Cruel and Inhuman

I just saw the news that Kristi Noem is discussing a reality TV show with the producers of Duck Dynasty. On this show, potential U.S. citizens would compete for a fast track to citizenship... kind of like the Hunger Games.

Every day there's a new astounding, disgusting exploit from this administration. Oh, and I didn't even mention the thing about trying to deploy 20,000 National Guard troops to "assist" with immigration enforcement in some undefined way. Will they be arresting people, or just providing transportation? No one will say. Either way, it's wrong.

Dave Roberts reiterated something today he's said before:

If you sat down a random panel of Americans and told them what Republicans are currently doing, my guess is that the vast majority simply wouldn't believe you. It comes off like you're describing a Bond villain. The reality sounds wildly different and more extreme than what they hear organically.

This is the crucial revelation of authoritarian movements in the 21st Century: you don't have to hide what you're doing. If you create an information ecosystem dysfunctional enough, mistrustful enough, fragmented enough, you can act in the open, confident that the truth will never be clearly conveyed.

One of his responders (askmetomorrow.bsky.social) gave this analogy:

MAGA acolytes have that built-in defense mechanism that won’t accept anything negative about Trump — kinda like the mom who learns her teenager just shot or stabbed someone, yet describes the teen as an “angel” who would never hurt anyone.

Meanwhile, in Minnesota, the Republicans in our nearly tied legislature have extracted removal of Medicaid coverage for undocumented adults from Democrats in order to get a budget bill passed. DFL Rep. Alice Mann explains in one minute and 40 seconds why that is neither moral nor fiscally responsible, as Republicans claim. We need more speakers like her.

The cruelty is the point, as Adam Serwer said. Stupid cruelty, unbelievable cruelty, naked cruelty out in the open, and the unbelievableness and nakedness serves them.