Why are so many convinced that authoritarianism is "freedom"?
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Anonymous
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When COVID started, I saw with my own eyes what was happening around the world. A *lot* of people got every sick, and a lot died. We closed down. We developed vaccines. We absolutely needed to establish herd immunity. Lives were saved, maybe even yours, but of course we'll never know if it would've been you for sure because so many of us got vaccinated that we were able to reopen ('you' being anyone reading this). None of that is opinion. Saving lives required the temporary inconveniences of a dangerous once-in-a-hundred-years worldwide pandemic.
Now to today... Actions threatening freedom of the press are not required. Actions threatening freedom of expression are not required. Actions targeting people without due process are not required. Ignoring court rulings is not required. We are not at war. We are not experiencing a pandemic. We are not in any immediate danger. Therefore, extreme measures are not required. Trump is choosing to remove civil discourse from our government and society and instead imposing the will of the few on the whole. Never in my lifetime did I expect our system of checks and balances to collapse. We are close to a tipping point - either the administration is reigned in by Congress and the Supreme Court or it isn't. Either they are permitted to disregard laws and court rulings or they are forced back into balance. I worry which way it will go. |
Anonymous
This. Freedom for me, but not for thee. They think that as long as they are in the MAGA club they will get ahead while the people they don't like will be downtrodden. But they don't understand that Trump doesn't actually give a shit about the average supporter. |
Anonymous
I think MAGA is civic nationalist more so than white supremacist. |
Anonymous
+1 You remember wrong. Just because you don’t care if you get Covid doesn’t mean everyone else has to be exposed to your choices. Businesses can require masks during a pandemic. If you don’t like it? Go to another business. Businesses, especially those in healthcare, can require vaccinations. If you don’t want the vaccinations, don’t work in health care or for that business. Businesses can require a drug test for employment. Don’t like it? Don’t work there. You have the freedom. You just want to “stick it to the libs” and for cis white men to be back on top without any fair and equal competition from women, other races, lgbtq+ people. It’s disgusts me how many people want to go back to the US in the 1820’s. |
Anonymous
| My +1 you remember wrong was to agree with the previous “you remember wrong” poster. It didn’t save the original statements like I wanted. Sorry. |
Anonymous
| "Conservatism [MAGA] 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." |
Anonymous
+100 refreshing to hear simple logic applied looking backward and forward. Many people out there who still identify as Republicans or Democrats continuing to deny the obvious truth in front of them. Don't agree with the hate BLM notion. There is much more good behind that movement than bad. |
Anonymous
This. Agree 100%. When deploying to the Middle East we had to get anthrax vaccines, or when on other deployments often it was typhoid, yellow fever, japanese encephalitis and so on, depending on what was prevalent and a risk. Unvaccinated soldiers pose a risk to the readiness of the unit. No vaccine: Not mission ready, not mission capable, not deployable. Period. Get the damn vaccine. Or, better yet, if you're so prone to weak-brained conspiracy theory BS and propaganda, you are also a risk to the mission. If you actually believe all the disinfo claiming things like "the vaccines are more dangerous than COVID" then god knows what other stupid shit you believe and you probably have no business serving because you are a weak link who could undermine the unit. |
Anonymous
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Gun rights is the litmus test
Anybody taking gun rights is a suspected authoritarian. Zero authoritarians are pro gun rights 100 percent of authoritarians are pro gun rights for the population |
Anonymous
No they aren't. Civic nationalism would embrace diversity and inclusivity. MAGA does not. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
This is false. Hitler did not broadly take gun rights away from Germans, in fact gun rights were expanded from the strict gun controls the Nazi regime inherited from the Weimar Republic. In 1938, the Nazi Regime passed the German Weapons Act which significantly relaxed gun ownership and gun rights for Party members and "politically reliable" Germans. In that same law, the right to own or manufacture guns or ammunition was stripped away from Jews and other "enemies of the state" leading to Kristallnacht and the attacks and persecution of Jews. Australia imposed significant gun restrictions after a shocking mass shooting. Have they become more authoritarian since then, or as a result of this? NO. Not even remotely. If anything there are far fewer concerns about authoritarianism in Australia than there are in the US. Your beliefs are mistaken and your narrative is broken and undermined by documented historical facts to the contrary. |
Anonymous
Hitler did not allow Jews to have guns Authoritarians take guns because they don't want to get shot |
Anonymous
Civic nationalism doesn't embrase diversity, its the opposite. It embrances the commonalities a population has rather than emphasizing the differences or ethnocentricism. Those commonalities being shared values, rather than a nation that shares blood. |
Anonymous
That’s because you’re unobservant and/or a member of the protected class. |