It’s been a wild week for a left-hander.
First There is Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who became the target of relentless right-wing Christian Facebook hate and slander from uneducated pearl-clutchers who transcended the Olympics for an opportunity to claim that “men” beat up women, only to later find out that they had wrongly misjudged Khelif after she defeated an Italian boxer who gave up their fight in tears. It turns out that not only had the Italian known Khelif for many years, so her claims that Khelif would punch like a man were false, but she also regretted her decision to leave the ring. Khelif was the target of so much international hate that she had to issue a press statement on the issue of bullying during the week of the Olympics, saying:
“It can destroy people, it can destroy people’s thoughts, spirits and minds. It can divide people. And that’s why I ask you to refrain from bullying.”
I wonder what these “Christians” who post hateful messages on Facebook are teaching their children? To only accept those who look like them and hate everyone else? That it’s okay to discriminate against anyone who doesn’t look like you?
What is the process of indoctrinating your children with the level of hate, bigotry, racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, and fascism necessary to support Trump and his idiotic sidekick with no personality, Vance, a hypocrite who rants about military service while pretending to be a draft dodger who regularly insults veterans? You keep Newsmax or Fox News on, or teach hate right in coloring books at the kitchen table, eh? You tell your children you’re going to vote for an insurrectionist convicted of rape because you got sucked into a cult? No wonder we call you weird.
I saw a shocking documentary Bad faith This explains a lot about how the church has been used institutionally over time to blur the boundaries between politics and religion and to specifically attack and demonize the left. It is frightening, but at least it documents the genesis of the extreme Christian nationalist right.
This week it was also announced that Kamala Harris has chosen Tim Walz as her running mate. Now is the time to look at Facebook posts to see who our Facebook “friends” are supporting. I’m not one to waste time arguing with people on Facebook about politics because I believe it’s none of my business what other people believe and everyone has the right to post their own views on their own pages. However, I also have the right not to be exposed to this conservative garbage, so I can unfriend/block/unfollow at will depending on my relationship with the poster. Don’t come at me and try to change my views, I will return the favor and we can coexist in peace, if not hang out.
I’m sad in many ways that little girls on the right aren’t being taught what the first biracial president means to our country. Seeing women especially posting hateful messages about Harris makes my 1970s suffragist heart sad, but there’s nothing I can do about it. As Walz says, this falls under “not my circus, not my monkeys.” I don’t mind losing the wrong friends and followers. I can follow threads on X-Twitter, watch Rachel, Jon, and my favorite: the eloquence and precision of the verbal skewering of Trump by the brilliant Lawrence O’Donnell almost nightly after my hash gum. “Left libtard communists” or whatever we’re called are on the right side of history when it comes to democracy over dictatorship.
