#ThoughtExperiment#politics#BlackMastodon#BlackTwitter@blackmastodon The second part of the ThoughtExperiement asked you all to assume Trump was a distraction and to indicate what you thought the underlying root complaint is for the MAGAs. I asked Europeans not to reply, because their underlying causes of right wing discontent are different from ours AND because they are more willing to critically look at systems than Americans are. I wanted to hear from the people who live here. 1/7
#ThoughtExperiment#politics#BlackMastodon#BlackTwitter@blackmastodon And just as with the first experiment results were not surprising. Less than 10 people offered a guess as to the underlying root complaint of the MAGA. Let me offer one. You’ll need to remember some history but I promise I’ll only ask you to go back as far as Richard Nixon. I won’t traumatize you with a connection to Reconstruction (!) 2/7
#ThoughtExperiment#politics#BlackMastodon#BlackTwitter@blackmastodon Just recently someone on Mastodon re-posted the interview with Nixon’s man Halderman where he proudly admitted that they created the war on drugs to negate any forward movement that was created by the civil rights legislation of 1964/65. This happened within the lifetimes of you old heads on this site and for the young people when your parents were already adults. 3/7
*edit: add numbering
#ThoughtExperiment#politics#BlackMastodon#BlackTwitter@blackmastodon Reagan continued those polices as did both Bushes. And frankly, Bill Clinton signed some of the most repressive legislation that has ever been wielded as a hammer against poor people and people of color. What Nixon and Halderman and the others have been worried about was a population of free black and brown people, who were educated, employed and able to participate in the so-called American Dream. 4/7
#ThoughtExperiment#politics#BlackMastodon#BlackTwitter@blackmastodon The root of the MAGA angst is the fight for the American White Identity. The fight is over whether "White America" will join a world order where they are not on top and where their voices are not always considered the most important one or will they enter a world where there are equals who don’t look like them, don’t speak their language, don’t eat their food or pray to the same gods. 5/7
*ed: spelling
#ThoughtExperiment#politics#BlackMastodon#BlackTwitter@blackmastodon A large swath of white America does not want a new world order. They are desperately fighting for Jim Crow 2.0 where people of color know their place, don't look them in they eye and step off the sidewalk when they walk by. They want a world where they can work black and brown children to death, and kill their parents with impunity if they complain. 6/7
*edit: spelling
#ThoughtExperiment#politics#BlackMastodon#BlackTwitter@blackmastodon They want a world where women don’t get to talk and die in childbirth like it used to be so they can get the next model. Do you see it? Are you prepared to frame that issue and talk about it? If someone were to ask me how I see the fight ending, I wouldn’t be able to answer. I think there’s a 50-50 chance we go fully and openly to Jim Crow 2.0. And when I look around sometimes I wonder..which side are you all on? 7/7
@fulanigirl@blackmastodon More recently I've come to the conclusion that the party is now made up, in large part, by folks with anti-social tendencies. They are first "anti" whatever is popular or beneficial or helpful to society. When presented with something new they begin with "no" instead of trying to understand. Then, couple that with fear mongering or scapegoating or helplessness and you have the general foundation for what you're seeing play out. Being mostly online exacerbates it too!
@fulanigirl@blackmastodon I'm wondering if the racism, misogyny, and embracing of outgroup/ingroup hierarchies is because it has always been like the air that they breathe. For them to consider otherwise would be a seismic shift in understanding the world, which terrifies them. It would require that everything they have ever known comes into question (as it should). It means that they can no longer trust anything anyone told them, and that they would have to do the work to find equilibrium.
@fulanigirl@blackmastodon I feel it is the same with severely (emotionally or physically) abused people as children, who perpetuate a limited world view that includes believing that abusing their own children is acceptable behavior. Because if they self examined their behavior, they would have to reckon with the fact that they were never safe as children nor adequately protected or cared for.
To change a person's world view requires what Gregory Bateson categorized as Level 3 learning. (cont)
@fulanigirl@blackmastodon Gregory Bateson, level 3 cont.
"Bateson (1973:276) refers to being driven to level III by contraries’ generated at level II’; The “problem” to which third-order learning is a “solution” consists of systematic contradictions in experience’ (Bredo 1989:35). This matches what we have called elsewhere dilemmas of participation’ (Tosey et al 2005)."
[The paper goes on to mention Level 3 learning can produce psychosis, so not always safe.] https://ia601901.us.archive.org/12/items/gregory-bateson-theory-of-types/Gregory_Bateson_Theory_of_Types.pdf
@fulanigirl@blackmastodon A lot has been written about what Bateson's framework means. A lot of it is contradictory and often used in papers about implications to organizational learning. My understanding of Level 3 learning, as Bateson implied it, is a kin to having a traumatic event reshape your frame of reference to all that you know, like a receiving a terminal diagnosis for cancer or becoming disabled. (cont)
@fulanigirl@blackmastodon Bateson's L3 cont.
Another example is like in the movie, The Truman Show, where the protagonist finds out he was raised on a camera set at the end of the movie and his life was all make believe.
Experiencing this can cause a psychotic break with reality, to which one may never return. But it can also be a way to grow and become more aware and stronger. The later outcome was coined, "positive disintegration" by Psychologist, Kazimierz Dąbrowski. https://positivepsychology.com/dabrowskis-positive-disintegration/
@fulanigirl@blackmastodon Ending abortion rights is their legal step towards resegregation. The hack supreme court will use their own ruling to show how constitutional it is to have lower tiers of citizenship for different groups of people
@hugoestr@blackmastodon Interfering with Black people's right to vote came WAY before the abortion ruling. You are missing some key steps on resegregation .
@fulanigirl@blackmastodon did you get notified about the Ampp Palliative Benefit not an attempt it's a fund support program assigned to most relevant users