by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
The thing about modern America is, ostensibly, the country is doing quite well. The economy is doing great. People are taking home more money. In general, we’ve had something akin to peace an prosperity for decades now.
But.
For a lot of people — especially on the Right — the vibes are “off.”
That’s it, they just in general don’t like the vibes. They don’t really have any specific thing that bothers them, other than a general sense that the evil liberals who make the “media narrative” are out to get them. That’s it. That’s all that is bothering them.
In short, a lot of Republicans feel like Blues are mean to them.
As such, they’re willing to latch on to the fascist movement that is MAGA because they want to “make America great again.” And, in general, they can’t event explain that that even means. You try to pin them down as to *when* they want America to go back to and they just stare at you in silence.
The reason this is is they know if they say, well, “X year” then people like me can point to specifically how that year sucked compared to what we have now. So, all they can say is nothing combined with a handwave about how mean liberals won’t let them go off on gay people, or whatever. Pick your scape goat.
It is that sense of the “vibes being off” that is pushing people who should know better into the arms of fascism. These Traditionalists conservatives often cite things like the 2020 COVID lockdowns, and people being “canceled” for being conservative or the “gay agenda,” but in reality, the just don’t like the vibes the country is giving off at the moment.
And it grows more complicated when you factor in how different Red and Blue sees the country. Blues are upset with the corruption and ignorance of Red America, while Red America just, in general, has a spiritual sand wedgie. I suppose you could say that the “bad vibes” that Reds feel come from the general macro trends of the browning of America and women’s increased sexual and economic agency.
Reds want dudes to be on top, butts in church pews and the nuclear family back where everyone gay has the good sense to be in the closet. Some of this, of course, is caused by social media speeding up social change. Some of it is caused by the “bowling alone” trend in American personal life.
But the fact remains — Traditional conservatives feel at a loss about modern America to the point that they would rather give up their democratic birthright to a fascist ding-dong than join forces with the center-Left to stop his tyrannical rule.
I don’t know what to tell you, folks. We have about a year to find out one way or another what is going to happen.
