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This is an example of one of the things that most baffles me about the right in the US today.
They have this whole narrative about government overreach, but the reality is that while, for example, government agencies did have DEI policies, they were internal. There was no interference in businesses - the businesses that had or have DEI policies chose to on their own.
Then the Republicans come in and what do they do? They ban DEI, not just in their own agencies, but in private businesses. So in reality, we've gone from a situation in which the government did not interfere and businesses freely chose their own policies, which the right characterizes as government overreach, to a situation in which the government attempts to directly intervene and control which policies companies may or may not put in place, which the right characterizes as freedom.
How does that even work in their own brains? I understand the human capacity for self-delusion and confirmation bias but surely there's some sort of upper limit, which the MAGA right should've already passed.
???
They went from abortion nationally legalized to "states rights" as justification for states to choose abortion law.... And are now pushing for nationalized abortion bans.
It was never about states rights and never about overreach. It's about enforcing all of their policies as widely as possible using whatever means possible.
If you can't see that by now you can't be helped.
What you're talking about is perfectly in keeping with the expected actions of power-hungry jackasses, and likely isn't news to much of anyone, and certainly not to me.
And it's not what I'm talking about. The "they" you're talking about here are the policy-makers and officials and their spokespeople. That's not who I'm talking about. And the set of lies you're talking about - advocating some set of legal restrictions, then changing the promised reach of those restrictions - is not the dynamic I'm talking about.
What I'm talking about are the rank and file supporters who think of themselves as pro-freedom, and who apparently sincerely believe that they're being oppressed by the government when the government is not actually involved (such as Walmart requiring masks during Covid or Starbucks implementing DEI policies), then apparently sincerely believe that they've been freed from government overreach when the government steps in and interferes (such as banning masks or banning DEI).
I don't understand what's going through their heads. Obviously they're some combination of stupid, ignorant and partisanly blinded, but even that doesn't seem sufficient to explain away such a glaring set of misconceptions. They quite seriously and apparently sincerely claim they're being oppressed by the government when the government isn't even involved, then that they've been freed from government oppression when the government steps in and interferes.
It's seriously as if they live in a fantasy world in which up is down, not just figuratively but literally. This isn't just self-serving lies and manipulation - it's more like mass schizophrenia.
And it baffles me.