this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2024
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US Authoritarianism

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Hello, I am researching American crimes against humanity. . This space so far has been most strongly for memes, and that's fine.

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[–] [email protected] 139 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

You know I’m really sick of repeating the “face-eating leopards party” jokes, but let’s call a spade a spade here

[–] [email protected] 35 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
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[–] pdxfed 15 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Ironic. Though historically not, "calling a spade a spade" has become associated with race and derogatory undertones in the US in the last 100 years. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/09/19/224183763/is-it-racist-to-call-a-spade-a-spade

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Aw fuck. Man there isn’t a single figure of speech left in American English that I don’t find out is actually a racist dog whistle that I never knew about

Well goddamn, I apologize for its use.

[–] feedum_sneedson 13 points 2 weeks ago

Don't apologise, it's a phrase people use and you weren't being racist. Euphemism treadmill is slippery by definition, if we're all mates there's no need to get too into language policing.

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[–] Jumpingspiderman 99 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Is there "Leopards ate my face" on lemmy? Just asking because that's where this belongs.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil 93 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

It isn't even "Ate my face" so much as folks who were sold a bill of goods by conservative propagandists

  • Family Values!
  • Christian schools!
  • No crime!
  • Patriotic Unity!
  • Entrepreneurship and an Honest Work Ethic!

only to get there and discover

  • Spousal Abuse! Child Abuse! Rape! Intense Misogyny!
  • What kind of nerd needs an education? Get a job you stupid kids!
  • Lawlessness!
  • Deep misanthropy wrapped in the American Flag!
  • Scams! Price gouging! Poverty!

Turns out a liberal is just a conservative who has been mugged by reality.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 weeks ago

Or some conservatives are just liberals that genuinely don't hear the dogwhistles.

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[–] Branch_Ranch 17 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

There is but only mods can post there. 🙄

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago

I was wondering why I never saw it trending. Seems like we should see it everyday on Lemmy.

[–] Diplomjodler3 82 points 2 weeks ago

I never thought the leopards would eat my face.

[–] NABDad 73 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

What I'm wondering about is, are they "Conservative" as in they believe government is bad and taxes are bad and they are shocked, shocked I say to discover that there's racism happening in this establishment, or are they full on fascist "Conservative" and racist as fuck themselves and they just didn't realize they were one of the minorities they were supposed to hate?

[–] [email protected] 80 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (8 children)

Based only on some recent posts and comments I've seen about hispanic conservatives in general, I would guess it was because they are religious and feel they need to align with Republicans because of that. Now they have learned that Republican-style Christianity doesn't really resemble Jesus-style Christianity.

But also - isn't Idaho literally the whitest state? Or is that Iowa?

[–] frickineh 49 points 2 weeks ago (8 children)

Maybe not by population, but Idaho has a huge problem with white supremacists. The Aryan Nation was founded there, and there's a reason all the bigots in eastern Oregon want to secede and join Idaho.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Idaho is a super Mormon state next to Utah, and momos are definitely more racist the closer to Utah they live

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago

I think Vermont is actually the whitest state

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago

A hispanic neighbor came to my door a few weeks ago wanting to talk about the bible. Initially I was really annoyed, because obviously. I have a pride flag hanging outside and felt a little targeted. But we actually ended up having a really nice conversation about this, how Christianity should really be about love and understanding, but has been twisted to do the exact opposite.

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

They are "conservatives" because they think they are better than other people.

No joke, there is an immigrant in my state running the the GOP primary on the platform that immigration is broken and we need to fix the border.

When you talk to these people, it literally is about how it's okay because they are the good race. It's those at the border that are ruining America.

He talks about how his parents came here legally and how legal immigration is okay.

My brother in Christ, do you not realize that the GOP is trying to make it illegal for any immigration to occur? You're pulling the ladder after you, oh I'm sorry, your parents climbed on the ship. Now you're telling everyone below that they are dirty and lazy for not making it up without a ladder.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago

But they're one of the good ones. Massa loves the good ones 😭

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[–] xantoxis 51 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Conservative viewpoints:

  • We just want to deny people abortions, not experience racism.

  • We just want to pay no taxes and let infrastructure crumble; we still want weed to be legal.

  • We want to be able to subjugate women, not pay for war profiteers.

  • We just hate gays, not black people.

  • We just want jobs; why are all these billionaires fans of our party?

See the thing about leftism is that it's usually internally consistent. Authoritarianism cannot be internally consistent. Nobody wants ALL of the things fascism claims to represent; in many ways it's not even possible.

[–] ameancow 31 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Nobody wants ALL of the things fascism claims to represent; in many ways it’s not even possible.

Because it's not a thinking ideology, it's a feeling ideology. This has been studied and proven that conservatives lean more reactive and emotionally sensitive.

See, the human brain doesn't work the way most people think it does, we live with the misconception that we use our brains to decode the world, to solve problems and figure out solutions and analyze situations.

This is NOT what your brain is doing. Right now, and at all times, your brain is scanning how you feel, all your physical and emotional sensations, and it's constantly creating stories to explain those feelings, ever shifting and constantly reporting these subtle ideas for why you are experiencing things.

About 100,000 years ago this was a fantastic survival tool. If you see huge paw-prints by the watering hole, you will figure out in your head why you're scared, you will invent a simulated future where the creature that lives nearby will eat you, so you avoid that watering hole.

Now our world is massively complicated, but our brains are still wired to do the same thing. It takes an emotion or sensation and just wraps a story around it with ease, and the funniest part is the story doesn't have to make sense, it's just how the brain assembles information and synthesizes results. This is why you have anti-vax doctors and nurses and scientists who suddenly become Flat Earthers. They aren't using logic and reason, they are scared of something and their brain supply the rationalization. Be it a huge paw print, or a newspaper headline about climate change, it makes people feel the same thing, and react the same way.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

See the thing about leftism is that it's usually internally consistent. Authoritarianism cannot be internally consistent.

You should see hexbear.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago

Even ignoring that, "leftism" is a little too broad of a term in this context. There's too many conflicting ideologies that agree with each other 90% of the way.

That's still not like the right, though. That's more a mish mash of ideas that make no sense together whatsoever. It's hard to square what the gospels are on about with having billionaires around at all, for example.

[–] Cryophilia 9 points 2 weeks ago

That's more "leftism" than leftism. Tankies are a whole nother animal.

[–] Sterile_Technique 51 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

Conservative immigrants

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_German_National_Jews

...I really dislike how often this link is relevant to current events.

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Wanna bet they won't have connected the dots?

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[–] Cryophilia 45 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

California, as always:

Best state in the Union.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Not for affordability. That's because of the weather and Boomers who bought houses for $200K that are now worth $1 million +.

If you already own a house and like living in it, you have no costs besides maintenance and property tax. Property taxes in California are limited by Proposition 13, so they're minimal.

That means that plenty of boomers are just hanging out in houses with huge opportunity costs but no real costs. They could rent them out for a ton of money, but they don't need to. Thus the rental market is limited.

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[–] DandomRude 39 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)
[–] Masamune 13 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] DandomRude 9 points 2 weeks ago
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[–] [email protected] 39 points 2 weeks ago

ROFL In a way I am sad for them, to be that silly to not realize conservatives are racist bigots who revel in punching down!

[–] TankovayaDiviziya 36 points 2 weeks ago (7 children)

Not sure how this is "US Authoritarianism" but okay...

In any case, two things could be at play: either the family is truly conservative and thought white conservatives will accept them; or they are playing the respectability politics. If it is the former, many say most immigrants would be conservative voters (because many are religious and entrepreneurial), if it weren't for conservative politicians and base demoraphics in their new country being racists. If it's the latter, we all know those who present themselves as "one of the good ones" are grifting and acting in self-preservation. I have a mate who posts far-right stuff online and supports Trump, even though he himself is a brown immigrant (I suspect his father--who isn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed-- may be influencing him as well).

Those who play respectability politics are acting in self-preservation. This is actually a tale as old as time. As one user here pointed out, there was a Jewish organisation who are Nazi supporters. During World War 2, Jewish elders and organisations in Europe actually gave names of their members to the Nazis. They thought they could save themselves or more lives if they cooperated. Hannah Arendt covered this tidbit of history in her book on the trial of Adolf Eichmann, from which the famous term "banality of evil" came from. Of course, the book caused controversy not just because it posits that evil people feel casual of their actions, but also that it brought the taboo that several Jewish leaders in Europe have enabled the facilitation of the Holocaust.

For the record, I am not trying to be anti-Semitic with my post, I'm only explaining the result of playing respectability politics in the case of anti-Semitism and Holocaust.

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[–] TheWoozy 35 points 2 weeks ago

The leopards eating faces party finds another member (victim) .

[–] glimse 22 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

A link to the actual videos instead of a random guy talking about it would have been better but I'm not really sure what it has to do with authoritarianism either way..

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 weeks ago (10 children)

If Republicans could stop being so racist they would sweep into power and rule for 1000 years, and yet it will never happen.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Are you sure about that?

A lot of the republicans’ voter base is white racists. For them, the republicans being racist isn’t a bug, it’s a feature.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago

They're barely sentient cretins programmed by right-wing media. The base would vote Republican even if Republicans pivoted to Black nationalism, as long as the people on TV and the internet tell them to.

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[–] Sam_Bass 13 points 2 weeks ago

Caveat emptor alles. Devil is in the details

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago

You know I had the exact question they were expecting when I read their Twitter handle.

[–] FreakinSteve 11 points 2 weeks ago

Nobody ever seems to understand who they're dealing with when it comes to conservatives.

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