Right-wing populism vs the medical profession - It's time to amplify and feed into this feud

[ck4829]

* The cooperation of a multitude of people, groups, and institutions needed to operate the system may be restricted or withdrawn.

* The ideology may erode, and myths and symbols of the system may become unstable.

* If a strong ideology is present that influences one’s view of reality, firm adherence to it may cause inattention to actual conditions and needs.

* Intellectuals and students may become restless in response to conditions, restrictions, doctrinalism, and repression.

* The general public may over time become apathetic, skeptical, and even hostile to the regime.

* Regional, class, cultural, or national differences may become acute.

- This is according to From Dictatorship To Democracy by Gene Sharp, Weaknesses of Dictatorships

I am of the mind that we need to do more than just vote, I've seen others say the same. While the Trump Administration may not be a dictatorship (yet), it still has the weaknesses of one. So we're here, this is it, this is how we do it. If you're looking to do more than vote for Joe Biden in November, then you need to be here, reading this, and understanding how we make this happen.

Doctors, nurses, EMTs, and hospitals are in the game, not of their own choice, but they are in it. Anti-vax conspiracy theories, maligning the profession by saying they are too weak to handle immigrants and refugees, a right-wing populist president who thinks he knows more than them, and now blocking them and even blocking ambulances.

Yes, this will be about defending doctors, nurses, and EMTs... but now there is a way to attack right-wing populism, to attack the right-wing authoritarian mindset that swept the US. But to do that, we can't just be observers here, we need to play a role. We need to encourage this divide.

I propose:
* Let's start here on DU. We need to keep a running tab of posts here that reflect this divide. Examples include this and this one too. And of course, can't forget about this. Make sure the morning crowd knows about any anger, make sure the evening crowd is on it too. Make sure the nite-owls know too, let's talk about this simmering here first.
* Get social media outside of DU; Twitter, Facebook, whatever there is. You don't have to do a lot, just make sure it's known. "Make it viral", so to speak
* Get to real-life outside of the internet, make sure people know... Let's summarize this as "medical professionals are angry..." angry with Trump, angry with this Open Up protesters, angry with right-wingers, angry with Republicans. People of the medical profession vs...
* Side with medical professionals
* Hammer it in that Republican/Trump/right-wing populist lack of knowledge of virology and lack of knowledge of public health and desire to "own the libs" led to this. Repeat it to the point of irritation that right-wing incompetence and petty goals created a mess and now it will be up to medical professionals to clean it up.

This can be it, this can be a non-violent uprising against the right-wing populist/nationalist regime if we are ready to participate in it.

[ck4829]

1. Are we ready?