Puritanism Is Getting Worse Around The Globe And Conservatives And Fascists Will Absolutely Be First

There are people – some in my own Party – who think that if you just give Donald Trump everything he wants, he’ll make an exception and spare you some of the harm. I’ll ignore the moral abdication of that position for just a second to say — almost none of those people have the experience with this President that I do. I once swallowed my pride to offer him what he values most — public praise on the Sunday news shows — in return for ventilators and N95 masks during the worst of the pandemic. We made a deal. And it turns out his promises were as broken as the BIPAP machines he sent us instead of ventilators. Going along to get along does not work – just ask the Trump-fearing red state Governors who are dealing with the same cuts that we are. I won’t be fooled twice.

I’ve been reflecting, these past four weeks, on two important parts of my life: my work helping to build the Illinois Holocaust Museum and the two times I’ve had the privilege of reciting the oath of office for Illinois Governor.

As some of you know, Skokie, Illinois once had one of the largest populations of Holocaust survivors anywhere in the world. In 1978, Nazis decided they wanted to march there.

The leaders of that march knew that the images of Swastika clad young men goose stepping down a peaceful suburban street would terrorize the local Jewish population – so many of whom had never recovered from their time in German concentration camps.

The prospect of that march sparked a legal fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court. It was a Jewish lawyer from the ACLU who argued the case for the Nazis – contending that even the most hateful of speech was protected under the first amendment.

As an American and a Jew, I find it difficult to resolve my feelings around that Supreme Court case – but I am grateful that the prospect of Nazis marching in their streets spurred the survivors and other Skokie residents to act. They joined together to form the Holocaust Memorial Foundation and built the first Illinois Holocaust Museum in a storefront in 1981 – a small but important forerunner to the one I helped build thirty years later.

I do not invoke the specter of Nazis lightly. But I know the history intimately — and have spent more time than probably anyone in this room with people who survived the Holocaust. Here’s what I’ve learned – the root that tears apart your house’s foundation begins as a seed – a seed of distrust and hate and blame.

The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime ago didn’t arrive overnight. It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame.

I’m watching with a foreboding dread what is happening in our country right now. A president who watches a plane go down in the Potomac – and suggests — without facts or findings — that a diversity hire is responsible for the crash. Or the Missouri Attorney General who just sued Starbucks – arguing that consumers pay higher prices for their coffee because the baristas are too “female” and “nonwhite.” The authoritarian playbook is laid bare here: They point to a group of people who don’t look like you and tell you to blame them for your problems.

I just have one question: What comes next? After we’ve discriminated against, deported or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minorities – once we’ve ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our friends – After that, when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the face – what comes next.

All the atrocities of human history lurk in the answer to that question. And if we don’t want to repeat history – then for God’s sake in this moment we better be strong enough to learn from it.

I swore the following oath on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible: “I do solemnly swear that I will support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the state of Illinois, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Governor .... according to the best of my ability.

My oath is to the Constitution of our state and of our country. We don’t have kings in America – and I don’t intend to bend the knee to one. I am not speaking up in service to my ambitions — but in deference to my obligations.

If you think I’m overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this:

It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. All I’m saying is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control.

Those Illinois Nazis did end up holding their march in 1978 – just not in Skokie. After all the blowback from the case, they decided to march in Chicago instead. Only twenty of them showed up. But 2000 people came to counter protest. The Chicago Tribune reported that day that the “rally sputtered to an unspectacular end after ten minutes.” It was Illinoisans who smothered those embers before they could burn into a flame.

Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let the “tragic spirit of despair” overcome us when our country needs us the most.

Sources:

• NBC Chicago & J.B. Pritzker, Democratic governor of Illinois, State of the State address 2025: Watch speech here | Full text

• Betches News on Instagram (screencaps)

i’m not aromantic but i believe in their beliefs

What I would like to say to Shubble supporters: “Your boos mean nothing, I’ve seen what makes you cheer!” *By Rick Sanchez*

Haha, I get that sentiment 🤣

Honestly, I just wish they'd take up a new hobby other than hate-watching/hate-mongering. It's like 'you could go watch something you like now, you know? If your only mission is to make other people miserable or encourage hate...why would I listen to you?'

🫣😵‍💫 Or—this is really going to be controversial but—why does it seem some fans only really support a woman when they're taking potshots at a man?

(mid sized essay below, 😔🫠🫠🫠)

It starts feeling performative when people who post nothing but men (as do I, man-liking is a full-time job and I admit I'm more gay than bi), ONLY support women when they're tearing down men they no longer like. And even then, it's surface level. It's not a "you know, I like her content. Her fashion is really inspiring! I loved the pastels!" (Like I dislike ShubbIe, but ngl, her outfits are dope).

ShubbIe is only a vessel for them to continue hating a man with the same obsession they loved him.

And if that's what makes them happy, by all means, they can do it, but they're not made more moral or righteous for it 🤷. To support someone means to actually engage with their work as you did Wilbur's...fan art, fanfic, stream highlights (that aren't solely negative), clips and gifs (I have seen some people actually do this, and I respect those S$S fans).

But if the only content they're clipping and using is just to further hatred of Wilbur...uh, Captain, that isn't support. Nor is "fluck this guy, support women!" That's a performance.

Concerned Ape knows what's up

I honestly feel like the proliferation of LED headlights was the canary in the coalmine for the general attitude we see in the political climate these days and i'm not even remotely kidding

people think they shouldn't vote as a protest or whatever because they've been raised on boycotts. which do sometimes work.

boycotts deprive the target of money.

not voting does not deprive the government of money.

it does, however, deprive you of power.

it's not like a boycott.

ok not to be that guy but like. labor rights and working class rights can coexist with 24h services and late amenities. its certainly hard to do so without worker exploitation in this political and social environment, it’s not a conflict likely to resolve overnight. but 24h services are important and especially valuable to those of us that are disabled or are on a different circadian rhythm. in fact more professional, health, and government services should be available or at least possible to work on asynchronously (if applicable) during late or odd hours, while workers also get sufficient pay for their labor and proper consistent scheduling. this would be much easier on the workers with night schedules if the entire professional world didn’t grind to a halt at 5pmEST

*releases pack of dads into home depot* go……be free

Spotify Streaming Tips

1. Always stream the main/title track using a PLAYLIST. Create title-track focused playlists. Playlist length doesn’t matter, you can use 5 hours or 7 hours long playlists. But what you need to do is change the playlists in every 2/3 hours. Streaming from only one playlist for too long might count as bot behavior. Here’s an example how title-track focused playlist looks like ⬇️⬇️

2.  ONLY 2-3 SONGS IN-BETWEEN THE MAIN/TITLE TRACK FOR SPOTIFY. Adding 4 - 5 - 6 songs wastes too much time. Also, you HAVE TO add other versions of the main/title track (example: remix versions, instrumental version) in-between as fillers. Again, only as FILLERS, not to replace them with the original version. Adding other versions in your playlists will boost the streams for the original version in official charts. And don’t use 🔀 or 🔁 button. Take a look how to add them,

3. Always PRE-SAVE/PRE-ADD the song when they drop the link. They drop few days before the comeback day. Here’s why it’s extremely important,

4. Get premium subscription plans of your affordable prices. Streaming from a premium account has less chances of streams getting deleted. For a first timer, you can start with free trials here.

5. Share the link to your family members, friends & on other social medias to gain more unique listeners.

6. DO NOT skip/repeat/pause the song in the middle. Just stream the full song normally.

7. Repeating/looping the song again n again counts as spam/bot streaming. Often people stream just the song or the whole album over and over throughout the day. Spotify deletes those streams while filtering out the datas. That’s why it’s important to stream with a PLAYLIST.

8. Make sure to create MULTIPLE ( 15 or 20 at least) title-track focused playlists and switch between the playlists HOURLY. Streaming from only 1 or 2 playlists for hours count as spam/bot streaming. If you don’t have time to create more playlists or in need for more, then DM me on Twitter.

9. Add some NON-BTS tracks in between. You can use songs from their mixtapes, collabs, songs produced by them as non-bts songs. Or some artists you like to listen to besides bts (example: coldplay, ariana grande, beyonce etc etc).

10. Keep 2 and 3 gap in between adding main/title-track, not more than that. You can change the gap pattern tho, not repeat it. Something in FROZE & repeated pattern isn’t organic. For example ⬇️⬇️

Title track

xxxx (gap)

xxxx(gap)

Title track

xxxx (gap)

xxxx (gap)

xxxx (gap)

Title track

xxxx (gap)

xxxx (gap)

xxxx (gap)

Title track

xxxx (gap)

xxxx (gap)

You can change the gap pattern the way you want.

11. Offline streams will also count. First you need to download the song before going offline mode. But you need to turn on wifi/mobile data time to time (in a day) to make your streams count for the global chart and the overall streams.

12. IMPORTANT REMINDER FOR 🇬🇧 ARMYS:  UK official singles chart count only 10 streams per day per acccount coz UK charting system is different than US, thus if you streamed 10 times on Spotify and still want to help, then create a new account or switch to another account if you already have one or pick another platform (ex: Apple Music, YouTube, Deezer etc) to stream 10 times more from there. Streams more than 10 will be thrown out. So for title-track focused playlist, add the main/title-track 10 times in your playlists, then move to another account or another platform to stream 10 times more.

13. Plug earphone with your device for volume.

14. DO NOT use any third party, VPN apps to create accounts or to stream.

For those who are confused can watch the video tutorial here