They Know

 

Taken from a Twitter thread, originally posted by @OdetteRoulette

"I'm going to say this one more time. The majority of Republicans do, in fact, know what's going on. They do know they are embracing fascism. They do know it will destroy our democratic republic. They do know. They just think they can have their cake and eat it too.

They think they can have an oppressive government that will never be used to oppress them. They think they can return to a time when only white men were in charge. They also are worried about competing in a fairer playing field. They do believe they would lose, if there was one.

They know we are an embarrassment right now on the world stage. They know what they are doing is horrible and cruel and wrong. But they don't think of women and people of color as fully human, and so they are telling themselves it's really okay.

Their stupidity is not rooted in "not knowing." Their stupidity is rooted in knowing it's wrong, but being so afraid of their own encroaching potential mediocrity, reinforced by years of getting perks they did not work for, that they will do anything to keep from facing themselves.

Whether we win or lose on Tuesday, they have already lost. No amount of backtracking or lying to themselves about real life events will take away the knowledge they already have in their own minds, about themselves.

The terrible part is that life on the planet is actually at stake presently, and there's a reasonable possibility they will take the rest of us down with them, in their attempts to flee from their own self loathing."

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

No High Road

 

Original post by science-fiction author David Gerrold.

"I am flawed. I know it. I can be lazy, selfish, arrogant, judgmental, and as self-centered as a Republican.

(See, notice how arrogant and judgmental that last one was?) 

All those courses and workshops and seminars and trainings that I've been taking for 40 years — in the hopes that I might someday learn how to behave like a responsible human being — ?

They worked. Enough that I can once in a while pretend to be something more than a cranky old curmudgeon with idealistic principles. 

Most of those courses were about giving up judgments, about recognizing the humanity of others, about respect and compassion and empathy — about creating positive and worthwhile and empowering relationships. 

That's the goal. It's a lifelong process. Every day is another opportunity to learn, to explore, to discover, and to practice — because practice makes permanent. 

There's a question a trainer once asked. "What do you have to do to a person to get them that screwed up?" It's a question that stops the emotional reaction and replaces it with a much less judgmental consideration of the moment.

But I have to confess a singular failure. I cannot — I absolutely cannot find it in me to stop despising the man and his enablers for the damage that they have deliberately done to this nation. I wish I could be enlightened enough to say, "This too shall pass." 

But I'm not.

There are families that have been broken up, the parents deported, the children still locked in cages. 

Over 200,000 Americans have died due to the incompetence and ignorance and sheer malevolence of this administration. 

Programs that were put in place by multiple previous administrations — programs designed to help the working families of America, the farmers and laborers, the poor and the hungry and the sick — those programs have been dismantled and shut down. 

Bullies and thugs have been given tacit permission to threaten and intimidate minorities and women. Trans people, Muslims, Jews, Asians, and others have been targeted.

The federal treasury has been looted by robber barons. Valuable alliances have been destroyed. The level of pain and suffering that has been created is unimaginable. 

But after all of that has been acknowledged, what is left is the pathetic posturing of a man whose behavior is so demented and bizarre that any rational human being must recoil in horror.

The people who benefit from this situation, who encourage it, who profit by it — they are evil. 

But the man himself? He glories in his own delusions. Evil flourishes as a result of his ignorance, incompetence, malevolence, and stupid pretense of power. 

So I cannot help myself. I despise him, I despise all who benefit from his reign of error. And I despise those who are too stupid to recognize the damage that he has done to all of us. 

I am not enlightened enough to forgive. I am not noble enough to give up my rage. I am simply not good enough to take a road that high. 

The best I can say? I do not wish him ill. 

I simply wish that he gets all of the consequences that he has fairly earned."

Stuttering Attacks

I am a stutterer.

Early in my educational years it became clear that I had difficulties in expressing myself.  When asked to read or speak in front of my peers, I would speak haltingly, often stopping in the middle of a sentence to find the right word, or to back up and repeat myself.  Many tests indicated that my IQ was above average for my age and that I very intelligent and eloquent.  It was decided that the source of my stuttering was either my hearing impairment or my natural shyness.

To this day I dislike speaking in front of people, mainly because of the stutter that still makes itself known in stressful situations.  I have been laughed at and put down for the disability.  Despite many years of training myself, the issue remains.  This, among other reasons, is why I can identify with Joe Biden.

The following post was lifted from my friend Michael Methot. The original poster is unknown.

"Joe Biden is a stutterer. Like many others, he has overcome the disability by understanding it and exercising extraordinary perseverance and discipline. If you know and love a stutterer and you watched the presidential debate [Tuesday] night, within minutes it became obvious what was going on.

Abusive tone of voice, rapid fire interruptions, zigzagging change of topic, personal insult and humiliation, and family pain, are all tripwires that scramble a stutterer's ability to speak. There was nothing unplanned or spontaneous in the President's strategy. The bastards did not prep him to attack Joe. They prepped him to attack Joe's disability, hoping that by triggering his stuttering they might deceive an audience unfamiliar with the disability into thinking that Joe was stupid, weak, uncertain, confused, or lost to dementia.

If you have ever gotten in the face of a bully on the playground protecting a stutterer that you love, the game being played [Tuesday] night was nakedly and painfully obvious. If you watched with glee while it happened, then you haven't made much progress since the playground.

However, the stutterer that I love taught me early on that he did not so much need my protection. He fought back by owning and integrating his disability into who he is. He learned how to stand his ground as master of perseverance, knowledge, and empathy. Without his example, I would not have recognized the game that was being played that night. I would not have been able to recognize the subtle but intense struggle against the disability that Joe was winning at the same time he was struggling to advance his positions on the issues in the midst of a rhetorical s*** storm.

But, like the stutterer that I know, Joe didn't need any help on the playground. I was proud of him.

The President flushed his family fortune down a gold-plated toilet and somehow wants us to believe that he is the poor victim of mean people. Then he tries, and fails, to beat up a kid with a disability on the playground.

I'm done with this, guys. I want my country back. Thanks, Joe."