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hatrack

(59,439 posts)
Thu Mar 4, 2021, 09:55 AM Mar 2021

The Republican Grievance Perpetual Motion Machine

The last few months have been hard sledding for the right-wing misinformation machine. Former President Donald Trump is off Twitter and barely on TV anymore, while Democrats are not providing all that much grist for the culture war mill. Meanwhile, Republicans really, really don't want to talk about what Democrats are actually doing — namely, working up a gigantic coronavirus relief package that is overwhelmingly popular and investigating the Jan. 6 putsch. But nothing will stop hard-working right-wing media personalities from cooking up some new culture war slop to shovel into the eager mouths of the conservative base. There must always be a new cultural grievance to generate the requisite fits of purple-faced apoplexy, and by God it will proceed based on complete falsehoods if necessary.

EDIT

The whole tantrum was completely deranged. I grew up reading Dr. Seuss, and the only one of the six discontinued books I had even heard of was And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street (which sure enough has a pretty blatant Asian stereotype in it). None of the true classics — Oh, the Places You'll Go, The Cat in the Hat, The Grinch who Stole Christmas, Horton Hears a Who, The Lorax, Green Eggs and Ham, and so on — were "canceled." On the contrary, the conservative media frenzy drove a surge of virtue-signal buying, which landed many of those titles atop the Amazon best-seller list. Ted Cruz nonsensically boasted about this fact.

As an aside, it is not hard to imagine conservatives demanding Dr. Seuss be taken out of schools (as they have previously CANCELED Rudolfo Anaya, Kurt Vonnegut, and Charles Darwin in years past) if the cultural context were slightly different. As Constance Grady writes at Vox, Seuss's political legacy was complicated, but in most questions of his day he ended up on the left. Though he did draw many racist cartoons, he was firmly anti-Jim Crow, anti-Nazi, anti-"America First," pro-environment, anti-consumerist, and anti-militarist. One book published during Reagan's presidency is a scathing critique of the Cold War. (Hey Ted — you're pushing left-wing propaganda on American children!)

This brings me to the other most important topic in this great nation of 330 million people: the Mr. Potato Head toy. Over the last few days, various right-wing figures have been stoking hysterical panic over the apparent news that Hasbro somehow got rid of Mr. Potato Head's gender, rendering him into some kind of sexless Tumblr alien. "They tried to cancel … Mr. Potato Head," said House Minority Whip Jim Jordan at CPAC. "Buy Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head because it's the end of an era. It is the end of freedom in America!" said Glenn Beck (in the same segment mentioned above). "I would strongly encourage you to go out and get a Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head," said Mark Levin on his podcast. The only problem was that none of this ever happened. Hasbro just made a slight branding adjustment, putting "Potato Head" as the overall brand atop its whole line of various potato toys, which are still gendered as before.




EDIT

https://theweek.com/articles/969981/republican-grievance-perpetual-motion-machine
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The Republican Grievance Perpetual Motion Machine (Original Post) hatrack Mar 2021 OP
You and I think a like USAFRetired_Liberal Mar 2021 #1
Angry, emotional people (whether angry for a good reason or not) are easy to control hatrack Mar 2021 #2
It's all they got. movingviolation Mar 2021 #3

USAFRetired_Liberal

(4,167 posts)
1. You and I think a like
Thu Mar 4, 2021, 10:00 AM
Mar 2021

This exactly what I was trying to say in my post below, but you put into better words....yes, they are always looking for a grievance...but it’s funny that they say we play identity politics or are always in our feelings

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215184537

hatrack

(59,439 posts)
2. Angry, emotional people (whether angry for a good reason or not) are easy to control
Thu Mar 4, 2021, 10:05 AM
Mar 2021

And besides, what else are they going to talk about?

50 million Americans vaccinated and counting? A hugely popular COVID relief bill that's stuck in the Senate by GOP assholes like Johnson and Hawley? Biden with 60%+ approval ratings?

Nope, better call in Mr. Potato Head for some fictitious hysteria!!!

movingviolation

(310 posts)
3. It's all they got.
Thu Mar 4, 2021, 02:17 PM
Mar 2021

They gotta keep their rubes frothy, otherwise the scales will fall from their eyes, and they just might realize the truth. The truth being, that they've been manipulated by power and greed their entire lives to vote against their own self interest.

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