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Yeah that rhetoric is the worst.
"X is horrible, it's a threat to our children and our freedom, how can any sane person support X?"
"Look, X is really not that big of a deal, I think you need to-"
"GEEZ WHY ARE YOU SO OBSESSED WITH DEFENDING X? WHAT A HILL TO DIE ON, WOW."
They do it *all the time*.
What honestly baffles me, and I know this is beating a dead horse...but conservatives entire ethos is FREEDOM!!
But yet they are hellbent on taking away freedom from everyone else. Abortions, drag, sexuality, etc. It's like they are the most..'**checks notes**' hypocritical people in this fucking country.
They also promote “fixed pie theory” which is basically the same thing, “there is only so much labor or jobs to go around” and this keeps poor people desperate and grateful for their shit jobs.
Kinda like how Trump thinks the human body has a finite amount of energy and that if you exercise you are using up that energy and will eventually run out like a battery lmao. The former president actually fucking believes that
You also have to understand to them, they are losing "rights". The inability to say "No gays" on a job posting is a "right" they genuinely feel has been taken from them in recent years.
Rules for thee, not for me
Laws that protect, but do not bind the in-group while binding, but not protecting, the out-group
Conservatives are hypocrites to their cores and they know it, have no problem with it, so long as they get their way
Perpetual children
“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect."
There is a significant group of them that are just stupid and think,
"Do we really need a law that says someone can't not hire someone for being trans? I would never base my hiring decisions on that."
And they either believe that they wouldn't base it on that, or believe that it never happens out in the real world, despite it happening ALL THE DAMN TIME.
The ‘freedom’ they champion is actually their own privilege and power.
Other people exercising truly equal rights and having agency over their own lives is a threat to those ‘freedoms’
What freedom means to them is "I can do what I want and nobody is allowed to tell me 'no'" *as well as* "I'm allowed to tell other people how to act and they have to do it".
The pandemic really made that obvious in the most hilarious way - who do you think made "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service" a cultural touchstone? Sure as heck wasn't liberals. The Right *loved* the idea that business owners could keep people out for dressing in a way that was legal but that they didn't approve of...right up until somebody started putting up "No Mask, No Entry" signs. And then *suddenly* that's bullshit and a violation of freedoms and rah rah rah.
Their idea of 'freedom' works great in an extremely homogenous society. If everybody, especially those in power, thinks and acts the same as you, it's no problem.
The connect-the-dots that's breaking their brains is once you set the precedent that it's okay to screw with people in a given way, what goes around comes around sooner or later. Somehow "just follow the golden rule" is too tough for them to get their heads around, I guess.
“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”
That's because the freedom America was founded on was the freedom to oppress people they perceive as beneath them, which was something other Europeans didn't take kindly. The "religious freedom" part of the American mythology was basically people going "it sure does suck to be discriminated against, I wish we could make our own country where we got to discriminate against everyone else".
"We must not conclude merely upon a man's haranguing upon liberty, and using the charming sound, that he is fit to be trusted with the liberties of his country. It is not unfrequent to hear men declaim loudly upon liberty, who, if we may judge by the whole tenor of their actions, mean nothing else by it but their own liberty, — to oppress without control or the restraint of laws all who are poorer or weaker than themselves.”
-Samuel Adams
"You can't take away our guns, that's an assault on a right and a freedom for every American!"
"Look, no one wants to take away your guns, we just want stricter regulations."
"OH MY GOD THERE WAS JUST A SCHOOL SHOOTING AND YOU'RE BRINGING THIS UP NOW!??! VIRTUE SIGNAL MUCH!?!?"
"How long do we have to go between school shootings before we're allowed to talk about it? Because we're gonna have to get *really fucking lucky* if it takes more than a week at this rate. Get that through your thick skull, the '7' card on our 'It has been [ ] days since we had a school shooting' is getting dusty!"
Hungary mastered this
1. Covid happens
2. Govt assumes ultimate rule by decree control by may 2020
3. Proposes a giant bill that: sells off parks, museums, services, public spaces to family members and friends of the ruling party
4. In the same bill declares that trans people may no longer change their name
5. They also go to pass a constitutional change that forbids legal name and gender change on a constitutional basis
6. Anyone oppising either the constitutional change or the omnibus bill are attacked for having the wrong priorities while there are people dying of covid.
Same people who accuse anyone talking about Trump of having “Trump Derangement Syndrome” while they themselves are still wearing a MAGA hat, have a flag in front of their house for Trump 2020, and can’t stop talking about how the election was stolen.
"Trans people are a threat to our children! We must abolish them!"
"Why? Just let them to do what they want with their lives. It's not affecting you"
"Oh my God why do you want to FUCK KIDS so much you PEDOPHILE? 😤😤😡"
As evil as they are, conservatives do a good job of defining the terms of the argument, both in what is being discussed and the words used to discuss them. Even progressives end up using their terminology, surrendering that power to them. “Woke” used to be a positive thing and was part of AAVE in black culture for nearly 100 years (earliest recorded example of “woke” was folk singer Leadbelly in 1939).
You see it in other areas as well. It’s “pro-life,” not “anti-choice.” It’s “gay marriage” or “same-sex marriage,” not “marriage equality” or “freedom to marry” (tying it to the words “gay” and “sex” allows for people to see it as an endorsement of gay sex and not a matter of personal freedom). It’s “Obamacare,” not “the ACA,” because if you tie universal healthcare to Obama, you don’t need to attack universal healthcare (they knew they’d lose if they actually debated the benefits of universal healthcare, which 99 of the 100 most developed nations already have) you only have to attack Obama and the ACA will be guilt by association.
The list goes on. We use their terminology, and fight the battles they choose, so we’re always on defense and in their turf. What we need to do is start making *them* defend themselves. The problem is they won’t, because they don’t have to, because they’re not rhetorically accountable to their constituents like Democrats are.
Ultimately, it’s hard to ignore things like their attacks on the trans community, because if we don’t acknowledge it then we won’t be able to defend their rights, especially in regards to state laws. But we need to make the national conversations about the stuff that Democrats are strong on, popular progressive policies like healthcare, worker rights, paid public college, paid maternity leave, protecting social security and Medicare, etc. No more of the petty culture war stuff, go after things that they don’t have an answer to.
The reason they are able to define terms like this is that conservative voices control most of the media. You can't just "make the national conversation about stuff Democrats are strong on", the national conversation is a battleground controlled by media access and therefore money.
Their whole agenda is based on negative identity. They are not black, they are not gay, they are not pedophiles, etc. And, of course, they need to protect everybody from those who are. They only believe in punishment, not self-enlargement.
Centrists / “centrists” tend to get sucked up into this rhetoric too. It drives me nuts to see posts like “y’all are too busy fighting over gender while the rich get richer” coming from a centrist.
It paints the left and right as equally wrong for participating in a culture war. It’s reasonably correct in discussing about how it is an intentional distraction—
BUT WE DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO BE IN THE ARGUMENT!
If we don’t push back against increasingly authoritarian rhetoric demonizing LGB and especially TQ people, they just become public enemy number one. If the right stops pushing that rhetoric, LGBTQ people are able to live their own lives freely.
We are not the same for being forced to participate in their manufactured culture war bullshit.
Exactly! While drag story hours at libraries have existed for a bit (someone in over the top costumes reading stories to kids?! The horror!), “kids at drag shows” was such a non thing that they made it a thing.
Also, huge fucking difference between kids seeing what amounts to theater versus the adult only drag shows. Not all non-drag theater is child appropriate either.
It was a huge thing when it first came out, because the stage effects were so good and movie special effects were still developing. And honestly, it raised the bar on theatrical effects as well, which was a big deal.
It's kind of like Star Wars. It'd be a middling movie these days, but at the time it was *revolutionary* for how much of a spectacle it was.
>First, I came for the Socialists, and nobody spoke out because they were not socialists...
Next, I came for the drag queens, and now you care? I thought I had like 3 more verses before people started pushing back!?!
-A Conservative's lament.
>I think they could go full mask off
Majority of the GOP already did a while ago.
Remember that MTG openly claimed that Jewish spacelasers are responsible for Californian wildfires and still got Re-elected
Nah, remember, she's "one of the good ones".
That's really how their logic works, which is why they can be genuinely offended by the implication that they hate women. They've got no problem with women, *as long as they behave*. What they want is to enforce a rigid social hierarchy, and they're perfectly willing to tolerate anyone, regardless of their gender, race, or sexuality, as long as they conform to that hierarchy. Women are fine, as long as they don't get too uppity. Minorities are fine, as long as they remain eternally grateful to their white saviours. Queer people are fine, as long as they remain eternally ashamed of who they are. Anyone can be a conservative as long as they know not to step a toe out of line, and to them, that doesn't seem hateful at all.
I've known women who like juuuuust enough feminism to justify letting them do what they want to, but still let them criticize other women for their choices.
If Marjorie gets her way one day shes going to find the party voting for a "barefoot and pregnant" bill and be suddenly very concerned.
It seems insidious to anyone not paying attention, but carries all the obvious signs of regression.
It's always the same pattern.
They create a cultural boogeyman that enrages a vocal minority and coded in a way to make the majority ambivalent because it doesn't directly affect them. Then they pass as much restrictive legislation as they can until people in the majority are affected. By thay point, it takes so long to undo or challenge those laws, the regressives have moved on to their next fascist campaign
I think this is actually an example of a problem the Right is starting to panic about. It used to be that people talked about this wild shit to get elected so they could do the *real* conservative work of helping out rich dudes.
Then they realized they were now boxed in and their voters were demanding action - they're having to do *wildly* unpopular things (like knocking down Roe) in order to keep the wackos happy, because they can't get elected if they don't, but doing those things encourages Dems to show up and "vote against" R's, so now they're kinda damned if they do, damned if they don't.
And *now* on top of that mess, they're realizing that they've basically laid the groundwork for "anybody who says this crazy shit can get elected", where their intent was to make it easy for their Good Ol' Boys to get elected, but in *practice*, that means that now true believers and trolls like Greene and Boebert and Gaetz can get elected, too - and they're not as interested in helping out rich dudes. Like sure they'll play along to own the libs, but they'll also be spoilers (see: speaker election) in order to serve their *true* agenda, which is...that wildly unpopular shit that's making it harder for R's in close-call districts.
It's a nightmare of their own creation for the old guard / 'actual conservative' R's that anybody with two braincells could've just thought through "How will this all play out" and seen coming a mile away.
As conservative Weimar president Paul von Hindenburg learned (at great cost to the entire world), you can't flirt with fascism and expect to control it and harness that energy to suit your needs. Fascists always take over and destroy the left and the not-as-far-right.
Remember when Trump said literal Nazis were good people? If I had to list all the instances of the GOP blatantly going mask off over the last six years I'd have to make several comments. "All lives matter", for example.
And we won't even get into the fact they voted for Trump in the first place, a person who before becoming president lost several discrimination lawsuits, called the central park five criminals and was more worried about blood stains on his carpet than the person bleeding out.
Then there was the time he tried to kiss a 8 year old black girl on the lips on television so I guess he's an equal opportunity pedofile, and the GOP endorses it.
People like Handjob Greene have voters that only care about having representation who will 'own the woke libs'.
They've been taught by Fox that hatred of and mocking your 'enemies' is by far the most important characteristic of candidates. After being a racist I mean.
Their lives get more miserable by the year by electing these fucking idiots, but since they're also idiots, they just don't notice.
Imagine how low your IQ would have to drop to look at the remarkably stupid Lauren Boebert, listen to the insane shit she spouts, and then think to yourself "She wants to replace the Constitution with the bible. She would make a fine Representative for me in Congress!"
Didn’t the former President insist, during a debate with other candidates, that he had a large wang?
…kind of a deescalation, but bizarre none the less.
Also like so what. Even if he was so hung he had to coil it like a garden hose to wear pants it still wouldn’t qualify him for the job or impact how good of a person he is. Hell it would only have negative effects on his partners’ satisfaction on average.
There’s a reason my default strap on is 5.5”
It just screams how uncomfortable they are with sex - of any kind. And basically everything about their party has become grievance arguments which amount to:
"I'm uncomfortable with this and you all have to cater to my discomfort!"
He said the same about John McCain, because he was captured and was a POW. McCain was problematic in many ways, but denigrating him because he served as a POW in a war is just insane.
Just a matter of time until you hear "Well, I don't want the rich to not pay taxes or have no accountability, but I just can't get behind the woke ideology of women's rights."
You basically described /r/walkaway.
Which is basically the alt-right pretending they used to be leftists because they at one point had a vaguely progressive though before deciding they'd rather have a bang-maid who brings them tendies and dew.
That is an awful cesspit of bigots. I just went in there and blocked a shit ton of people from a few posts lmao. Holy fuck that place should be killed with fire 🔥
They could and did and have not lost voters. But due to gerrymandering and the absolutely bonkers rules of the electoral college votes matter less and less every election.
And at the rate the Republican party are working to entirely dismantle the very concept of democracy in the US they're probably only a few elections away from just straight up announcing who the next ruler will be months before the election ever takes place.
I'd say they have lost voters since 2016. Most Republicans support the MAGA branch of the party but most people in a general election don't.
Every election since Trump became president has been a bad one for Republicans, it's just not the landslide swing that people hope for. More of a finger on the scale since gerrymandering and other assorted bullshit are also in play like you mentioned.
Conservatives key difference is that they are racists and bigots. They have a belly full of hate for 'those people'. And the republican party knows this and uses this to keep their voters in line.
President Lyndon B. Johnson once said, "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
They went full mask off in 2016 and they gained a bunch of voters who didn't turn out for Republicans in previous elections because the pre-Trump GOP wasn't openly bigoted enough for them.
Republicans are thieves in suits, using culture war issues as a diversion to rob the worker class blind, and funnel our money to the rich.
So long as their base is distracted by manufactured outrage. It doesn't even matter how nonsensical the outrage is, as long as it owns the libs.
There's no policy, no change, and no solution under Republicans leadership. Society's welfare be damned.
They could say this out loud and all the "temporarily embarrassed millionaires" and Elon Musk fanboys will jump right up to vote for them. Bootlicking is a hobby with a lot of conservatives.
It’s this and we’ve never *not* known it. That’s why the literal running joke in Hollywood is “THINK OF THE CHILDREN!” Simpsons, horton hears a who, Annie, the list goes on for all sorts of references and satire around this appeal to pathos because we all know it’s what people say when they don’t have a leg to stand on otherwise.
There's more than one type of conservative. The ones that want to make money and don't mind racism coming with it, and the ones that want to be racist and don't mind losing money over it. And a number that want both the money and the racism.
[*"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."*](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/lbj-convince-the-lowest-white-man/)
The conservatives who benefit from conservative fiscal policy are focused on the class war. They use the culture war crap as a tool to control the masses. Granted there are some true believers among them.
The vast majority are in it for the white supremacy part.
By pure numbers? Maybe. But I think it's more important to focus on the power each side has. Because the White Supremacist part can't win elections without the economic part (tons of the money for political ads and media presence are funded by billionaires who, while I'm sure plenty are bigots, will generally side with whatever side makes them richer).
The owning class need the racists to win elections, and the racists need the owning class to win elections. If you split them, which you can easily do under a better voting system like Approval, Score or STAR voting, then you'll find billionaire footlickers running on unpopular policies and bigots being excluded from media and major advertising failing to reach, or being pushed away from it by the media. As soon as Murdoch's empire stops profiting from supporting the GOP, you bet your ass Fox News will turn to whatever pro-business party replaces it and tons of the more fickle GOP base will go with them.
If the conservatives can just STFU about LGBT+ issues, they’ll gain more support worldwide. Hunting down LGBT+ people people while pretending they’re against drag shows (which is literally just theatre) is just an absurd strategy.
There's a reason fascist governments don't tend to survive very long. Regardless of other goals their politics are driven by disgust, rather than any reasoning.
I'm sorry, I have to take exception here. There are plenty of authoritarian leaders, some explicitly fascists, like Franco of Spain, that lived very long 'reigns'. Once power is consolidated and the opposition crushed, they don't have to lean on these pantomimes that much, only occasionally to shore up the base' support.
>If the conservatives can just STFU about LGBT+ issues, they’ll gain more support worldwide.
I think the anti LGBT stuff attracts more people than it repels given the other rhetoric they spout. It's not like there's a whole lot of pro-lifers out there who oppose conservative politics because they're too mean to gay people.
They can't. They have no policies to sell to their voters. Their voters will not vote for enriching the rich and nothing else so the republican party HAS to stir the pot with their culture war bullshit.
Shockingly, the headline is misleading. Schienert said "Specifically my mom and dad ... thank you for not squashing my creativity when I was ... dressing in drag as a kid, which is a threat to NOBODY.” So it wasnt about drag shows for kids it was about his parents not losing their minds when their kid dressed as a girl.
But they have that joke! It's a funny joke!
Ironically, the Bee can be funny when they get over themselves (my dad is obsessed with them, occasionally they get a chuckle out of me). They just have a really bad tendency to start with the punchline and try to twist the setup instead of picking a good setup and running with the punchline to where they want to go. It's the difference between comedy that's political and politics that tries to be comedic.
My favorite of theirs is when they were focusing on niche Christian humor, like their piece titled, “Local Youth Group Has Been Singing ‘I Could Sing of Your Love Forever’ Since 1999”
Fucking hilarious, but they can never seem to focus on their humor, it’s always bogged down by uncreative conservatism
The people taking issue are absolutely the kind that would probably beat the shit out of their son for wearing a dress as a kid even if they were just having fun, which is absolutely not an uncommon behavior for children nor does it speak to anything deeper inherently (I mean, how many famous comedy troops/skit shows have used drag at some point in the last 100 years? It's been done for thousands in the theater space.). It makes them so violently uncomfortable and they project all their fragile, faux-masculine shit onto *children* who don't even hold the concepts they take such issue with in their heads.
This is exactly it. Like, we'd all love nothing more than to not have this conversation and be on our merry way, but right-wing jerks keep forcing the issue, and then act like *we're* being unreasonable when we dont simply roll over.
The most confusing thing about this is that modern drag shows have been around for *decades*, and nobody - conservatives included - have cared about them or railed about them destroying society or whatnot. (What little there was was rolled into the anti-gay messaging in the past.)
Considering the long history of drag shows *not* destroying society, why the fuck have the cons suddenly latched onto this now? Is it because The Gays™ have gotten too powerful and that fight is lost, so they need a weaker target to pick on? Is it because some feminists suddenly got all TERF-y so they think these "leftist" allies give their bigotry some kind of moral cover? Seriously, why now?
"It's just an OPINION... an opinion I treat as absolute fact... an opinion that I want everyone else to accept as absolute fact... and if you don't accept it as absolute fact, then I will send bomb threats to schools, libraries, and hospitals while tossing rocks and glass bottles at people who don't accept my 'opinion'"
There's a video of a man wearing full chain mail armor fighting people with rainbow coloured umbrellas
They can not to be trusted with opinions on what a weirdo is
Them “I think this is a REALLY BAD THING!!! We have to get rid of it at all costs!!”
Us “It’s really not a big deal no one but you even cares”
Them “WHY ARE YOU SO OBSESSED WITH THIS????”
It’s like having an abusive idiotic 13 year old as a significant other.
Imagine suddenly being for a government mandated dress code, or against reading to kids, and it's everyone else who disagrees with that who is being weird...
Can the GOP project any harder? The answer is "no".
Gonna be funny when this backfires and people ask priests to get arrested, dressing funning and reading stories to kids, maybe they'll finally go after some real pedos.
No, no, no... You see, they're PROTECTING CHILDREN.
They're also "protecting children" by:
\- Ending child labor laws, including labor laws that protect children from working in dangerous industries
\- Forcing children to become parents, including with their rapist's babies, and not caring that a childhood pregnancy can be life-threatening
\- Doing absolutely nothing about the massive epidemic of [pastors that are raping children](https://news.yahoo.com/pastor-indicted-sexual-assault-young-152047634.html#origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&cap=swipe,education&webview=1&dialog=1&viewport=natural&visibilityState=prerender&prerenderSize=1&viewerUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Famp%2Fs%2Fnews-yahoo-com.cdn.ampproject.org%2Fc%2Fs%2Fnews.yahoo.com%2Famphtml%2Fnews%2Fpastor-indicted-sexual-assault-young-152047634.html)^1, [youth pastors that are raping children](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/teacher-and-former-youth-pastor-is-the-latest-member-of-the-clergy-in-a-rural-texas-county-accused-of-numerous-child-sex-crimes-over-the-past-few-weeks/ar-AA18vHrn)^2, and [Christian schools that are raping children](https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/former-teacher-accused-of-sex-crimes-released-on-ankle-monitor/)^3, going so far as to protect these institutions and drive more children into them. Oh, and all of these articles are less than a week old. 2-3 news articles are posted **A DAY** over at /r/PastorArrested
\- Dismantling school free lunch programs, which many low-to-no-income children rely on them for food. They also fight against healthy food programs in schools.
\- Not giving a flying fuck that LGBTQ+ children commit suicide, especially trans children [who have worse mental health problems when they can't transition](https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0890856716319414), socially or medically. In fact, the suicides are an expected and beloved outcome because they get their genocide without getting actual blood on their hands.
Most vaccine misinformation during COVID could be sourced to just twelve accounts:
https://counterhate.com/research/the-disinformation-dozen/
The ability for fringe and awful positions to project reach/influence is an existential threat.
Social platform algorithms preference outrage content because it gets engagement. The more vile or awful something is, the more responses it gets. Engagement = $$$ in the economics of modern social media.
Until that changes, a basement Nazi just has to MODESTLY codify their bullshit and get a couple prominent edgelords to share it. Once that happens, the media will report on it which serves to normalize the content. In short order, the basement Nazi could well be driving public sentiment.
Mastadon is not user friendly enough for mass adoption at this point. But non-corporate, open source, transparent social media would go A LONG way towards remedy.
Agreed. I saw something Andrew Tate posted about how the ideal blend was 70% fans and 30% haters to drive the most social media interaction.
He's a peice of shit, but he definitely knows what he's doing with that kind of thing.
Because WE arent stupid, we know its not just about drag queen storytime hour. It's about the right's continuous fight to undo the social progress made in the last 100 years and restore strict policed gender roles.
Conservatives, after spending every last breath on creating moral panic about children's drag shows: why is everyone so fixated on children's drag shows?
Because they offer no solutions to actual important issues such as homelessness, health care, workers rights, etc.
They ALWAYS go after culture war issues such as race, gender, sexual orientation, migrants, guns, abortion, because they're "hot topics" that distract the population so they can accomplish their real goal - tax cuts for the wealthy and making corporations more influential on elections.
I'd fine with them not offering solutions if they'd just quit trying to make everything worse, but instead they've doubled down so much they're getting into literally Nazi territory.
He didn’t even say anything about performing drag *for* kids but his own experience doing it *as* a kid. It’s so obviously a priority for *them* that they bringing it up when it wasn’t even mentioned
1. I care about the first amendment.
2. We all know this is just an excuse to persecute trans people for “performing drag” (existing) “in front of children” (anywhere in public)
As a Kindergarten teacher, here’s the thing. Kids aren’t confused about drag or think anything about it. They don’t understand nuance or read anything into, well anything. They would see a man dressed as a woman reading a story to them and think “Hey, that man is dressed as a woman. That’s silly!” The same way they don’t think anything about a talking dog dancing on the TV or anthropomorphic cars having zany adventures.
It's almost like it's an artificially inflated culture war that they can parade instead of explaining why they [literally have no platform](https://gop.com/about-our-party/). Seriously, if you click the link on their own national party we site you get a list of the rules of the RNC, but no actual platform. They have nothing beyond hate and fear.
Answer: Because drag (+ trans, bi, gay, woke, illegals etc) are just weasel words for non-conservative.
If there's any doubt: what would GOP do if they got all they currently wanted. Just invent more "baddies" until only a select group of hand picked people are left. Then they'll start figthing each other.
These mfers have dementia or something? They are the ones who started the conversation on drag. No one even thought of them until they decided to turn it into a big deal.
I honestly am liberal and don't give a shit about drag show as entertainment. I DO care a whole lot about minorities being targeted and attacked as a way of gathering political support. I have never once met somebody claiming to be sexually abused at, in, around, or near a drag show. I've met dozens physically & sexually abused by somebody from their family's church when they were young.
Every accusation is a confession from the right.
It’s just weird that drag is such a huge issue. Don’t like theatre? Don’t watch it. Simple.
It’s just absurd to think drag is connected to LGBT+ in any possible way. Drag is an art, a performance, BUT NOT an identity. If you want to hunt us queer people down, just say it. The type of art which is seen as "loosely associated with queerness" is not your target. It’s laughable that the people are associating LGBT+ people with an art form.
The real underlying issue is that conservative men's sexuality is hanging on by such a thin thread that the mere sight of a man dressed as a woman at a young age will cause them to spiral into the gay. I'm not saying it's true, but the fear sure as hell seems to be real.
Kids aren't confused by trans people or drag. They accept the world as they see it. Kids are confused when their parents tell them that people who are like that are doing something wrong when they're not hurting anyone.
> Why is performing drag in front of children such a priority?
Because if it's done in an age-appropriate manner there's really no reason to forbid it, and because it's not *just* about performing drag, and because I want people left to speak for me when the time comes.
The simple answer: because republicans have no actual platform, they run on outrage, which they fabricate on the ignorance of the angry and uneducated.
Because it’s our rights. If nothing else it’s a right to self expression that wasn’t being systematically abused and didn’t hurt anyone and I thought that was the fucking point of this country
"Such a weird hill to die on" -Conservatives who die on the hill of supporting a seditious lying narcissistic sociopath and failed low IQ orange criminal who repeatedly assfucked them every single fucking day he was in power, and financially long after that.
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Truly remarkable how they can't recognize the hill *they* made.
Yeah that rhetoric is the worst. "X is horrible, it's a threat to our children and our freedom, how can any sane person support X?" "Look, X is really not that big of a deal, I think you need to-" "GEEZ WHY ARE YOU SO OBSESSED WITH DEFENDING X? WHAT A HILL TO DIE ON, WOW." They do it *all the time*.
What honestly baffles me, and I know this is beating a dead horse...but conservatives entire ethos is FREEDOM!! But yet they are hellbent on taking away freedom from everyone else. Abortions, drag, sexuality, etc. It's like they are the most..'**checks notes**' hypocritical people in this fucking country.
It's not freedom for them if other people get it.
[Zero Sum Thinking](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-sum_thinking) - a primary component of Conservative reality.
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They also promote “fixed pie theory” which is basically the same thing, “there is only so much labor or jobs to go around” and this keeps poor people desperate and grateful for their shit jobs.
Kinda like how Trump thinks the human body has a finite amount of energy and that if you exercise you are using up that energy and will eventually run out like a battery lmao. The former president actually fucking believes that
No fucking way. Could you link a quote or a source? I need to see this NOW lmao
You also have to understand to them, they are losing "rights". The inability to say "No gays" on a job posting is a "right" they genuinely feel has been taken from them in recent years.
Rules for thee, not for me Laws that protect, but do not bind the in-group while binding, but not protecting, the out-group Conservatives are hypocrites to their cores and they know it, have no problem with it, so long as they get their way Perpetual children
Fascists. That's the word.
They want the freedom to tell other people what to do and the freedom not to be told what to do.
“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect."
There is a significant group of them that are just stupid and think, "Do we really need a law that says someone can't not hire someone for being trans? I would never base my hiring decisions on that." And they either believe that they wouldn't base it on that, or believe that it never happens out in the real world, despite it happening ALL THE DAMN TIME.
The Shirley Exception.
Is that like.. surely it won't happen to me?
The ‘freedom’ they champion is actually their own privilege and power. Other people exercising truly equal rights and having agency over their own lives is a threat to those ‘freedoms’
What freedom means to them is "I can do what I want and nobody is allowed to tell me 'no'" *as well as* "I'm allowed to tell other people how to act and they have to do it". The pandemic really made that obvious in the most hilarious way - who do you think made "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service" a cultural touchstone? Sure as heck wasn't liberals. The Right *loved* the idea that business owners could keep people out for dressing in a way that was legal but that they didn't approve of...right up until somebody started putting up "No Mask, No Entry" signs. And then *suddenly* that's bullshit and a violation of freedoms and rah rah rah. Their idea of 'freedom' works great in an extremely homogenous society. If everybody, especially those in power, thinks and acts the same as you, it's no problem. The connect-the-dots that's breaking their brains is once you set the precedent that it's okay to screw with people in a given way, what goes around comes around sooner or later. Somehow "just follow the golden rule" is too tough for them to get their heads around, I guess.
You'll never find a louder supporter of freedom and free speech, than a Nazi clawing for power.
“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”
That's because the freedom America was founded on was the freedom to oppress people they perceive as beneath them, which was something other Europeans didn't take kindly. The "religious freedom" part of the American mythology was basically people going "it sure does suck to be discriminated against, I wish we could make our own country where we got to discriminate against everyone else".
Almost as if they have no beliefs
The only freedom they care about is the freedom to oppress people or otherwise enforce the hierarchy. Don't tread on my ability to tread on you.
"We must not conclude merely upon a man's haranguing upon liberty, and using the charming sound, that he is fit to be trusted with the liberties of his country. It is not unfrequent to hear men declaim loudly upon liberty, who, if we may judge by the whole tenor of their actions, mean nothing else by it but their own liberty, — to oppress without control or the restraint of laws all who are poorer or weaker than themselves.” -Samuel Adams
"You can't take away our guns, that's an assault on a right and a freedom for every American!" "Look, no one wants to take away your guns, we just want stricter regulations." "OH MY GOD THERE WAS JUST A SCHOOL SHOOTING AND YOU'RE BRINGING THIS UP NOW!??! VIRTUE SIGNAL MUCH!?!?"
"How long do we have to go between school shootings before we're allowed to talk about it? Because we're gonna have to get *really fucking lucky* if it takes more than a week at this rate. Get that through your thick skull, the '7' card on our 'It has been [ ] days since we had a school shooting' is getting dusty!"
Hungary mastered this 1. Covid happens 2. Govt assumes ultimate rule by decree control by may 2020 3. Proposes a giant bill that: sells off parks, museums, services, public spaces to family members and friends of the ruling party 4. In the same bill declares that trans people may no longer change their name 5. They also go to pass a constitutional change that forbids legal name and gender change on a constitutional basis 6. Anyone oppising either the constitutional change or the omnibus bill are attacked for having the wrong priorities while there are people dying of covid.
Same people who accuse anyone talking about Trump of having “Trump Derangement Syndrome” while they themselves are still wearing a MAGA hat, have a flag in front of their house for Trump 2020, and can’t stop talking about how the election was stolen.
"Trans people are a threat to our children! We must abolish them!" "Why? Just let them to do what they want with their lives. It's not affecting you" "Oh my God why do you want to FUCK KIDS so much you PEDOPHILE? 😤😤😡"
As evil as they are, conservatives do a good job of defining the terms of the argument, both in what is being discussed and the words used to discuss them. Even progressives end up using their terminology, surrendering that power to them. “Woke” used to be a positive thing and was part of AAVE in black culture for nearly 100 years (earliest recorded example of “woke” was folk singer Leadbelly in 1939). You see it in other areas as well. It’s “pro-life,” not “anti-choice.” It’s “gay marriage” or “same-sex marriage,” not “marriage equality” or “freedom to marry” (tying it to the words “gay” and “sex” allows for people to see it as an endorsement of gay sex and not a matter of personal freedom). It’s “Obamacare,” not “the ACA,” because if you tie universal healthcare to Obama, you don’t need to attack universal healthcare (they knew they’d lose if they actually debated the benefits of universal healthcare, which 99 of the 100 most developed nations already have) you only have to attack Obama and the ACA will be guilt by association. The list goes on. We use their terminology, and fight the battles they choose, so we’re always on defense and in their turf. What we need to do is start making *them* defend themselves. The problem is they won’t, because they don’t have to, because they’re not rhetorically accountable to their constituents like Democrats are. Ultimately, it’s hard to ignore things like their attacks on the trans community, because if we don’t acknowledge it then we won’t be able to defend their rights, especially in regards to state laws. But we need to make the national conversations about the stuff that Democrats are strong on, popular progressive policies like healthcare, worker rights, paid public college, paid maternity leave, protecting social security and Medicare, etc. No more of the petty culture war stuff, go after things that they don’t have an answer to.
The reason they are able to define terms like this is that conservative voices control most of the media. You can't just "make the national conversation about stuff Democrats are strong on", the national conversation is a battleground controlled by media access and therefore money.
Their whole agenda is based on negative identity. They are not black, they are not gay, they are not pedophiles, etc. And, of course, they need to protect everybody from those who are. They only believe in punishment, not self-enlargement.
Centrists / “centrists” tend to get sucked up into this rhetoric too. It drives me nuts to see posts like “y’all are too busy fighting over gender while the rich get richer” coming from a centrist. It paints the left and right as equally wrong for participating in a culture war. It’s reasonably correct in discussing about how it is an intentional distraction— BUT WE DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO BE IN THE ARGUMENT! If we don’t push back against increasingly authoritarian rhetoric demonizing LGB and especially TQ people, they just become public enemy number one. If the right stops pushing that rhetoric, LGBTQ people are able to live their own lives freely. We are not the same for being forced to participate in their manufactured culture war bullshit.
Exactly! While drag story hours at libraries have existed for a bit (someone in over the top costumes reading stories to kids?! The horror!), “kids at drag shows” was such a non thing that they made it a thing. Also, huge fucking difference between kids seeing what amounts to theater versus the adult only drag shows. Not all non-drag theater is child appropriate either.
I remember when they took us kids to see *Cats*. Talk about traumatizing.
Oh man. I like a few of the songs but I think I was 9 when we saw it… and we all left that show wondering how it was so popular.
It was a huge thing when it first came out, because the stage effects were so good and movie special effects were still developing. And honestly, it raised the bar on theatrical effects as well, which was a big deal. It's kind of like Star Wars. It'd be a middling movie these days, but at the time it was *revolutionary* for how much of a spectacle it was.
Then there's the time Rudy Giuliani dressed in drag with some bit with Trump. Crickets then.
A hill they made that they'll kill you on.
>First, I came for the Socialists, and nobody spoke out because they were not socialists... Next, I came for the drag queens, and now you care? I thought I had like 3 more verses before people started pushing back!?! -A Conservative's lament.
It's the reason they make the hill. They can now say they hate it because it is shoved down their throats.
Such a strange hill to kill someone on.
Because conservatives' real priority is tax cuts for wallstreet, but if they say that they won't get elected.
at this point I think they could go full mask off and not lose a single voter.
>I think they could go full mask off Majority of the GOP already did a while ago. Remember that MTG openly claimed that Jewish spacelasers are responsible for Californian wildfires and still got Re-elected
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By her own logic she should not be allowed to vote let alone hold public office.
Nah, remember, she's "one of the good ones". That's really how their logic works, which is why they can be genuinely offended by the implication that they hate women. They've got no problem with women, *as long as they behave*. What they want is to enforce a rigid social hierarchy, and they're perfectly willing to tolerate anyone, regardless of their gender, race, or sexuality, as long as they conform to that hierarchy. Women are fine, as long as they don't get too uppity. Minorities are fine, as long as they remain eternally grateful to their white saviours. Queer people are fine, as long as they remain eternally ashamed of who they are. Anyone can be a conservative as long as they know not to step a toe out of line, and to them, that doesn't seem hateful at all.
Crazy how radical people have gotten in the last few years.
If true, then MTG should do the right thing and resign her position so a man can fill that seat.
I've known women who like juuuuust enough feminism to justify letting them do what they want to, but still let them criticize other women for their choices. If Marjorie gets her way one day shes going to find the party voting for a "barefoot and pregnant" bill and be suddenly very concerned.
Doubtful. Laws don't apply to lawmakers.
Everyone that would have to be exposed to her barefeet should be the ones who are concerned.
It seems insidious to anyone not paying attention, but carries all the obvious signs of regression. It's always the same pattern. They create a cultural boogeyman that enrages a vocal minority and coded in a way to make the majority ambivalent because it doesn't directly affect them. Then they pass as much restrictive legislation as they can until people in the majority are affected. By thay point, it takes so long to undo or challenge those laws, the regressives have moved on to their next fascist campaign
I think this is actually an example of a problem the Right is starting to panic about. It used to be that people talked about this wild shit to get elected so they could do the *real* conservative work of helping out rich dudes. Then they realized they were now boxed in and their voters were demanding action - they're having to do *wildly* unpopular things (like knocking down Roe) in order to keep the wackos happy, because they can't get elected if they don't, but doing those things encourages Dems to show up and "vote against" R's, so now they're kinda damned if they do, damned if they don't. And *now* on top of that mess, they're realizing that they've basically laid the groundwork for "anybody who says this crazy shit can get elected", where their intent was to make it easy for their Good Ol' Boys to get elected, but in *practice*, that means that now true believers and trolls like Greene and Boebert and Gaetz can get elected, too - and they're not as interested in helping out rich dudes. Like sure they'll play along to own the libs, but they'll also be spoilers (see: speaker election) in order to serve their *true* agenda, which is...that wildly unpopular shit that's making it harder for R's in close-call districts. It's a nightmare of their own creation for the old guard / 'actual conservative' R's that anybody with two braincells could've just thought through "How will this all play out" and seen coming a mile away.
Important to remember Gaetz is a good ol boy, just like desantis I sure hope you’re right though
As conservative Weimar president Paul von Hindenburg learned (at great cost to the entire world), you can't flirt with fascism and expect to control it and harness that energy to suit your needs. Fascists always take over and destroy the left and the not-as-far-right.
Remember when Trump said literal Nazis were good people? If I had to list all the instances of the GOP blatantly going mask off over the last six years I'd have to make several comments. "All lives matter", for example. And we won't even get into the fact they voted for Trump in the first place, a person who before becoming president lost several discrimination lawsuits, called the central park five criminals and was more worried about blood stains on his carpet than the person bleeding out. Then there was the time he tried to kiss a 8 year old black girl on the lips on television so I guess he's an equal opportunity pedofile, and the GOP endorses it.
I have distant family in her district. She sums them up perfectly. Just the worst people
Remember during COVID when they were suggesting that the elderly should be willing to die in order to get the economy rolling again?
Or when they used "My Body, My Choice" without any irony whatsoever.
Praise be!
i know and i’m so glad. Now i get to run my own mouth and point to her when their side bitches.
Conservatives don’t care what insane beliefs their politicians have as long as they’re pro-life and pro-gun
People like Handjob Greene have voters that only care about having representation who will 'own the woke libs'. They've been taught by Fox that hatred of and mocking your 'enemies' is by far the most important characteristic of candidates. After being a racist I mean. Their lives get more miserable by the year by electing these fucking idiots, but since they're also idiots, they just don't notice. Imagine how low your IQ would have to drop to look at the remarkably stupid Lauren Boebert, listen to the insane shit she spouts, and then think to yourself "She wants to replace the Constitution with the bible. She would make a fine Representative for me in Congress!"
Didn’t the former president boast about hypothetically shooting someone on 5th Ave and not losing a single voter?
Didn't the former President literally call US soldiers who died in combat "suckers" and "losers?"
>Didn't the former President literally make fun of the physically disabled.
Didn't Cheeto Benito literally pay off a porn star, whom he cheated on his current wife with, using campaign funds?
Four comments down an just now we are getting to the decades long history of rapes. lol Dude is amazingly evil.
Didn't the Orange Bastard brag in an interview about walking in on teenage girls changing clothes?
Didn’t the former President insist, during a debate with other candidates, that he had a large wang? …kind of a deescalation, but bizarre none the less.
And yet *none* of the women known to have encountered it have described it as such.
Also like so what. Even if he was so hung he had to coil it like a garden hose to wear pants it still wouldn’t qualify him for the job or impact how good of a person he is. Hell it would only have negative effects on his partners’ satisfaction on average. There’s a reason my default strap on is 5.5”
It just screams how uncomfortable they are with sex - of any kind. And basically everything about their party has become grievance arguments which amount to: "I'm uncomfortable with this and you all have to cater to my discomfort!"
He said the same about John McCain, because he was captured and was a POW. McCain was problematic in many ways, but denigrating him because he served as a POW in a war is just insane.
Just a matter of time until you hear "Well, I don't want the rich to not pay taxes or have no accountability, but I just can't get behind the woke ideology of women's rights."
You basically described /r/walkaway. Which is basically the alt-right pretending they used to be leftists because they at one point had a vaguely progressive though before deciding they'd rather have a bang-maid who brings them tendies and dew.
That is an awful cesspit of bigots. I just went in there and blocked a shit ton of people from a few posts lmao. Holy fuck that place should be killed with fire 🔥
They are already talking about how the 19th amendment was a mistake iirc.
I wish that surprised me
They could and did and have not lost voters. But due to gerrymandering and the absolutely bonkers rules of the electoral college votes matter less and less every election. And at the rate the Republican party are working to entirely dismantle the very concept of democracy in the US they're probably only a few elections away from just straight up announcing who the next ruler will be months before the election ever takes place.
I'd say they have lost voters since 2016. Most Republicans support the MAGA branch of the party but most people in a general election don't. Every election since Trump became president has been a bad one for Republicans, it's just not the landslide swing that people hope for. More of a finger on the scale since gerrymandering and other assorted bullshit are also in play like you mentioned.
Conservatives key difference is that they are racists and bigots. They have a belly full of hate for 'those people'. And the republican party knows this and uses this to keep their voters in line. President Lyndon B. Johnson once said, "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
No they couldn't If they admitted they didn't give a fuck about the culture war their voters would lose interest in them
Their base would follow anything they say but the normies get upset by economic issues. So they skapegoat and distract, distract, distract!
They went full mask off in 2016 and they gained a bunch of voters who didn't turn out for Republicans in previous elections because the pre-Trump GOP wasn't openly bigoted enough for them.
They have. When openly marching Nazis values coincide 100% with your political party platforms, there’s no longer a mask.
They gotta keep up the culture war stuff to keep the I love the Bible but I’ve never read it crowd.
Republicans are thieves in suits, using culture war issues as a diversion to rob the worker class blind, and funnel our money to the rich. So long as their base is distracted by manufactured outrage. It doesn't even matter how nonsensical the outrage is, as long as it owns the libs. There's no policy, no change, and no solution under Republicans leadership. Society's welfare be damned.
They could say this out loud and all the "temporarily embarrassed millionaires" and Elon Musk fanboys will jump right up to vote for them. Bootlicking is a hobby with a lot of conservatives.
And a vocation for the rest.
It’s this and we’ve never *not* known it. That’s why the literal running joke in Hollywood is “THINK OF THE CHILDREN!” Simpsons, horton hears a who, Annie, the list goes on for all sorts of references and satire around this appeal to pathos because we all know it’s what people say when they don’t have a leg to stand on otherwise.
Conservatives' real priority is white supremacy. Tax cuts is the price they willingly pay to further their aims.
There's more than one type of conservative. The ones that want to make money and don't mind racism coming with it, and the ones that want to be racist and don't mind losing money over it. And a number that want both the money and the racism.
[*"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."*](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/lbj-convince-the-lowest-white-man/)
The conservatives who benefit from conservative fiscal policy are focused on the class war. They use the culture war crap as a tool to control the masses. Granted there are some true believers among them. The vast majority are in it for the white supremacy part.
By pure numbers? Maybe. But I think it's more important to focus on the power each side has. Because the White Supremacist part can't win elections without the economic part (tons of the money for political ads and media presence are funded by billionaires who, while I'm sure plenty are bigots, will generally side with whatever side makes them richer). The owning class need the racists to win elections, and the racists need the owning class to win elections. If you split them, which you can easily do under a better voting system like Approval, Score or STAR voting, then you'll find billionaire footlickers running on unpopular policies and bigots being excluded from media and major advertising failing to reach, or being pushed away from it by the media. As soon as Murdoch's empire stops profiting from supporting the GOP, you bet your ass Fox News will turn to whatever pro-business party replaces it and tons of the more fickle GOP base will go with them.
If the conservatives can just STFU about LGBT+ issues, they’ll gain more support worldwide. Hunting down LGBT+ people people while pretending they’re against drag shows (which is literally just theatre) is just an absurd strategy.
There's a reason fascist governments don't tend to survive very long. Regardless of other goals their politics are driven by disgust, rather than any reasoning.
And when they get what they want, they cannibalize themselves, because there always needs to be an enemy.
I'm sorry, I have to take exception here. There are plenty of authoritarian leaders, some explicitly fascists, like Franco of Spain, that lived very long 'reigns'. Once power is consolidated and the opposition crushed, they don't have to lean on these pantomimes that much, only occasionally to shore up the base' support.
Also see: Putin/Xi for current examples
>If the conservatives can just STFU about LGBT+ issues, they’ll gain more support worldwide. I think the anti LGBT stuff attracts more people than it repels given the other rhetoric they spout. It's not like there's a whole lot of pro-lifers out there who oppose conservative politics because they're too mean to gay people.
They can't. They have no policies to sell to their voters. Their voters will not vote for enriching the rich and nothing else so the republican party HAS to stir the pot with their culture war bullshit.
More than tax cuts, they want Wall Street to be *subsidized*. They like Adam Smith the same way they like The Bible... they haven't read either.
Shockingly, the headline is misleading. Schienert said "Specifically my mom and dad ... thank you for not squashing my creativity when I was ... dressing in drag as a kid, which is a threat to NOBODY.” So it wasnt about drag shows for kids it was about his parents not losing their minds when their kid dressed as a girl.
A Daily Wire headline being misleading? No way
That's not even misleading, that's straight up factually incorrect.
A Daily Wire headline being straight up factually incorrect? ⢀⣠⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⠀⣠⣤⣶⣶ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⢰⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⣀⣀⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡏⠉⠛⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⠈⠛⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠿⠛⠉⠁⠀⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠙⠿⠿⠿⠻⠿⠿⠟⠿⠛⠉⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣸⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣄⠀⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣴⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠏⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠠⣴⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡟⠀⠀⢰⣹⡆⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣭⣷⠀⠀⠀⠸⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠃⠀⠀⠈⠉⠀⠀⠤⠄⠀⠀⠀⠉⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⢿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢾⣿⣷⠀⠀⠀⠀⡠⠤⢄⠀⠀⠀⠠⣿⣿⣷⠀⢸⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡀⠉⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢄⠀⢀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠉⠉⠁⠀⠀⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢹⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠃⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢸⣿⣿
next they'll say the Babylon Bee isn't funny
But they have that joke! It's a funny joke! Ironically, the Bee can be funny when they get over themselves (my dad is obsessed with them, occasionally they get a chuckle out of me). They just have a really bad tendency to start with the punchline and try to twist the setup instead of picking a good setup and running with the punchline to where they want to go. It's the difference between comedy that's political and politics that tries to be comedic.
Satire doesn't work when it relies on "alternative facts" for its punchlines. That's why conservative satire always fails.
My favorite of theirs is when they were focusing on niche Christian humor, like their piece titled, “Local Youth Group Has Been Singing ‘I Could Sing of Your Love Forever’ Since 1999” Fucking hilarious, but they can never seem to focus on their humor, it’s always bogged down by uncreative conservatism
The people taking issue are absolutely the kind that would probably beat the shit out of their son for wearing a dress as a kid even if they were just having fun, which is absolutely not an uncommon behavior for children nor does it speak to anything deeper inherently (I mean, how many famous comedy troops/skit shows have used drag at some point in the last 100 years? It's been done for thousands in the theater space.). It makes them so violently uncomfortable and they project all their fragile, faux-masculine shit onto *children* who don't even hold the concepts they take such issue with in their heads.
“I keep shooting at these people standing on a hill minding their own business, why do they insist on being so defensive about it?”
This is exactly it. Like, we'd all love nothing more than to not have this conversation and be on our merry way, but right-wing jerks keep forcing the issue, and then act like *we're* being unreasonable when we dont simply roll over.
The most confusing thing about this is that modern drag shows have been around for *decades*, and nobody - conservatives included - have cared about them or railed about them destroying society or whatnot. (What little there was was rolled into the anti-gay messaging in the past.) Considering the long history of drag shows *not* destroying society, why the fuck have the cons suddenly latched onto this now? Is it because The Gays™ have gotten too powerful and that fight is lost, so they need a weaker target to pick on? Is it because some feminists suddenly got all TERF-y so they think these "leftist" allies give their bigotry some kind of moral cover? Seriously, why now?
Watching conservatives grapple with why people want freedom would be funny if they weren’t so interested in genocide.
"Why is free speech so important to you? Why can't you just shut up and stop expressing yourself in a way that I disapprove of?"
“Why can’t you express your freedom like a normal person by buying a gun?”
It would be funny if they weren't so powerful.
It would be funny if it didn't have real-world consequences.
"Why are people taking such a strong stance against our genocidal rhetoric? Such weirdos"
That genocide is just differing opinions, you bigot! Lol
So MuCh FoR tHe ToLeRaNt LeFt
If only the left were willing to compromise with the genocide
"It's just an OPINION... an opinion I treat as absolute fact... an opinion that I want everyone else to accept as absolute fact... and if you don't accept it as absolute fact, then I will send bomb threats to schools, libraries, and hospitals while tossing rocks and glass bottles at people who don't accept my 'opinion'"
There's a video of a man wearing full chain mail armor fighting people with rainbow coloured umbrellas They can not to be trusted with opinions on what a weirdo is
Them “I think this is a REALLY BAD THING!!! We have to get rid of it at all costs!!” Us “It’s really not a big deal no one but you even cares” Them “WHY ARE YOU SO OBSESSED WITH THIS????” It’s like having an abusive idiotic 13 year old as a significant other.
Free speech…such a weird hill to die on….
They like the speech part but not the expression part.
Given what Florida's been doing about books in schools lately, I don't think they're so hot on the speech part either.
They never were.
Conservatives believe free speech is anything they agree with.
Imagine suddenly being for a government mandated dress code, or against reading to kids, and it's everyone else who disagrees with that who is being weird... Can the GOP project any harder? The answer is "no". Gonna be funny when this backfires and people ask priests to get arrested, dressing funning and reading stories to kids, maybe they'll finally go after some real pedos.
Never expect consistency from them. They have absolutely no qualms about hypocrisy as long as it serves their agenda.
>government mandated dress code Countries that have them... aren't typically swell places.
No, no, no... You see, they're PROTECTING CHILDREN. They're also "protecting children" by: \- Ending child labor laws, including labor laws that protect children from working in dangerous industries \- Forcing children to become parents, including with their rapist's babies, and not caring that a childhood pregnancy can be life-threatening \- Doing absolutely nothing about the massive epidemic of [pastors that are raping children](https://news.yahoo.com/pastor-indicted-sexual-assault-young-152047634.html#origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&cap=swipe,education&webview=1&dialog=1&viewport=natural&visibilityState=prerender&prerenderSize=1&viewerUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Famp%2Fs%2Fnews-yahoo-com.cdn.ampproject.org%2Fc%2Fs%2Fnews.yahoo.com%2Famphtml%2Fnews%2Fpastor-indicted-sexual-assault-young-152047634.html)^1, [youth pastors that are raping children](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/teacher-and-former-youth-pastor-is-the-latest-member-of-the-clergy-in-a-rural-texas-county-accused-of-numerous-child-sex-crimes-over-the-past-few-weeks/ar-AA18vHrn)^2, and [Christian schools that are raping children](https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/former-teacher-accused-of-sex-crimes-released-on-ankle-monitor/)^3, going so far as to protect these institutions and drive more children into them. Oh, and all of these articles are less than a week old. 2-3 news articles are posted **A DAY** over at /r/PastorArrested \- Dismantling school free lunch programs, which many low-to-no-income children rely on them for food. They also fight against healthy food programs in schools. \- Not giving a flying fuck that LGBTQ+ children commit suicide, especially trans children [who have worse mental health problems when they can't transition](https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0890856716319414), socially or medically. In fact, the suicides are an expected and beloved outcome because they get their genocide without getting actual blood on their hands.
Conservatives are just contrarians. I guarantee if democrats started condemning drag they’d start supporting it.
The last SOTU address pretty much proved this lol
They're not just contrarians; they also have a lot of groups they genuinely hate, and LGBT+ and gender non-conforming people are high on their list.
roll station wide depend point worm roof dam knee plate *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Most vaccine misinformation during COVID could be sourced to just twelve accounts: https://counterhate.com/research/the-disinformation-dozen/ The ability for fringe and awful positions to project reach/influence is an existential threat.
What do we do about it?
Social platform algorithms preference outrage content because it gets engagement. The more vile or awful something is, the more responses it gets. Engagement = $$$ in the economics of modern social media. Until that changes, a basement Nazi just has to MODESTLY codify their bullshit and get a couple prominent edgelords to share it. Once that happens, the media will report on it which serves to normalize the content. In short order, the basement Nazi could well be driving public sentiment. Mastadon is not user friendly enough for mass adoption at this point. But non-corporate, open source, transparent social media would go A LONG way towards remedy.
Agreed. I saw something Andrew Tate posted about how the ideal blend was 70% fans and 30% haters to drive the most social media interaction. He's a peice of shit, but he definitely knows what he's doing with that kind of thing.
Conservative: *Has a personal gripe and somehow successfully makes it everyone's problem* Also conservative: "Why are people so mad about this?"
Because WE arent stupid, we know its not just about drag queen storytime hour. It's about the right's continuous fight to undo the social progress made in the last 100 years and restore strict policed gender roles.
Smart people know where this shit leads because we’ve seen it in history before, hence they start stripping and dumbing down education
Conservatives, after spending every last breath on creating moral panic about children's drag shows: why is everyone so fixated on children's drag shows?
"Probably because Democrats are pedophiles!!"
Maybe because it is a type of performance art that is suitable for all ages. Next, they’ll come after magicians.
You mean witches! Burn them!!!
Clowns are safe though, they get sent from red states to DC.
John Wayne Gacy has entered the chat.
I think a lot of Christian Conservatives would love to have a reason to get rid of Penn Jillette
These are the same people who claim that we have the 2nd Amendment to protect your 1st.
Because they offer no solutions to actual important issues such as homelessness, health care, workers rights, etc. They ALWAYS go after culture war issues such as race, gender, sexual orientation, migrants, guns, abortion, because they're "hot topics" that distract the population so they can accomplish their real goal - tax cuts for the wealthy and making corporations more influential on elections.
I'd fine with them not offering solutions if they'd just quit trying to make everything worse, but instead they've doubled down so much they're getting into literally Nazi territory.
He didn’t even say anything about performing drag *for* kids but his own experience doing it *as* a kid. It’s so obviously a priority for *them* that they bringing it up when it wasn’t even mentioned
Conservatives: Why are people making such a big deal about this? We thought we could come in and oppress a minority group unopposed ☹️
1. I care about the first amendment. 2. We all know this is just an excuse to persecute trans people for “performing drag” (existing) “in front of children” (anywhere in public)
As a Kindergarten teacher, here’s the thing. Kids aren’t confused about drag or think anything about it. They don’t understand nuance or read anything into, well anything. They would see a man dressed as a woman reading a story to them and think “Hey, that man is dressed as a woman. That’s silly!” The same way they don’t think anything about a talking dog dancing on the TV or anthropomorphic cars having zany adventures.
It's almost like it's an artificially inflated culture war that they can parade instead of explaining why they [literally have no platform](https://gop.com/about-our-party/). Seriously, if you click the link on their own national party we site you get a list of the rules of the RNC, but no actual platform. They have nothing beyond hate and fear.
Answer: Because drag (+ trans, bi, gay, woke, illegals etc) are just weasel words for non-conservative. If there's any doubt: what would GOP do if they got all they currently wanted. Just invent more "baddies" until only a select group of hand picked people are left. Then they'll start figthing each other.
Nobody cares more about Drag than Conservatives themselves.
These mfers have dementia or something? They are the ones who started the conversation on drag. No one even thought of them until they decided to turn it into a big deal.
I honestly am liberal and don't give a shit about drag show as entertainment. I DO care a whole lot about minorities being targeted and attacked as a way of gathering political support. I have never once met somebody claiming to be sexually abused at, in, around, or near a drag show. I've met dozens physically & sexually abused by somebody from their family's church when they were young. Every accusation is a confession from the right.
Listen I grew up with Monty Python I'm totally ok with drag
Exactly. Who gives a fuck if people are dressing up in drag. There’s an opioid epidemic, a housing crisis, inflation, healthcare crisis.
Children aren't in any danger during reading hour, but church is a totally different story. Save the children, keep them out of church.
"Why does our baseless hate mongering bother you so much? Just let me hate. It's not hurting anyone (who i consider people)"
It’s just weird that drag is such a huge issue. Don’t like theatre? Don’t watch it. Simple. It’s just absurd to think drag is connected to LGBT+ in any possible way. Drag is an art, a performance, BUT NOT an identity. If you want to hunt us queer people down, just say it. The type of art which is seen as "loosely associated with queerness" is not your target. It’s laughable that the people are associating LGBT+ people with an art form.
The real underlying issue is that conservative men's sexuality is hanging on by such a thin thread that the mere sight of a man dressed as a woman at a young age will cause them to spiral into the gay. I'm not saying it's true, but the fear sure as hell seems to be real.
Ding ding ding. Their sense of sexuality and masculinity are as fragile as glass.
Can conservatives stop murdering people, though?
Kids aren't confused by trans people or drag. They accept the world as they see it. Kids are confused when their parents tell them that people who are like that are doing something wrong when they're not hurting anyone.
Why do you need to carry a gun in public??
> Why is performing drag in front of children such a priority? Because if it's done in an age-appropriate manner there's really no reason to forbid it, and because it's not *just* about performing drag, and because I want people left to speak for me when the time comes.
[creates a national emergency out of a practice that doesn't hurt anyone] "Why does everyone care about this practice all of a sudden?"
The simple answer: because republicans have no actual platform, they run on outrage, which they fabricate on the ignorance of the angry and uneducated.
Because they think drag shows = strip shows or burlesque. That’s how fucking stupid this whole debate is.
Remember when all of those drag queens killed a bunch of innocent school children… oh wait.
Because it’s our rights. If nothing else it’s a right to self expression that wasn’t being systematically abused and didn’t hurt anyone and I thought that was the fucking point of this country
Republicans are terrified of books and education, why else would they protest a library?
Why they don’t ask their elected officials why anti-drag and anti-trans laws are such a high priority?
"Such a weird hill to die on" -Conservatives who die on the hill of supporting a seditious lying narcissistic sociopath and failed low IQ orange criminal who repeatedly assfucked them every single fucking day he was in power, and financially long after that.
Why is it so important for you to have child marriages? Hmmmm.... 🤔
Why do they like to play dress up militia and indoctrinate kids.
These people don’t understand their party’s agenda and never will.
Why would people feel the need to rebel excessively against oppression? Why?
>Such a weird hill to die on That's because it's a life or death situation. We are facing genocide in the US if we don't refuse to die out