Month: July 2023

The red thread of violence in conservative rhetoric

On January 6, supporters of former President Trump built an ersatz gallows and chanted about executing any number of political leaders. The woman who was killed when she tried to break into the Speaker’s Lobby was lionized as a martyr and the man who did his job by protecting members of Congress was branded a murderer. Trump gave tacit approval to the riot by waiting hours to speak, validating their actions with his first words.

In returning to the political limelight after announcing his candidacy for the 2024 election, Trump said he is his supporters’ retribution. That statement includes a promise that he’ll get even for whatever offenses have been weathered by his base. It’s not a threat to tickle his opponents into submission.

In the 2022 elections, the Republican Senatorial candidate Eric Greitens campaign introduced supposed RINO (Republican in Name Only) Hunting permits in a commercial that showed him storming a house while heavily armed. When Trump was asked who he supported in Missouri, Greitens or Eric Schmidt, he said he endorsed Eric. It’s no surprise that he said nothing about Greitens’ ad. For his part, Greitens laughed the ad off as a joke.

So it wasn’t surprising when Right Side Broadcast Network (RSBN) reporter Matthew Alvarez asked a Trump support at his Erie, Pennsylvania rally what to do about “the left and RINOs, the globalists” and the Trump support said, “Kill ’em all! Kill ’em all!”

If that’s where the story ended, I wouldn’t bother with it. Every political movement has its fringe.

The problem came when Alvarez responded, “I agree with you on that.” That’s not fringe; it’s a reporter for an outlet within the conservative media ecosystem condoning the political execution of tens of millions of American citizens.

When he mentioned the incident later, Alvarez said, “That is not something that I agree with, obviously. So, if there is something that happened, where somebody was speaking out there, I didn’t hear those words spoken. It’s very loud outside, all I know is I’m here for God, for this country, for truth, for President Trump, that kind of thing. Definitely not a proponent for anything like that happening.”

It didn’t seem that loud in the video. The words, and Alvarez’s agreement, were very clear.

Alvarez’s colleague Brian Glenn blamed anyone who would take offense, saying, “This is what many on the left will do, they’ll take a clip of that and they will run with it and, all of a sudden, the statement that is that you want to ‘kill everybody’ or whatever. We all know that’s not what you meant to get across.”

That’s standard operating procedure in what passes for the conservative movement: say something inflammatory, then act turn yourself into a victim and blame the people who respond.

Against the backdrop of Greitens and January 6, or Trump saying he’s his supporters’ retribution…against the backdrop of threats against election workers and librarians, this is more than an innocent mistake. At best, it’s careless and irresponsible. At worst, it’s the continuation of a red thread of violence and intimidation against any who would dare stand against Trump and the MAGA movement, should they return to power.

As screwed up as Biden and the Democrats are, they aren’t calling for death to their enemies. Although Anderson Cooper often drips arrogance and condescension, he’s never agreed with someone calling mass executions of American citizens. Though Joy Behar would probably dismiss anyone to the right of Biden as a waste of humanity, she’s never called for their death.

Despite the dismissals and false equivalences, the same theme seems consistent in conservative rhetoric: the war we’re entering won’t be figurative. The other side must die.

The most violent are telling us who they are. We need to believe them.

Breathing is a weapon; use it

This morning I woke up agitated. I lie in bed thinking of the long day ahead and mentally rebelling against what it held for me. It’s a bad way to start the day.

Because I decided to give my body a little break, I decided last night to make this a yoga morning, rather than running. My yoga is typically gentle. It’s rare for me to burn much more than 100 calories. I work at flexibility and this morning I worked on breathing. As instructed by Adriene, I concentrated on breathing, taking deep breaths in and consciously letting them out.

It made all the difference.

In the Christian faith, the Holy Spirit is sometimes visualized as air or wind. Air is breath. If we take the time to think about breathing, we’re breathing in the Holy Spirit. We’re breathing in wisdom. We’re slowing things down and getting perspective. We’re giving our brains space to reset. We’re controlling the pace of the game.

Whether you’re Christian or not, that image and practice work. Professional athletes focus on breathing, so do snipers. Yet for most of my life (including most of the time now), I’ve ignored it.

Only the dead have seen the end of stress. Breathing is a tool that can help manage stress. It can help build a record of working through it and achieving the best possible (or least horrible) outcome.

For the past four months, I’ve moved into a season of self-improvement. I’ve focused on being what God wants me to be, on incorporating Stoic philosophy and marrying that with my faith. And as that time has passed, I’ve also expanded my search for ways to get better.

My work in these area has dug deep into those concepts and helped me see better ways to approach life.

This morning, I found the simplest and maybe the most profound. It won’t achieve the four stoic virtues of wisdom, courage, self-control, and justice. But it’ll position me to better pursue those virtues.

Weekly recap, July 9

The Fibro has forced me to look at things differently. Getting angry at it or myself or God is self-defeating. Seeing it as a catalyst to change my approach to life to accommodate reality is far better. Since mid-May, I’ve been posting small nuggets of what I hope are wisdom. They’re aimed at myself, but since I’m not the only one to struggle, I share them. Maybe someone else can get use of them, too. On the weekends, I’ll aggregate them here.

I hope they’re of use. I don’t claim to be particularly wise. Just a guy who’s trying to help himself along.

Monday, July 3

I struggle a lot with this, in too many ways. It’s a hard line to keep. Feelings can be liars and they can tell you that you’re powerless against them.

Tuesday, July 4

For many people, today is a pleasant, easy day. Tomorrow, maybe not so much. The passage of time will cure that, as well. If you recognize how fleeting pleasantness is, also notice that the valleys don’t go on forever.

Wednesday, July 5

If you’re working to improve yourself, that’s got to start internally. Christian theology features a God who can hate our actions without hating us. The route to improvement is the same, starting with ourselves and extending outward.

Thursday, July 6

When I was diagnosed with Fibro, I had to decide how to handle it. Railing against it wouldn’t work. It comes and goes as it pleases. So I had to accept it as part of my life and live in that context. It’s a transferable skill.

Friday, July 7

You can work like crazy to improve yourself, but if it’s not extended to others, what’s the point. The struggle of life is the one thing that we have in common, regardless of our circumstance.

Saturday, July 8

When you change, people won’t see it. Keep at it anyway.

Sunday, July 9

We’re all leaders of one sort of another. That doesn’t mean we tell everyone everything. Leadership involves so much more than getting the job done early and under budget.

Ch-ch-changes

Stuff happens.

Sometimes you scope a course with the purest intent. You’re on the side of the gods and all righteousness and then stuff happens.

In my case, it was a fibromyalgia flare. Just getting through the day–doing the work, crashing on the couch after, then existing just above the coherence barrier until an adult could respectably go to bed.

The stuff that happens doesn’t mean that the other stuff isn’t important. It means the stuff that happens takes priority.

Though we don’t recognize it at the time, the stuff that happens can be a wonderful gift. It might seem like the sweater you got at Christmas when you asked for something cool. Sometimes the worst consolation prize is a gem you weren’t in position to recognize.

Fibromyalgia is part of my life. It always will be. I’ve been incredibly blessed by its mildness in my life, but it’s still not easy. It’s difficult. But that’s not the same as bad.

It’s taken all the stuff I’ve written about in this blog for the past ten years–and more–to realize easy isn’t a synonym for good, nor difficult for bad.

When stuff happens in your life, you’re like everyone else that’s ever lived, everyone alive today, and everyone who’ll live in the future. In this world, you will know pain. It’s in the job description, in the small print just after the section on body parts that hurt for no good reason and stuff you can’t eat anymore.

You can’t escape it and it never leaves you unchanged.

But you get to pick how it changes you.

I tried being bitter and feeling victimized and attacked. I didn’t care for it. But we are a stupid people, so I tried the same things differently, and harder. Then I tried to change and felt my own condemnation for failing to change years of bad habits in half an hour (including time out for commercials).

It took a long time to consider a different approach. And though a lot of concepts have gelled since the fibro flare started, their roots have been germinating a long time. (That’s a takeaway: if you’re trying to change and it’s not happening, maybe it is–but the seeds need more time to sprout.)

It’s a hard balance when you try to change–walking the line between giving yourself time and space and being complacent.

Change is hard, but it’s probably the most loving thing you can do for yourself and others. You’re looking at things you don’t like about yourself, owning them, then realizing your agency over them. Then the hard work starts.

Perception always lags reality. People will view you the way you used to be long after you’ve left that behind. You own some of that. They may be projecting on you, but you gave them the target. You just have to keep at the work and remember the goal.

I still care about DeSantis and Moms for Liberty trying to dictate what other peoples’ children can read. I still think it’s a preamble for expanding that power beyond libraries and beyond children so the free state of Florida and eventually Free America means their free to impose their own utopia. For the children.

I oppose it with every fiber in my being.

But today, I can’t control that. I can control me. I can control how I react to people. I can try to be better.

You either evolve or die.

Change involves risk. It will always irritate people. Some refuse to see the new you. Some enjoyed having the old you as a foil. Some will be threatened by your change.

Do it anyway. Realize it’s hard and that hard can be good. How people react to your change will say as much about them as it does about you. Don’t let them deter you.

Don’t wait to get there to feel good about it. There is an illusion. Once you start to get better, you’ll realize there’s always room for change, right up until your last breath. You’ll feel fulfilled by the work of it.

It’s never too late to find a more authentic purpose.