Upgrade Your Vocabulary

Qanon’s bizarre version of gematria wasn’t fundamentally different than traditional biblical gematria or sports gematria.  It was always WORD=NUMBER, force the match if you have to, make a big deal about the match and ignore the inevitable contradictions.  What it was - conspiracy theory light.  A pretty bauble to dangle and distract.  An opening gunfight at the start of the western before you begin to consider a plot.  An entry point into the world of conspiracy, just not real conspiracy like exactly who were Epstein’s clients.  It was all bullshit conspiracy about cultural war topics that were twisted into fake news defended with the childlike cry, “No, your news is fake” instead of actual evidence.  Trump himself relies on the projection accusation of ascribing his own faults onto his enemies.  Malignant narcissists have a cozy relationship with projection.

Within that world, lots of lingo became customary.  Catch phrases and dog whistles so you knew you were surrounded by your tribe.  And that tribe is a closed minded confirmation bias seeking support of literal cult members.  Lingo such as crisis actor, red-pilled, The Storm are signs that you don’t mind at all aggressively being a keyboard warrior without consideration for actually being right about stuff.

Facing the barrage of outrage porn based insults is tough.  But mentally, and if necessary verbally, you can prepare yourself for unwarranted attacks on your character with a vocabulary upgrade.  If you’ve been patiently waiting and wondering why disinformation research has been sounding alarms, the time is pretty much now.  Things escalated rapidly and the unjustified attacks aren’t going away anytime soon.  So here we go.

You’re not anti-fascist.  You’re Pro Democracy.  Just because someone has labeled themselves a patriot doesn’t actually make themselves a patriot.  They need to act like a patriot.  And if the best they can do is attack you by calling you “Antifa” as an insult, they’ve already lost the intellectual battle and have signaled they want to use the fake debate logical fallacy tactics.  With practice, delivering that you are Pro Democracy instead of Antifa is mentally healthy for you.  It’s the same way some substance abusers that have gotten over that by calling themselves an ex-alcoholic instead of the AA, “I am an alcoholic for eternity” can be an interruption of the healing process.  Both essentially mean the same thing but be positive about yourself instead of negative about others.

Similarly, you’re not anti-capitalist, a socialist, or communist unless you actually are and are comfortable with the label.  You’re more likely a Pragmatist.  You didn’t design the system that demands consumer spending that drives GDP while simultaneously creating the poverty that has no discretionary spending left after necessities.  Wealth inequality has been the death sentence of many any empire.  Getting the empire in place always had a period of sharing the love around instead of thinking that someone like a Musk might see how loyal you are and throw you a bone instead of buying whatever rich white dude stuff Elon amuses himself with.  The balance of giving the working class enough stuff to not want to concentrate on stealing your stuff requires adults in the room having serious talks about compromise and long term sustainability.  Economic survival is a virtue and not giving up on all your worldly positions and becoming a monk for “what you believe in” is not a sin.

You’re not woke, you’re smart and educated and a realist.  History is on the side of what is called woke.  Just as hoax is the favorite word in conspiracy theory disinformation , woke is the biggest word in culture war talking points.  The realist recognizes that people who are assholes are assholes for other reasons than the color of the skin, namely being an asshole consistently across a broad spectrum of topics.  The intent is to be as controversial as possible for clicks and views.  The end result is being wrong about everything to get those clicks and views.  Those that accuse others of being woke want to play the “everything is black and white with no context of nuance” game.  Alex Pretti wasn’t part of a woke mob that loves immigrants more than natural born citizens.  He was a compassionate person caught up in a terrible situation that realistically and correctly assessed that what was going on around him was just wrong.

Going against the flow and risking losing points.  You ARE Progressive.  Even more pointedly to the losing my credibility on the theme, what is the opposite of Progressive?  Regressive.  I have no problem with conservatism.  But the trajectory of the GOP has been steady.  Deregulate everything.  Make the judicial system a bad joke.  Make financial record keeping a bad joke.  Turn law enforcement into a weapon instead of combatting those with weapons who want to be lawless.  The ultimate regression is throwing away the Constitution and everything it stands for.  A document that also baked in recognition that progression beyond the time it was written was inevitable.  So you’re progressive at least in the sense that you prefer the regressive madness has the brakes put on it.  Stop breaking shit, then there’s no need to fix it.