- Reviewing basic definitions of evil, sin, morality, woke, and fake news, with examples:
- The Trump admin and MAGA would like to take over all the big cities;
- How the far-right agenda is entering the mainstream;
- Do Republicans actually believe in anything? Apparently not the Constitution, or law and order;
- David Brooks pities sports fan who have to endure progressive TV ads;
- And MAGA solutions for unruly kids, adulterers, and LBGTQs.
In the spirit of MAGA, let’s suggest a few more simplistic definitions to characterize the political/cultural divide.
We already have, from yesterday’s post:
Evil is that which would kill us, or disturb the capacity for the tribe’s survival.
So then, Sin is the committing of any act which might be construed as evil, even very indirectly.
(Like all morality, it’s relative to circumstances and viewpoint. There’s no fixed list of things that are good or evil, moral or not.)
Anything that doesn’t support or conform to the (simplistic) worldview of the conservative tribe is dismissed as ‘woke’ or ‘fake news.’ Or ‘evil.’
Just glance through the news and see how well this thumbnail definitions works. The matching to these examples is left as an exercise for the reader.
\\
The Oregonian, 22 Aug 2025: Donald Trump Jr. calls Portland, Seattle ‘craphole cities,’ hints at federal takeover of police forces (via)
President Donald Trump’s eldest son referred to Portland and Seattle as “craphole cities” in an interview with Newsmax when talking about the administration’s takeover of the Washington, D.C., police force. Donald Trump Jr. also suggested the possibility of a federal takeover of police forces in the two Pacific Northwest cities.
“Maybe we should roll out the tour to Portland, Seattle, the other craphole cities of the country,” Trump Jr. said to Newsmax on Thursday. “Not because they’re crapholes but because Democrats made them so. Maybe we’re going to expand this.”
My first reaction is to realize that MAGA really hates most of America, don’t they? All the big cities, where most of the population is. Only simple rural MAGA Americans are authentic and good.
And this:
Ring Wing Watch: Richard Mack Says County Sheriffs Must Start ‘Taking Over’ Major Cities
\\\
How long has this been going on? When did it begin?
NY Times, Alan Feuer, 23 Aug 2025: In Trump’s Second Term, Far-Right Agenda Enters the Mainstream, subtitled “President Trump has embraced an array of far-right views and talking points in ways that have delighted many right-wing activists who have long supported those ideas.” [gift link]
Beginning:
During President Trump’s first turn in the White House, right-wing extremists like the Proud Boys were on the streets, weekend after weekend, raising their voices — and oftentimes their fists — about issues such as immigration, the squelching of conservative speech and the removal of Confederate-era statues.
But in the first seven months of Mr. Trump’s second term, there has been a conspicuous absence of far-right demonstrations. And that, some leaders of the movement say, is because the president has effectively adopted their agenda.
“Things we were doing and talking about in 2017 that were taboo, they’re no longer taboo — they’re mainstream now,” said Enrique Tarrio, the chairman of the Proud Boys, who took part in many of those early far-right rallies. “Honestly, what do we have to complain about these days?”
Whether it is dismantling diversity programs, complaining about anti-white bias in museums or simply promoting an aura of authoritarian nationalism, Mr. Trump has embraced an array of far-right views and talking points in ways that have delighted many right-wing activists who have long supported those ideas.
The general consensus is that it goes back to the 1960s, and the resistance of whites to civil rights. That’s why the Trump administration has this white supremacist vibe. And there are lots of white supremacists anxious to join ICE. Especially since ICE keeps lowering its admission requirements.
\\
Because, except for resentment of a world that contains people besides white supremacist Christians, what do they believe in? Certainly not the Constitution, nor law and order.
LGBTQNation, Faefyx Collingson, 23 Aug 2025: Texas Republicans perfectly represent the death of the Republican Party, subtitled “Other than increasing their own political power, what do Republicans actually believe in?”
The Republicans, across the country but especially in Texas, have made it clear that they will use whatever means they can, not to push a moral agenda or a particular policy platform. Rather, their purpose is the advancement of the will of the hate groups and shadow organizations that support them and to prop up their would-be supreme leader.
…
So it is with the Republican Party. They have claimed to be fiscal conservatives, but every recent Republican government has ballooned the national deficit (the last Republican president to leave with a smaller deficit than he started with was Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1961). They claim to be the party of family values, but they don’t support the polices that would help families and are attempting to roll back child labor laws. They claim to support the working class, but help to break unions and strip down workers’ rights and wages. And, of course, they claim to support the military, but their trans ban will cost the armed forces millions, decrease military readiness, and force out people who have devoted their lives to the country, all in favor of pushing the ideals of the religious groups that fund them.
Whatever the Republican Party once stood for, it is no more.
\\
Yet more from David Brooks.
NY Times, opinion by David Brooks, 21 Aug 2025: The Rise of Right-Wing Nihilism
Democratic friends, let’s try a thought experiment. Imagine you woke up one morning and all your media sources were produced by Christian nationalists. You sent your kids off to school and the teachers were espousing some version of Christian nationalism. You turned on your sports network and your late-night comedy, and everyone was preaching Christian nationalism.
That’s a bit how it feels to be more conservative in the West today — to feel drenched by a constant downpour of progressive sermonizing. What would you do in such circumstances? Well, at least at first, you’d probably grit your teeth and take it while silently seething.
In 2018, I happened to watch the Super Bowl at a sports bar in West Virginia. President Trump was about a year into his first term, and the corporate advertising world was churning out ads with vaguely progressive messages. I watched the guys in the bar sort of hunch over, grim-faced, their body language saying: This is the crap we have to put up with to watch a football game.
Pfui. He doesn’t give any examples. What is the poor guy in the photo so uncomfortable seeing on TV? Ads for drag queen shows? I doubt it. To those of us in the cities, he looks like a poor rube who’s never been out of Sawbuck, Arkansas before. While in contrast, to take an example I’m familiar with, the radio stations through the central valley of California are virtually all Christian sermonizing, or Christian country songs. Drive through any red state and the highways are lined with billboards about Jesus. As another example, that’s what people from the cities have to put up with to visit most of the National Parks in this country.
\\
Continuing this theme. Briefly:
- Friendly Atheist: Jack Brewer’s plan to fix public schools? Let teachers hit kids and convert them, subtitled “His tirade on Fox pushed paddling and forced Christianity as ‘solutions’ to crime—ignoring decades of evidence to the contrary”
- JMG: Pete Hegseth’s Pastor: Execute Adulterers And LGBTQs
And we’re supposed to be *nice* to these people and try not to hurt their feelings?
