And when the police arrived they started questioning him about whether he agreed with Trump on deportations and Gaza. The police questioning people on their political views seems to be becoming standard in the USA.

“Why are they saying you pushed a priest?”

“They were trying to pull me away from the pulpit. I grabbed the pulpit and just held on. I didn’t push anyone. They had four guys grabbing me and dragging me off there.”

“What made you want to preach today?” “I’m worried about human beings, our brothers and sisters who live within our midst and are being targeted by the government.”

“What do you consider to be targeted by the government? What class of people are you …”

“Undocumented immigrants.”

“So you don’t agree with deportations and things like that?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Did you say anything like that?”

“I didn’t even get there.”

Looking at a copy of Gillcrist’s prepared remarks, the officer said, “So I see you mention Gaza and Ukraine in here. What’s your message with that?”

“They’re our brothers and sisters. When we stop seeing people that way it’s so easy to start making laws or enacting policies that harm them.”

Hegseth has white supremacist tattoos. Those are approved of.

Many things are possible, but we shouldn’t go shouting “It’s microplastics!” or “It’s TikTok!” or whatever without actual scientific research. There are just too many plausible-sounding hypotheses that need to be handled carefully.

That is exactly how the Nazis in charge are thinking about this. They assume they’ll make it through because they’re constitutionally superior, while the weak die and are no longer a burden on the Übermenschen.

We’re going to have at least two pandemics at the same time, and the USA will have no government left to deal with it, just a few kooks and Nazis with their theories of eugenics, random vitamins, bleach, horse dewormers and survival of the most racially superior.

If I saw serious attempts anywhere from right-wingers to advocate for their views as an actual political philosophy I’d be more concerned by this. But we need spaces where people actually discuss how to build a better society, and simply because of that concern these spaces lean left. It’s rare to find right-wingers who are even seriously interested in that question, except as a pretext to vent their unexamined prejudices and personality issues.

If, on internet forums, you push for everyone to have equal say even when their views are not well considered, everyone’s energy gets used up arguing with the most offensive right-wing posters. I think it’s a good thing to have spaces where that isn’t how it goes. As for centrists, I think there’s a place for engaging with them because there’s more of a chance that they just haven’t examined their views but can be brought to. But I’m not going to miss them if they’re so put off by a left-leaning space that they won’t participate, and I don’t think every left space needs to spend its time arguing with liberals.

Frankly, my view of the right wing these days is that there’s no particular need to treat a mishmash of selfishness, greed, lust for power, deceit, gullibility, ignorance, insecurity and hatred as if it’s a political philosophy at all. Left versus right isn’t a helpful picture. Serious vs unserious would be a better one. If someone has serious arguments for a right-wing position made in good faith, then they’re not just wasting people’s time. But that’s not usually what you see, and I suspect it’s because there’s a lack of serious arguments to be made for it.

I don’t miss the right-wing voices. For the most part they just dominate, disrupt and obstruct serious discussion. That said, it’s important we don’t forget how unrepresentative our online discussions are of society as a whole, and how little impact merely talking about them here has.

Maybe what I’m doing right now? I mean, it could be.