Tag: Current Events

Something Has to Change

Nick Anderson | 5 Sep 2024

I’m tired. I’m so damn tired of watching a nation of knuckle draggers defend unfettered access to firearms and not the kids being killed by firearms legally obtained by those who ought not have access to them. The fourteen year old who killed four and injured at least 30 others used an AR-15 given to him by his father. The gift came shortly after the student was investigated for threats made against his school the year prior.

The moment we talk about common sense gun regulations similar to those required to drive a car—such as licensing and registration, health evaluations, etc.—the same knuckle draggers who demand extensive identification for those trying to exercise their right to vote cry out: “bUt ThE sEcOnD aMeNdMeNt!” Yet these same intentionally ignorant, peaked in high school stable geniuses piss on our right to free expression and our right to religious freedom (including freedom from religion). Many of them pose the solution that we “aRm ThE tEaChErS” when we can’t even find the money to keep school supplies in stock or pay our teachers a competitive salary.

While we are all guilty of hypocrisy in one form or another, the hypocrisy of this mouth breathing mass is literally killing our children. They’re worried that a student might read a book that exposes them to a world of ideas that might contradict the act of indoctrination they engage in with their kids. They are terrified of seeing queer youth being treated with dignity and respect. They are scared that students might see how many of our social, political, and societal systems are rigged against certain people groups—like women, the LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC communities, and the poor. Ideas scare them more than the inevitability of another school shooting.

Things must change.

And before anyone says this is “jUsT a FaCt Of LiFe,” we are the only country where this is a regularly occurring problem.

Things must change.

A Picture Worth a Thousand Words

This is but one of many images that should alarm us about the movement and motivation of the MAGA cult. Even if you hate the current president, consider what the next president means in terms of the Supreme Court of the United States and the rights of every American. The image itself presents an army of white saviors who come to rescue America from non-white, non-heteronormative, and non-Christian peoples and values, paving the way for their ‘superior’ vision to be made manifest. This image tells us who is to be empowered, who is to dictate the way in which people may (or may not) live, and with whom they have aligned themselves to force their will on the rest of us.

This image is reflective of the whiteness permeating throughout MAGA culture. It reflects the rhetoric of hate groups like Christian Identity, what’s philosophy has further poisoned and co-opted Christianity to justify and perpetuate white supremacy. Consider what is said, implied, and left unspoken in the phrases “Take America Back” and “Make America Great Again.” Economic and border security, which they often argue, resonates with the same spirit as “States Rights” being touted as the ‘reason’ for the Civil War and the secession of the South. In truth, however, just like the ‘States Rights’ argument, the presented reasoning is bullshit. It is about maintaining white Western ‘Christian’ dominance and the power to oppress, marginalize, and harm others for their personal gain.

This image likewise reflects the current move to seize control of America (Project 2025) and is reminiscent of the white Christian response to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and 1970s that led to the rise of the “Moral Majority” and the election of both Ronald Reagan (whose neoliberal policies have destroyed our economy) and George Bush, Sr.

It is a call to action that leverages Christian Nationalism and Christofascism as justification for the means used to achieve their ends. This is, in part, indoctrination for the younger generation suffering under these knuckle draggers and a marker of the zealous fervor present in the far-right extremist movement.

This image, and those like it circulating the internet, should be a reminder of the importance of talking with our friends and family about what’s at stake in the upcoming election. They don’t have to like Biden, but they should consider the Supreme Court appointments that will inevitably happen under the next President and what that means for the rights and liberties of all Americans.

Whatever your thoughts on the above image, remember to get out and vote this November! Our democracy is at stake.