#authoritarians

[wella333]

[protoslacker]

This is why the battle over pronouns has been so pitched. For right wingers, gender is a means of structuring society, of enforcing order, of reverting back to a prior hierarchy. Of course, gender is a construct, and particularly for non-binary people, the demand that a person adhere to their sex is a form of control, a denial of the reality of their identity. For some years, liberals tried as a matter of courtesy to use pronouns that a person used for themselves. To enforce a rigid order, right wingers understood they needed to destroy this practice as a means to superpose the power of fixed categories over the complexity of gender.

Marcy Wheeler at Emptywheel. Seeing Language As A Tool Of Authoritarianism

I'm slow on the uptake sometimes and have to ruminate over new ideas. I've been chewing all day over this post.

A couple stories jumped out in my social feeds. A North Carolina high school valedictorian was prevented from speaking freely about the plight of trans people in his graduation speech. And a library branch manager, an employee at the library branch for fifteen years, was summarily fired for allowing the inclusion of a book, When Aiden Became A Brother in a patron-led book display themed "Color Our World."

I've been slow to understand gender politics. I had to learn a lot and I'm sure there is so much more I need to learn. The authoritarian use of language that Marcy wheeler points too provides a useful perspective to understand these stories in a way I hadn't before.

Like a really large number of Americans I basically live pay check to pay check. Firing someone seems a big deal to me. For a dedicated professional like Lavonnia Moore, she's effectively run out of town too. And she's concerned that no matter where she might move to take a library position a hate campaign may follow. It's just so injust!

Here's the GoFundMe for Lavonnia Moore.

Here is a link to a strong editorial in the local press, ‘We need to sit down and talk’. And I must say again that I'm slow to understand Marcy Wheeler distinqution about the uses of language. But here's the mismatch: the paper is appealling to reason instead of understanding the issue as one of power.

[monsterblogging]

Whenever there's a story about somebody escaping a degrading or controlling environment, and the story and/or the fans paint the character as a villain over what they do to survive and hold onto their autonomy, I'm like "yeah, that sure is how authoritarians talk about their victims when their victims choose to stand up for themselves and live on their own terms."

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

[thefreethoughtprojectcom]

Together we can free ourselves from the powerlessness that comes with living in a fragmented, cronyist society and exercise our right to envision and build the world we want to live in.

Read More: https://thefreethoughtproject.com/solutions/what-do-authoritarians-fear-most-people-who-stick-up-for-each-other

#TheFreeThoughtProject

[wella333]

[tomorrowusa]

« Nobody actually likes a corrupt despot. They all just support him because they think he's gonna be in power forever, so you need to stay on his right side in order to get anything for yourself. When it becomes clear that that's not true, that the despot is not gonna be there forever, it always – everywhere – always falls apart. »

— Rachel Maddow on MSNOW on Monday comparing Viktor Orbán and Donald Trump.

Ms. Maddow actually spent the first half of this piece talking about how Orbán's son-in-law, István Tiborcz, became one of the richest people in Hungary through nepotism and corruption.

Authoritarians will not be in power forever. Orbán's humiliating defeat is a reminder that someday the end of Trump and Putin will happen. And when they are gone, their actions will be reviled and their toadies will be regarded as shameful opportunists for the rest of history.

When people in a given country understand that their authoritarian leader is subject to mortality, elections, or term limits, the aura of inevitability of that leader dissipates. That's another reason why Putin and Trump feel anxiety over Orbán's defeat. It reminds people in their own countries that corrupt régimes are not forever and there are other options.

The US midterm elections are exactly 29 weeks from today. A countdown to November 3rd is a useful boost in morale for us and a way to promote disquiet in the minds of MAGA.