How many open-minded people wind up feeling so shamed by liberal identity-blame that they embrace racist extremism? It’s hard to say. But the defensiveness is real, and many who don’t wind up in bigoted cults will feel caught in a Catch-22: The side they agree with will never fully accept them, but they don’t agree with the side that would.
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The insurrection at the Capitol was an act of war, at the direction of the second president of the Confederate States of America. That would be Donald John Trump. This isn’t another civil war. It’s the same one that supposedly ended 150 years ago.
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Coded messages carry clear intent to those for whom they’re intended, but disguise that intent to everyone else. We are the “everyone else” listening to Trump’s coded messages. They aren’t intended for us. They’re meant for white nationalists and other insurrectionists.
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On Wednesday, a bunch of you stupid white guys with stupid flags, yelling stupid sayings in service of a stupid man broke into the Capitol building on a murderous rampage, intent on destroying my country. You’ll notice one word is repeated numerous times in that sentence. Stupid.
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Our problem is that we’d still rather spin our wheels with scapegoating and conspiracy theories than work together. Because we don’t trust each other. We’ve forgotten how to look for that spark of commonality in one another’s human eyes, and we’ve chosen instead to focus on how we’re different, and why we’re (supposedly) a threat to one another. Recognizing that spark won’t solve every problem. It’s just a beginning, and there will be a lot of work involved. But beginning is better than never trying.
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Here’s the cold, hard truth: No one in power really wants you to think outside the box... unless they can steal your idea and claim credit (and profit) for it themselves.
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