Meryl Streep’s speech hit a nerve in the fascist alt-right and in the media. You can tell when right-wingers are infuriated, sputtering that people should just shut up and that “no-one listens to or cares about what left-wingers are saying anyway.”
Hot tip #1: They wouldn’t be saying that if no one was listening.
What the fascist alt-right wants above all is compliance and silence from every wing that is not theirs. Especially annoying to the fascist alt-right are hard facts. Hard facts like the reality of global warming, the reality of an increasingly diverse planet, the reality that most people aren’t bigots like them.
Hot tip #2: The two facts that the fascist alt-right and their leader Donald Trump hate above all is that he lost by 3 million votes, even with the help of Vladimir Putin.
When you mention these two facts, the fascist alt-right, their enablers, and Donald Trump himself start to squirt a lot of ink (or pixels). It’s a vain effort to muddy the facts. And unfortunately, it might work.
If we let them.
You know what the most annoying thing about alt-right fascist trolls and their leader Donald Trump is? It’s the incessant denial of reality in the face of overwhelming evidence. You should stop being annoyed, because that’s what they want.
Hot tip #3: Fascist right-wing trolls mostly understand and accept the facts, and are disagreeing with you because they view you as an enemy. Try approaching them from that angle — it’s infuriating to them because it pierces the veil. I would also caution compassion of some sort — they’re brainwashed and can’t really help it (except for the ones at the top pulling the strings). But that’s another diary entirely.
Donald Trump has escaped scandal after scandal and defied political gravity thanks to this kind of regressive tribalism.
That is why I suggest we remind the American people over and over again over the course of the next 4 years of the two major facts that define Donald Trump and his legion of trolls.
“...by the way, Donald Trump lost by 3 million votes, even with the help of Vladimir Putin.”
Here’s my dream: If you’re an influencer, a celebrity, someone with a large following, someone who gives speeches, or has a large audience, why don’t you just go ahead and pepper this sentence in, preferably right at the end of your speech? Let’s de-normalize this presidency, and normalize the idea that he’s illegitimate. Because what’s true is what should be normal.
Not every occasion is appropriate for a Meryl Streep full-scale roast. But every occasion is ripe for some organized resistance.
Can you imagine Donald Trump’s reaction when the media starts reporting that this meme is spreading?
There won’t be enough ink and pixels to muddy the truth this time.
