(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Don't Fall For It. [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-11-12 The election is not even a week old and the Trump/MAGA machine is going in overdrive to fuck with everyone. - a parade of clowns for his second cabinet. - threatening to create a board that will dismiss generals are "too woke." - threatening to take away accreditation from liberal universities - let white people sue for losses due to DEI. - put Elon Musk in charge of something. And it’s just Tuesday! Calm down everyone. Take breath. Look again. Who’s hanging with Trump? Putin, foreign autocrats, and some very rich and terrible people (Musk, Theil). What do they really want? To weaken the United States. Who else is hanging with Trump? Steve Bannon and other right wing creeps. What do they really want? To own the libs. To tear down the institutions that liberals have relied upon for decades and either leave them in rubble or replace them with far right/Christian nationalist/white nationalist BS. Oh, and along with Fox News, chuckle every day as they break all the rules and the Democrats and liberals are completely helpless. Are you catching on yet? The playbook of autocrats and fascists is to make things miserable. To make things miserable for us. To make it seem that they are invincible and we are impotent. They can do everything and we can do nothing. The desired end result is to get all of us on the opposition side to either be- - cowering full of fear. - in a state of misery. - incredulous on a daily basis over what they are doing. - in a fury, protesting to no effect. So these are all the things that we can’t be in response. Hey, it’s no easy feat. Those are all the genuine reactions that we should have and will have to all this. But don’t mistake this- - apathy and withdrawal for another option. Though taking time-outs will be necessary through the next 2 years. All the reactions I mentioned are in their script. All the scenarios they are dreaming up- all the ones that they have ever dreamt up- include those reactions. Because they all serve their interests. We’re weak. No, we’re angry and mean- but we can’t do anything about it. (Ha ha) No, we’re sad and defeated. No, we’ve walked away since we’ve realized we can’t beat or stop them. Sucks, huh? Who wants to choose from all of that? None of us do. So there is only two cards to play through this period that don’t play into their hands…. Remain determined and confident. Okay, take the right meds to make it so, but this is the one reaction we have that suits our needs and doesn’t play into their script. This is the best that we can do, for the moment. Remain determined that we are going to win back power, fix all of this, and do what we want to. It’s super hard at this exact moment but this is precisely when it’s the most important. Because, besides keeping us in a healthy mental state, it does two important things: It denies these shmucks all the reactions that they desire. All the things that I listed bring them joy. Well, deny them that. It also certifies that they’ve won and “own” us. Deny them that as well. We can’t stop their glee at being their worst selves. But we won’t add to it. The other reason- everyone else is watching. Maybe you noticed that a bunch of other people have shrugged off the election. They don’t care. They don’t see any difference between the 2 parties. They are wonderfully oblivious of what Trump and the GOP want to do (this apparently includes a lot of their voters). They can’t see the reason to be as mad, as sad, and as worried as we are. That’s the curse of being well-informed. If all they see are emotional reactions that don’t match their view of things- either weeping in the street or screaming (to no effect)- they aren’t going to want to be on our side. They are going to want to go the other direction away from us and that. But….if we calmly approach them about how lousy the things that Trump is doing, and how he is weakening the nation and the economy, we can reach people. If we’re not crying or screaming while we do it. People are gonna find out soon enough about these bullshit plans. If Trump causes massive inflation, causes the stock market to drop, and wrecks havoc with his deportation scheme, we won’t need to explain it. It will be self-evident. Being there against him, determined no matter what he does, will be what we need to win back these flakey voters. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/11/12/2285818/-Don-t-Fall-For-It?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/