How Do We Move Forward? I Have An Idea

I woke up at 6:30 this morning and reached for my phone before getting out of bed—a routine I fell into when our country took a hard right and ventured down the road to fascism. Thankfully, we put the breaks on that shit with November's election and are in the process of trying to right that wrong. It's going to take some time. A post from a friend on Facebook caught my eye and fit nicely with a blog post I'd begun laying the foundation for yesterday. Paul is a gifted writer all on his own so it's unusual for him to share a 'copy and paste' from an unknown source. It caught my attention. 

Here's what he shared: 

"Found online: Huge numbers of our population believe in a complete alternate reality. Alternate facts as it were. 

But just as intensely as I believe they are deluded, they think I am the one who is deluded. Maybe I am. So how can I be confident in my perception? It can be quite difficult. 

But, I have found that in times of political confusion, particularly when emotions are running high and creating tunnel vision, the presence of Nazis can be an extremely helpful indicator. 

If I am attending a local demonstration or event and I see Nazis…neo-Nazis, casual Nazis, master race Nazis, or the latest-whatever-uber-mythology-Nazis, I figure out which side they are on. And if they are on my side of the demonstration? I am on the wrong side. 

It is tough to argue moral equivalence when I am standing next to a Nazi. Look to my right. Is there a guy wearing a 6MWE (6 million wasn’t enough) t-shirt? I am on the wrong side. 

Look to my left. If that guy is wearing a Camp Auschwitz t-shirt? Wrong side. 

Are speakers being applauded for referring to things that Hitler got right? Wrong side. 

Team-spirit face paint and hat with animal horns? This is actually an unclear indicator that could mean anything, but safest to keep my distance from that guy anyway, even at a football game. 

However, I can always, always, always rely on the presence of Nazis as a guiding light through a fog of disinformation. 

Some things are relative, and politics can absolutely have its opposing sides and grey areas. But evil and good are absolute. So, just look for the Nazis, and make your own decisions."

The words from the anonymous internet writer dovetailed with some thoughts I'd been kicking around in my head over the past few days after receiving a private message from a very conservative Trump-supporting friend. Jim had sent me a 50-minute video that he'd found on Parler and he thought he'd share it with me. "This video totally blew my mind," he said. I watched the first 25 minutes of it but that's all I could sit through. It became evident after 13 minutes that I was listening to a QAnon disciple. I may be retired but I simply don't have time for propaganda. I gave Jim my thoughts on the video and he replied, "It's hard to tell who is playing fair."

It caused me to ponder: how do I reach people, how do I reach my brother in particular, who finds it impossible to believe that Biden received 81,000,000 votes? No, Keith, what's difficult to understand is how Trump, a racist conman in a red hat, received 74,000,000. What a sad state of affairs that he ever polled over 2-3%. I never imagined that many people falling in line behind such a disgusting man. 

How do I break through the noise of conservative media and the avalanche of propaganda they dump into the bloodstream of America's politics? How does one snap someone from their delusional stupor? 

I'm oftentimes tempted to make comparisons between some of Trump's followers and Hitler's rise to power in Nazi Germany but those inclinations are shunted by concerns that my words would be seen as hyperbolic or deserving of dismissal due to Godwin's Law. But the unknown internet author in Paul's 'copy and paste' makes clear that there's nothing hyperbolic about making note of what we're seeing. We're witnessing actual nazis at Trump events, insurrections, and riots. That's a fact!

We're divided as ever in our country now and it's clear to me why we are. We can't begin to heal the divide unless we're all working with facts and truth as a common denominator—propaganda isn't either fact or truth. So how does one know if what they're believing is the truth?

Ask yourself: are the social media sites you like to frequent being shut down because they're a cesspool of dangerous propaganda?  That should be a clue. ☑️

Is the guy you voted for banned from numerous social media sites because of the dangerous and divisive lies he's peddling? He is? ☑️ 

Is the guy you voted for contemplating issuing himself a pardon on his way out the door because of his illegal and corrupt actions as president? Really? He is? ☑️

Has the guy you voted for issued pardons for those who lied for him and were convicted of felonies for obstructing justice for him? I hope that concerns you. ☑️

Did the guy you voted for and the other elected officials you voted for and do the media outlets you tune in to support the lie again and again and again x 1000 that the election was stolen from Trump in spite of a complete lack of evidence? They do? ☑️

Did the guy you voted for incite an insurrection/coup resulting in the deaths of 5 people last Wednesday by telling his rabid followers that they need to fight like hell with hopes of upending the democratic process for certifying an election he lost in a landslide (using Trump's own definition)? He did that? And he's still in office!? That's outrageous! ☑️

Did the guy you voted for lie in a tweet toward the end of last Wednesday's insurrection/failed coup, telling his deranged followers that "These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long." He said that? ☑️

Has the guy you voted for lied to the American people more than 30,000 times since taking office? He has? ☑️

I could sit here all afternoon and continue with this but you get the idea.

So, for my friend Jim, when you say: "It's hard to tell who is playing fair", it's really not hard at all. It's actually quite easy to know but you do need to open your mind to the real possibility that you've been lied to again and again and again and that those lies are only going to continue. It's incumbent on you to not allow yourself to be used. 

We're at a watershed moment here in our country. It's too late to get on the right side of history if you've supported Trump all this time but it's not too late to get with the rest of us and do the hard work of unifying our nation. We're going to need you now more than ever. 

There's only one way out of this divide in which we find ourselves, and that's the truth. It shall truly set us free.

Thanks for hearing me out. 

That's all I've got.