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Jan 11, 2021Liked by Drew Hastings

I hate the thin skinned destructive lefties and I hate the ignorant and out-of-their-minds overly religious armed ultra righties. SO... where is the space for the centrist anymore who just wants to get along and see their kids do well?

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Neo nazi's, the KKK, the "proud boys", steet gangs, lefty anarcists or

extremists groups of all types are all "counter cultures". They are also full of mostly terrible, dangerous, hate filled people who DESERVE to be disliked.

Trump and many MAGA's have allowed the evils of fear, hate, ignorance or avaris to rule them. Then they wanna cry "victim" when others dislike them for being assholes. Sorry, but you, nor Donald, nor his brainwashed disciples, get a "pity party" from me.

Trump has/is/and always will be a terrible, selfcentered, person. He never should have been given the power he has abused and missused and you should have known better than to support him.

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So what's the call to action here, Drew? You say we can't vote our way out this - what do you suggest we do? We tried to take the capital but that didn't work out. What are our options? I accept our underdog status and title as the "new counterculture" but acknowledgement is only the first step.

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That's a lightly re-warmed serving of the usual Trumpist victimization stew. However, the logical inconsistencies are wide enough for the Angry Orange One to walk through flanked by 100 CN gas firing DHS agents & National Guardsmen on his way across the street for a quick selfie with the Good Book.

For starters, a group doesn't suddenly become a 'counter-culture' after dominating all branches of government (and virtually all outlets of a worshipful right-wing agitprop media) for 4 years, only to lose grasp on power through displays of incompetence, corruption and sheer malice for which there's no comparison in modern American history. You can call that 'exile-culture,' 'fail-culture,' or just Karma. But counter-culture, it ain't.

Similarly, among white voters who made up more than 2/3 of the total electorate, Trump won by a landslide (58% to 41%.) He won especially big among whites over 50 years-old, and by large margins among those earning over $100,000/year and especially over $250K/yr.

So, to be precise, your beleaguered new 'counter-culture' is overwhelmingly older, wealthy & white.

By extension, that means the members of your new 'out-group' are far more likely to have things like health insurance and IRAs, and own their own home. They're far less likely to be randomly stopped by police, or face violence from law enforcement. If convicted of a crime, their sentence is statistically likely to be far shorter than that given a minority convicted on the same charges. White Americans' share of all privately-held wealth keeps increasing as compared to all other ethnic groups. Their life expectancy is higher than any other group, their kids are far more likely be able to go to college, and so on. You're not likely to find a more pampered & privileged 'scrappy group of underdogs' anywhere.

But last November, your group discovered one thing they couldn't win just by showing up - They couldn't re-elect the President whose Faustian bargain involved him overtly pandering to your economic interests & cultural anxieties while actively harming your adversaries, in return for you looking the other way on his transparent corruption and historic cluelessness. Such was the outrage among the non-wealthy, non-white voters and the exhausted and/or disgusted 41% of whites after one term, that you couldn't get your guy another four years of his rule by Fox-News, avarice & revenge. Making it worse, you had to sit by and watch helplessly as 87 judges angrily launched Trump's implausible, 4chan-worthy claims of epic voter fraud into the surface of the Sun over the course of 60 court pleadings. Most of the primarily Republican (and even Trump-appointed) judges scolded Trump's lawyers and shredded the shoddy conspiracy claims & rumors they submitted in place of *any* factual foundation at all supporting their destructive, jaw-dropping lie.

Finally, defying all your snappy T-shirts and memes insisting that "Facts didn't care about your Feelings," and egged on by the 300-pound, spray-tanned, hair-sprayed ersatz TV billionaire & con-man, thousands of your Rebels without a (reality-based) Cause stormed the Capitol in a homicidal panic, killing 5, smearing feces on walls, taking countless FBI-enhanceable selfies, and screaming that they wanted their country - the one they've run for 246 years to their own fierce advantage - back!

TL:DR -- You're not the new counter-culture, Drew. Nor are you a victim, the forgotten man, or a freedom-fighter bravely holding the line against the big tech or the globalist cucks. You're a surly, bigoted old guy who'd rather burn democracy to the ground than see brown folks, LGBT or feminists get the same treatment & rights you've taken for granted since you were born. But you have a cute kid and a comic gift. Very few could turn it around in the shadow of 70. I bet you can. Here's hoping you do.

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Sadly, you are correct. The Left demonizes The Right or anything they believe or stand for. Unfortunately, you overlook the reality The Right demonizes The Left too. Each side damns the other and if you disagree with that side you're a horrible, America hating, Nazi.

I firmly believe that most us have beliefs that lean to The Right and other beliefs that lean to The Left. Unfortunately, if we don't fully agree with one side or the other, we are the enemy. There is a complete loss of respect for others beliefs, even if they differ from yours. Also, there is a complete loss of respect for the freedom we have to believe differently from someone else.

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Oh what a hair-raising event.. SMH!

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Well written, Drew.

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GREAT PIECE OF WRITING. HOWEVER, YOU ARE SOOOOOOOO WRONG

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