by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I have some very conservative relatives — whom I love dearly — who continue to be enraged by the policies associated with COVID. They tell me they looked at the data and they will *NEVER* trust the CDC again.
Ok, I get it.
And, yet, these very same people lulz the very real economic data that suggests the American economy is humming along quite well. As such, if “doing their own research” and “looking at the data” helps their overall hatred of evil libs who want to turn everyone gay, then they embrace it. But if it DOESN’T help feed into the conservative media agenda being fed them by all the conservative podcasts they listen to…it is to be waved away and or ignored altogether.
They just *FEEL* that the economy is horrible and that the U.S. Military is now so woke that it’s weak compared to China and or Russia. This really aggravates me because the fact are this: the economy is doing well and the U.S. Military continues to be the most powerful fighting force in the world.
But for my Traditionalist relatives, whom I love dearly, they are very open to America turning into a white Christian ethnostate because of…vibes. They have an extremely simplistic take on politics to the point that what they believe is little more than a grunt. They just know: “Liberal bad.”
The only reason why I even bring this up is it’s so annoying that they make SUCH A BIG DEAL about how the “data” proves that the CDC should be arrested en mass and taken to Gitmo…but they simply don’t care that America’s economy is doing quite well at the moment and we can kick anyone’s ass in the world.
And it gets worse.
At the forefront of the minds of my conservative relatives — whom I love dearly — is the “crisis at the border.” Again, I get it. There is a crisis at the border and more should be done to fix that problem. I will even acknowledge that someone should get impeached to at least focus their minds on the subject.
What alarms me about my conservative relatives anger about the “border crisis” is how blasé they are the implications of deporting over 20 million people — many of them have American children. You press them on the issue and they just do a lot of shuck and jive combined with hand waving. They don’t know the specifics of how things would work out, but they know something needs to be done.
And they are absolutely against the cornerstone of how to fix the problem — amnesty. Which, I think, tells you what’s really going on — they’re upset about the browning of America more than anything else. But they just can’t bring themselves to admit it, so they get all upset about the “border crisis” then refuse to even address what a fucked up situation we would find ourselves in if we actually tried to deport 20 million people.
But it definitely seems as though if Trump is re-elected in 2024 that the issue of “show your papers” will be the central issue of the day. Birthright Citizenship will be eliminated or ignored and millions of families will be torn apart and a lot of American citizens will be put in camps. AND, the ICE infrastructure that will have to be built out to deport all those people will be ripe for abuse.
And that’s freaky weirdoes like me might find myself in a Trump branded ICE camp at some point after 2025. Good times! But my conservative relatives — whom I love dearly — think I’m a crank for even suggesting such a possibility. They’re too busy getting upset by any perceived slight against Christianity to realize that they have people in their immediate family who will cross Tyrant Trump because they refuse to shut the fuck up.
But I understand why this just sounds like my usual hysterical doom shit. I get it. I understand. All my fears are very speculative at the moment. But the fact remains — the economy is strong, America is strong and the idea of Trump having 500,000 armed ICE agents at his tyrannical deposal is a horrible idea.
