Jared Yates Sexton: The Fantasy of Violence as Violence

[Nevilledog]

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Tweet text: Jared Yates Sexton
@JYSexton
All right.

We need to talk about the GOP sharing images of themselves killing political rivals, the history of conspiracy theory as a political appeal, and how all of this puts us in extreme danger and almost ensures bloodshed.

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The Fantasy of Violence as Violence
The Right continues to peddle an alternate reality where its voters are prepared to fight a bloody civil war. This takes a toll and leads to a future filled with violence.
jaredyatessexton.substack.com
11:54 AM · Nov 10, 2021

https://jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/the-fantasy-of-violence-as-violence

The video is…pretty pathetic. An edit of the anime Attack On Titan, it’s a childish fantasy that reduces complicated and nuanced politics with wild-eyed conflict. In it, Democratic politicians and figures are framed as enemies of law and order, complicit in the destruction of the United States of America. In opposition is a murderer’s row of the new generation of Republicans, including Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, and Representative Paul Gosar, each of them battling to neutralize the threat.

The fact that Gosar shared the ridiculous video isn’t that much of a surprise. One of the more embarrassing members of Congress (and my god is that saying something), Gosar’s lack of talent and aptitude is only rivaled by his notable and troubling decision making. The video shows the assassination of Alexandria Occasio-Cortez who, it should be reminded, was the target of the most violent members of the January 6th coup attempt, some of whom searched the Capitol for Occasio-Cortez with hopes to murder her or, well, something unthinkable.

I’ve covered the GOP’s embrace of far-right internet memes for a while now. Donald Trump, or one of his aides charged with curating his since-banned Twitter account, frequently shared troubling memes and images cultivated in the deepest and darkest pits of social media. This media always sinks to the lowest form of expression, featuring violence and murder as acceptable and necessary forms of action.

This isn’t by accident. The political environment we inhabit has been systematically and relentlessly prepared for violence as an option, creating a base prepared for eventual bloodshed or overthrow by force, but also necessitating that meaningless and principle-less politicians like Gosar embrace ever-increasingly dangerous rhetoric as a means of gesturing to that radicalized base.

And the cycle continues on and on and on.

*snip*


Companion thread by author
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1458508387558297603.html

[tblue37]

1. Stochastic terrorism.

[Hekate]

2. Indeed it is

[gratuitous]

3. Do the Civility Cops have the week off?

I remember how they went into hyperventilating overdrive when Robert DeNiro did a swear and Kathy Griffin took a picture. An actual elected official like Gosar? Silence.