My leg is busted and I can only hobble around with a cane. Finally got accepted into seeing a physical therapist, outlook is good, but its gonna take a while to recover.
Recently took a paratransit ride.
Fully disabled guy in a motorized wheelchair got on.
Within minutes, after he asked me what happened to me, we were joking about how he would probably, actually be able to beat me in a race.
Right I don't see how it's ableist or an insult. She didn't say it like it's a bad thing or associate it with any assumptions. It's not like she called him "Legless Wonder and his Half Pint Segway" or questioned if he can govern from a chair. It's closer to calling him Governor Brown Hair. Neutral. Silly at worst.
Just remember that there is literally no reason to attempt to engage with Them on any kind of intellectual level. Only give them mockery and shame, or ignore them.
They only know like 3 emotions, anger, fear, and shame. They also feel them Very strongly.
That specific instance was also a case of them hating being called a name they used to use for others in school, where their brains stopped developing.
I've racked my brain with this and coming from a family who changed over years from Republican to Democrat, let me suggest some things:
In terms of the high level grifters and psychopaths, yes, undermining the strongman image with things like mockery, humiliation, embarrassment can be very effective not only at getting under the skin of tyrants but making others realize the clowns they are.
Shaming doesn't work with psychopaths because they don't feel guilt.
In terms of interacting with average Joe Trump supporters (the grifted), I do think it's worth planting seeds even if you'll never witness the seed grow yourself. One such seed is attempting to redirect their anger to the rich stealing their hard earned paycheck. Any chance to spin the conversation to trust fund children who never worked like Musk and Trump hijacking our democracy should be driven into the conversation. They're the real culprits for the pressures they feel.
They understand they aren't engaging with you, they are just playing their base. Democrats have to get that they aren't actually arguing with the Republicans they are setting up talking points for their base.
I dunno why people are upset about this. I see the majority of people complaining about Dems "taking the high road" and avoiding dirty tactics like the Republicans take. "They should take the gloves off and get dirty on the low road", "fight at their level!" I read.
Then as soon as Crockett does take one glove off and makes one borderline offensive comment the reaction is largely, "ugh, no need to be ableist".
Guys, what the hell do you think the 'low road' is?
It doesn't start at breaking the law and blocking supreme court noms, it starts at political midslinging, and the dems are getting "wow that's going too far". Lol. They will not escalate to a higher level of personal risk such as breaking protocols and laws (as the R's do) if they're knocked back at the first rung. They see the public has a preference: protocol above results.
(I'm about to get replies about how mudslinging needs to be carefully crafted to avoid any offensive terms to any group now. Be real. That is not always possible)
Yeah, but there was no substance. It was just name calling. I don't think simple name-calling got the Republicans anywhere either. She could've briefly segwayed to making a point about his policies hurting the disabled.
I honestly think a good portion of Trump's popularity is his name calling.
Now, to be clear, I think that's something that only works with idiots. Further, I don't think it's a tactic Dems can really pull off. But make no mistake, being mean to the right people is what's popular for the bigot party.
Dems need to remember that if it’s not nazi rhetoric, it’s on the right side. The bar has been lowered to fascism and we still try to hold each other to absolute political correctness.
We don’t have that luxury anymore. Do you believe in equality, the right to vote, the equal applicability of law to even the highest office? Great, you pass. Bonus points if you believe in a strong social safety net.
There's no reason to take the "Low Road." Dems dont have to get down in the mud, and lie, cheat, and steal to win, they just have to play HARD BALL, and force the Republicans to follow the law, the rules, ethics, and especially the Constitution.
It would have been really helpful ifntheyd started doing this during the Bush administration, and not waited until the MAGA Nazi Criminal Emterprise had alreadybwrecked and stolen nearly everything, but they can start now.
And part of playing Hard Ball is dehumanizing the MAGA Nazis by applying insulting knicknames. Itbwill be more effective against them because they are treasonous criminals, sonthe names really stick.
Some suggestions:
HitlerPig or Agent Krasnov
Couchfucker Vance
Kapo Stephen "PeeWee Himmler" Miller
Steve "Unwiped Asshole" Bannon
Lauren Boobert
Empty G
Big Booby Bondi
Goldigging Whore (applies to several, but specifically the Press Secretary)
You are naive if you think you won't get dogpiled by your own side for using even these names. To most of the naive liberals and leftists, the things you're describing IS the "low road."
The left doesn't want to win, they want to be angry. But they're not as stupid as the right so that anger has to take the form of more complicated rationalizations, which is why you get people on your own side attacking you for making fun of some conservative chud's penis size or other physical characteristics.
Someone on the left will absolutely, 100% call you out for using the term "cunt" as a pejorative, they will bring up how calling someone useless is ablest, and probably some story about how "sniveling" was used as a slur in 1642 on a small island off Wales.
Why? because we have an innate human response system to respond to dissent from our own "tribe" and as a result, people have learned to get attention by attacking their own tribe. They want to feel heard and feel special and know that if they offer some "counter point" they will seem "intellectually honest" and thus gain standing with their team, and again, we simply don't know how to tune out criticism from our own people and move forward. It's why we keep losing.
The right wins because they're too dimwitted to do this, they are mindless in their group support. They don't have the language skills to form intellectual opposition or to "call out" each other, they don't know how. This is all a great example of how nature doesn't necessarily design for intelligence, and being smart can be a survival disadvantage.
We have a deeply fundamental problem broadly with society that people want to be outraged and angry, so they will latch onto anything, this is why the left can't organize and why the most successful political party are the party of orcs and violence and animosity and outrage, even though they have fewer people.
The left isn't much different honestly, they just choose to turn into raging asshats when someone breaks their unspoken rules and boundaries that make them feel "civil" and feel like the "good smart guys." The right doesn't have qualms about being the bad guy because they're fucking stupid and we're gingerly tip-toeing around them careful we're going to hurt someone's feelings, meanwhile on our side we can't even form a single broad movement because too many leftists get twisted when someone in their own ranks says a word that could spark the outrage of someone, somewhere, at some point.
I don't feel like I have a team at all. I want the same things that the left states its arguing for and fighting for, but it doesn't. It doesn't fight, it doesn't accept people, it doesn't actually want change, it uses the same tactics of shaming and finger-wagging everyone, everywhere for saying naughty things, then wondering why they're not getting more people or making progress.
edit: your downvoting is as impotent and pointless as the fights the left takes on. If you think an argument against the left's tactics is an implicit endorsement of the right, congratulations, you belong with the right, you are a reactionary and dumber than shit.
I think it helps to get out of online spaces and interact in person with people. Text is always far easier to misinterpret or to misword, you're more likely to find allies face to face.
I agree that people need to be more accepting and slower to judge. There are a lot of anti-Trump/MAGA people out there who lack the lexicon to get across that they're on-side and whom might make a mistake here and there - no need to flay them publically and turn them away.
They love to scream and cry and whine when they've been disrespected, but nobody cares about inconsistency in our leadership. Nobody cares what's true or not unless it affects them personally and immediately. Nobody cares when a politician lies, they don't care when they're inconsistent, pointing out hypocrisy is just more free-advertisement for them.
The only way you can get people to actually care about what's real is when you impact their comfort and routine. As soon as that happens, people mobilize and vote and form coalitions. To this end, we should all be a little accelerationist about what's happening, because if they boil the water slowly enough, people broadly will adapt to the new normal and will go on with their day, even if they have to like, go through checkpoints to get to work. They don't fucking care and they have memories of goldfish, so the only way we end this mess is get enough people fed up at the same time before the administration can pull some stunt like giving everyone stimulus checks.
That's their last resort, when the people rally and are about to take down the government. They will promise monthly checks of something like $1500. That will cut about half of the protestors out.
Money is the root of all evil. It's also the greatest human weakness.
We should criticize choices, not traits. This happens frequently when the public becomes upset with a trans person, using is as a reason to intentionally misgender them. Or using slurs to talk about a gay, PoC or religious minority when they do something shitty.
Kaitlin Jenner has tons of wrong opinions but she is a woman who is wrong. So in the same vein, it is wrong to make fun of Hitler hypothetical wheelchair. Jasmine Crockett was out of line for her Hot Wheels comment, true MAGA has regularly said worse for years, but that doesn't make it somehow not-albeism.
Anyone left of MAGA hates being called ableist, especially when it's true and clearly evident. So many wrap themselves in "the right is the party of bigotry" as a way to ignore any critism by margalinzed communities.
I'm a leftist so I can't be transphobic/racist/sexist because the right is worst.
This whole thread is filled with tone deaf apologetics. I'm queer anarchist in wheelchair and it's always disheartening to see these excuses from people who say they understand.
Abbott's neighbor's tree branch fell on him. He sued his neighbor and used the money to run for governor. He immediately changed the law so lawsuits like his are capped and no one else can sue for as much as he won. I prefer to call him "limp dick Greg" but some like "little piss baby"
It is, but it's not fitting. It's all apart of the "so harmless they are a pushover yet so dangerous they must be stopped at all costs" spiel. Otherwise known as BS.