A federal judge ruled that St. George, Utah, violated the U.S. constitution when it denied a permit to a drag show, and must allow the all-ages event to go ahead in a public park. “Public spaces ar…
As a non US person, it's baffling to me that there's this whole background of being "the land of the free", but half the country would want to turn it into Saudi Arabia 2.0, Christian Boogaloo.
That said, anyone of you over there who are opposing these changes, keep up the fight. When one country gets more conservative others will follow. There's no country in earth immune to this.
It's terrifying to witness active dehumanization in a nation that supposedly wants you to live your best life. They'll try to convince the whole nation that trans folk aren't people, aren't human, we can't let them. Once they're not human, they can get away with anything they do to them. If you see these efforts to dehumanize any group, no matter where you are, try to be brave because you never know when you're next.
As a trans woman it's really fun getting to be the minority that it's totally okay to just openly hate and dehumanize, the right's newest whipping girl ;-;
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
It's freaking amazing, and terrifying, how quickly the right wing wackos have been able to demonize a group that almost nobody has even thought about in forever. It's like a case study in finding some marginalized group to vent rage on/about.
Conservatives here have a different definition of "freedom". They want to be free from being bound by the laws yet still be protected by them, whereas minorities should be bound by the laws, but not protected by them. This is how conservatives in this country are both the party of "law and order" and the party of "personal freedom".
The best part about this is that the people wanting to turn the country into Saudi Arabia 2.0 have a tendancy to spread conspiracy theories about the other side imposing sharia law...
And Jews, such aa myself. In fact, they're already railing against the Jews even if they hide it behind "Soros," "Globalists," or other code words.
And their "support for Israel" isn't incompatible with their antisemitism once you realize that:
This is because the evangelicals think Jews need to be running Israel before Jesus will return. So it's for the evangelicals, not for the Jews.
After Jesus returns, he supposedly will toss all Jews into hell. So it's delayed antisemitism.
It gives antisemites a "dual loyalty" trope to use as well as an expulsion plan. I've never been to Israel. I have no "loyalty" to Israel. I'm an American citizen and have lived in the US my entire life. However, many antisemites would love to ship me off to Israel or demote me to second class citizen simply because I'm Jewish.
@Wander Let's not forget the US also has way more influence than any other country. What I've seen so far in my life is that what happens in the US happens a few years later here.
It used to be a 10 year delay, and it was mostly for positive things, like innovations. Now it's more like 2-4 years, and for bad things. The first turning point for the bad, IMHO, was the iraq war and the death of UN Sérgio Vieira de Mello. It was mostly silent but it really changed international cooperation for the worst.
The second big turning point was Trump. It basically told every bigot, racist, ignorant person around the whole world "Now it's your chance". It validated so much of the bad stuff it would soon be felt everywhere.
This recent cascade of drags bans and anti-trans laws being thrown out under the doctrine of "this is obviously unconstitutional and you knew it when you tried to do it" is refreshing
I live in a very rural part of a southern state and the majority of people around me are pro Trump christian conservatives. They went from decrying '1st amendment violations' on old Twitter (even though it's a corporation) to celebrating the recent wave of anti-lbgtq+ legislation sweeping across red states, though it actually does violate the 1st amendment, because 'someone's got to do something about the cultural rot.'
I am very relieved to see the courts not buying it and hope this trend continues.
To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself—that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word—doublethink—involved the use of doublethink.
Sad as it is, I've given up even attempting discourse with them. I always believed that people could come to a mutual understanding given enough honest communication and fact based information. That's before I move to the rural South. Logic holds no power here. Everything always defaults to their own personal interpretation of their religious texts where god is clearly telling them joe biden is in league with satan trying to usher in the antichrist and the rest of the pedo grooming marxist democrats are coming for their children, and then the world, to enslave the human race with global warming taxes and the mark of the beast.... unless they vote trump. I am just... I can't.
Very true, the fascist playbook they ARE using is pretty simple. Find a marginalized community, vilify and lie about them, and push them out of public life. The more marginalized they make said community, the easier it is for them to justify more Draconian ways they can treat them.
Hope the young people vote all the Republicans out of office before the US becomes a Christian Nation AND voting is still a thing that can change government.