When we disown any obligation to others society becomes untenable

John Stoehr of the Editorial Board discussed the question: Why are Republican governors killing off their constituents? He talked to Casey Ryan Kelly, professor of public culture ant University of Nebraska – Lincoln, who wrote the book Apocalypse Man: The Death Drive and the Rhetoric of White Masculine Victimhood. Over the last 40 years Republicans have forged their identity on a contradiction. On one side they claim they have been exiled from politics and marginalized in society. On the other they have gained so much they are close to minority rule. This perennial victimhood allows them to disavow their privilege and their overwhelming dominance in politics. An example: A university invites a far right person (such as Richard Spencer) to come to campus to speak. Liberals protest. The speaker is disinvited or withdraws out of fear of “riots.” Conservative media runs stories about oppressive campus culture. Liberals are portrayed as intolerant for not accepting intolerant speakers. Conservatives gain cultural power by looking like victims of discrimination. They gain (the appearance of) sympathy from people who want to remain neutral. The death drive is a compulsion to repeat a moment in the past where a person imagines they were whole and without the psychic tension caused by trauma. That’s why the nasty guy’s slogan is Make America Great Again. But we were never whole and without tension. We only tell ourselves that to manage loss. Kelly said: Trump intones the same message repetitively: the world used to be better (sometime, anytime, in the past). Your birthright

entitlements were stripped from you: your history, your culture, your wealth were taken away by radical leftist Democrats. Wouldn’t it be nice to go back to when we didn’t have to contend with so many mysterious and nefarious social forces (the 1950s or perhaps even earlier when people knew their place)? The repetition of this message invites his supporters to imagine themselves as victims of loss and trauma, and to long for a return to something better (even though the past was not any better. It had its problems, too). ... I am fascinated by the notion that one must risk infection to demonstrate conservative credentials. It is literalizing the death drive: prove your loyalty by avoiding any care or concern for your own health and safety. I’ve seen people call getting covid “owning the libs.”

This takes us to the situation where for them the ultimate humiliation is conceding they are not a fully autonomous person who owes something to others. But when we disown any obligation to others society becomes untenable. Anything that is a collective duty is an affront. But refusing to consider another’s needs and safety dooms oneself. Nothing is gained but the satisfaction of knowing you were right. Greg Dworkin, in a pundit roundup for Daily Kos, quoted Chrissy Stroop of Religion Dispatches. Stroop lamented that mainstream media is slow to cover non religious people and secular issues fairly and accurately.

On the issue of media representation of secularism and secular Americans, Levin, the founder and head of Secular Strategies and co-chair of the Democratic National Committee’s Interfaith Council, has a point. Nonreligious Americans are generally a pro-social bunch, and overwhelmingly in favor of the very rights the anti-social, anti-democratic Christian Right is actively working to take away, like voting rights, reproductive rights, and LGBTQ rights. Yet, according to the legacy media’s punditocracy, America’s rapid secularization is something we should all be terrified of.

Dworkin also quoted a tweet by Peter Manseau from July 2021 that seems to have been a forecast:

Six months later, we're about midway through the GOP's inevitable insurrection journey: That was bad. Bad, but understandable. Understandable. Understandable, and possible good? Yes, that was good. Good, and maybe necessary. Necessary. Let's do it again.

Chitown Kev, in a pundit roundup for Kos, quoted Elisabeth Anker of the New York Times and white people’s meaning of freedom. A country that permitted owning slaves meant only white people should be free. The free white master was able to torture and rape of the humans he owned. Husbands were free in their control over their wives. Her freedom was at her husband’s discretion. White men had the freedom to control business decisions and public spaces.

These are but a few examples of how claims for “freedom” have long suppressed the rights of nonwhites, women and workers. It is true the language of freedom was central to emancipation, suffrage and democratic movements of all kinds, but it has also justified violence and discrimination.

Yep, the white people’s definition of freedom is the ability to oppress. Shriya Bhattacharya of Kos Prism discussed why it is time to get rid of standardized tests used in college admission. Some of the reasons given: * Taking the tests during a pandemic is much more stressful. Students can barely deal with classes, home life, and an uncertain future. Students are deciding the tests are not worth it. * The tests themselves are biased against students of color. Their origin in the early 20th century wasn’t so much of proving a student’s mastery over subject, rather keeping immigrants out with the fear of the decline of the education system. Scores have been shown to correlate with family income. * Students with non white backgrounds, such as Asian and Native American, speak English with a different sentence structure and interpret questions based on different values, beliefs, and experiences. * Students from poor families struggle with the cost of taking the tests and with the cost of test preparation. If students, the customers of higher education, are deciding standardized test scores are not useful to them many colleges will stop requiring them. Christopher Reeves of Kos discussed a moral federal budget. This is an idea presented by the Poor People’s Campaign, Kairos, Repairers of the Breach, and the Institute for Policy Studies. Republicans are outraged at the annual $170 billion cost of the Build Back Better bill yet give $778 billion a year for national defense, including $75 billion a year to top contractor Lockheed Martin. A budget reflects our values. There is a serious problem here. Wrote Reeves:

We have to have a real talk about what a moral nation looks like, and how we can put our budget in line with our values. What values are the most important to us? How do we build a budget that provides us the future that emphasizes helping all humanity instead of helping a few?

Here is this week’s pro vaccination memes collected by Kos of Kos. My favorites: The first is a sign is beside a bottle of hand sanitizer labeled “Paper Cut Finder.”

If Darth Vader can destroy galaxies in a mask, you can shop in one for 20 minutes. Oh, you allow unvaccinated children at your school? Tell me again why my kid can’t bring peanut butter.