Meidas Touch and the banality of evil
What MTN doesn't seem to "want" to get about the suffering of marginalized groups
I actually love Meidas Touch, as much as I bitch about them. Maybe I bitch because I see them as the standard bearers of truth—champions as opposed to “crusaders,” but one thing I can say is they are not.
They are not allies.
I once saw a post from a White male veteran who said allyship is something bestowed upon you, it isn’t a self-designation. I’d never heard that before, and it truly made me think. I do say one can want to be or strive to be, even struggle to be an ally, and IMHO, that makes you one.
I know that among the trolls and the haters, actual allies and supporters exist in this Substack space, and I thank the world for all of you. Yet, we know that many people claim to be allies but are far from it.
Allies speak up—they understand the cause they celebrate—they understand the people within that cause. They do not try to silence the anger of the disenfranchised, and when communities speak up or correct, they hear them, even when that correction is directed at them.
They listen.
To that end, is Miedas Touch an ally to the marginalized?
I can say they do the cause of democracy a great service collectively, which is why I will continue to support them, but I don't see them as allies. They have to understand the root causes of suffering and harm to minority groups to be that, and I do not think they will try to do so.
All this whirled in my head when I woke up this morning, largely because of a video Meidas Touch posted recently where Popok claimed Democrats have to allow Evangelicals and MAGA types into our “tent” to beat Trump.
It was a spit-take moment for me and hellah tone deaf!
This is what I posted in the form of an open letter to Popok on Twitter:
Edited for clarity:
Popok, what marginalized group will you sacrifice to make peace and increase the democratic tent? Scrub to 12:50 to see what I am on about:
It amazes me that people think MAGA sprung up out of nowhere, just from out of the blue by gum!
Look, it's not because Republicans are all bad people; it is because their so-called innocent policy decisions and fiscal ideas made sure poor children starved and lacked opportunity as corporations fattened due to trickle-down economics.
Our friends and neighbors can be good people yet hold ideas that allow kids to be killed in razor wire at the border. It is called the banality of evil, and it lead to “good people” watching Anne Frank get loaded into a truck because of so-called debates on “policy.”
You say you had no issue with Republicans before Trump?
Oh, you mean the group that called women seeking rights feminzais?
That gave a medal of honor to Rush Limbaugh?
They fed the lie that all Black Women were welfare queens, and the "good people" readily believed such lies.
Republican concepts killed and starved entire Native American and Black communities.
It took baby steps and one nasty policy decision after another to get here until the most harmful and divisive aspects of conservative ideology began to really take root, and Trump became its champion.
I remember Republicans cheered when he won, and I became suicidal that day—I was not alone. It became clear, and even more so today, that I do not matter in this country.
Indeed, Trump triggers every aspect of my CPTSD on the daily, and mainstream Republicans support him based on the awful things he says he will do. Period.
Republicans like the fact he puts people like me “in my place.”
They say as much!
Being able to not care about what Republicans did in the past comes from privilege. Full stop.
Reagen set the stage by allowing the Christian right into bed with Republicans. Some on the left want us to do the same thing—okay, again, what communities do we turn our backs on? Do we hand over the trans kids? Compromise on what days of the week I get to be a slave? Make sure stop-and-frisk becomes a permanent thing?
What "policies" are we supposedly going to negotiate so we can be a big tent? These kinds of compromises are gonna be what it takes, and such talk is making Black folks nervous.
Where are our allies?
You recognize that this is how a party dies? MAGA is the result of accepting any awful thing to win.
Meidas Touch does brilliant work, and l admire the hell out of all the players, but on this front, they are wrongheaded, entitled, privileged, and clueless about minority suffering. Open your eyes and “don’t be no ghost.” (Bulworth, a movie whose message has gone over the heads of most people. Watch it again.)
***And to my substack brethren and yes, Beloved allies, have the very best weekend!
My original Twitter post: https://x.com/PortlazLuv/status/1776285847731491013
100%. I understand that urge to get along with others, but Rs have been showing their stripes since the Reagan era. I do want them to vote for Biden to stop Trump, of course. But I can’t unsee the damage and meanness that party has embraced. It’s beyond me how any truly good person can still align themselves with so much hate.
Are they imagining that there are still a bunch of decent, non-maga Republicans hanging around out there that we could snap up as allies? 🙄