!
Well done
I want to observe what happens AFTER the initial round of deportations occur. I want to observe how many rationalizations occur on the next rounds of pain to the American public. I FEAR that rationalizations will be the order of the day as friends, neighbors, acquaintances and even loved ones are punished in small and then not-so-small ways. And mostly, I believe all will be forgiven as long as it isn’t “me” that suffers punishment. The people, ‘will never let you down’.
We have been quoting this for months:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
—Martin Niemöller
Buckle up everyone, it is going to be a long, bumpy (rhymes with the cause) ride.
I have seen, over the past months, your quote and truly believe we are headed this way. I also believe that history does repeat and we, as a whole, learn nothing from it. And lastly I weep for our country, because we know little to nothing of real suffering. But we are in the process of FAFO
The deportations will likely cause pain for everyone; whether people make the connection is another matter. There is the purely human toll, which won't affect most of us directly. But there are the ripples that will emanate throughout the economy, as housing supply dwindles and housing costs rise because the people who build the houses are no longer here. No one will be around to work the fields, causing disruption in the food supply and further cost increases for everything we eat. But as you say, while people seem to have learned nothing over the last ten years, they have certainly learned one thing: how to rationalize.
I mean, I could ask MAGAs what they think mass deportation means. It's not hard to do if you have the stomach for it. I don't have the guts to ask my family. I suspect I know the answer, but I don't think I could hear it today, and I certainly couldn't reprint it. Maybe you could ask them, and I could ask the MAGAs in your family?
I just googled "interview with an american who supports mass deportation" and got nothing. Hmm. Maybe I do need to ask my family and share the answers. But it'll be ugly, like really really ugly. Is sharing racism a benefit to anyone? You know, probably not.
I wouldn't ask my brother or his wife. We've coexisted for decades not talking about politics. My brother has progressed to full conspiracy believer. Our dad was a quiet bigoted racist. Guess some acorns don't fall far from the tree.
Yeah, there's really no mystery where the MAGAs stand on mass deportation. It's not some misunderstanding. It's unwavering support for the "bloody hour." Seems kinda Kristalnacht to me but we're not supposed to say stuff like that.
Especially since it came three days after the election.
"A lot of it was racism and misogyny."
I'm leaning toward Democrats sitting out the election or worse defecting to Trump because they thought Biden was supporting genocide in Gaza being a key reason why Harris lost. Racism and misogyny go a long way toward explaining votes for Trump in my book. Add the Gaza story to that (and I believe it will be born out) and it makes the whole Democrat postmortem fairly useless along with pundit's opinions on it.
There is that, but also Democrats are pretty lackadaisical voters in general.
And there was a ton of news (likely in their curated Social Media bubbles) that Harris was rocking it, tons of vibes, and exuberance at events, so they likely felt that they didn't need to be inconvenienced to go to the polls, or to read the voter information packets.
Catherynne Valente's Substack, Welcome to Garbagetown had a prescient post on November 4 with this paragraph:
"I trust Democrats’ deep, passionate, and powerful longing to not vote. I don’t understand it, but it’s as reliable as sunrise and the tide and white male comics complaining that their warmed-over take my wife, please jokes are being silenced to millions of views and dollars. Democrats FUCKING LOVE not voting. At the drop of the smallest and most irrelevant novelty hat, Dems seem to start celebrating, throw up our hands and joyfully not the fuck vote because…blue state so it doesn’t matter (yes it does, downballot dingus)/I got stuff to do and it’s a done deal (it isn’t, and we will all have a lot more shit to do if Elon Musk gets to Twitter our economy while RFK leaves the rotting carcass of public health in a park for fun and Trump sells the entire country to Putin for $599 and a kiss)/electoralism doesn’t work (oh my god hold my earrings)/my not voting sends a message to the establishment (they have no way of knowing why you didn’t vote, it could have been because Chipotle had a BOGO deal that day, your message is just a blank, subjectless email sent to no one)if Trump gets in it will accelerate us toward the revolution and people will rise up (he was already in power and there was no glorious leftist revolution, just the breakdown of society and suffering, also a revolution would not turn out with gentle loving progressives in charge)/the candidate isn’t perfect and will win anyway so I can stay pure (they won’t necessarily win anyway and not doing the bare minimum of saying please not fascism though is literally the opposite of political purity) or whatever reason seems fun that day."
Yep, this is the Democrats to a 'T'. FWIW, the whole post is worth reading, as well as subscribing to her 'stack: https://catvalente.substack.com/p/election-eve-zen-and-the-art-of-doomscrolling
"At the drop of the smallest and most irrelevant novelty hat.......joyfully not the fuck vote"
And if you truly thought that Biden was supporting genocide (which I don't), then this would not in fact be a small and irrelevant novelty hat. It would be a huge deal.
I should read one of her novels. Her new one looks good.
She has a way with words that you would not expect from someone who has several YA novels under her belt