Spencer Critchley

Communication and Change

Politics & Society

We’re Being Saved From a Coup by Incompetence. How Did We Let It Come to This?

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We’re living through the first coup attempt in US history — and tens of millions of Americans believe the plotters are patriots. It’s small comfort that what has preserved our democracy so far is the bungling of the people trying to destroy it. And democracy won’t be safe again until we accept that all of us are responsible for letting it become so vulnerable to attack. I talked about that a few days ago with Howard Monroe of Watchdog Radio (you can listen to the interview above).

Excerpt:

“Democracies have failed frequently, and they’ve failed more often than they’ve succeeded. Madison identified this at the founding of the country in Federalist number 10 when he warned that democracies tend to have violent, short lives.

“And I don’t believe it’s just Donald Trump. He’s been, in my view, extremely destructive of democratic institutions. It’s one of the worst things about the last four years, which goes way beyond any policy differences. It’s really, in my view, about whether you believe in democratic institutions or not. But I don’t think he originated it, I think he’s more a symptom of the problem.

“…We’ve created a society where this was possible and I think we all have to share responsibility for that. We inherited an incredible gift, this democratic system, but we’re in the position of spoiled rich kids, who were born rich and we have no idea where all this money came from, and we think it’s just natural and we deserve it.

“And we haven’t been good stewards of this democracy. We’ve stopped paying attention to the legitimate press, we’ve stopped making sure we’re at least minimally well-informed, and stopped recognizing how important it is to cast an informed and responsible vote, and to have intelligent discussions with our neighbors instead of just yelling at each other.

“And there are reasons for that and as I say I think it originally goes back to this founding division that’s tended to keep us in these two separate worlds that really have difficulty even establishing a shared language these days.”

QAnon Is the Blood Libel

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Statue of Simon of Trent on the front of the chapel dedicated to him in Trento, Italy.
Statue of Simon of Trent on the front of the chapel dedicated to him in Trento, Italy.
Photo: Matteo Ianeselli via Wikimedia Commons.

QAnon is just the latest excrescence of the ancient blood libel against Jews, in all its horror and stupidity, amplified by dishonest media, social media, and the lowest of the low political opportunists, including our soon-to-be former president.

The result? 41% of Republicans believe QAnon is good or very good for the country, and we now have two QAnon-believing members of Congress.

The blood libel dates to the dawn of Christianity but has been refabricated over and over, ever since. One version, from 1475, claimed that a northern Italian boy, who became known as Simon of Trent, was tortured and murdered by Jews. The lie — which led to the real torture and murder of members of the local Jewish community — was promoted by the Bishop-Prince Giovanni Hinderbach.

Hinderbach exploited the then-new media technology of the press to spread the story far and wide while building a cult around Simon as a saint — and raising money from the sale of printed editions and of indulgences to expiate sins.

Sound familiar?

It took until 1965 for the Church to finally abolish the cult.

But as we can see today, as long as power and profit can be reaped from ignorance and hatred, it will not go away.

Trump’s Coup Attempt

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Nov. 5, 2020, 7:30 pm EST. We must see what’s happening while it’s happening: With his address just now, the president tried to stage a coup.

Everything he said was a lie, obviously. He lies daily, all day. But these are among the most dangerous lies he’s ever told.

That’s because democracy can’t exist without trust in election results and without the ensuing peaceful transfer of power.

For the first time in our history—a history no one thought possible—we have a president who attacks democracy, who attacks America itself.

This sounds hyperbolic, but it isn’t. It’s the reality that’s hyperbolic. This description is simply accurate.

The corner we’re rounding? It leads to even more deaths.

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Here are two views of the corner we are most definitely not rounding, no matter how many times the president repeats his latest branding catchphrase/magic spell.

Bar graph oof countries ranked by coronavirus deaths per 100,000 people.

We are entering our third spike in cases and deaths, and continue to rank near the bottom of countries being measured for deaths per capita. When Trump says we are among the best, “best” means “worst.” We are only among the best if you include only the bottom cluster of the 168 countries ranked by Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center. And no, it’s not because we test more, which we don’t. It’s because more of our people die.

It’s a record of criminal negligence and failure that in the private sector would amount to tens of thousands of counts of manslaughter, if not what the law calls depraved-heart murder:

Depraved-heart murder, also known as depraved-indifference murder, is a type of murder where an individual acts with a “depraved indifference” to human life and where such act results in a death, despite that individual not explicitly intending to kill. In a depraved-heart murder, defendants commit an act even though they know their act runs an unusually high risk of causing death or serious bodily harm to a person. If the risk of death or bodily harm is great enough, ignoring it demonstrates a “depraved indifference” to human life and the resulting death is considered to have been committed with malice aforethought. In some states, depraved-heart killings constitute second-degree murder, while in others, the act would be charged with “wanton murder,” varying degrees of manslaughter, or third-degree murder. (Wikipedia)