Category: The Resistance

The Point Of All Of The MAGA Republican Bullshit

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

From what I can tell about how my Traditionalist conservatives consume media, they turn to Fox News and Right wing podcasts in an effort to make some sense of the world.

The key element to this is once they have their talking points, they are able to dismiss anything that doesn’t fit their MAGA media narrative. There comes a point when this or that subject becomes so fucking loaded that it’s impossible to talk about with them if you disagree with them.

So, things like gun control, abortion and global climate change are now off limits because the Right has their orthodoxy and the Blues have their orthodoxy and that’s that. If you press Reds about what they believe –especially those beliefs that are obviously based on a lie — they just chuckle and wave off whatever point you are trying to make.

They know what they believe and fuck you, lib.

So, that’s the point of all the bullshit that is spewed out by MAGA Republicans is an effort to give low information conservative voters a reason not to listen to people like me. Low information conservative voters want simplistic, easy to understand reasons why Blues are children of satan who want everyone to be gay or risk being “canceled.”

A prime example of this is what’s been going on with the Paul Pelosi attack. It doesn’t matter if the talking point is created out of whole cloth, it gives low-information conservative voters something to glom onto, an excuse to dismiss anyone who is alarmed by it. Reds can just chuckle, wave their hand and pivot to something else they feel more comfortable talking about. That seems to be a new immutable fact of American politics.

The end result of all of this is that we’re lurching ever closer to full-blown fascism. If the two sides can’t debate anything — can’t even agree on what is real, what is factual — then your democratic politics is dead and you’ve got one foot in autocracy.

There’s no cure for this. We’re past the Event Horizon when it comes to the existential choice of autocracy, civil war or military junta. Good luck.

‘I Just Want To Be Left Alone’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One of the go-to talking points of one of my well meaning, sincere conservative relatives is the idea that he just wants to be”left alone.”

I really struggle with what he means by this. If I brought up how the state telling a woman what she can and can’t do with her body definitely goes against his mantra, I doubt he would process what I was implying the same way. In his mind, he doesn’t really hold a coherent ideological stance other than a vague, abstract fear that the “woke cancel culture mob” is going to either force him to turn gay or ruin his life just because he’s conservative.

This mentality is also why he just can’t validate my fears of what will happen to ME if the United States becomes a MAGA themed autocracy. Not until I’m abducted by ICE and tortured will it become real to him that maybe he should have joined forces with me and people like me when he had a chance to save democracy.

There is a real crisis in the United States when it comes to Traditionalists. Something about the second Obama Administration broke their minds. Something about how there was a sudden, abrupt change in social expectations and gender dynamics really spooked them. Whatever was that happened spooked them to the point that they are gleefully waiting for a MAGA themed fascist autocracy to consume the United States so things will go back to the way they were — America will, at last, be great again.

But in their eagerness to murder American democracy, they are totally oblivious to how they are directly connected to people — ME — who probably will have an ICE bullet put in his head when he simply refuses to shut the fuck up about our Very American Autocrat is a piece of shit who can suck his cock.

I am well aware of how hysterical that sounds at the moment. But when the United States turns into a white Christian ethnostate — which seems to be an immutable, inevitable aspect of our future history at the moment — people like me will have a choice.

Either we leave the country, never to be seen again, or we risk being “disappeared” by ICE (or whatever agency the autocracy ultimately weaponizes.)

But back to the idea of my relative just wanting to be “left alone.” It’s my impression that much of the rage of my well-meaning conservative relative comes from the regular sensitivity training he has to undergo as part of his corporate job. What is that, however, but the free market working? If it’s a private company doing that sort of “woke” things, then they’ve decided for some reason that it’s in the best interest of their shareholders for the employees to at least be aware of how some people have a different perception of race and gender roles.

And, yet, that’s not how my conservative relative sees things. Without even realizing what he’s articulating, he’s pontificating on his support for white identity politics. He doesn’t believe in democracy because he wants keep white people on top, even as the white birth rate plummets and America becomes a majority minority nation.

There is so much more to talk about, but I’ll cut it short to make this specific point – all things being equal, Blues should secede from the United States and found a Blue Union that is on the same page about what we expect from each other on a whole host of issues.

But, by definition, such a National Divorce would grow horrifically violent and I don’t want that. So, autocracy or military junta it is, I suppose.

MAGA, You’re Not ‘Shadow Banned,’ You’re Just Boring

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

For people who purport to be Chads who want to kick the shit out of anyone who has the gall to quibble about which pronouns to use, when it comes to engagement on their social media active, MAGA cocksuckers are a bunch of crybabies.

I can’t believe that grown-ass people care so much about the engagement they feel entitled to on the social media output. What if you’re not being shadowbanned, but rather people like me just don’t give a shit what you have to say? Then what?

What’s next, a prompt each time I use Twitter, demanding that I ego stroke a few dozen fucking MAGA cocksuckers? I mean, come on. First, it’s embarrassing that you can so much about your engagement and second it’s embarrassing that that you’re dropping such spicy hot takes that people will care what you have to say in the first place.

Anyway. Whatever. America still faces the existential choice between now and January 2025 of MAGA-themed autocracy, civil war or military junta.

Is It Time For Blues to ‘Secede’ From Twitter?

By Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The uncertainty surrounding Elon Musk owning Twitter has generated a massive about of Twitter liberal angst in the days since the acquisition closed. I’m not prepared to go so far as to say Blues should leave the service, but I do think it’s something to keep at the forefront of our minds going forward.

Being an “edge lord” is all fun and games when you don’t own the service that, at the moment, is at the center of national discourse in the United States. By definition, is public profile is significantly more potent. He’s so wealthy, of course, that he is rather oblivious to this change of state.

So he continues to be his usual provocative self, filling the media space previously inhabited by dingus Trump.

The risk is, of course, that the very prospective changes to Twitter that is going to give MAGA cocksuckers a boner will also be the very thing that drives that 10% of the user base that makes Twitter useful in the first place. And, really, at the moment, the missing ingredient is a Twitter-like platform for Blues to decamp to.

Jack Dorsey is developing an open source protocol that would allow for a number of different Twitter-like companies to access it at the same time. But that’s still in the development stages.

If I win the $1 billion Powerball lottery, I’m going to use that money to make my dream of starting a Twitter Killer using an updated Usenet UX. The usual caveats about that being delusional and not happening apply, of course.

But the point remains — if someone could found a fleet footed startup that did what Twitter does, only better…I think Twitter would be doomed. But the window to do such a thing is very, very narrow. It can probably be counted in months, not years.

It’s Like America, as a Nation, Has Collectively Given Up

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

If you want the most recent reason why I think all those earnest, well meaning yet racist and mysgonistic MAGA cocksuckers can fuck off, look no further than Elon Musk amplifying this particular gem.

So, instead of taking responsibility for spewing hate and inciting stochastic terrorism, all those ernest, well meaning, well educated MAGA dickheads continue to double down on all their lies and hate. They just can not accept that they’re in the wrong on this one.

I continue to be at a loss as to how otherwise normal people can be so consumed by hate that they gleefully spread disinformation about people like Paul Pelosi. Or they take the attack as an opportunity to joke around.

It makes you wonder what will happen if something REALLY BAD happens. My guess is all those well meaning MAGA fuckheads will go silence for a few days while the Powers That Be at Fox News and Right wing podcasts think up their talking points so they can continue to “own the libs.”

Usually, what happens is, once they come out the other side, their talking points are all spin. They try to rationalize the Bad Thing out of existence, or say “thoughts and prayers” or even “we have a national mental health crisis.” But what if a major center-Left figure is seriously hurt as part of stochastic terrorism?

I can only assume that the only difference will be the length of their radio silence. But in end result would be the same — MAGA simply refusing to accept that they are to blame with all their frothy rhetoric about how center-Left people “groom” children.

So the country continues to circle the drain. The forces of fascist MAGA continue to gain power and will ultimately force Blues to make a choice — bend a knee to autocracy, or demand a National Divorce. There is the possibility that the U.S. Military may step in and we’ll be ruled by some sort of military junta for a little while as we wait for the passions of the 2024 election to cool down.

Or not. Good luck. And fuck MAGA cocksuckers.

The Country That Can’t Even Laugh At The Same Things Is In Serious Fucking Trouble

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I written about this before, but all signs point to the United States, much like the late 1850s, is tearing itself into two different nations. Many, but thankfully not all, of the signs that were there before the Civil War are beginning to pop up in the modern America of the 2020s.

One really fucked up symptom of how the country is tearing itself apart is how we can’t even laugh at the same things. I’m well aware that much of this siloing is happening because the MAGA Right thinks all comics are members of the “woke cancel culture mob” and, as such, out of sheer desperation they watch Gutfeld! even though the man is objectively not fucking funny. I’ve heard dad jokes that are funnier than anything Gutfeld utters.

Not funny!

As an aside — I continue to be amazed at how MAGA Republicans have embraced Dave Chappelle for his anti-trans statements. What’s telling is, even when I tell them that for all the attempts to “cancel” him, Chappelle remains as popular as he ever was….they simply don’t listen. It’s usually at this point in the conversation when I totally lose their attention. They’re so busy getting angry about the “woke cancel culture mob” and how it wants to turn everyone gay…they just don’t listen to anything else I have to say about Chappelle.

Anyway, the inability of Red and Blue to laugh at the same thing is yet another macro indication that the country is fucked and we face the existential choice of autocracy, civil war or military junta between now and, say, January 2025. I have no idea what the ultimate endgame to this clusterfuck is, but I do know we all had better buckle up — especially if the fucking MAGA fascist cocksuckers take one or both houses of Congress in a few days.

Earnest, Well Meaning MAGA Is The Worst MAGA

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m reading a political biography of Hitler’s ascent and I’m struck by how prosaic it all was, or, “the banality of evil” as the old saying goes. Nazism, for the most part, was treated as any other political movement. Yes, it was unusual because it’s leader was a “clown” and there was cult-like reverence for him within the movement, but other than that, it was pretty much just one of a number of far Right political parties in Weimar Germany.

And I’m sure for much of the Nazi Party’s existence, there were earnest, well meaning members who did not take people who hated the Nazis seriously. They were patronizing and did everything in their power to come across as calm and centered — even if everything about what they believed was based on a hateful lie.

I say all this because I still, on occasion, run into a fucking MAGA cocksucker who obviously doesn’t take my distaste for the American Nazism that is MAGA seriously. They like to make jokes, and their tone of voice is very patralizing and you have expect them to call me “adorable.”

I fucking hate that. Take my anger seriously, if you really want to talk to me about your hate-filled movement. Instead of belittling me as if I’m some sort of wayward soul, validate that I fucking think you follow a ding-dong who could very well destroy humanity if things don’t go so great.

But I think I’m deluding myself. In the end, I’m going to face an existential choice in the real world. Am I going to shut up and keep my head down like a Good German, or am I going to keep ranting about how much I think MAGA fuckers can suck my cock?

Of course, I’m going to stand my ground and continue to exercise my freedom of speech, even if it doesn’t exist anymore. Wish me luck. I’m sure at some point after 2025, once we have a MAGA POTUS again, my body will be discovered in a ditch somewhere with an ICE bullet in it.

This Novel Is Getting Good & Spicy Now

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Things are beginning to move really fast with the second half of the first draft of this novel. I have repeatedly gotten to this point over the years, only for everything to fall apart. But I have enough confidence about how things are going that I’m thinking seriously about the next book in the project.

What’s making my creative juices flow is how…spicy this portion of the novel is. I can see how one might think I’m really putting a lot of words into a subplot to get to something interesting, but because it deals with spicy events, I think people won’t even notice that how hard I have struggled to interweave the overall plot into it.

There are two things that have come to the forefront of my mind at this point in the novel.

One is — I’m dealing with spicy things from a female point of view (third person intimate) so there will likely be members of the “woke cancel culture mob” who pop a gasket that a middle age “CIS white male” would have the gall to do such a thing. But, I must note, Stieg Larsson did something similar and it wasn’t considered the fucking end of the world, in fact, he did a whole hell of a lot worse than I plan to do.

Another thing is, I have a lot of “representation” in these novels and I am growing concerned that I’ll get shit from by the Left and the Right. The Left will be mad because I’m a white dude writing from the POV of people who are neither and the Right will get angry because they’ll automatically assume I’m “woke” or some shit.

But you can’t please everyone. As long as I write a great story that entertains a sizable chunk of the prospective audience, I am simply not going to dwell on the possible slings and arrows I might otherwise have to put up with.

I do wish, however, that I can force some people who think I’m just a drunk Internet crank to take me seriously. It will be interesting to see if can pull that particular hat trick off or not.

Future History: MAGA’s Siege Of Atlanta

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

When I run the Second American Civil War scenario in my mind, I hone in places where there is a real difference of political orientation. So, Virginia is a state that will probably collapse into a Yugoslavia-like situation should there be a 2ACW because it’s actually two states — one Red, one Blue — that hate each other.

If you look at a political map of the United States, there is one other place that definitely seems ripe for implosion if what you believe politically becomes existential — Georgia. I don’t really know anything about the Peach State, but it definitely seems as though there is Atlanta and Everywhere Else in the state. I’ve been to Atlanta once and it’s a MASSIVE cityscape. Huge. Where New York City went up, Atlanta has gone out.

Anyway, my fear is, if there is a 2ACW, Atlanta is going to be a huge fucking Blue spot in a sea of red and we’re all going to learn about the Siege of Atlanta in 50 years from now.

So, you would have a situation where Red Georgia would surround Blue Atlanta in an attempt to destroy it. It sounds very fantastical now, but cold, hard domestic geopolitics tells us that such a nightmare scenario is a very real possibility.

If we’ve gotten to that point, of course, then, well, we’re all fucked.

It Can Happen Here

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m reading a political biography about the rise of Hitler — as one does — and the key takeaway so far is: it can happen here. We like to make ourselves feel better by believing that the rise of the Nazis was something unique to the German psyche after The Great War.

But the more I read about Hitler’s ascent, the more I realize that it Can Happen Here. Though, of course, Trump could not be more different than Hitler. I’m just at the book where Hitler’s personal characteristics are described and Trump is no Hitler.

The way Hitler is described really lays bare how Trump is just an empty suit who happened to at the right place at the right time to be a vessel, an avatar for white Christian rage over the browning of America and the rise of economically liberated women. (All the bitching and moaning about “wokeness” and homophobia is just something that happens on the Right because it’s politically expedient.)

Anyway, all signs point to A Very American Autocracy. And there is one specific problem which could very well cause Nazi-like genocide in the United States: race.

Once the United States is no longer a democracy, the more vile elements of the American experience could grow dangerously amplified to the point that there are Killing Fields in upstate New York and in various places around the South. The United States could implode into a situation where the only way we get rid of our American Nazi overlords is they grow so extreme that there is some sort of mass revolt.

Or, I don’t know, NATO, Japanese and Korean forces swoop in and topple the MAGA fascists who are murdering millions at an alarming clip by that point.

The point is — be very alarmed. Everything from Election Night 2022 to January 2025 (and beyond) could be historic and flabbergasting. Something’s gotta give. Call it the Fourth Turning or the Great Reset — America is in for a very, very bumpy ride.