Amazon deforestation: Comments from Gustavo Petro, president-elect of Colombia

"Gustavo Petro Wins the Election, Becoming Colombia’s First Leftist Leader," Julie Turkewitz, New York Times, June 19, 2022:

"Gustavo Petro, a former rebel and a longtime legislator, won Colombia’s presidential election on Sunday, galvanizing voters frustrated by decades of poverty and inequality under conservative leaders, with promises to expand social programs, tax the wealthy and move away from an economy he has called overly reliant on fossil fuels.

His victory sets the third largest nation in Latin America on a sharply uncertain path, just as it faces rising poverty and violence that have sent record numbers of Colombians to the United States border; high levels of deforestation in the Colombian Amazon, a key buffer against climate change; and a growing distrust of key democratic institutions, which has become a trend in the region."

Also from that article:

"Mr. Petro, in an interview earlier this year, said he believed he could work well with the government of President Biden, adding that his relationship with the United States would focus on working together to tackle climate change, specifically halting the rapid erosion of the Amazon.

“There is a point of dialogue there,” he said. “Because saving the Amazon rainforest involves some instruments, some programs, that do not exist today, at least not with respect to the United States. It is, in my opinion, the priority.”"

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"Chicken from Tesco linked to deforestation in the Amazon" Adam Vaughan, Times UK, April 13, 2023

Colombia declara un nuevo Parque Nacional Natural: Serranía de Manacacías, El Espectador, December 2023

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"When considering Indigenous American civilizations, it’s important to understand that they had different resources at hand, different pressure to respond to, and different values guiding how they approached things. Metallurgy may not have developed to the same extent, but much of the Amazon rainforest is the product of intensive management by indigenous peoples across several “civilizations.” It may not have required direct and active management throughout its existence, but I would be comfortable arguing that a food forest the size of Western Europe equals the scope of the construction of all the cathedrals of the Middle Ages."
— Cameron Summers, What is Technology? (Contraslop, Part 1), Broken Hands, June 19, 2024

See my art essay We secrete a shell.

Image by Heike Hartmann from Pixabay

24 de octubre de 2024: 361 ambientalistas han sido asesinados en Colombia desde 2018. Más de 350 ambientalistas han sido asesinados desde 2018 en Colombia, país anfitrión de la COP16, reveló la ONG Fundación Paz y Reconciliación (PARES) en un informe publicado el miércoles.

Connecting climae and poverty

Related:

"Climate studies, to me, is a sort of branch of development studies. I realize this is not a mainstream position, but it’s the one that makes sense to me.

That’s my starting point, and it’s different from the starting point of a lot of people in the climate movement."

How to Save the Planet Without Screwing Over Poor People A manifesto. Quico Toro, Apr 23, 2026

On compromising with fascists

Some people say that "identity politics" causes the left to lose elections and that the left should compromise away the interests of certain groups to attract more centrist voters so they can win elections.

It's wrong on principle:

Imagine thinking that the key to beating fascism is sacrificing continuously more minority groups to the fascists.

— Katelyn Burns (@transscribe) June 19, 2022

Which may signal either that the leaders don't actually hold these principles or that they expect their voters don't:

This is exactly why the Democrats openly say they want to ignore the issue: Their own voters are becoming transphobic.

It is going to take each and every one of us to chip into the effort to combat this wave of hate. There's no other way to end it. 2/9

— Donnodubus (@donnodubus) June 22, 2022

If you do hold principles in support of trans people, then compromising them is wrong for pragmatic reasons:

Why would anyone vote for Democrats if they never actually take a stand on anything they promise?

Don’t you get it? If they give in on trans rights, they can give in on anything. Maybe something important to you.

— Katelyn Burns (@transscribe) June 19, 2022

The thing about that “trans rights are not a priority while we’re headed towards full fascism” tweet is that the fascism usually starts at liquidation of the minority groups perceived as a minor “fringe” and rapidly escalates from there. There’s a popular poem about this.

— ḃ̸̢̗̺̭͐̋e̵̳̾̌̾̐̌̎̓à̴̢̛̺̱̪͙̤̀̃̊̽r̸͖̗̭̙̗̮̉ (@w0jt3c) June 21, 2022

The idea that throwing trans people under the bus would mollify the right instead of emboldening the right is delusional

— Matthew Sitman (@MatthewSitman) June 20, 2022

Noah Berlatsky wrote on June 30: "You can’t save democracy by letting fascists pick their victims."

Thus, here's a recommendation that you have conversations with people. (Of course, consider whether it's safe for you to do so and if it won't be a total waste of your time.)

Here's what people need to know: The anti-trans movement is becoming a mass hysteria. This is not an exaggeration.

It's not just right-wingers and activists anymore: there are many ordinary, apolitical, and liberal type people who have become obsessed with the topic. 1/9

— Donnodubus (@donnodubus) June 22, 2022

So what does that mean? It means being an active advocate. It means being willing to delve into difficult or unpleasant conversations with people.

It means doing what's called "deep canvassing": "engaging in long, empathic conversations to help shift someone's beliefs". 3/9

— Donnodubus (@donnodubus) June 22, 2022

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Unfortunately, sometimes the conversations can't be productive. It's not that they don't know facts. It's that they have different values.

Already blocked, but again, these fascists know the racist & repressive history of the U.S. & *embrace* it. We can't educate ourselves out of this fascism crisis bc the fundamental problem is not an absence of info but the presence of an ethnonationalist vision of power. pic.twitter.com/wpGn3yLICX

— Dr. William Horne (@wihorne) October 18, 2022

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The voice of civility isn't leftism. LinkedIn

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"It helps to think of Nazism and Fascism as both political projects and also a benders. Here, we have ideologies that are intentionally and relentlessly opposed to self-criticism or introspection. Both rely on crafting entirely incoherent and imaginary realities, stocking them with myths and pleasing stories that heroicize those who subscribe to the project. White, patriarchal, nationalist supremacy, which is integral to these authoritarian projects, works the same way. You don’t have to do anything to be special. You just are because you were born a certain race, a certain gender, and within a certain country. Because of those things, you should be given everything. Through this lens, you can see why their attacks on multiculturalism and things like DEI are so vehement. They’re projections of how they feel about themselves." — Jared Yates Sexton, November 2025

"Where are our leaders? That’s our next step. Finding leaders who know how to lead. Then we find the oppositions’ Achilles heels. Donald Trump and his regime have them. It’s their protectors who keep us from getting at them. They must go, too."
Everything Trump Orders Must be Challenged. Nothing good has ever come from him and nothing ever will. Action comes next. Ramona Grigg, Constant Commoner, Jan 15, 2026

Andrea Pitzer:

"Chad Stanton has been framing an idea that I think gets to the heart of the current institutional Democratic response. Whether they realize it or not, Democratic willingness to reach across the aisle and preemptively make concessions to counterparts who embrace racism and throw vulnerable communities under the bus end up being a movement toward the rejection of a diverse and pluralistic democracy. Instead, it’s a kind of longing for what Stanton calls “white reconciliation.”

I think many reactionary centrists would be surprised and even offended to hear what they’re doing talked about in those terms—it’s likely not how they picture it. But look panoramically at the arguments, how they’re framed, and the degree to which they rely on embracing this mistreatment and exclusion of whole groups to win back reactionary white voters. In that context, framing of “white reconciliation” as the priority seems accurate. But I don’t think it’s going to work, because reactionary white voters are not going to save democracy."

Andrea Pitzer, Does "No Kings" matter? Protesters understand the assignment. They're showing up to save democracy. March 31, 2026

The anti-trans message is that the state owns your body

Kara Dansky, the co-founder of the Women's Liberation Front, went on Tucker Carlson in 2017 "to make common cause with the far-right against what she calls the 'Transgender Agenda,'" as explained by someone who has since made their Twitter account private and then deleted it. This person noticed in 2021 that Dansky "was actively involved in the UK anti-trans crusade as the president of the US chapter of Women's Declaration International" and is connecting the anti-transgender platform (Dansky calls these supporters her 'terven,' according to the person's Twitter thread) "with the Christian nationalist far-right." "There is a plainly obvious direct line from anti-trans bigotry, to hate and lies directed towards drag queens, calling trans and gay people 'groomers,' and Neo-Nazis showing up at Pride events with violent intentions," the person says. And, of course, anti-trans initiatives "harm not only trans people, but gay people, and women who do not conform to gender stereotypes," as well as "girls who want to play sports free from invasive exams into their sex and gender." Dansky "has never acknowledged how her activities relate to the growing fascist movement."

By the way, as Naomi Klein wrote in Doppelganger (2023): "let us not forget Tucker Carlson's 2022 documentary in which he recommended that men regularly tan their testicles with a special infrared light in order to increase testosterone levels in preparation for the 'hard times' ahead."

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Looks like the TERFs are having a rally in DC.

I always love when they pair up with Alliance Defending Freedom and The Heritage Foundation, two of the leading anti-abortion organizations in America.

You know, just in case you thought they were actually "feminists." pic.twitter.com/xts2z5tofc

— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) June 21, 2022

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Esther Wang wrote in 2019: "As the trans writer, activist, and scientist Julia Serano wrote recently, “We are now living through the biggest anti-trans backlash since the 1970s.” She added, “It’s not just Republicans or evangelicals — it’s coming from numerous fronts.” ("The Unholy Alliance of Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists and the Right Wing," Esther Wang, Jezebel, May 9, 2019)

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But also, as Roger Pielke Jr. tweeted on June 16, 2022: "The most visible academics pushing to ban trans women from womens sport have hitched their work to the far right fringe in the US"

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Racheline Maltese, in their Twitter thread:

Cis people: I need you to understand (and help others understand) that “the trans debate” is NOT relevant “to only a small number of people” but to everyone. Thread below for why:

(This is focused on cis women, but cis dudes I need you to listen too. You are also in danger.)

— Racheline Maltese (@racheline_m) June 19, 2022

Being anti-trans is only possible by policing the gender and sex of everyone. Because I promise you - you don’t know who is trans and who isn’t.

Also, most of this isn’t really about trans people although we get hurt the most first - it’s about control.

— Racheline Maltese (@racheline_m) June 19, 2022

See the thread for some examples, like:

Here are just some of the types of cis women who have faced harassment, violence, and legal repercussions for using a women’s bathroom:
- women with short hair
- women with alopecia
- women who are athletes
- women who have had mastectomies
- women who are tall
(Continued)

— Racheline Maltese (@racheline_m) June 19, 2022

The anti-trans message is that the state owns your body.

I mean we’ve got multiple state governments super hyped to give kids internal and external genital exams because there might be one trans girl in Ohio playing softball. What’s the purpose of that beyond telling girls their bodies belong to the state?

— Racheline Maltese (@racheline_m) June 19, 2022

Transgender ballot initiative could require genital exams for WA secondary school students, Sarah Mizes-Tan, NPR: KUOW, June 04, 2026

It's part of the fascist agenda.

The anti-trans panic part of a broader fascist agenda focused on taking away everyone’s choices in public and in private.

Abandoning trans people to persecution and death is immoral.

It also opens the doors of your community and your home and your heart to fascism.

— Racheline Maltese (@racheline_m) June 19, 2022

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many LGBTQ+ people, and specifically trans people, have been saying this but just to echo it again: if you can’t wrap your head around how countries slip into fascism just look at all the ways in which America is criminalizing trans identities and who supports it.

— megan | מיה 🌈 (@kehillahjewess) July 15, 2022

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Well, maybe not quite so effective in the 2022 midterm elections in the US:

This comment by Matt Walsh is aging like milk.

Anti-trans candidates are failing across the country tonight, especially in local school board races. pic.twitter.com/owFd1IgHog

— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) November 9, 2022

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más evidencias de que el terfismo se da la mano con el patriarcado fascista al desear un genocidio trans (y qué asco además que instrumentalicen así el derecho al aborto 🤮🤮) https://t.co/dP98IBy7pN

— Iván (elle 🏳️‍⚧️) (@ierobog) February 27, 2023

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Sad news for the Bolognese queer community, and all of Italy: today, Lucy Salani has left us. She was deported, after deserting both the fascist and nazi drafts, to Dachau. She's the only Italian trans woman to survive deportation. May the earth be light upon your body ❤️ pic.twitter.com/gNAgdHUwVr

— Francesca Tacchi 🫒 preorder TRANSMOGRIFY! (@jackdaw_writes) March 22, 2023

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Big news: a judge just blocked Wyoming's abortion ban.

Why? Because of language that *conservatives* put in the WY constitution last decade to enshrine health care choice... as their way to attack Obamacare.@yeargain had explained that twist last week: https://t.co/WDa4X1C4l3

— Taniel (@Taniel) March 23, 2023

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'We can always tell' if you're trans?

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You can just...wear the pants you want to wear, and let everyone else catch up.

Bruno Latour's reaction to climate denialism (a 2018 article)

A 2018 feature in the New York Times Magazine:

As early as 2004 he [Bruno Latour] publicly expressed the fear that his critical “weapons,” or at least a grotesque caricature of them, were being “smuggled” to the other side, as corporate-funded climate skeptics used arguments about the constructed nature of knowledge to sow doubt around the scientific consensus on climate change.

But Latour believes that if the climate skeptics and other junk scientists have made anything clear, it’s that the traditional image of facts was never sustainable to begin with. “The way I see it, I was doing the same thing and saying the same thing,” he told me, removing his glasses. “Then the situation changed.” If anything, our current post-truth moment is less a product of Latour’s ideas than a validation of them. In the way that a person notices her body only once something goes wrong with it, we are becoming conscious of the role that Latourian networks play in producing and sustaining knowledge only now that those networks are under assault.

— Ava Kofman. "Bruno Latour, the Post-Truth Philosopher, Mounts a Defense of Science." New York Times. October 25, 2018. (This is a gift link from my paid subscription that gets you around the paywall.)

Scientists have been warning us for decades that prolonged extreme heatwaves and out of control disease outbreaks will become more frequent and deadly due to climate change.

We need to completely change our ways of living instead of continuing our "back to normal" denial.

— Dr. Lucky Tran (@luckytran) July 16, 2022

Today, climate deniers are hooting about something called the World Climate Declaration, an anti-science screed that claims to have 1,200 "scientists" declaring that there is no climate emergency. A couple of notes on that. 1/ pic.twitter.com/sQZcNtapLY

— Dave Vetter (@davidrvetter) August 19, 2022

The Declaration is in fact just a continuation of a project by something called the Climate Intelligence Foundation (CLINTEL), a lobby group funded by two Dutch millionaires. @DeSmog has plenty of details here:https://t.co/M3RUAfiPRX 2/

— Dave Vetter (@davidrvetter) August 19, 2022

As you'd expect, CLINTEL is deeply intertwined with fossil fuel money and many of its ambassadors are involved with US fossil fuel lobbyists the Heartland Institute and the Cato Institute. 3/

— Dave Vetter (@davidrvetter) August 19, 2022

The Declaration can be found below. As you will see, the wording itself is extremely lazy, comprising a list of stale, debunked I-got-this-from-Facebook tropes. No research is cited.
4/https://t.co/CYuMwGW2Jj

— Dave Vetter (@davidrvetter) August 19, 2022

When you scroll down the list of signatories, you'll note that few come from climate-related disciplines. A notable number are from the oil and gas industry. Eight are either current or former Shell employees. 5/

— Dave Vetter (@davidrvetter) August 19, 2022

The six climate change myths listed are all dealt with comprehensively on Skeptical Science's Argument page (below). Not one of them holds up to even casual scrutiny. 6/https://t.co/Bghf6BYKMm

— Dave Vetter (@davidrvetter) August 19, 2022

For the second year in a row, a self-declared “leader” in the fight against global climate change will host the Super Bowl of climate change denial.

In February, the right-wing Heartland Institute is scheduled to convene its three-day “International Conference on Climate Change” at the Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista hotel, near Walt Disney World Resort. The Illinois-based think tank is unwavering in its dismissal of established climate science and has a long history of cheerleading for the fossil fuel industry and fighting environmental regulations and renewable energy projects.

* * *

The event is wildly out of step with Hilton’s stated climate and environmental pledges.

— "Self-Proclaimed Climate 'Leader' To Host Annual Climate Denier Conference," Chris D'Angelo, Huff Post, Nov 23, 2022

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For the last month I've been reporting on a group of people who travel across America blocking wind and solar projects.

This group has passed clean energy opposition laws in states across the country.

Here's the story of one man who has been doing this for 10+ years.

🧵

— Michael Thomas (@curious_founder) November 18, 2022

Last week someone sent me dozens on internal documents from a fossil fuel trade group.

They reveal a massive greenwashing campaign that aims to convince Americans that propane (a fossil fuel) is good for the environment.

The campaign has already reached 300m+ people.

🧵

— Michael Thomas (@curious_founder) January 19, 2023

"Why was 1934 the warmest year in the US?" I was asked today. Climate scientists often get strawman questions. so my response is, "It wasn't." But then ask, "Why do you think it is?" to turn the conversation to the motivation--which is what really matters! https://t.co/jHo61hBHMF pic.twitter.com/cGcNS5Qmn3

— Prof. Katharine Hayhoe (@KHayhoe) March 29, 2023

2020 U.S. coup attempt: Consensus reality broke long ago

“Watergate” was “a mytho-poetic perversion of governance whose real and symbolic betrayals helped feed the paranoia and disaffection with consensus reality that form the ambient political background for high weirdness.” (As described by Erik Davis. High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies. London: Strange Attractor Press, 2019.)

The 2020 coup attempt

We know that Eastman sent an email on December 24, 2020, saying that Trump was unlikely to win on the "legal merits" of his position, to which another lawyer, Kenneth Chesebro, replied that the Supreme Court Justices might be pressured to rule in Trump's favor if they "start to fear that there will be wild chaos on January 6".

USAmericans were already paranoid and disaffected, yes, but there was no longer any consensus reality to break. It was broken long ago.

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6/ The confidential Proud Boys informant said the Proud Boys would have killed other lawmakers too, if given the chance. Listen. https://t.co/N0EqNPawEp

— Jennifer Cohn ✍🏻 📢 (@jennycohn1) June 16, 2022

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NPR keeps a video archive.

I've watched thousands of videos from the Jan. 6 riot as part of NPR's reporting and archive project on that day. Here are some of the lesser known videos that have really stuck with me. 🧵

— Tom Dreisbach (@tomdreisbach.bsky.social) January 6, 2026 at 8:23 AM

As violence against police escalated on the west front of the Capitol, some of the rioters appeared to take pleasure and even laugh.

[image or embed]

— Tom Dreisbach (@tomdreisbach.bsky.social) January 6, 2026 at 8:23 AM

There's a persistent myth that the cops "let people in." It's nonsense. There's extensive evidence that rioters knew they were breaking the law. Here's one of the rioters making a call, knowing that she might need to be bailed out of jail.

[image or embed]

— Tom Dreisbach (@tomdreisbach.bsky.social) January 6, 2026 at 8:27 AM

Just after 2:00 p.m., on the west front, the police - bloodied, battered, and overwhelmed - blasted this message, ordering people to leave. The Capitol was breached minutes later.

[image or embed]

— Tom Dreisbach (@tomdreisbach.bsky.social) January 6, 2026 at 8:30 AM

"You better run, cops!"

[image or embed]

— Tom Dreisbach (@tomdreisbach.bsky.social) January 6, 2026 at 8:32 AM

"Take his helmet off!"

[image or embed]

— Tom Dreisbach (@tomdreisbach.bsky.social) January 6, 2026 at 8:34 AM

And then there's this video, of officers talking with each other about what they just witnessed. "We didn't have a chance," one officer said. "[Trump] was still giving his speech, and I just had to leave, because he's basically just telling people to come down here and rip this place down."

[image or embed]

— Tom Dreisbach (@tomdreisbach.bsky.social) January 6, 2026 at 8:42 AM

Happens in other places too: 7 Dec 2022...

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Related: See this February 20, 2023 Twitter thread about the narrative in the Dominion Voting Systems legal brief.

In April 2023, Elie Honig says Fox is 'headed for a full-blown journalistic and legal disaster'. (CNN video)

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Update on Eastman: John Eastman (see the Eastman memos) and Jeffrey Clark (see the Clark letter) were both indicted in GA. They were also named as co-conspirators in the federal case, and they could eventually be indicted federally, perhaps after a verdict is delivered on Trump.

"The proceeding against Eastman in California is only one effort across the country where disciplinary authorities are seeking to compromise the law licenses of attorneys who assisted Trump after the election. Attorneys who worked for Trump in Michigan have been sanctioned, Rudy Giuliani’s law license is currently suspended, and he and Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official under Trump, are facing their own ongoing bar disciplinary proceedings. On top of those efforts, the criminal charges against Eastman, Giuliani, Clark and others in Fulton County, Georgia, could lead to their inability to practice law, if they are convicted."
— CNN, November 3, 2023

NEW: Fulton County, GA says FBI's court-approved seizure of 100s of thousands of 2020 ballots shows "callous disregard" for rights of county & voters. Fulton atty accuses feds of using warrant to end run pending suits. Search justification due out by Tues www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

[image or embed]

— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein.bsky.social) February 8, 2026 at 7:36 PM

Darkling beetle larvae can eat Styrofoam

Pranshu Verma in the Washington Post today ("This Styrofoam-eating ‘superworm’ could help solve the garbage crisis"):

In a paper released last week in the journal of Microbial Genomics, scientists from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, showed that the larvae of a darkling beetle, called zophobas morio, can survive solely on polystyrene, commonly called Styrofoam.

* * *

...the scientists will study those enzymes to see how well they can digest polystyrene on a large scale — modifying them if necessary to become more effective. “We want to not have gigantic superworm farms,” he said. “Rather, we want to focus on the enzyme.”

If the research proves successful, Rinke said waste managers could collect and grind Styrofoam materials and put them into a liquid solution made with the superworm enzyme. The solution would ideally dispose of the Styrofoam or digest it in a way that allows new plastic products to be created, thereby reducing the need for new plastic materials, Rinke said.

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Image by Sebbi Strauch from Pixabay

The Republicans were given to understand there would be no diversity here

Thomas Zimmer writes in The Guardian today, "The January 6 hearings aren’t acknowledging the elephant in the room":

"And how are the people the hearings present as Team Normal, as standing up to Trump’s coup attempt, dealing with all this? Take Bill Barr: he’s on record saying he would vote for Trump in 2024. In his testimony for the committee as well as in his book, Barr has left no doubt that he believes Trump is either willfully pushing treasonous conspiracy theories or is completely detached from reality – yet Barr is still willing to help put him back in the White House.

Barr’s ability to rationalize this astonishing balancing act is the main reason I am skeptical that the hearings, by focusing narrowly on Trump, could succeed at turning Republicans away from him. When confronted with how he could possibly still support another Trump presidency during his book promotion tour earlier this year, Barr replied: “Because I believe that the greatest threat to the country is the progressive agenda being pushed by the Democratic party.” There it is: after everything we have been through, conservatives still see the Democrats (or progressives, or liberals, or the left – they see them as interchangeable) as the biggest threat.

This is the perfect encapsulation of the permission structure that governs conservative politics: anything is justified in defense against what they constantly play up as a radically “un-American,” extremist “left” that has supposedly taken over the Democratic party."

That "progressive agenda being pushed by the Democratic party" is maybe not most widely understood as a what, but rather a who. What I understand from this is: Republicans will vote to end U.S. democracy rather than accept that certain kinds of people exist.

transphobia connects the entire fascist movement, it is its living tissue, and you have to defend trans people without caveat if you want to fight fascism in earnest

— Talia Lavin (@swordsjew) June 16, 2022

I think that we’re entering a period when the most meaningful political distinction will be fascist and anti-fascist. It’s really important to understand that transphobia is one of the most potent entry points to fascism today - and act accordingly.

— Julia Carrie Wong (@juliacarriew) July 3, 2022

Terrifying to watch the escalation of transphobic rhetoric in the US. It so closely mirrors what’s happened here - with the hostility from legacy media being amplified by large social media contingents and certain celebrities.

— Anna Orridge (@orridge_anna) July 5, 2022

Really tho, the fact that we see cis women who are actively losing their rights joining in on attacks on trans people, and scapegoating them, as eliminationist policies are pursued at the state level in red states around the country, should be historically horrifying to people.

— Puff the Magic Hater (@MsKellyMHayes) July 5, 2022

This is part of the fascist spiral.

— Puff the Magic Hater (@MsKellyMHayes) July 5, 2022

It's terrifying and sad that a number of feminists from the 70s & 80s have, with fascism, world war and environmental collapse imminent, chosen to obsess with persuading women that trans people are the real existential threat.
It's the mindboggling fucking pettiness that gets me.

— Roz Kaveney (@RozKaveney) July 3, 2022

“What killed the organized national feminist movement? Could it have been a massive, organized right wing attack that dismantled their institutions, from NOW to Planned Parenthood to Title IX, over the course of decades? No, it was definitely a 13 year old who goes by they/them.”

— Moira Donegan (@MoiraDonegan) July 5, 2022

6/ “Culture wars” may seem to address different issues, but they serve the same purposes because they are driven by a storyline of theft.

— Kay Whitlock (@KayJWhitlock) July 5, 2022

Just learned something horrifying abt how liberal media aids transphobia & fascism.

For a hearing, Texas has entered Bazelon’s NYT article into evidence to help justify Abbott’s directive for child welfare to investigate families w trans kids,

Way to go, @emilybazelon.

— Dr. Thrasher (@thrasherxy) July 5, 2022

Cis journalists gearing up to write an article for a major news magazine that'll end up being cited by at least three states trying to criminalize healthcare for trans people pic.twitter.com/a1hb9f4Ilj

— Ari Drennen 🏳️‍⚧️ (@AriDrennen) July 7, 2022

Man alive. It took literally no time for the Right and moderates to take the fallout from the overturn of Roe and divide any sort of mass response.

Everything says we’re being prepared to live within a new reactionary era.

— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) July 5, 2022

Already you can hear a drumbeat gaining. Sacrifice trans people. Sacrifice gay people. Sacrifice any notion of progress.

This is how authoritarianism gains purchase and control.

— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) July 5, 2022

It is SO STRANGE that as soon as Roe v Wade was overturned, almost every venue from @nytimes down turned to an intense attack on trans persons. TERFs are transparently just being used now.

— Jason Stanley (@jasonintrator) July 5, 2022

I know a lot of my jokes revolve around hyperbole but I am not remotely exaggerating when I say that once a person gets into transphobia it eventually becomes all they're capable of thinking abouthttps://t.co/mzO3vMJGDz

— Zack Budryk (@BudrykZack) July 5, 2022

The attacks on trans people coming from center-left and "centrist" media sources like the NYT is very much part of the bigger plan by the right. The goal is to undercut any potential resistance to what comes next. 1/n

— Brynn Tannehill (@BrynnTannehill) July 6, 2022

These narratives are all the same with different coats of paint.

There is an "evil group" orchestrating the chaos from behind the scenes. It's most often anti-Semitic and the "threat" creates a need for violence and antidemocratic actions to "solve the crisis."

14/ pic.twitter.com/iPvmxk6cU2

— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) July 7, 2022

With this shift, the instability and chaos are blamed on loosening of tradition, including changing gender roles, progress, and unchecked liberalism.

They build their base on reestablishing patriarchal and religious culture by force.

21/ pic.twitter.com/we3SOhWpGI

— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) July 7, 2022

Remember this when you read articles that blame gay and trans people for Roe being undone.

When you hear it's the Left or "wokeness" or "cancel culture."

It's preparing America to accept the Right Wing reactionary authoritarianism. To place the blame on the vulnerable.

27/

— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) July 7, 2022

All kinds of people exist.

What we have now is a gunman who advocated "sav[ing] ammunition" to target people who support "gender transitioning." (Three months later, he died trying to attack the FBI.)

The FBI HQ attacker had some thoughts about trans rights pic.twitter.com/rHdr1vmHHP

— Katelyn Burns (@transscribe) August 11, 2022

I really think it's worth being aware of how "Gender Critical" people talk about trans rights. They keep saying things like "when this is all over" and "once we're back to normal". They really think that one day soon there will just be no trans people, like their imagined past https://t.co/LQDDWSPIX1

— Katy Montgomerie 🦗 (@KatyMontgomerie) October 14, 2022