Blue Maga: We need to talk about the cult-like turn of the Democratic party | Mehdi Hasan
www.theguardian.com
The calls for Joe Biden to step aside have been met with furious accusations of treason, disloyalty, and betrayal. This is bad for the entire country

The calls for Joe Biden to step aside have been met with furious accusations of treason, disloyalty, and betrayal. This is bad for the entire country

Is the Democratic party, the self-proclaimed party of liberal values and scientific data, morphing into a Maga-like cult in front of our eyes?

Over the past few weeks, the calls for Joe Biden to step aside have been met not with thoughtful critiques or reasoned counter-arguments but with furious accusations of treason, disloyalty, and betrayal.

Whatever happened to the importance of voicing dissent? Of speaking truth to power? Weren’t liberals supposed to be the folks who value open debate and discussion?

especially online; of elected Democrats on Capitol Hill; and of the Democratic president himself, since the CNN debate on 28 June, will have spotted some of those “tell-tale signs”.

Let’s start with the Democratic base – those “hyper-partisans” who “act like members of a cult because they treat their political party like a religious identity”, to quote the political strategist Chris Sosa. I have spent the past few weeks watching the Very Online members of the base embracing an endless stream of “Blue Anon” conspiracy theories, pushed on behalf of the Dear Leader.

  • @OccamsTeapot
    3•4 months ago

    No I haven’t seen this behavior.

    Can’t help you there. You should maybe pay more attention.

    Any criticism I’ve seen of his Gaza policy has not EVER been met with anything like “ furious accusations of treason, disloyalty and betrayal.”

    In fact every single time the response has been an appeal to the realities of the current political system/calculus.

    This is just saying, “but Trump would be worse!!!” in more intelligent language. It is literally what I said happens. Criticising Biden’s Gaza policy is NOT a statement about the election, the only reason to make it one is if you want to squash any criticism of him quickly and easily without engaging in a substantive discussion of the issue.

    So people ignore the specific criticism of policy, turn it into electoral calculus and then insinuate that because of the criticism of policy, the person must be considering voting for Trump, which would make them disloyal or betrayers. The thing you said has “NEVER” happened was literally your example of what does happen.

    Unless you’re going to say the thing you disagree with is that the post claims it’s a “furious accusation”? But, just like you saying “every single time” (obviously not) this is hyperbole and it’s not fair to solely focus on that. I’m sure you didn’t mean literally every time and I’m sure the writer was just trying to add a bit of spice

    Edit: came across a great example https://lemm.ee/comment/13326190