It’s my belief!

“Can you believe?” is the operative term…it is belief.

And this was predicted over twenty years ago.

Internet media is to blame big time…cable news also.

Today, in another part of the newspaper I read every day (most Americans get their news from the internet), I read that Facebook is the only way people read the news in America.

Huh, Facebook? I watch Facebook a lot, but read three newspapers a day. And still I can’t make heads or tails of what is going on!

Facebook was never intended to be a news outlet..It was devised to be a place to sell stuff, with a large profit margin…

I post political discussions points: but also post my source almost every time.

Now these are political posts, but there is little doubt about it with my posts.

And I get blocked all the time…

What the Internet and Cable News have done is politicize the news more than ever before, according to media experts.

Unless you are a policy wonk (and I confess I am) you only read Facebook posts or Tweets when then agree with you.

Fox started it decades ago; ostensibly presenting a right wing position on the news that ostensibly main stream media was not doing. In short, the “liberal media” was a big problem so conservative (and fascist) positions did not get “fair and balanced”treatment.

Actually the news was pretty fair and balanced…it became “unfair” to Republicans when the media spoke truth to power during Watergate.

Nixon and the Republicans blamed the Washington Post and its two writers, for bringing Nixon down.

Nixon was not brought down by the liberal press; he was finished by himself and his lies. The media was just doing its job.

So Fox went to unbalanced treatment of the news, started outright lying and conspiracy theories, supposedly to counter weigh the liberal media..or as Trump named it”. FAKE NEWS! So lying and propaganda was the recourse to the truth that newspapers like the Washington Post presented.

To this day Trump hates the Washington Post so much that he attacked the Post Office because Amazon’s CEO also owns the Washington Post and the Post caused (according to hard core right wingers) Nixon’s fall.

They conveniently ignore that he was being impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors and was going to be convicted.

Tricky Dick would love today’s political world, lying has become a national pastime using mass internet media as a never ending propaganda machine.

It is not an accident that Trump used Twitter, only 20 or so words, to drive home his totalitarian “beliefs”…actually he doesn’t have any beliefs only more power for him! So he lied to bolster his often conspiracy theory ridden positions; this culminated in the “steal” that purported to prove that the election was “rigged”…

The only rigging that took place was voter suppression efforts by Republicans…so Trump’s baseless narrative of “steal” , the Big Lie, was effective in discrediting reality.

And discrediting reality is what fascists do.

And that big lie was propagated across all media.

Leaving the consumer with paths to support ONLY their point of view, which now has crystallized into propaganda dogma and belief.

“Can you believe” is the operative word, rather than facts now its belief that counts. And belief, up to and including plotting to take over the government illegally, is allegedly protected by the First Amendment.

Just for the record it isn’t! There is not protection for treason and treachery….the Civil War was fought for just such reasons, an area of he United States whose belief was slavery was good versus an area of the United States whose belief was slavery was bad.

Belief structures that dominate politics are very different…they eliminate the needed area of bi-partisanship that democracies need to survive! Without room to compromise it becomes a vote everytime, and the majority rules all the time….this is not a good democracy!

Finally, this trend of lies centered around January 6, 2021, when the President created an event, created a “steal” lie, and sent his legions to take down the election and end democracy.

And they nearly succeeded…only luck and the Washington DC Police along with the Congressional Police avoided a democratic disaster.

And how has the media carried it, with lies of course especially from the right!

We wake up every mourning with a major party, the fascist Republicans, who have committed open treason defending their actions as their “beliefs”.

There is no remorse, none…because fascism works to solidify conservative’ power….And fascist provides no truth to power, rather belief’s to power. The fascist belief structure ALWAYS does not tolerate any debate! That is what led to the myth that “The Only Good Indian is a Dead Indian” or “Kill the Indian Save the Man” both fascist tools to steal land and kill cultures…

Truth is NOT belief. Truth is that which can be proven with neutral facts; and that was the news previous to Trump, even the most liberal of news told the truth, it was a truth that Nixon for example could not tolerate BECAUSE HE WAS ALWAYS GUILTY!

The jargon of Republican politics now uses Fascism, for those of us who read, to attempt to stop attacks on the right wing conservatives who make up about 20% of the USA population.

I am constantly posted this refrain, ‘I don’t care how many facts you show me, I have my “belief”.

“Beliefs are not facts, they are assumptions, conspiracy theories, fascism works hard to deal with beliefs (“Triumph of the Will” ) rather than facts.

The pandemic we are suffering through is rife with examples of beliefs countering reality: For example….masks are not needed they are a sign of weakness, it’s all a hoax there is no virus….liberals are using the pandemic to over throw the good Republicans, the pandemic is no worse than the flu; etc etc.

It went so far that right wing groups literally committed suicide, using their beliefs in a fantasy behavior that massively exposed them to the virus and killed them. The President gave himself the virus by trying to sell the lie that the pandemics was a hoax; and to top it off, he apparently was way more sick than previously reported. Even in grip of a killer virus, Trump lied!

Even in death they denied, their beliefs included blaming China for the pandemic and driving many racist attacks on Asia Americans (all of them because racists can’t see any differences; an Asian is an Asian)…

You cannot “reason” with conservatives anymore, about 20% of American population have used the non debated position that their beliefs were the ONLY way they decide anything…

So they demonstrated against every effort by government to contain the virus, actually acting out in ways that encouraged the virus spread..

Of course this meant people of color got the disease more than the conservative elite who hid behind their advantage in medical care to propagate a “Big Lie” that lured many less fortunate into contracting the virus and dying.

20% is huge when you consider most dictatorships take over with no more than 10% approval ratings.

In short, Fascism doesn’t need a majority to thrive.

So that is where we are…with a strong minority pushing to end democracy, with a disgraced and probably criminally charged ex-President who schemes to run again in 2024.

Hitler and many other fascist dictators followed the same playbook.

The Republicans will rally around their fallen hero, and Americans love comebacks; especially those who are bankrolled by billions of plutocratic dollars. Trump plays the underdog really well; witness 2016.

Of course Russians massively helped him him in 2016 and that is no conspiracy theory!

Can you believe it is now Believe It, and then the power of internet propaganda is used to overthrow the oldest democracy on earth.

That’s right, the oldest one…England is still partly a monarchy for very strange reasons, so it doesn’t count.

Every other major nation on earth has a very short and tumultuous record with democracy.

We nearly lost ours January 6…and see it at risk as long as the Republican Party continues to exist.

Wonder if? Well many state legislatures, even after January 6 attempted coup, are right now passing restricting and illegal suppressors of the popular vote in the United States…

Trump himself said the Republican Party would never again elect a President unless there was widespread voter suppression… He attacked the Postal service with only one objective in mind: suppress the vote that would increase because people were afraid to in person vote since it would expose them to the pandemic.

Most Republicans believe the mail voting caused their defeat, when in reality (remember not beliefs) Trump’s poor handling of the pandemic was the main reason why he lost the election.

That is not belief that is factual truth that Republicans never listen to anymore. Beliefs literally guide their every move. And truth is subservient to beliefs in their world.

Gerrymandering and just plain criminal redistributing of state election boundaries have resulted in unchallenged fascist majorities in state legislatures that piles one anti-democracy law on top of one after another after another.

Trump will be back, or if we are lucky enough to does not survive to see the next Presidential election; leaving one of his sons to run; again typical dictatorship fascist behavior.

The threat that we stopped together in 1945 is not done trying! And indigenous people have shown us the way out…truth.

It is an even bet who will win, the good wolf or the bad wolf (ancient indigenous fable)…..