@jenmercieca
Explaining anti-democratic rhetorical tricks. Award winning #teamrhetoric professor & author. Very earnest. Democracy cheerleader. Views represent my academic research, not my university. I post things on substack: https://jennifermercieca.substack.com/
I know it's hard. I see Trump's supporters as victims of terror and manipulation. Trump is a con man who knows where their vulnerabilities are and knows exactly how to exploit them. I live in a deeply red place and they're good people, but scared. And scared people get mean.
Exactly. It's a strategy. That's why it's so important to build community. Building trust fights fascism.
Friends, distrust is a democracy killer. Trust is a "social lubricant," everything works better in a high trust society. Demagogues try to increase distrust and take advantage of a distrusting people to gain control over a population. I cannot stress enough that this is quite bad for us.
"The United States is the only place we surveyed where more adults (ages 18 and older) describe the morality and ethics of others living in the country as bad (53%) than as good (47%)."
You’d think they would learn, but they continue to sell their integrity to the dream of ladyfash power. Sad for them! 😂
THEY IDES THE WRONG ONE
Noem got long knifed, ladyfash never last.
The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.
🥰
War is the ultimate disease of cooperation
One drove a bus, the other worked in a car factory.
wait, she married?
Accountability is coming.
Yup!
I wrote about the Compensation Act of 1816 here (chapter starts on 147, idk what it will open to):
Exactly, it was Trump's best argument. He said he was once a corrupt insider, but now he was going to use what he knew about corruption to drain the swamp. He was and is still a corrupt insider. He was never going to drain the swamp. He is the swamp monster.
Like a trust-busting, anti-monopoly, protect the workers and the environment TR kind of campaign. Not a technocrat, soft, computer job kind of campaign. And talk about freedom.
"vote the bums out" is a highly resonant phrase in American electoral politics.
Six data-driven reasons Texas could actually go blue in 2026
www.gelliottmorris.com/p/six-data-d...
There is so much corruption, the public hates corruption. Make sure the public knows about the corruption.
bsky.app/profile/thet...
Y’all read up about the Compensation Act and the election of 1816. They called it an “electoral purification”—it was a massive purge of incumbents who were perceived as corrupt.
What just happened in Dallas County is one of the most blatant voter suppression operations I've ever seen—and it happened in a *primary*.
In March. Imagine November.
I broke it down here:
open.substack.com/pub/objectio...
Molly, but could it get even stupider?
🔥 Trump is a lame duck
Sid Blumenthal perfectly understands Trump's gameplay, which is straight out of the authoritarian playbook. Few other analysts do. Sidney Blumenthal: The president needs a quick win to avoid a quagmire – but he needs a long war to justify potential emergency powers
The most democratic solution is to understand how & why it works. If RWA understood that their leaders take advantage of their innate vulnerabilities to program them to attack others, they might recognize they're being manipulated to terrorize. Then again, fear & terror work. Perhaps punishment?
The authoritarian discourse playbook is designed to "activate the posse response" in rightwing authoritarians. It's a form of terrorism that works to silence and intimidate.
ineffable idiocy
ineffable idiocy
from CNBC: Iran war live updates: Israel boosts forces in southern Lebanon; drones hit U.S. embassy in Riyadh The Strait of Hormuz is facing a blockade. These countries are most impacted Dow futures drop 900 points as oil surges again, fears rise Iran conflict will drag on
going great!