I didn't know we had a mounted division

(With deepest apologies to Lin Manuel Miranda)

You say The price of my love's not a price that you're willing to pay  You cry As you kneel for the flag 'cause the cops won't stop shooting you guys  Why so sad Remember we made an arrangement when you came as slaves Now you're making me mad Remember despite our estrangement I'm The Man

One might be tempted to ask oneself why it is that the right wing is so stubborn when it comes to the overwhelming scientific evidence regarding climate change. Even those who can bring themselves to admit it’s happening, it’s our fault, and it’s bad, nevertheless are lukewarm about doing anything about it. In fact, even they tend to revert back to making fun of global warming when the opportunity presents itself.

Think about that: they find it easier to mock something they readily otherwise admit is real than actually do something about it.

This has been somewhat difficult for me to understand. Why would you accept as fact that something that critically bad for everyone is going on yet be reluctant to do anything about it? Why do some people refuse to even entertain the notion?

In some cases, it’s unthinking politics. People take a side and filter the information they get through a political lens based on the sources they read and then do little thinking of their own, choosing what resonates ideologically. To some degree, while reprehensible, they’re the least offensive of recalcitrants. Then there are those who refuse to accept the possibility because it would necessarily require them to admit to themselves and, even less tolerably, admit to the other side that they were wrong about something. But those aren’t the most offensive ones.  The most offensive are those whose intellectual vanity is greater than their ideological satisfaction and lead them to accept the consensus and, really, what their fucking eyes are telling them, yet choose to remain anything short of strident in adopting the justifiably alarmist position. I couldn’t understand why. Then I remember Magda Goebbels in Downfall:

     “My children cannot grow up in a world without National Socialism.”

She would rather destroy her children than allow them to grow up in a world where her ideology was fundamentally wrong (in her case, German racial superiority). 

I have a hard time coming to any other conclusion than to think that conservatives who accept climate science would rather see the world burn than have a reality where their fundamental position of industry first, environment second, is inescapably wrong. 

If you notice, liberals are not leaping to the defense of Weinstein. The “liberal media” doesn’t seem to have any problem reporting on it. Yet conservatives sure seem to be willing to abandon the high standards of proof they demand for university students when the subject of Hollywood rapists comes up. Suddenly, every accusation is not only true, but obviously has been for ages. 

The GOP establishment hasn't been so much pro-Trump as anti-anti-Trump since his nomination. They drooled at the stolen Supreme Court pick and decided to go all-in, hoping Trump wasn't everything that they said he was during the primaries and what everyone else said he was since he started campaigning. The man holds positions that, until last year, were anathema to many of the party's traditional platforms.

(Note: this is not an endorsement of their traditional platforms, nor is is saying Trump isn’t right-wing.) Part of the reason for their hitching their horses so firmly to a wagon that should otherwise have ended up on the Island of Misfit Toys is the stark polarization of politics that happened when some black dude slaughtered them on the way to two terms in the White House. The Tea Party took over the GOP with the position that the best defense was a good offense and that truth was irrelevant in politics. Ever since, any defense of conservative issues as being the better answer was all but abandoned in favor of the demonization the left by any means necessary. When some of those means were morally repugnant, rather than the honest defense that it was a minority of bigots who were being repugnant, they decided to attack the accusation and thus normalized bigotry.

(One can argue over the warp and weft of GOP bigotry but that’s a collateral issue.) Bigotry is ugly, as we see with the ass-clown on that Texas beach and his crying mugshot, and it is powerful. When people in fiction warn against meddling with powerful forces you don't understand, this is the kind of thing they are talking about. Bigotry has a way of wresting control away from those who would seek to harness it. The GOP decided bigotry was a useful tool against the Obama administration and it led DIRECTLY to Trump and the preposterous distortion of conservatism we're seeing in power now.

Black People: "We should be free." White People: "Nah"

Black People: "We should be able to vote." White People: "Nah." Black People: "You said that about our being slaves." White People: "You were right about slavery but you're wrong now."

Black People: "The military should be integrated." White People: "Nah." Black People: "You said that about giving us the vote." White People: "You were right about slavery, and voting, but THIS time you’re wrong."

Black People: "Schools should be desegregated." White People: "Nah." Black People: "You said that about integrating the military." White People: "You were right about slavery, voting, and military integration but THIS time you’re wrong."

Black People: "These Jim Crow Laws need to go." White People: "Nah." Black People: "You said that about desegregating the schools." White People: "You were right about slavery, voting, military integration, and school desegregation, but THIS time you’re wrong."

Black People: "We should be able to marry white people." White People: "Nah." Black People: "You said that about Jim Crow Laws." White People: "You were right about slavery, voting, military integration, school desegregation, and Jim Crow Laws, but THIS time you’re wrong."