Aw fuck. Man there isn’t a single figure of speech left in American English that I don’t find out is actually a racist dog whistle that I never knew about
I internally delved (pun unintended) into this a long time ago, knowing that "espada" means sword, and indeed is the reason of that suit in the standard playing card deck, afaict.
What I'm wondering about is, are they "Conservative" as in they believe government is bad and taxes are bad and they are shocked, shocked I say to discover that there's racism happening in this establishment, or are they full on fascist "Conservative" and racist as fuck themselves and they just didn't realize they were one of the minorities they were supposed to hate?
Based only on some recent posts and comments I've seen about hispanic conservatives in general, I would guess it was because they are religious and feel they need to align with Republicans because of that. Now they have learned that Republican-style Christianity doesn't really resemble Jesus-style Christianity.
But also - isn't Idaho literally the whitest state? Or is that Iowa?
Maybe not by population, but Idaho has a huge problem with white supremacists. The Aryan Nation was founded there, and there's a reason all the bigots in eastern Oregon want to secede and join Idaho.
A hispanic neighbor came to my door a few weeks ago wanting to talk about the bible. Initially I was really annoyed, because obviously. I have a pride flag hanging outside and felt a little targeted. But we actually ended up having a really nice conversation about this, how Christianity should really be about love and understanding, but has been twisted to do the exact opposite.
They are "conservatives" because they think they are better than other people.
No joke, there is an immigrant in my state running the the GOP primary on the platform that immigration is broken and we need to fix the border.
When you talk to these people, it literally is about how it's okay because they are the good race. It's those at the border that are ruining America.
He talks about how his parents came here legally and how legal immigration is okay.
My brother in Christ, do you not realize that the GOP is trying to make it illegal for any immigration to occur? You're pulling the ladder after you, oh I'm sorry, your parents climbed on the ship. Now you're telling everyone below that they are dirty and lazy for not making it up without a ladder.
That candidate is caught up in the very specific idea of "legal" and "documented alien" for methods of immigration without realizing that the racism inherent in the system will make it virtually impossible for anyone to meet legal qualifications for entry. Often the racism is hidden in the unwritten parts like the fees required to submit paperwork and the pressure for legal representation - all things that cost money and is designed to keep our the poors.
That candidate has no idea what nuance means and will run things like a tyrant, confused by a lack of clear morality.
We just want to deny people abortions, not experience racism.
We just want to pay no taxes and let infrastructure crumble; we still want weed to be legal.
We want to be able to subjugate women, not pay for war profiteers.
We just hate gays, not black people.
We just want jobs; why are all these billionaires fans of our party?
See the thing about leftism is that it's usually internally consistent. Authoritarianism cannot be internally consistent. Nobody wants ALL of the things fascism claims to represent; in many ways it's not even possible.
Nobody wants ALL of the things fascism claims to represent; in many ways it’s not even possible.
Because it's not a thinking ideology, it's a feeling ideology. This has been studied and proven that conservatives lean more reactive and emotionally sensitive.
See, the human brain doesn't work the way most people think it does, we live with the misconception that we use our brains to decode the world, to solve problems and figure out solutions and analyze situations.
This is NOT what your brain is doing. Right now, and at all times, your brain is scanning how you feel, all your physical and emotional sensations, and it's constantly creating stories to explain those feelings, ever shifting and constantly reporting these subtle ideas for why you are experiencing things.
About 100,000 years ago this was a fantastic survival tool. If you see huge paw-prints by the watering hole, you will figure out in your head why you're scared, you will invent a simulated future where the creature that lives nearby will eat you, so you avoid that watering hole.
Now our world is massively complicated, but our brains are still wired to do the same thing. It takes an emotion or sensation and just wraps a story around it with ease, and the funniest part is the story doesn't have to make sense, it's just how the brain assembles information and synthesizes results. This is why you have anti-vax doctors and nurses and scientists who suddenly become Flat Earthers. They aren't using logic and reason, they are scared of something and their brain supply the rationalization. Be it a huge paw print, or a newspaper headline about climate change, it makes people feel the same thing, and react the same way.
Scared of everything, mostly within themselves, which is so abhorrent, they can not countenance the very things they fear are themselves. Hence the infinite, horrific projection.
Even ignoring that, "leftism" is a little too broad of a term in this context. There's too many conflicting ideologies that agree with each other 90% of the way.
That's still not like the right, though. That's more a mish mash of ideas that make no sense together whatsoever. It's hard to square what the gospels are on about with having billionaires around at all, for example.
Israel outdoes these lesser kapo organisations by several orders of magnitude - they're even managing their own genocide (with the blessing and support of white supremacist empire) at the moment.
Not sure how this is "US Authoritarianism" but okay...
In any case, two things could be at play: either the family is truly conservative and thought white conservatives will accept them; or they are playing the respectability politics. If it is the former, many say most immigrants would be conservative voters (because many are religious and entrepreneurial), if it weren't for conservative politicians and base demoraphics in their new country being racists. If it's the latter, we all know those who present themselves as "one of the good ones" are grifting and acting in self-preservation. I have a mate who posts far-right stuff online and supports Trump, even though he himself is a brown immigrant (I suspect his father--who isn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed-- may be influencing him as well).
Those who play respectability politics are acting in self-preservation. This is actually a tale as old as time. As one user here pointed out, there was a Jewish organisation who are Nazi supporters. During World War 2, Jewish elders and organisations in Europe actually gave names of their members to the Nazis. They thought they could save themselves or more lives if they cooperated. Hannah Arendt covered this tidbit of history in her book on the trial of Adolf Eichmann, from which the famous term "banality of evil" came from. Of course, the book caused controversy not just because it posits that evil people feel casual of their actions, but also that it brought the taboo that several Jewish leaders in Europe have enabled the facilitation of the Holocaust.
For the record, I am not trying to be anti-Semitic with my post, I'm only explaining the result of playing respectability politics in the case of anti-Semitism and Holocaust.
I think the fact that there are so many bigots out there being disproportionately vocal and often working to recruit others to their way of thinking with couched language and dogwhistles make it too easy for some people to assume that anyone speaking negatively of an oppressed group is a bigot.
The trick is usually identifying whether the negativity is about "all" of a group, or just some of them, but subtlety can be challenging in a text only format at times, especially if stuff ever gets taken out of context.
There's a lot of corruption in my government, at national, state and municipal levels. Not every citizen is corrupt (many are, how else would you survive without being shunned/blackballed? Unless you already gained stability some miraculous way --lotto, large inheritance?) and your post boils down to something I've been pondering for a few months: those who disapprove corruption without calling out benefit from corruption. It's the madam/working girl, bully/bullied mentality. At least in my area, I don't think it's fear of life and limb, since most people I see are willing to risk life and limb on corruption, but I guess there's a difference between going out relatively quickly rather than being tortured to death.
I hadn't thought of it that way before! I guess that some folks either try to work with the system but succumbed to it before they realise it; or they gave up entirely and join.
They're barely sentient cretins programmed by right-wing media. The base would vote Republican even if Republicans pivoted to Black nationalism, as long as the people on TV and the internet tell them to.
Wrong. Even if liberals and Democrats were progun and pro free-for-all-gun (which actually is what the issue is), Republicans would still say Dems are anti gun and conservatives would believe it
They may do, anyway, and they're already mimicking third Reich symbols and language, right down to the term, "Reich". Also autocorrect insists on capitalizing that odious word.
They will certainly try, but without some kind of mass support they can't hold on to power. This isn't Nazi Germany where one ethnic population absolutely dominated. At the very least the country would collapse.
Idaho is one of the most racist states in America, if you Google ''move to a state with no black people'' Idaho has got you covered. Huge organized white power hate groups there too. My family is from Idaho, man. Trust me. It's not casually racist. They are actively salivating for the race war.
I was getting headhunted for a job in Coeur d'Alene. It's a beautiful place. I could afford a nice house there near the lake. I could bike to work (given adequate gear for winter)... We have friends in Montana we could actually see.
I know if I move out of CA it will be very hard to come back. The politics there seem pretty backwards. I couldn't see living there. What you say really seals the deal.
It is mostly because Californians leave California because of the realities of living in California and move to a state that isn't like California and then try to make it like California instead of moving to a state that is like California already.
The lack of assimilation of local culture doesn't help either. Don't be a Californian-Californian in a conservative state and nobody will care after you get past the initial hurdle of being assocoated with the stereotypical Californian, and the proper enunciation, also every time you say soda instead of pop, cola, or coke.
Source: Am Californian and left, been told why they don't like us 'round them parts.