ck4829
ck4829's Journal"Russia wants us divided!" No... no, it does not. So what does Putin want?
When we hear that "Russia wants us to be divided", I look at that and see it as something vague and meaningless and I also look at who is saying it, often said by pundits who have spent careers dividing people here in the US; setting up "all lives matter" to be some sort of opposite to the black lives matter movement, dividing the poor white man against the poor black man, dividing private sector employees against public sector employees, dividing heterosexuals against the GLBTQ population, trying to turn "liberal" into a dirty word, and more.
Now I have no doubt in my mind that the Putinist regime is influencing American politics, but to what end? To divide us? To break this country apart? No, I don't think so. I think this whole "division" thing is not only overblown as an issue but is not the real end to Putinist influence.
No, I think the real end is to normalize and make the worldview OK with corruption, state sponsored terror, cronyism, nepotism, unqualified government, and a government that is insular and is itself a state within a state, in other words, government becomes an organ of the few and those with the means to influence it... in other words, a government that occupies your country, but is not YOUR government, and may be even against you.
So what does the Putin regime want for us specifically?
I would imagine...
* It wants us to be OK with what happened in Ryazan in 1999, with Alexander Litvinenko, with Sergei Magnitsky, with it's invasions, with MH17, with Sergei Skripal, etc. Remember that when you see the cheerleaders of the Iraq war back in the government and torture being rationalized as OK.
* It wants us to treat the Trump family, the Flynn family, the Shoebat family, the DeVos family, and other clans as "experts", "gurus", and the government itself
* It wants us to normalize oligarchy and plutocracy, it wants us to see things like the Dow as a fundamental of the economy rather than you being able to put food on your table or pay rent
* It wants us to grudgingly accept gross (But not just in scale, but also disgusting) disparities as "facts of life", just like what the Putinist regime has forced it's own people to accept. It would probably want us to be offended by black people kneeling as a form of protest but we have to be OK with people waving the confederate flag along the American flag. It wants us to be OK with a violent Muslim being a "clash of civilizations" but a violent white person being "mental illness, nothing you can do". It wants us to be OK with "affluenza". It wants "the problem" to not be disparities, but resisting them, or even pointing out that they exist to be seen as "the problem" instead.
* It wants us to have to accept "there's nothing you can do", it would want us to accept the lie that there's nothing you can do to change the landscape, the political culture, inequalities, how you get your healthcare, the system, etc. It wants you to ignore the fact that there are things you can do to change all of these things every single day. Putin wins when you embrace system justification, the status quo, inaction, complacency, and learned helplessness.
So when you see or hear that Russia wants us divided, you should ask if that person means these things above specifically because just saying Russia wants us divided, it doesn't help us, and it doesn't solve what is going on.
Maybe it's time to consider people are conservative, are Trump voters BECAUSE of privilege
Not because of "anxiety".
If I had a hurting business, I wouldn't say "People of the wrong color, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, etc. can't use my services. Go take a hike." Now, I wouldn't do it period. But if I did, I'd make sure I would have the economic and social capital to make up for lost business, business I would never get, backlash, etc. But maybe that's just me.
People have problems, but when YOUR problem is "Agh, the phone told me to 'press 1 for English', I'm going to start a revolution!!!ONE1" or "You people are speaking Spanish, you should all be deported!" as opposed to, I don't know, "the government is coming to kill us" or "I have to cross a minefield to get drinking water"; then that is privilege speaking.
Finally, I see "glorifying the past" as sort of a theme park. It's the year 2018, get with the program. It's not going to be the 1950s ever again and we're certainly not going back to Roy Moore's preferred time, before the civil war... even though there might "have been just a little bit of slavery". When you glorify the past, see the present as garbage, but see the future as some possible simulation of that glorified past, then you aren't being realistic, you're living in a fantasy world. Good that you have the spare resources to be able to do that, some invisible advantage helping you to make sure you don't live in the harsh reality of modern medicine and the horror of having to deal with people of different colors, sexual orientations, genders, religions as equals.
And there's your "Let's understand them" minute for today.
Normalization of the Delusion
And now we must talk about the difference one word can make.
Imagine for a moment if someone came up to you and declared...
"Aliens are coming to kill you!"
"Aliens are keeping us from getting jobs!"
"Aliens want to sexually assault you!"
"Aliens! Aliens! Aliens!"
What would you do? Would you take this person seriously? Would you consider them reporting them to the police if you did not know this person and they made these warnings to you? Would you seek help for this person? How many serious news stories and political discussions do you see on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, etc. talking of this? The answer for that last one is, of course, zero.
Now add "Illegal" before every mention of "Aliens" and what do you get? You get a Republican, you get campaign ads, you get media coverage of this, you get "while his views are repugnant, there is nothing we can do", you get "freedom"... no longer a person who is burdened with psychosis and mental illness, but just being "politically incorrect" at worst.
Unusual, right? The difference this one seven letter long word can make?
If our reality, perceptions, memories, cognition, reactions, and judgment can be completely altered with one word, then we have to ask ourselves then, where else can we see this?
This issue of those "aliens" above pertains to the idea of a delusion - Which according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines as "a persistent false psychotic belief regarding the self or persons or objects outside the self that is maintained despite indisputable evidence to the contrary as well as the abnormal state marked by such beliefs."
"Maintained", that is another interesting concept that needs to be explored as we delve deeper into the idea of normalization of the delusion. One maintains infrastructure, one maintains a house, abstract things, their health, and more... But can something that is unhealthy and hazardous to the health of the self and others be maintained at all? Can we see it be maintained by others?
There are many sub-types of the delusion. The delusion of persecution is one that has already been touched on a little bit, but we must speak of it a little bit more...
"X is coming to get you!"
"X is coming to kill you!"
"X is coming to steal from you!"
"X is coming to hurt you in some way!"
How many groups do we see that replaced "X" it comes out of pundits, politicians, the media, laypeople, etc.? "The immigrant", "The leftist", "The Muslim", "The black", "The jew", "The liberal", "The poor", "The person slightly poorer than you", "The gay", "The lesbian", "The transgender", "The refugee", and more.
Notice how interchangeable it is. And it really is, one day you may see "X" being a Muslim, another it will be a leftist. And it's often from the same people. That is not a coincidence. When it comes to the delusion of persecution, you just feel someone is out to get you, the name and face changes, but it is the idea that "someone", some "other" is out to get you.
The delusion and it's break from reality could have been seen in action recently. Take the recent example of what happened in a Starbucks where a white man berated a Muslim woman in religious garb and saying he did not want to be killed by her. Now consider how many Muslim women in hijabs and niqabs are attacking high schools, elementary schools, pool parties, movie theaters, music festivals, Waffle Houses, and more. Is it greater or lesser than the number of white men who look just like him who are attacking these places?
And of course, there is the delusion of grandeur. This is the delusion that someone is great, powerful, that the world exists for them, that they have abilities beyond others, and more. Could this be racism itself? Could this be the far right and alt right politics we see today?
Take a barely literate white man, criminal record, no real contributions to society, gets by on depending from others, and any number of things. Give him nationalism, give him white supremacy, give him sexism, and more. Now all of the sudden, he is someone. He now sees himself as "smarter and greater than any black man" who is smarter and more assimilated than him. He is just "better than any woman". He is now a "part of and an instrument of western civilization" itself.
Racism speaks to this "maintenance", it's a worship of a skin color and the derision of others you don't like. You see, we see the names and faces change, but where don't we see them change? A common pseudo-statistic we see is "Blacks consist X% of the population but are Y% of (some deviant group)" with Y being anything from single parent households, criminals, convictions, etc.
Left handed people make up 10% of the population but account for 40% of schizophrenics, there is loose data suggesting they may make up a higher proportion of people in the penal system, and they thrive in societies where violence is necessary. Yet there are no "handedness realists", there are no controversial college speakers on the subject of left handedness being something that is a problem, we don't have politicians and pundits saying things about the left handed and then saying that the "liberal media wants to cover it up", etc.
Perhaps this would be a truly unwanted delusion? One that must be maintained out?
And finally we need to speak about the intersection of delusion with class. Interesting, right? How if one has stacks of old newspapers and dead cats, they are a compulsive hoarder and they need help. But replace "old newspapers and dead cats" with money, they are suddenly a job creator and touching them is now "class warfare" and "socialism".
We must make an effort to find more things, that if they are tweaked in some way, that they switch from being political rhetoric and the realities of today's alt right and far right influenced environment to being a delusion.
It truly needs to be asked... What else is delusional in our political system?
We need to start having a public health approach to the US political situation
You encounter a man screaming about violent lesbian gangs taking over US cities, he of course has not a single shred of evidence backing his claim up, and he is known for another conspiracy theory.
Is he a schizophrenic? No. He is (or was) a Fox News contributor.
You encountered that man on your television set. Instead of getting him treatment and not enabling him, our political culture promotes him as the "other side of the aisle" opposite of us.
Just how deep does this go really though?
If you have stacks of old newspapers, don't want to give any of that excessive amount away, and are hiding them away from people; then you are a compulsive hoarder. Change it to money, and you're an esteemed "job creator" all of the sudden. Take that money away and the pundits say you are waging "class warfare", not helping a sick person with "affluenza".
If you go out of your way to shock and offend people, make wildly untrue and exaggerated claims, don't care about the feelings of others, are into self-aggrandizement, don't show any empathy, etc.; then there is a good chance you have a serious personality disorder. If you do this in front of a group of white men (Disclosure: White male myself), then you're just being "politically incorrect" and you're just telling it like it is. Weird right?
Confabulation and Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome are problems relating to human memory, it means you have bizarre and distorted memories that have no bearing in what really happened. Your memory of what you did does not include the characters from your favorite TV show dropping by and giving you Christmas presents. That's a very clear example of what damaged memory errors are exactly. But hey, say the time before the Civil War "even though there was some slavery" was the greatest ever and you might almost become a Senator. Slap a confederate flag and it's no longer "You don't know what you are talking about", now it's "Heritage, not hate".
I've kind of taken a light break, but I came back with this idea. And it needs to inhabit a good chunk of what we do; from how we vote, to how we do activism, and more.
* Call it out
* Make comparisons to mental illnesses
* Stop enabling, stop supporting enablers
* Learn the traits of people with personality disorders
* Stop supporting politicians and pundits just because they shock and offend people you don't like, see how accurate their claims are, what results they get
* And more
If you're wondering why our political culture has become so toxic as of late, then maybe this is why. Because we are failing to have this approach to it, it's time to grow up, and deal with the increasingly sick political environment.
Hatred from Trump supporters is usually a mirror
They talk about a "deep state" and of supposed conspiracies against them.
But they don't talk about the Council for National Policy, the Arlington Group, or Groundswell.
They tell us black protesters are "disrespecting" national symbols.
But they don't seem to notice their own supporters waving the American flag alongside the Confederate or even Nazi flag.
They tell us to fear the Muslim and the immigrant.
But they don't want us to notice the people who are shooting up our schools, churches, movie theaters, music festivals, restaurants, and more are people who look and act just like them.
They tell us of massive conspiracies of sexual deviance... whether it's the "homosexual agenda", transgenders who just want to use bathrooms, or imaginary tales such as Pizzagate.
But they would never come clean about Lisa Biron, Josh Duggar, Wesley Goodman, and Earl Kimmerling.
They tell us they are against "division" that is supposedly caused by the left according to them.
But they were silent when they tried to divide the private sector against the public sector, people who say black lives matter against everyone else, the poor black person against the poor white person, etc.
It's time to call this out.
- Distique
Disputing "division"
How often do you see and hear these well-meaning lines?
"The Russians want us to be divided!"
"We can't be balkanized!"
"Our country is more divided than ever - We need a reconciliation!"
While these lines may be well-meaning, I am not sure if they are entirely grounded in the facts.
First thing is first, this isn't about Russia or Putin, it was mentioned above. He's a murderer and his circle is nothing but looters and killers who have stolen Russia from the Russian people, but that is another issue for another time. This is about us, here, today.
I think the issue of our country supposedly being "divided" or "balkanized" isn't an issue of division at all. But rather one faction acting like they constitute the "other side" of an issue, this faction cloistering themselves off physically, socially, and politically, the lack of acceptance of changing demographics and support for various issues, and the usage of tainted and sham elections to aid them in this cloistering.
There are dangers if we also continue to play into this "But we are divided" game, some very tangible. These need to be addressed as well, and that will be done here.
So the issue isn't of division I say, it's of cloistering and lack of acceptance, what does that mean exactly? Well, many things.
Demographics - It's not being "divided" that our country is changing, it always has, and always will. Immigrants, unmarried people, single mothers, GLBTQ people being 'out', minorities voicing concerns, and yes, big bad scary Muslims. This is not an issue of division, it's an issue that we have a faction here that can not accept these demographics are proud Americans or in some cases, exist at all. This faction here wants to cloister themselves off... pretend they aren't Americans, pretend they don't exist, pretend they have no concerns need addressing, pretend they have no narratives or discourse, pretend they have no rights, no ability to participate or govern. There is nothing that can be done to massively change the demographics here, at least nothing that isn't a crime against humanity.
Time - Guess what? It's the year 2018. It's not the 1950s, it's not before the civil war which according to Roy Moore which was when America was great... even though there might have been just a 'little' slavery. Classy, right? Anyway, it's the present, we live, work, and play in the present. There is nothing "divided" about that, it's this one faction that wants to cloister themselves off from everyone else, and pretend they can somehow turn back the clock to go live in this made-up past world when black people and women knew their 'proper' place and before the time when there "were no gay people or Muslims". This goes along with that demographics thing I mentioned above. Also note how they want to turn back the clock but they don't want to give up antibiotics, indoor plumbing, cars, electricity, or Twitter. Come on guys, at least go hard in the paint.
Politics today - We have this faction that quite literally cloistered themselves off in Washington DC and their little red county enclaves they never leave. It's not being "divided" that our country has a multitude of issues, and people who champion these issues from various sides, it's normal politics. But when we have people who would rather vote for a theocratic sex offender or a man who pretty much killed 29 people to 'stick it to the libs', it's not "division", it's one faction being irrational. It's one faction cloistering themselves off, they want nothing to do with Democrats or liberals. There is nothing 'other side' about that. Period.
We need to move forward, and I have an idea. We simply say they have concerns and we move on. There is no compromise on the demographics of our nation, we can't magically leave 2018 and go to some magical and enchanted past world which is really only a hyperreality conservatives have constructed like it's supposed to be a timeshare. If the right wing wants to be cloistered then let them be cloistered in their own little world. And if they truly want to accept people of other colors, religions, sexual orientations, sexual identities, etc. and if they start to prefer the present to some simulated past that only exists in their minds, then more power to them, that might be a good first step. But we need to stop enabling this cloistering, that is on us.
Want to "understand" Trump supporters? That's what the Right Wing Infopedia is for!
The Right Wing Infopedia was created a decade ago to study stealth conservatism and create a free one-stop resource exposing conservatives working under the radar.
Now in the post-2016 era with the right wing slipping further and further into some sort of mass-insanity with positions such as nearly electing a theocratic fascist with allegations of sex offenses surrounding him to "own the libs" and letting a holocaust denier get into the general election, them saying being concerned about school shootings puts you in league with "far left crisis actors", or saying "good national security" means "Well at least the perpetrator of the school shooting is white, so... win", it has become apparent the Right Wing Infopedia needs to make a return; to study this mode of 'thinking'.
Over 700 pages of individuals, organizations, factions, concepts, cliches, events, strains of disordered thinking, and more.
Always updating.
Still completely free.
And we're a very small team and we're always looking for more editors, so send me a DU mail message if you are interested in joining.
http://rw-infopedia.pbworks.com
Let's understand, let's know what the right wing is about.
The root of divisiveness? The ultra right and Trump supporters ARE the division.
Case in point, it's the year 2018. Next year is going to be 2019. Next year is not going to be 1950 or if you're Roy Moore... 1860 which is when America was great even though there was "some slavery". There's an illusory version of some altered reality that only exists in their heads, when America was great, you know before the feminists, gays, transgender people, Muslims, or uppity black people with the gall of saying their lives matter.
I look at my calendar, it's 2018. My phone says it's 2018. I am enjoying antibiotics, electricity, and the proliferation of indoor plumbing; all products one can commonly find in the US in the year 2018. If I ask someone what year it is, they will tell me it is the year 2018. I can ask Siri what year it is, she will tell me it is 2018.
I can say, with a good degree of confidence that it is the year 2018.
And as far as I know, there is no way to compromise on that, no way to meet in the middle between 2018 and 1950/1860, no amount of historical revisionism will change that, there are people who are trying to remove the groups I mentioned above from the political discourse but it will still be the year 2018.
When it comes to this issue of a group trying to roll America back to some era that didn't really exist except through the perceptions of their rose-colored glasses, through confabulation of memories, and by the tales of their parents and what they were told what America was like before all "those people" came to be, then that will take eliminationism, voter suppression, removal from political life, repression, and possibly even genocide just to create some simulacra of this imaginary era, then this isn't a left vs right issue or a Democrat vs Republican issue... It's a right wing/Trump supporter vs time issue, it's a right wing/Trump supporter vs demographics issue, it's a right wing/Trump supporter vs human rights issue, and it's a right wing/Trump supporter vs reality issue.
Notice the common denominator here? It's time to call it out.
What's so bad, terrible, and horrible about this "division" we keep hearing about?
Politicians and pundits tell us it's a bad thing, that it's bad that we are polarized supposedly more than ever.
And here's Glenn Beck talking about how we need a "reconciliation"
Now obviously, division to the point of civil war or us building up medieval fortresses or setting no man's land between them is all truly horrible. But this isn't that, and I don't think it will ever get to that point, not at least with the US in it's current state.
To me, it seems as though that the "division" being in this country is a designated villain, it is bad simply because we are told that it is bad.
You didn't see any of these "this division is bad" people when we had pundits divide us up into liberal vs conservative. I think we saw at what might have been it's highest point (so far) when Doug Jones inched out a victory over Roy Moore. You know, a qualified Democrat barely inching out a victory over a man twice removed from the bench, a man with visions of some sort of fascist theocracy, a sex offender, and straight out of a dystopian novel.
This whole anti-division thing also contributes to the issue of our government and media gaslighting us. Going off on the Roy Moore example, sure I'm on the left and I may not be 100% objective on political issues, but it's not division talking when one says Roy Moore was removed from the bench twice or that Doug Jones was far more qualified than Moore. Those are objective truths, those are real, brute facts.
And in that vein there seems to be so great of a fear of division that we would choose not being divided over not normalizing the worst of us. I'm not uniting with white supremacists, I'm not uniting with the trolls who offered Alison Chandra a .22 bullet, I'm not uniting with transphobes who say the transgender people I count among my loved ones are "not real" or with the Islamophobes who say the Muslims I love are enemies, and I'm not uniting with people who think the highest point of our country's history, heck some may even think all human history, was when black people were property. Not going to happen. Not going to apologize for it.
And it seems to be an awfully convenient thing to be against "division" when Republicans control the White House, the Senate, and the House. Will unity and just trusting our government still be great things when the House and/or Senate go into the hands of the Democrats?
One last thing on an economics note, you don't see a lot of millionaires and billionaires going around saying the financial situation in this country is way too polarized... "We better create some harmony and redistribute our wealth", I want so see that. Why do you suppose that's not something we're experiencing though? 
So, don't be afraid of division in and of itself. Use it. Play with it. Choose it over being gaslighted. Choose it over normalizing the worst of our society. And remember, it's division that tells us that both parties are not the same.
Athletes should just shut up and play. Celebrities should just shut up and act/sing.
Non-Christian conservatives should just shut up and convert to the right religion.
Black people should just shut up and "comply" with contradictory orders that they only have a split second to process or else.
Liberals should just shut up, period.
Democrats should just shut up and let Trump enact his agenda.
Everyone outside of the US except for Putin should just shut up about the US.
And students should just shut up and get shot.
Am I missing anyone?
Welcome to Trump's America.
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