They’re conservatives. There’s a couple succinct ways of summing up conservatism.
“There must be in-groups for the law to protect but not bind, and outgroups for the law to bind but not protect”
That’s pretty much it. They want to be able to do what they want, unbound, but still be protected.
There’s also “No one tells me what to do. I tell you what to do.”
They want to do what they want. Shoot guns. Litter. Drive a big car. Whatever. But they want to tell you what you can do. Don’t do gay stuff. Don’t ride a bike. Don’t do that religion.
They are, at their core, bad people. Depicted honestly they would be a villain in a children’s book. They might be friendly to their neighbors, but at the core they treat outsiders badly. It’s funny because many of them identify as Christian, but the “love your neighbor” + “the outgroup is also your neighbor” part didn’t make it in.
They would be like “That’s outrageous! We patriots would never fall to that level! We are proud of our freedoms!” and on and on. “But… out of curiosity, who are the police state going after?” They might ask.
“Oh, mostly non-white immigrants and people of color.”
“I see.” Showing visible arousal.
I would 100% believe it.
This has been obvious since 9/11.
Like, I was in elementary school at the time and I could see all this coming in the wake of 9/11
It was never about actual freedom from oppression with those people, it was just about who was getting their way.
If you wanted to do things like prevent someone from firing or evicting someone just for being gay, that’s oppression. If you want to keep a teacher from just teaching the christian bible as literal scientific truth in a public school, that’s oppression. If you wanted to say people shouldn’t be allowed to own anti-aircraft missiles, that’s oppression. None of those are allowed, don’t tread on me, oppressive fascist state bad.
If however you wanted to round up all the brown people and put them in camps, that’s totally fine by them. If you want to arrest people for speaking out against a hard-right regime, go right ahead. If you want to strip LGBTQ+ people of any and all rights you possibly can, go for it, they’re the “bad guys.”
“Don’t Tread On Me” was always a dog whistle. It was never about freedom, it was about making sure the “right” people got tread on.
I think the reason it’s popular is because it’s “don’t tread on me” and not “don’t tread on us”.
So White Male Christians? WMC’s
It was pretty obvious even back then. Their ideology was always fascist, and it was always a given that they would support an oppressive government as long as it was fascist.
Don’t tread on me, tread on they/them.
This… wouldn’t surprise them at all? Those types have always been very explicitly pro-authoritarian.
yeah, the folk who ruined the gadsden flag are usually the first to say “why didn’t they comply” whenever police shoot anyone/dog
And Alex Jones praises it
He’s the embodiment of the sentiment expressed in this post. I love to listen to the KnowledgeFight podcast, they have such wonderful ways of deconstructing him.
Yes he will. He is watching Jade helmet happen in real time and hasn’t figured out yet that he isn’t the hero he pretended to be. Honestly he should have had a heart attack when it was announced that FEMA money was being used to fund Alligator Alcatraz.
If Ben & Jerry’s made a boot leather flavor of ice cream, it would share a target demographic with the people selling Gadsden flags.
Unfortunately, I knew that the wash out truck driving methhead buddy if mine would be this way.
