i don’t want to be writing about mtg. or lauren boebert. even aoc! really, any particular congress critter.

we are already so invested in individual personalities, we memeify them and make their tweets, press releases and policies and into competitive games. it’s a symptom of the west wing brain disease that puts celebrity worship near the top of our maslow’s hierarchy. our country is worse off for it.

politicians are celebrities, and we love our celebs, don’t we folks? we put so much personal investment into people who are not our allies. celebrities have great class solidarity with other rich people. they are great at getting our attention, but generally pretty shit about having ideals or changing the status quo. love if this could change!!!

but really, we do need to talk about mtg. because if we don’t fucking change course she will be the next trump. not even two months into her term as a critter, it is clear^[1]see: the snl skit, her growing donations that we’ve learned nothing.

these people are political gremlins and we are always feeding them after midnight.

mtg is not the first right wing weirdo to win the national spotlight. she’s following a path forged by the likes of newt gingrich and pat buchanan, and well trod by trump. these people are political gremlins and we are always feeding them after midnight.

they need oxygen to power their outrage and we happily hand it over. after four years of President Shit-Poster i want to believe we can actively smother this nonsense, but lately i’m not feeling so great about it.

ok. don’t feed the trolls! no more attention! on a personal level, that’s fine. i can screenshot batshit tweets about jewish space lasers so mtg doesn’t get more clicks. we could, eventually, maybe make a dent in our shit posting.

unfortunatley, we’re way beyond shit posting being the only problem. qanon believers are in congress now. they’ve stormed the capito! given others covid! i’m glad they’re removing mtg from her committees^[2]esp. education bc i’m sure she’s a terf and i’m terrified of how she’d ruin schools but her dangerous beliefs still have a very large platform.

maybe expel her? idk. that would be like…de-platforming 😬

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the world, and mainstream media’s influence, does not stop at my or your twittersphere. our parents soldier on, posting minion memes on facebook, asking us if we liked Cecily Strong as mtg on snl. many people regularly consume CNN, MSNBC and FOX, who will undoubtedly continue platforming the worst people if they get ratings.

all i can ask of you is to try and shut that shit down in any way you can. snuff out these embers of attention wherever you see ’em.

sadly it isn’t enough for us overly online leftists to stop giving kooks attention. this is a wider problem that will require mainstream media to actively suffer from normalizing these people. the problem is^[3]and was, this was totes the trajectory with trump the media did gangbusters during the trump era.

it is not in their best interest right now to turn their back on a juicy, attention-getting story. clicks, ad dollars, etc^[4]insert “I Blame Capitalism” sticker here. mtg has shown she has read the trump playbook and dog-eared a ton of pages. until those with power to de-platform kooks actually do it, we’ll continue spending time on the covid-deniers who maybe gave tours to nazi rioters! meanwhile many people need fucking unemployment relief, goddamn it.

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related stuff that is good and important:

The March Of The American Kook, David Roth for Defector

Ep. 56: The Poster of Wall Street ft. Respectable Lawyer, Insurgents Podcast with Jordan Uhl and Rob