An Ann Arbor father was arrested and taken from his family in the middle of morning drop off for school. The comments on the article, from LOCALS were full of inbred church goers cheering and 'that's what I voted for!'
What response is this supposed to elicit other than hate and disgust? They are offended when people tell them that cheering for the, again illegal, division of families, the intentional lack of due process, makes them despicable, and lines them up perfectly with the behavior of actual nazis in germany in the early 20th century.
Today instead of hate-posting to every trump worshipper I can find, I'm trying to find more resources about post-war Germany and the fate of any German citizen with a conscience or moral fiber. Not finding a lot.
Pretend you're 62. You grew up in 70s malaise, when American cars sucked, everyone listened to disco and Dad wasn't home sometimes because he was waiting at the station to buy gasoline. You graduated high school in 1979 and voted for Reagan HARD. Your adulthood wasn't like your parents' adulthood but it was Morning in America and slowly, steadily Gorbachev tore down that wall. You heard about the USSR dissolving Christmas morning while your kids unwrapped the family's Santa gift - a Super Nintendo. What followed next was everyone else getting rich but you. Automotive manufacturing moved to Mexico, everyone started worrying more about black people than white people and Murphy Brown had a baby out of wedlock on national TV. Troops were in Yugoslavia for some reason and Rush Limbaugh keeps bringing up this Vince Foster guy which seems hinky but then the President of the United States diddles an intern. Meanwhile your kids take every opportunity to let you know all the things you can't say anymore and your paychecks are not getting any bigger. Half your friends have moved away in pursuit of jobs somewhere else and you know how hard it is to keep in touch. Things were looking pretty good for a while until those Arabs attacked New York but we got'em back and exported freedom to the Middle East for the first time since Lawrence of Arabia. Your kids don't agree, of course, because the only station their cars get is Air America apparently but they won't be so much of a burden soon. At least that's what you thought until absolutely NO ONE goes to jail for breaking the economy and that Black man gave out money to buy cars, even if they aren't American. The system is irrevocably broken. Fortunately for you there's one man who sees it and has a solution. You can tell because of how many people oppose him! But the people want what the people need and America will be great again! Your kids don't see it but it's not like they were going to come home for Christmas anyway. Fortunately you've got all the friends you need on Facebook. Who slowly start disappearing. Then that LIBERAL comes to office with that WOMAN and inflation is through the roof and don't people see it? how much can one person spend on groceries? All the memes in your phone agree and it doesn't matter that much that you don't know how they got there, not really. It's gotten harder to talk to people because everyone is so quick to anger. And now here you are, alone, angry, not so much as a thank-you card from your grandkids, and if it weren't for the local paper you wouldn't have anyone to talk to. Probably just as well because the last time you tried to talk to your grandson he argued the only reason Republicans run for office is to diddle little kids! Someone has to do SOMETHING! This is tied into MS13 somehow, at least according to Glenn Beck, who has gotten less funny since he moved to his own channel but things are tough all over, I guess... ________________________________________________________ Pretend we're not talking about MAGA Republicans. Pretend we're talking about Scientologists. Pretend we're talking about Rajneeshis. Pretend we're talking about anyone who filled their lack of support with an unhealthy structure. How do you get them back? I recognize the desire is to line them up and shoot them but that isn't healthy. You read Judt; you know damn well what post-war Germany looked like. It looked like a bunch of Marshall Plan social and economic props to encourage participation in a Western market economy. There were big show trials to ceremonially usher the Nazis off stage and then the world focused on maintaining representative democracy against communism. You probably don't remember the Breaking of the Newspapers. The Bush Administration went all-in on the Iraq War, drumming up all sorts of nonsensical support for the ridiculous idea that somehow Saddam Hussein had something to do with September 11, then the ridiculous idea that he'd been amassing WMD under no-fly-zones and IAEA inspections, then the ridiculous idea that peril was imminent if we didn't destroy a country we'd held under heel for 12 years. Not discussed nearly enough was the effect on the credibility of the press - the phrase the Loose Change crew had used to turn 911 into an inside job was co-opted by the guys who wanted someone to pay for 2008 and the stage was set for propaganda. But propaganda only works so long as people believe in it. We've gone on this loop through Comet Ping Pong and adenochrome and the rise of JFK Jr and it was all petering out until Epstein didn't kill himself and now that's their golden calf, man, that's the key that unlocks the world and you've probably noticed that their patience with shit being conveniently dropped has pretty much run out. Trump will die. Will he die in office? Dunno. Does he have a successor? He does not. JD Vance isn't assuming this mantle. The thing about demagogues is they can't build dynasties unless they cement totalitarianism entirely before their passing. Kim il-Sung? Dynasty. Mao Tse-Tung? No dynasty. Ho Chi Minh? No dynasty. Franco? No dynasty. Saddam Hussein would definitely have had a dynasty if we hadn't wiped him out but that's the level of buy-in we're talking. No dynasties when you're the target of the largest protests in human history and your key policies are hovering around 35% popularity. The thing you have to keep in mind about the newspaper comments is those are people howling into the void. They're (1) reading the local paper (2) interacting with no one (3) doing anything they can to affirm the choices they made that left them alienated and alone. They're the ones who signed onto this whole project but didn't buy into it enough to be on Charlie Kirk's discord or whatever. They're jumping at the Overton Window and seeing if it's still where they left it and in many cases, hitting their heads on a wall that wasn't there. I'm not going to tell you to love them. But for the ones that don't want to die bitter and alone? There will come a time of seeking contrition. there are people out there waking up to the fact that they're on the wrong side of history. Not all of 'em, not by a long shot. If you want a glimpse into subsumed hatred, I have a recommendation: And I know it's more fun to think about all the things you'd say to these people if you could talk to them. But it's more productive to think about what you'd say if they looked like they regretted their words.