I am still gobsmacked that 47% of America’s voters, mostly white and older than thirty prefer an abusive authoritarian white supremacist ideology as opposed to a democratic republic. Think about it. That means there’s a 50-50 chance that the person next to you is and hates your guts just, well, just because. To be clear, I use the term abuse to mean the physical, weaponized, and/or mental assaults on people and laws based on gender, skin color, culture, and/or birthplace, too often ending in hospitalization and/or murder.
Embolden by the Trump administration’s rhetoric and policies, “it seems clear that misogynist extremists feel validated …[by]… a man who they believe views women through the same reductive lens: as sex objects without agency and humanity, as faithful but lesser helpmeets, or as harpies coming to steal their power.” Therefore, women are out to steal men’s power. Ditto the attitude toward minority advancements. “if a black person is doing well, it must mean a white person is suffering.”
Hate, subjugation, repression, and abuse are important factors in the authoritarian ideology. Common enemies create unity and provide a political punching bag to keep emotions high and visible. Since the under-thirty white crowd is less enamored with authoritarianism and white supremacy, recruitment tactics are aggressive and subtle– the hate target: women. Especially women who stand up for themselves, fight for equal opportunity, ask partners to share the emotional burden of a relationship, and insist that any private interpersonal interaction is based on consent. In short, the empowered woman, also known as, a feminist. The white supremacist indoctrination approach:
- FIRST white supremacists go after feminists.
- THEN they look for people who say “Yeah, I think feminism has gone too far….”
- THEN they get people to admit that feminists are just talking about the extreme views of “all women”.
- THEN get them to admit some form of misogyny.
- THEN they use that to get the person to admit they are also racists.
- THEN they get the person to embrace white supremacy.
Those who hate women/feminists are misogynists. I never realized the deep meaning of this label until I read examples in my research and it rocked my apparently narrow world of niceness. In reading the following quote, notice you can substitute any other group for “women,” such as black and brown people, LGBTQ, Jewish or Islamic people, etc. From the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) report: When Women are the Enemy — the Intersection of Misogyny and White Supremacy. The Alt Right’s Woman Problem:
The fact is, when you give women rights, they destroy absolutely everything around them, no matter what other variable is involved… Even if you become the ultimate alpha male, some stupid bitch will still ruin your life.” –Andrew Anglin, DailyStormer.com. Neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin wants to remind women that they’re lucky to get a man – any man at all – and are worthy of little other than male violence and contempt. “Women crave men who call them stupid and claim they shouldn’t have any rights. They also crave being tied up, beaten and raped. [NOTE: and murdered]
The vagina is the perfect representation of the nature of females. An empty vessel, a hole, a void with no identity of its own.” Matt Forney cross-posts some of his choicest anti-female sentiments to the MRA website Return of Kings.
Holy outrage! Is this really what permeates the culture of hatred? This self-aggrandizement, which somehow singles out a gender and a skin color, both of which have nothing to do with anything except genetics and biology, to pass judgment on every other human being in their community much less the face of the earth, is simply bullshit.
And yet, “Embolden by the Trump administration’s rhetoric and policies, “it seems clear that misogynist extremists feel validated …[by]… a man who they believe views women through the same reductive lens: as sex objects without agency and humanity, as faithful but lesser helpmeets, or as harpies coming to steal their power.” Therefore, women are out to steal men’s power. Ditto the attitude toward minority advancements. “if a black person is doing well, it must mean a white person is suffering.”
While many seemingly good people would never utter these words out loud, in silence they conduct their lives, they sit in our elected offices and support legislation that feeds into this outrageous bias while defeating legislation promoting equality. They sit in Human Resource offices, bank loan departments, civil service departments, etc. making decisions on bias rather than merit. Women haters try and control women’s health, claim right-to-life when it comes to abortion but have no problem, once the babies are born, abusing them at all stages of their lives by passing laws denying health, meals, housing, equal education, and the right to walk around in safety, free from rape, assault, and murder. Why? Because legislation to control women’s health is all about control and abuse.
Let’s not forget those “funny jokes” about women are not funny at all. They are demeaning and meant to be. Why? Behind every negative statement and action, as benign as the speaker asserts, are the words of the Neo-nazi Anglin and Matt Forney. Men who let other men dehumanize women, silently agree. Furthermore, it gives those “jokesters” permission to apply their hate and bias to African Americans and all other minorities. As a result, hate fuels 70% of American voters, a percentage of which is now brandishing war weapons on our streets and private property without repercussion.
Hate and hateful actions are the realm of bullies, people who have no other outstanding qualities, who quake at others’ successes, who dismiss and step on the outliers’ souls and bodies to elevate themselves. Left unchecked, excused from taking responsibility for their actions, they will force via money and legislative-pressure ruling governmental bodies to support their skewed perception. And, that is why, in a nutshell, this country lives and rules in a hate-fueled ideology.
Great minds, ideas, inventions, visions, artistry know no gender, no skin color, no religion. They are all part of human expression borne of the human experience. We have much to face in the coming years. We can make it hard by sticking to divisiveness, hate, and “I-me” philosophy. OR we can make it easy, take responsibility for our actions and our impact on the community. We must reject hate and find the best people to plan, develop, and lead us through the necessary transition to a sustainable lifestyle via sustainable energy, water supply, manufacturing, agriculture, and housing. We need to MASK-UP to fight this pandemic. We need to improve our response to the pandemics to come, and they are coming, as well as our disaster response, including homeless migrants. We need to upgrade our infrastructure, including national access to high-speed internet.
We, as a country, do not have time for hate. We may not have enough time to survive. Moving forward as an egalitarian nation determined to protect our land and resources for this generation and generations to come is, in fact, our only option for survival.
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This post is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: Andre Hunter on Unsplash