I’ve been struggling with how to make sense of what the far right likes to call patriotism. Our democratic system of government is at the core of what defines America, but many of them are willing, and in some cases eager, to destroy that.
It finally hit me that what they love is not their country. They love their control of it. That is why racism, misogyny, homophobia, and other irrational hatreds are so deeply tied into far right movement. Only people like them should be allowed to have a say. The acceptance of diversity that began as religious freedom and has expanded to encompass all differences, directly threatens their control.
I wish that insight pointed a way to deal with the problem, but it really points up how intractable the problem is. There is no compromise that will satisfy both sides when one side is demanding complete control over the other.
This may be one of those problems that can only be solved by newer generations, who tend to have less rigid views of the world, gradually replacing the hard liners.
Reactionary ideology means they feel entitled to be in charge. They genuinely believe that they should have more privilege than others solely because of their identity as a white person or a Christian, or a man but most often a combination of the three.
Their whole motivation is that they believe the country is being stolen from them, who are it’s rightful rulers.
They will do anything it takes to retain their privilege to tell you what to do. They’re desperate due to the energy and demographics on the left rising to a level we haven’t seen in decades; they don’t intend to lose even if it means violence and/or overthrowing the government.
One of the reasons they attack critical race theory with such ferver is one of its absolutely true sociological tenets:
When you’re accustomed to privilege, equity feels like oppression.
Regardless of the facts, regardless of the way human beings have been treated like animals and need societal protection, modern reactionary conservatives only care about those feels.
The truth is, if you want to play the rightful rulers game, the only ones with a valid argument are the Native Americans, the ones that are left I mean. It’s gallows hilarious how many groups of European white people have taken turns declaring themselves the true natives of this giant genocide graveyard built by literal slaves.