under the digital ID fsa.8b31646.
If you get your news, facts and truths from Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, OAN, MRCTV, Newsmax, FoxNews, Russia Today, AM Talk Radio, Parler and other alternate reality profiteers which helped inspire the Michigan “covid ain’t real” kidnappers, the Nashville “lizard-people conspiracy!” bomber, the Wisconsin “vaccines alter your DNA!” saboteur or the “Stop the Steal” domestic terrorists… please check your sources and at least look for something to cross-check your beliefs.
When family and friends say something which contradicts these sources, they’re not trying to hurt you. You might even consider giving them five minutes to speak their mind even if it contradicts the dozens of hours of hate radio and T.V. you’ve listened to.
Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, the author of “The Power of Positive Thinking” had a powerful influence on Donald Trump’s self-made man image of himself. Donald Trump still clings to prosperity gospel beliefs, that imagining yourself as president can make it so, even after losing an election by the equivalent of the population of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Alaska. But at least one of Dr. Peale’s sermons never sunk in. The one where he said, “The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.”
Your friends don’t want to break it to you. They know you’re comfortable with these sources just as earlier generations trusted the National Enquirer, Epoc Times and The Star. So some try to post corrections or report your upstream sources. But then we are attacked by thousands of Trump cultists, allies of the January 6th domestic terrorists. They dox, hack or collude to get us kicked off social media or worse. “Community standards” for Facebook, Twitter and other social media are built on deeply racist communities. So a reference to tragic and true racist history can get a person banned from these platforms of white fragility.
I once believed that anyone who can listen to hours of Limbaugh, Hannity, Carlson, Levin and similar civil-war profiteers wouldn’t be snowflakes around the political views of friends and family. But some have such a fragile faith in themselves, they quickly end relationships over a tweet which contradicts their view of the world. So the rest of us walk on eggshells to protect your ego as you walk nearer to the cliff that Donald Trump took many of his followers on January 6, 2021 and in the years leading up to this. Many well-meaning friends made New Year’s resolutions avoid talking about politics. But I won’t. Not when your politics invades science, healthcare, justice, diplomacy, national security, disaster response, our identity and every other aspect of our lives. I won’t be silent when your politics threatens to hurt you and others in this great nation. Call it tough love.
