by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Just from talking to my far more conservative relatives — who I love dearly — it is clear to me that the MAGA Right continues to radicalize. Nothing — not even civil war — is off the table now.
Mood.
One of the most frustrating things about debating a radical MAGA Right person is they get so bent out of shape about “the crisis at the border” that you want to confront them about what’s really going on — they’re upset about the browning of America. But you just can’t broach the subject without the conversation devolving into name calling.
I mean, what I want to say is, “you’re being a bigot.” But the moment I said such a thing, my MAGA Right interlocutor would freak the fuck out and the whole conversation would collapse. The MAGA Right person I have my conversations with simply do not see themselves as a “bigot” and on a personal basis, they aren’t.
But in the abstract, oh boy. There’s just no way you can be so upset about the type of person flooding the country without a certain level of bigotry being involved.
So, all I can do is THINK “you’re a bigot” and not say what’s on my mind. What’s more, the MAGA Right person you might be talking to would be REALLY UPSET if you called them “a bigot” because they don’t see themselves as one. But what else do you call someone who is freaks out about scary brown people flooding the border?
And, what’s more, things really go haywire when you point out that Biden TRIED to do something about the “border crisis,” only to have ding-dong Trump put the kibosh on it — to the point that he said “you can blame me” for its failure. The MAGA Right person — because they have an extensive permission structure (and don’t like the vibes) — simply ignores this statement because they’re too busy being upset about how they thing “Biden is destroying the country from within.”
So, we’re at an impasse. We collectively continue to careen towards a dark and unknown future.
