It’s worse than we say: they are killing us. Literally.
How many ways? Many. Let’s look at few:
- The pandemic issues, where they refuse masks and vaccines, call it a hoax. How many extra dead here because of that? 100,000 or more seem likely.
- Climate change, another hoax they say. How many are dying each year because of this? Likely millions globally. And it is only starting.
- Guns. Mass shooting events have become so commonplace in the US that I do not even see them as news stories anymore. And our kids have to undergo the terror of active shooter drills.
- Wealth disparity generated largely by following conservative principles. How many die yearly due to excess stress and strain caused by economic injustice? Who knows, but many.
- Systemic racism: the murders by cops are only a small part of that number. The bigger ones are economic injustice and excess stress causing health issues, exacerbated by inferior health care.
We have made some progress on a few issues, like gay marriage and to some degree the minimum wage. If you look honestly at the list above, you will see that while our side may have fought against these things, we have been woefully ineffective. And if the rightwing gains more power, and they very well may, we will really be in deep shit with the like of MTG running the show.
Our side generally plays by the rules, sticks to the issues, and tries to be reasonable and nice. That is of course what we should do for most folks, but not when fighting insincere bullies out for power only. One constant mistake we make is to take on every one of their issues as if there is an honest debate to be had, that if we only explain ourselves better they will be won over. How many articles do we see explaining how effective and safe the vaccines are, or explaining the basic validity of CRT? I am not saying that sort of discussion is not useful and will win over a few in the middle maybe, but not the vast majority. Look how many have bought into the Big Lie hook, line, sinker, boat, and ocean. But they don’t really care about the substance of these issues, they are only another cultural chokepoint for hate, fear, and owning the libs. An honest debate of the substance of the issues is not very effective as we can see from the results.
What I believe is going on is that they have “discovered” that the reactionary, authoritarian mindset is ripe to exploited for profit and power by being fed disinformation generating rage, fear, and mucho bucks. And it works, and it works oh so well. The right kind of culturally acceptable person can get them ginned up about almost any lie: Biden stole the election, Obama is a gay Muslim Kenyan, the ACA has death panels, climate change is a hoax.
So, what to do? I say attack the source harder and heavier. What is the source? It is the rightwing hate media empire. It is Fox News and Tucker Carlson. It was Rush Limbaugh and is Sean Hannity and Alex Jones and Mike Lindell and on and on. How should we attack them? I have no magic solution, but I think we need to go after their credibility much harder.
First, don’t take their discussion of issues seriously. Give a succinct summary of what our side really means, then point out that this is just another attempt to misinform, deflect, and spread hate. For example on CRT: “CRT is simply a legal theory about why African Americans have such relatively bad outcomes in this country, but you don’t really care about that. This is just another one of your erroneous and divisive talking points, like when you warned about the coming of Sharia Law was coming to every small town, or how Obama was not born in Hawaii, or that gay marriage was going to destroy western civilization, or, or, or.” Make the discussion about the incredible number of times they have cried wolf about a nothingburger, and how they have duped so many with these nothingburgers.
Second, lets point out how elitist and corrupt their side his. Trump is going to work for the common man? Then why does he hire illegals? Why does he manufacture in China? Sean Hannity is worth $250 million and he cares about you? Hannity hobknobs with the rich and famous, the Hollywood elites and Congressional Dems and he cares about you? Hardly. You think he drinks Bud Light and goes bass fishing? He drinks Cabernet Savignon while hanging out at his $300,000 per year country club. And you think he cares about you? He cares about making money off of you and nothing more. And then repeat, repeat, repeat these attacks. There is great value in repetition. Repeat, repeat, repeat. And repeat again.
True Americans, we are in dire danger and what we have been doing has NOT been working. We are on the precipice of disaster. Going high while they go low is allowing them to cut the legs out from under us. Take the public battle to them like the mortal enemies that they are. Call out their lies, call out their disinformation for profit scheme, and bring us back closer to reality and sanity.