Elad Nehoraiحساب تایید شده

Colonial? My grandmother’s family lived near Haifa for generations. My siddur calls on me to pray for my return to Israel 3 times/day. My Torah is obsessed with the connection between Israel & the Jewish people. To be Jewish is to be Israeli. Even without citizenship. https://twitter.com/RadicalMariposa/status/981335467181428737 …

Believing in God helps explain how to value each human even if they do or say horrible things. It is the God in them, the pure goodness, that we value. It is their physical, human side that makes them fallible. In this way, we see & accept both the light and dark of humans.

Also they’re human.https://twitter.com/MuslimIQ/status/981183046341791744 …

This is the disease that has utterly eaten up much of the right, and has been present for the entirety of American history. We could only eliminate slavery after losing the most American lives we’ve ever lost in any war. Power is our drug. Our idol. Our disease.

Why did white evangelicals seemingly give up their values for Trump? Because they have been infected with the disease. Polls have shown they think they are more persecuted than Muslims. That’s because of how scared they are of even losing a tiny bit of power.

And so when the threat of losing power looms, anything is justified. Like demonizing children. Like aligning with neo-Nazis. Like trusting a baboon to run the presidency.

The fetishizing of guns. The obsession with those guns getting taken away. The demonization of children that survived a massacre when that threat feels real. These are perfect examples of how the disease manifests. Gun = power. Losing power is utterly terrifying.

There are more and more people in this country getting infected with idolization of physical, earthly power. They think it will protect them. They see immigrants and minorities, and are convinced they’re stealing it from them. And they’ll trust anyone who gives it to them.

White supremacy, racism, Islamophobia, inequality by greed, misogyny, tribalism, hatred of the “other”, right wing conspiracies... even all these are symptoms. And we keep trying to explain even those away: “economic anxiety,” “echo chambers,” “loss of norms”. Empty buzzwords.

And that is the danger of most “moderates” in this age who demand we see this issue with nuance. They will not look at Trump as a symptom. And so too with those who pin all hopes on Mueller and impeachment. And so the disease festers worse. Because we don’t want to face it.

In so doing, they became part of the disease itself. Convincing so many others that Trump is a one time phenomenon, one we just need to deal with. And so they have blinded themselves and others to the disease.

This is why so the Republican Never Trump movement is in shambles. Brave as they were, many could only acknowledge the symptom and not the disease. Most couldn’t even bring themselves to publicly endorse Clinton. They desperately tried to believe he was just an aberration.

The danger of such an approach is suicidal. If a disease is only addressed after its most extreme symptoms show, it is likely to be fatal. We must open our eyes. Trump is a symptom, a serious one. Which means we must dig deep into understanding the disease.