Next thing you know, he’s going to be talking about “gay airplanes” during his speeches. “And the airplanes, they’re making the them gay now. Who’s ever heard of that.”
i know a lot of really great people, the greatest, and let me tell you, these great people, these really great people, all say that planes, really great planes, shouldn't be gay
Ever since high school I have been facinated with Hitler and Germany. I intensely want to know why and how a population could let it happen. Now I feel like we are living through the same process. I still don't understand how this happened/is happening. Republicans and MAGA drones need to read a few books or watch a few documentaries on Hitler's rise to power.
Yes they do. But I fear they are telling themselves comfortable fictions as they grasp to push back against the imagined threats to their unearned privilege.
Decades ago I read a book by a man named Milton Mayer. An American Jew, he went to Germany not long after the war to try to understand how that country, once a center of science, and art, and music, could have succumbed to such evil. He interviewed what he called "little-man Nazis," the school teacher, the baker, the unemployed construction worker. The following excerpt is from the forward of that book. He named it "They Thought They Were Free."
“By easy extension, I would rather judge Germans than Americans. Now I see a little better how Nazism overcame Germany – not from without or by subversion from within, but with a whoop and a holler. It was what most Germans wanted – or, under pressure of combined reality and illusion, came to want. They wanted it; they got it; and they liked it.
“I came back home a little afraid for my country, afraid of what it might want, and get, and like, under pressure of combined reality and illusion. I felt - and feel - that it was not German Man that I had met, but Man. He happened to be in Germany under certain conditions. He might, under certain conditions, be I.
“If I - and my countrymen - ever succumbed to that concatenation of conditions, no Constitution, no laws, no police, and certainly no army would be able to protect us from harm. For there is no harm that any one else can do to a man that he cannot do to himself, no good that he cannot do if he will. And what was said long ago is true: Nations are not made of oak and rock but of men, and, as the men are, so will the nations be.” – Milton Mayer, December 25, 1954.
Thanks very much for that reminder. I knew of Mayer's work and book, but the excerpt that is publicly available (https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.htm) is *so* pertinent and powerful. I will make use of it in my Substack post on Monday!
This is one of the things I'm particularly appreciating about s. baum's writing - there's nearly always some sly humor, some highlighting of irony that allows me to laugh instead of crying.
Such massive harm is being done to our community by our own government. And what’s the compensation for that? An official apology in 50 years (should the country still exist) by some future administration regarding this whole shameful period?
We need an equal and opposite response should dems ever take back power. Constitutional amendments guaranteeing our rights, the teaching of history, mandates for DEI, federal holidays recognizing queer and disabled communities, constant reflection on whatever led to this conman becoming a wannabe king, and enough education to ensure it never happens again. And massive taxes on billionaires and jail time for the space nazi
I think at least some of it *must* be - but it's very hard to tell what's malicious compliance and what's someone covering everything that's anywhere near their ass.
I feel like they are trying to eliminate all evidence of the accomplishments of anyone who isn't a straight cis white male. Then they will point to our redacted history to say, "Look, what have your people ever even done? That's why it's important that we are the ones in charge in this meritocracy."
I know (cisgender) women with the middle name "Gay." I know one woman whose first name is "Gay." Are these women going to face discrimination because they have this name?
If it wasn’t tragic, this level of incompetence would be funny. But it’s not. Are we going to lose our institutional memory? Free America from white supremacy morons!
One day we will have a congressional impeachment investigation and learn if the trump admin is really this fucking stupid or if this one was just to give cover to all the other stupid shit they have intentionally gotten wrong. Stuff like removing funding for "transitioning" people with severe disabilities from speculial education into workplace training programs when they graduate because "trans".
Some years ago, the Smithsonian erected a plastic shield around the nose of the Enola Gay, which is on display at the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum next to Dulles Airport, because somebody tried to throw paint on it as an anti-war protest.
As horrible and nonsensical as this is, I'm pretty confident that the plane itself is watched over and well-guarded against similar nutball-ery from Trumpistas.
Next thing you know, he’s going to be talking about “gay airplanes” during his speeches. “And the airplanes, they’re making the them gay now. Who’s ever heard of that.”
“Imagine: you send your bomber into the hanger for maintenance one day, and 3-4 days later it comes back to you gayed. That’s crazy!“
“And it cost billions of dollars, okay, billions. So we’re gonna take care of it, you know, and it’s gonna be great.”
i know a lot of really great people, the greatest, and let me tell you, these great people, these really great people, all say that planes, really great planes, shouldn't be gay
Yeah, I can totally picture that!
This guy is totally nuts
Ever since high school I have been facinated with Hitler and Germany. I intensely want to know why and how a population could let it happen. Now I feel like we are living through the same process. I still don't understand how this happened/is happening. Republicans and MAGA drones need to read a few books or watch a few documentaries on Hitler's rise to power.
Yes they do. But I fear they are telling themselves comfortable fictions as they grasp to push back against the imagined threats to their unearned privilege.
Decades ago I read a book by a man named Milton Mayer. An American Jew, he went to Germany not long after the war to try to understand how that country, once a center of science, and art, and music, could have succumbed to such evil. He interviewed what he called "little-man Nazis," the school teacher, the baker, the unemployed construction worker. The following excerpt is from the forward of that book. He named it "They Thought They Were Free."
“By easy extension, I would rather judge Germans than Americans. Now I see a little better how Nazism overcame Germany – not from without or by subversion from within, but with a whoop and a holler. It was what most Germans wanted – or, under pressure of combined reality and illusion, came to want. They wanted it; they got it; and they liked it.
“I came back home a little afraid for my country, afraid of what it might want, and get, and like, under pressure of combined reality and illusion. I felt - and feel - that it was not German Man that I had met, but Man. He happened to be in Germany under certain conditions. He might, under certain conditions, be I.
“If I - and my countrymen - ever succumbed to that concatenation of conditions, no Constitution, no laws, no police, and certainly no army would be able to protect us from harm. For there is no harm that any one else can do to a man that he cannot do to himself, no good that he cannot do if he will. And what was said long ago is true: Nations are not made of oak and rock but of men, and, as the men are, so will the nations be.” – Milton Mayer, December 25, 1954.
Thanks very much for that reminder. I knew of Mayer's work and book, but the excerpt that is publicly available (https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.htm) is *so* pertinent and powerful. I will make use of it in my Substack post on Monday!
I see that's it's on Kobo - and those who subscribe to Kobo Plus can read it for free. Thank you for the rec!
Turns out humans are shockingly easy to manipulate as long as you press the right buttons.
HOLLYWOOD needs to put out more movies that show us how good people turn evil.
Krishnamurti said:
“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
"The Trump Administration’s attempts to erase LGBT history have once again bombed."
Boo! Hiss I say! That pun is terrible/wonderful.
This is one of the things I'm particularly appreciating about s. baum's writing - there's nearly always some sly humor, some highlighting of irony that allows me to laugh instead of crying.
I laughed out loud. Tremendous opening line, ha ha!
Such massive harm is being done to our community by our own government. And what’s the compensation for that? An official apology in 50 years (should the country still exist) by some future administration regarding this whole shameful period?
We need an equal and opposite response should dems ever take back power. Constitutional amendments guaranteeing our rights, the teaching of history, mandates for DEI, federal holidays recognizing queer and disabled communities, constant reflection on whatever led to this conman becoming a wannabe king, and enough education to ensure it never happens again. And massive taxes on billionaires and jail time for the space nazi
It’s a busy month at the Ministry of Truth, searching out all the badfact and stuffing it down the memory hole.
AFAB (assigned fish at birth)
"My mother is a fish"
Fucking morons.
I'm kind of hoping a lot of this stuff is being done out of malicious compliance so that people can see just how ridiculous this is.
I think at least some of it *must* be - but it's very hard to tell what's malicious compliance and what's someone covering everything that's anywhere near their ass.
Wait until he hears about a whole orchestra full of Trans people from Siberia...
Bet they won't get booked to Kennedy Center.
LOL!!!!
I feel like they are trying to eliminate all evidence of the accomplishments of anyone who isn't a straight cis white male. Then they will point to our redacted history to say, "Look, what have your people ever even done? That's why it's important that we are the ones in charge in this meritocracy."
Sickening.
I know (cisgender) women with the middle name "Gay." I know one woman whose first name is "Gay." Are these women going to face discrimination because they have this name?
If it wasn’t tragic, this level of incompetence would be funny. But it’s not. Are we going to lose our institutional memory? Free America from white supremacy morons!
One day we will have a congressional impeachment investigation and learn if the trump admin is really this fucking stupid or if this one was just to give cover to all the other stupid shit they have intentionally gotten wrong. Stuff like removing funding for "transitioning" people with severe disabilities from speculial education into workplace training programs when they graduate because "trans".
First they removed the T from LGBT and now they’re going after gay. We all knew it wouldn’t stop with T.
Some years ago, the Smithsonian erected a plastic shield around the nose of the Enola Gay, which is on display at the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum next to Dulles Airport, because somebody tried to throw paint on it as an anti-war protest.
As horrible and nonsensical as this is, I'm pretty confident that the plane itself is watched over and well-guarded against similar nutball-ery from Trumpistas.