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Every year, we get a year further away from memory, and not just our personal memories, but our collective memory. Turns out, in an individualistic society, we struggle to share more than just our toys, there are those among us who deny our collective memories.
Recent events have made this painfully obvious.
Additionally, the techturd broligarch brigade uses algorithms and bots to manipulate the (shrinking) masses of their followers. There will always be a percentage of Americans who support and even promote fascism.
When you plant your flag on stolen land, and you ignore or minimize the bloody inception and history of your nation, chances are you’re going to produce some xenophobic bootlickers who follow a disgusting demagogue who denigrates anyone who is different or disagrees.
There seem to be a few types of people who support a patriarchal authoritarian regime. Many of the ultra-wealthy, including tech giants, will do anything to become the first trillionaire or land on Mars. They care about maximizing profits while paying next-to-nothing in taxes. In 2025, 1.1 million jobs were eliminated in the United States for various reasons like, AI, tariffs, and simply put: corporate greed.
Anyone who dips their toes into just a tiny puddle of the Epstein cesspool, will find that extremely wealthy and powerful individuals across the globe are in those pages accused of doing some of the most vile shit imaginable.
If you’ve read a fraction and/or looked at photos and videos from the released files, you understand just how depraved the perpetrators are, and you know that there is a pedophile protection problem in our country.
You also know that the perpetrators are part of the wealthy elite. Those in the upper echelons of serious money. These folks are part of the top 0.1% - 1% of very powerful people.
There are many experts who agree that extreme wealth is much like a disease. Just as extreme poverty is linked to negative outcomes for children, extreme wealth is linked to negative outcomes for those living in the lap of luxury. Shay Seaborne, an expert on Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) asserts that the ultra wealthy lack empathy:
“For billionaires, this lack of empathy is dangerous. It contributes to a society where the needs of the many are ignored for the benefit of the few. Empathy is a neurobiological necessity for healthy societies, and when it is absent at the top of the social hierarchy, it weakens the entire social fabric. A society that fails to cultivate empathy and shared responsibility for one another sets itself up for long-term disintegration, mental health crises, and a collective decline in well-being.”
Is it any wonder that MAGA “influencers” write books bashing empathy and calling it “toxic?”
One needs to simply watch Pam Bondi’s testimony in Congress this week to witness this billionaire-cultivated ideology of “toxic empathy.” As parents, a lack of empathy in one of our own children, would sound off countless alarms, and we’d probably consult with a doctor or mental health professional to diagnose why the child was lacking in such an important function of our humanity.
In the age of MAGA, shunning empathy has been pushed by the billionaire broligarchy and Christofascists for the last decade. Rejecting empathy is now peddled to folks in the hopes they’ll dehumanize and otherize anyone that the ruling party disagrees with.
Seaborne goes on to say that the wealthy elite tend to have a strange relationship with dopamine, the neurotransmitter that dictates how we go after success and rewards.
“Studies have shown that the more wealth a person has, the less dopamine is released for subsequent gains. This creates a diminishing return, where billionaires may require increasingly extreme measures to feel satisfied, leading to a never-ending cycle of more wealth, power, and influence.”
Knowing this, is anyone really surprised that so many wealthy and powerful people are in the Epstein files where there exist allegations of child sex trafficking and abuse, forced sexual acts, torture, and if you include the Sascha Riley tapes, murder? Or that the loudest and most sanctimonious “christians” are covering it up?
Maybe Mike Johnson needs to call his son to ask him to check his moral compass.
Another sector of society that gravitates towards fascism are fundamentalists of every faith. Secular AZ has been screaming from the mountaintops since 2010 that Christian nationalism is the greatest threat to our democracy, and we’ve been fighting to keep religion out of government for over fifteen years.
When folks are told throughout their entire lives that a vengeful, all-powerful god is watching their every move, they tend to be obedient out of fear.
Because puritanical AND patriarchal norms have been pushed on them since they were babies, they tend to be easy to manipulate and control. They also repress their very natural desires, and in some cases, trade them in for very unnatural desires.
Blindly faithful religious folks believe that as long as the sinner repents enough and prays for forgiveness (I guess??), it’s all good - even child rape.
Before TikTok was taken over by the fascist regime, I watched a video of a woman who confronted her former pastor for the abuse he perpetrated on her when she was a child, and instead of consoling the young woman, they all surrounded the pastor and prayed over him as they turned their back on the victim.
Huh…sounds familiar.
These religious zealots have taken over many bodies of government throughout the United States. So far in our legislature, countless bills that mandate religion and religious practices are everywhere. If not for the veto pen of Government Hobbs, these bills would likely pass and would allow for prayer at public school board meetings and mandate schools allow for religious instruction during school hours.
A few weeks ago, Chairperson for the Arizona House Education committee, Matt Gress, (R-LD4) had the nerve to say that “our faith is under assault and if we can use the government to snuff out our religious freedoms, some people seem gleefully supportive of doing that” and insinuated that those without faith likely live a meaningless existence. Somehow, my life is filled with meaning. And so are the lives of many other godless heathens I know.
The only meaning these folks seem to make out of their lives is to dictate and control absolutely everything everyone that they disagree with.
Most people rely on empathy to live a meaningful existence, whether or not they subscribe to any specific faith. Now, white Christian nationalists like Charlie Kirk and Elon Musk have designated the trait of empathy as toxic while Arizona legislators are passing bills that would mandate the erasure of acceptance and empathy in the name of checks notes Jesus.
Earlier this week, I watched the House Education Committee hearing where members discussed HB2093, which is a bill that would repeal Arizona state statute 15-701-03 that mandates that mental health instruction be included in Arizona schools.
In this meeting, I learned that our Maricopa County School Superintendent really struggles to read and formulate arguments. She also seems to want to improve mental health outcomes for children by advocating for checks notes again balanced meals, physical exercise, and a heaping dose of pArEnTaL RiGhTs. Despite tearful parents coming up to the podium, carrying pictures of their children who committed suicide, the committee voted on party lines to repeal the mental health instruction statute.
All because they think that Social Emotional Learning (SEL) has become “politicized.” But who are the ones doing the politicizing?
Another profile that emerges in support of authoritarianism are the undereducated and uneducated.
At this point, I’m not quite sure if these “low IQ” folks are in their own category or if they’re just dispersed in with the billionaires and Christofascists, because an awful lot of them have no idea how to seek out factual information through reliable sources whether they’re rich or poor.
The un/undereducated lack the critical thinking skills to contextualize complex issues, and tend to unquestioningly consume information put in front of them. It seems that a good portion of the folks who choose fascism over democracy only get their information from social media and Fox News.
The algorithms guide their eyeballs to the likes of Ben Shapiro, Nick Fuentes, or Andrew Tate, and after consistent brainwashing, they begin parroting their talking points about women, BIPOC, the LGBTQ community, and empathy, believing that the aforementioned are all “aLpHa MaLe behaviors.”
Has anyone heard of the concept of “looksmaxing” or the guy who’s made the term more mainstream, named “Clavicular” in the headlines lately? It’s too much to get into here, but the long and short of it is this lack of empathy is creating a bunch of vapid, selfish, vain individuals - most of them (mostly white) men, and we’ll be stuck with them for at least another generation.
The Christian nationalists bemoan the poor, forgotten, young men in crisis in this country, but they created them. The patriarchy perpetuates the dysfunctional idea of the aLpHa MaLe: a man who is only allowed to feel and show one emotion: anger.
All of the isolation they feel is because the men they follow - from online gaming forums to manosphere podcasts - are teaching them to be abusive assholes.
And organizations from Christofascist churches, to school boards, to the ruling party of the Arizona legislature, to the most powerful elected officials and members of Pedo Prez’s cabinet are writing laws, implementing policies, and redacting the names of these wealthy and powerful men to allow their abuse to continue.
There is still hope, Secular FAM. But don’t go looking for it in our elected officials. The hope resides in all of us. We are the only ones who can save us from the jaws of fascism, so be sure to find the level of resistance that works for you.
Right now, the powers that be are gunning for the end of federal oversight of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO), so we could resemble Minneapolis real soon, and we need to be prepared.
Get to know your neighbors. Download Signal. Get yourself a whistle, and maybe even a gas mask. Perhaps a dildo? And definitely an inflatable T-Rex costume.
Keep it joyful, because it makes them crazy.
