I don’t quite know where to begin today, to be honest. I have Covid19, or at least I have the symptoms per my doctor, and my husband tested positive for it, so we are quarantined. I won’t get any kind of emotional support from my elders in family, because amongst other things, it has been suggested I am not a Christian because I oppose abuse. The way this works is, if I challenge that, if I call that abusive, as it is, the offenders deny they ever said or meant it, or if that won't work they play the victim, and eventually I am, in fact, expected to apologize to them, because they will demand forgiveness, playing on my faith as a weapon. Never mind even God doesn't necessarily forgive unrepentant people.
So because of my opposition to narcissistic abuse, which is the essence of Trumpism, I am estranged from a large proportion of extended family. Some of these same folks are convinced that Trumpism is the only way to be pro-life. I’d argue that abuse, by definition, is the opposite of pro-life. Abuse gets people killed.
And we are seeing that now in our country, as parents and teachers come to grips with a government that is too lazy to come up with a clear plan for schools to implement, to prevent mass death in a new school year. This administration and its enablers at the state level do not care if students or staff or families die, as long as the economy is working. This is the very definition of fascism: when the state supersedes the individual, when loyalty to the leader trumps the needs of the people, or respect for life.
I am not the only former evangelical who is appalled to see people in America, who claim to be pro-life, supporting the president who refuses to accept reality. Americans are practically barred from a majority of countries in the world right now, because we do not have this virus under control. And we teachers know for a fact that we and our schools and our districts will be blamed if our students or their families die of covid19 after opening. Many of us have families and children ourselves. Some risks make sense. This one doesn’t.
I think we can have varying opinions on the particulars of when or how to go back to school. What I don’t think is ok is the cruelty I keep observing from many pro-life voters. (Is it the Calvinism? God is sovereign and all that?) I get it, if you think that you are heading straight to heaven when you die, I guess this world really isn’t all that. Ok. Then why be pro-life? Babies go to heaven too, you know. Because what I am hearing from pro-life voters who support a lying con-man is this: “we do not care if you die; all that matters is winning.” It doesn’t matter to them that he has confused the issue, bullied states and districts and harmed actual lives.
They will not care if others die, as long as they have a pro-life judge.
That’s sickness.
There was a case recently of a woman whose immune-suppressed daughter died of Covid19 after a Covid party at her church. The woman sent her along to get infected, despite her daughter having survived cancer.
Then there was the 30 year old in my area of the US, whose last words were that he had thought it was a hoax. He had attended a Covid party too.
At what point do we reckon with the fact we’ve been lied to by the people who were meant to lead and protect and encourage US?
In my case, after experiencing nothing but constant nonsense from certain family members, as described, I took the step of asking them to stop contacting me or my family. The same boundaries need to be set with those who support this president and all who continue to call this administration pro-life. I don’t think anyone needs to apologize for calmly stepping away from gas lighting abuse. This nonsense about cancel culture being so very bad is just a narcissist’s attempt to stop healthy people putting distance between themselves and actual abuse. What is truly Orwellian is that some folks don't think free Americans have the right to determine what kind of behaviors they allow in their lives or communities.
See, if you truly care about lives, you don’t screw with the heads of those you love. You speak the truth, you walk in the truth, and you honor those doing their best to communicate the truth.
Yet the same folks who “voted pro-life” are traditionally the same ones who are fine with this authoritarian abuser destroying Anthony Fauci for simply trying to get a message out to the American public. A lot of them probably don’t even know why they are angry at him. Something, something, masks, something. And the president says so. Yes, many things could have been done differently. Fauci and others are not perfect people. But we are going to allow him to be smeared by a president who hasn’t made any indication the lives lost mattered? For what, doing his job with the information he had available at the time?
Listen, “Pro-life”, your president told people early on that this was all a hoax! He claimed the Democrats were politicizing it to ruin him. Never mind the lives he ruined by politicizing mask wearing and generally anything to do with the pandemic. Those two younger people I mentioned, who died, are not the only ones who were fooled or abused or even died because of his folly.
How does anyone support this great evil?
I just do not get it.
We are dealing with a level of cruel insanity in American politics and culture that is absolutely sick. It’s like the whole country has gone insane, but particularly those who call themselves pro-life voters.
Think! If the president were truly concerned about lives, would he have called this a hoax and downplayed it? Wouldn’t the logical response have been to take it seriously, listen to experts with humility, and get all the information and help necessary to save lives? Would he have responded in an unserious manner, suppressed truth by anti-intellectualism, promoted useless drugs, abused people via twitter, bullied school districts to reopen as the death toll rises? Would a truly pro-life president have influenced parents to hate their own children and question their faith?
None of this is pro-life. Dan Patrick’s nonsense aside, all of this is nihilistic death cult crap. It has turned once good and trustworthy people into arrogant monstrous shells of who they once were, devoid of love. This pro-life movement deserves censure for what they have done to their country. As far as I am concerned, they are canceled, and I will not apologize for that.
I have Covid symptoms, and sometimes it is hard to breathe. But nothing has been as stressful as dealing with the shock of seeing a group of people who have the gall to call themselves pro-life while showing they don’t really care how they impact my life. They do not care if teachers or parents like me die. You can’t argue with callous. It’s just…breath-taking.
Real talk: it’s not a truly pro life ethic that is being canceled here.
Most Americans, and certainly Christians, care about life.
We’d just like to survive the pro-life president, now.
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