Lessons of History and Trying To Avoid the Same Mistakes

[Sixties Fan]

A survey published in October by Pew Research Center found that most American adults had never heard anything about Christian nationalism, and almost one in 10 who’ve heard “at least a little” about it didn’t know enough to offer an opinion.

One survey respondent described Christian nationalism as “patriotic Christians who believe in God, family and country, morality and kindness.” And I suspect that many people just think of Christian nationalists as patriotic white people who go to church — akin to the definition of white nationalism that Senator Tommy Tuberville was recently trying to sell.

But Christian nationalism isn’t merely “patriotic Christians” and it’s not Christianity, but rather, as the University of Oklahoma sociologist Samuel Perry put it, can be understood as “an impostor Christianity that uses evangelical language to cloak ethnocentric and nationalist loyalties.”

And DeSantis is a paragon among the impostors. His anti-woke crusade is a manifestation of the intolerance and battle-thirst of Christian nationalism, and Florida’s distortion of Black history and its attempt to rehabilitate the image of slavery is part of it.



(full article online)

Opinion | Black History Is a Casualty in Ron DeSantis’s Christian Nationalist Quest

Florida’s distortion of the history of slavery is more consequential than many comprehend.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

Proponents of GOP state laws restricting classroom discussion of race sometimes fall back on a seductive-sounding line of defense: These directives, they proclaim, allow for the “impartial” discussion of difficult historical topics, merely restricting teachers from foisting “biased” views of history on kids to protect them from “woke indoctrination.”

This argument advances the premise that a purely “impartial” version of history is hovering out in the ether that most reasonable people will agree upon once it’s located. But this idea is deeply flawed. An outbreak of resistance to anti-woke hysteria in Tennessee shows how.

This week, a group of teachers filed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate Tennessee’s law limiting the teaching of race and gender. The statute, signed by Republican Gov. Bill Lee in 2021, is absurdly vague: It prohibits pedagogy that includes allegedly divisive concepts without defining what that means, leaving teachers fearful that even neutral mentions of such concepts could violate the law.


(full article online)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/27/tennessee-teachers-lawsuit-antiwoke-restrictions-race-slavery/?link_id=5&can_id=6e84143cce349aec0c9a0b4e4a28c9c6&source=email-republicans-reframe-2024-as-a-race-versus-harris-not-biden&email_referrer=email_2002699&email_subject=fed-up-teachers-in-tennessee-find-a-novel-answer-to-anti-woke-hysteria

 

[Sixties Fan]

Yale Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld praised President Joe Biden’s policies by arguing that it has been the most successful economic intervention since the New Deal.

Sonnenfeld, the senior associate dean for leadership studies at Yale’s School of Management, joined MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell to talk about Morgan Stanley crediting Bidenomics for a surprising economic growth that forced the bank to re-evaluate its GDP forecasts. Between the job numbers and Biden’s efforts to counteract inflation, Sonnenfeld rejected recession predictions and the “manufactured malaise” from the GOP.

As O’Donnell praised the Biden Administration’s active involvement in the economy, Sonnenfeld agreed that “across the board, we are seeing the results.” He compared the Bidenomics cynicism to last year’s midterm election predictions of a red wave that failed to live up to the hype.

This is everything that is going in the right direction. The cynicism out there is just something that is being echoed in a circular echo chamber of sorts. The financial facts are something quite different than what the pollsters put out there. The pollsters who got everything out wrong in the fall are the same pollsters, basically, who follow the models: if you can’t protect accurately, you predict often.

While there remains a great deal of public skepticism about Bidenomics, Sonnenfeld concluded by reiterating, “The facts are uniformly positive.”

“The Biden administration has been more successfully, economically interventionist since the New Deal.”

Yale Business Guru Gushes to MSNBC: Bidenomics Most Successful Intervention Since FDR’s New Deal

Yale Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld praised President Joe Biden's policies as the most successful economic intervention since the New Deal.

www.mediaite.com

 

[surada]

P R O J E C T I O N

He's right. I recently reread the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich too. Have you read it?

 

[Sixties Fan]

Disney rejected Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' recent request for immunity from their legal feud Wednesday, with the media conglomerate criticizing the governor and presidential candidate for evading "responsibility for his actions."

It's the latest salvo in a legal battle that's been ongoing since April when the theme park giant filed a suit against the governor in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida. The broader battle began the year before, when Disney spoke out against the Parental Rights in Education Act, dubbed "Don't Say Gay" by critics, which restricts instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in schools.

"The Governor seeks to evade responsibility for his actions on a narrower ground, asserting that a governor cannot be held officially liable for implementing, administering, and enforcing state laws that punish residents for political statements violating a state-prescribed speech code," company attorneys wrote in a legal filing Wednesday.

DeSantis and his GOP legislative allies responded with actions Disney says were retaliatory and a violation of its free speech rights, such as the governor's takeover of the company's special taxing district, previously called the Reedy Creek Improvement District.

Since the renaming of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, the ramifications of that takeover are still far from settled, even outside the courts.

On Wednesday, the district's new, governor-appointed board, encumbered with litigation costs due to the Disney dispute and other start-up expenses, said it's eyeing cutting $8 million used to pay off-duty law enforcement officers who exclusively patrol Disney properties. Chairman Martin Garcia called it "wasteful spending."

The board, along with acting Secretary of the Department of Economic Opportunity Meredith Ivey, is also named in the suit. It's filed a suit of its own against Disney in state court.


(full article online)

Disney criticizes Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' attempt to remove himself from legal battle: 'Evade responsibility'

Disney bashed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for his recent request for immunity from the lawsuit it filed against him.

www.aol.com

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

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[Sixties Fan]

The Republican-controlled House voted late Wednesday to block the Department of Veterans Affairs from updating its motto to include female veterans.

The VA would not be able to "modify or remove any display" of the mission statement it adopted 64 years ago under an amendment passed as part of an annual VA spending bill. The motto refers only to male veterans and was based on a line in President Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address: "To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan."

The new motto chosen by the VA hews closely to the original but acknowledges women who have served the country, as well as other surviving spouses and family members: "To fulfill President Lincoln's promise to care for those who have served in our nation's military and for their families, caregivers and survivors."

VA Secretary Denis McDonough announced the motto change in March, timed for Women's History Month. The announcement came after two surveys of 30,000 veterans, focus groups and years of lobbying by advocacy groups, mostly prominently the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

But Republicans have bristled at what they claim are efforts to "erase" Lincoln's quote.

"It's a good quote," Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who sponsored the amendment, said on the House floor. "It's an historic quote. The fact is we should not use taxpayer dollars to allow this administration to unilaterally change the VA's historic motto and erase the words of President Lincoln to appease the radical left and advance yet another one of their cultural revisionist efforts."

The amendment, which was approved on a nearly party-line, 221-212 vote, would effectively prevent the VA from adopting the new motto.

The amendment adds to an array of provisions Republicans already inserted into the billtargeting VA efforts to be more welcoming to historically marginalized groups of people, including language to bar the department from providing abortions or gender-affirming health care.

House Republicans Vote to Block VA from Changing Motto to Include Female Veterans

The VA would not be able to "modify or remove any display" of the mission statement it adopted 64 years ago under an amendment passed as part of an annual VA spending bill.

www.military.com

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[SweetTea]

https://twitter.com/MarkJacob16

With all the arguments over whether MAGA Republicans are fascists, I reread William Shirer’s “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” to see how much the rise of Hitler and the rise of MAGA smell similar. Conclusion: They do. This thread lists 10 ways. Please take a look.

1. A big lie about treachery is used to foment resentment. Nazis: We didn’t really lose World War I. It was a “stab in the back” by Jews and other "November criminals." MAGA: We didn’t really lose the 2020 election. It was a “steal” by politicians and Blacks in big cities.




2. There’s an obsession with purity of the culture. Nazis: “Racial mixture” was a threat to Aryan culture, Hitler wrote. MAGA: “Great replacement theory” says immigrants threaten white culture.



3. Chaos is something to be exploited, not addressed. Nazis: Economic distress is a great political opportunity. MAGA: Economic distress is a great political opportunity.



4. The super-rich bankroll the right-wing seizure of power. Nazis: Thanks to I.G. Farben, Deutsche Bank, Thyssen, Krupp, etc. MAGA: Thanks to the Mercers, Uihleins, DeVos, Thiel, etc.



5. Some people think the fascist threat is overblown. Nazis: While Hitler posed a major threat, some said he "ceased to be a political danger.” (2 weeks later, he was chancellor.) MAGA: While Trump poses a major threat, many people think it’s “just politics,” no worries.


6. There’s a cult of personality. Nazis: The German army made a pledge of loyalty to Hitler personally. MAGA: Trump’s supporters bill him as “the most moral president” in U.S. history.



7. Christianity is used to legitimize the movement. Nazis: “The party stands for positive Christianity.” MAGA: Trump is described as the “Chosen One” protecting American Christianity.





8. Books are the enemy. Nazis: Any book that “acts subversively on our future” must be burned. MAGA: “I think we should throw those books in a fire,” says a Virginia school board member.




9. An independent news media is the enemy. Nazis: Any newspaper that “offends the honor and dignity of Germany” must be banned. MAGA: The press is the “enemy of the people.”



10. Educators are pressured to be politically compliant. Nazis: Teachers took an oath to “be loyal and obedient to Adolf Hitler.” MAGA: Florida’s DeSantis accuses teachers of “indoctrination” and pressures them to avoid references to America’s racist history and LGBTQ people.



I'm not saying that MAGA will end up as horrifically as Nazism. I am saying that America 2022 feels too much like Germany 1932, and I don't want to take the risk of watching MAGA cultism play out. We have to stop it now.



Why did Twitter put a “sensitive” warning on this thread? Who knows? My only theory is that it has a “hateful symbol”—a swastika on the cover of Shirer’s book about Nazism.

You have it exactly backwards. Congratulations on affirming(to yourself) your preconceptions and indoctrination.

 

[Sixties Fan]

Part 1


In the 1930s, as many Germans were swept into an antisemitic fervor by the Nazis, while others stood by and did nothing, the Lutheran Pastor Dietrich Bonhoefferactively resisted Hitler’s genocide. In April 1943, the Gestapo arrested him. The authorities accused him of being a part of the July 20, 1944, plot to assassinate Hitler. In April 1945, he was hanged by the Nazis, two weeks before WWII ended.

Few people have had a better view and a deeper understanding of the forces that caused so many unexceptional citizens to become cogs in the Nazi's death machine. At the end of 1942, Bonhoeffer dissected the causes of the Nazi rise to power in his essay “After Ten Years." In the piece, he reflected on the role of stupidity in enabling tyranny.

“Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease.”

Bonhoeffer argues that evil is a quality that even its perpetrators recognize is immoral — even as they might excuse its use to advance a ‘worthy’ end. Stupidity has no such internal check. Evil has a purpose. Stupidity just is. He continues:

“Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed — in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical — and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack.”

Anyone who has tried reason on a MAGA knows they reject facts and embrace comforting conspiracy theories. Some MAGAs — especially friends and family — may appear superficially accepting of a sensible argument. But as soon as they return to the internet, they are again down the Q rabbit hole.

Sometimes we discover that people we consider intelligent and may have advanced degrees are just as resistant to reality as the low-IQ, poorly-educated cultist. Bonhoeffer explains:

“There are human beings who are of remarkably agile intellect yet stupid, and others who are intellectually quite dull yet anything but stupid.”

Stupidity is a quality that may correlate with IQ, but it is by no means a predictable relationship. Most of us have thought at some time, “How can (fill in the blank) be so fecking stupid?” Bonhoeffer elucidates the question.

“The impression one gains is not so much that stupidity is a congenital defect, but that, under certain circumstances, people are made stupid or that they allow this to happen to them. We note further that people who have isolated themselves from others or who live in solitude manifest this defect less frequently than individuals or groups of people inclined or condemned to sociability. And so it would seem that stupidity is perhaps less a psychological than a sociological problem.”

Sadly, stupidity walks hand-in-hand with sociability. However, I suspect the truth is that intellectually self-sufficient people, regardless of whether they are sociable, are resistant to stupidity — while the stupid actively seek affirmation for their beliefs by hanging out with other stupid people.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer explained how stupidity enables MAGA

In the 1930s, as many Germans were swept into an antisemitic fervor by the Nazis, while others stood by and did nothing, the Lutheran Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer actively resisted Hitler’s genocide. In April 1943, the Gestapo arrested him. The...

www.dailykos.com

 

[Sixties Fan]

Part 2


Bonhoeffer goes on to describe the stupid person.

“The fact that the stupid person is often stubborn must not blind us to the fact that he is not independent. In conversation with him, one virtually feels that one is dealing not at all with a person, but with slogans, catchwords and the like that have taken possession of him. He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being. Having thus become a mindless tool, the stupid person will also be capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil.”

One characteristic of MAGAs on social media is that they never express an original thought. Every argument they advance is someone else's. And almost invariably, they express themselves in memes. They also love chain emails disseminating complete bullshit — the more lurid, the better.

Left to their own devices, these stupid people would be irritating. But seduced by a charismatic leader, they coalesce into a destabilizing force eager to promote the cult. And avid to be tools of the autocrat.

“He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being. Having thus become a mindless tool, the stupid person will also be capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil. This is where the danger of diabolical misuse lurks, for it is this that can once and for all destroy human beings.

The autocrat is aware of this valuable and necessary asset.

“Upon closer observation, it becomes apparent that every strong upsurge of power in the public sphere, be it of a political or of a religious nature, infects a large part of humankind with stupidity.”

Bonhoeffer then offered the cold comfort that, while there is an end to stupidity, it comes at a high cost. And unfortunately, there is no other way to achieve that end.

“Yet at this very point it becomes quite clear that only an act of liberation, not instruction, can overcome stupidity. Here we must come to terms with the fact that in most cases a genuine internal liberation becomes possible only when external liberation has preceded it. Until then we must abandon all attempts to convince the stupid person.”

In Germany’s case the “act of liberation” was the country's destruction as it lost WWII. Who knows what will cause the MAGAs to come to their senses? With luck, an energized Gen Z will push an aging reactionary mob to the sidelines. With no luck, it will be the civil war Trump and his dead-enders are fomenting.

Or the end could be decades away as the Republicans at the state and federal levels shred democratic norms like ballot access, streamlined registration, early and mail-in voting, ballot measures, and representative districts while armed Brown Shirts patrol polling stations — reducing America to a Soviet-style shithole.

On the last, although I like to be right, I would prefer circumstances to prove me guilty of hyperbole and just plain wrong. Fingers crossed.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer explained how stupidity enables MAGA

In the 1930s, as many Germans were swept into an antisemitic fervor by the Nazis, while others stood by and did nothing, the Lutheran Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer actively resisted Hitler’s genocide. In April 1943, the Gestapo arrested him. The...

www.dailykos.com

 

[Sixties Fan]

Former "assistant to the president" Peter Navarro apparently sees the writing on the wall—and he doesn't like it. In a new video, the man who worked feverishly to help Donald Trump overthrow the United States government on Jan. 6, 2021, slaps a picture of the Declaration of Independence behind himself, wires himself up with a microphone that makes it abundantly clear the patriotic background is meant to hide that he's taping this in his own basement or somebody else's, and warns that a second Civil War is nearly upon us.






(full article online)

Trump ally warns of 'second Civil War' if they can't get away with coup attempt

Former "assistant to the president" Peter Navarro apparently sees the writing on the wall—and he doesn't like it. In a new video, the man who worked feverishly to help Donald Trump overthrow the ...

www.dailykos.com

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Lastamender]

Wow! A quote from a washed up crybaby. That should shake the modern world. Hold on!!!

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]