How Right Wing Media Indoctrinated Millions of Americans to Hate Basic Decency

Thanks for the TIPS!A reader started chirping all the nonsensical MAGA talking points that have become so normalized. He sounded like one of those annoying crickets that start making noise at 2AM and that absolutely won't shut up.“Chirp.”“Chirp.”“Chirp.”He left me a 2,000 word diatribe that he expected me to sit and read. Just that represents an enormous delusion in itself. His very first comment was that a reference I made to verifiable historical fact was “ridiculous.”Usually that's the point where I stop reading with great delight and then mute and block the author. But in this case I skimmed to the bottom. I was on a fishing expedition to find something to write about, and I found it.There, shining at the bottom of his absurd argument, I discovered a glistening statement of such asinine self-delusion, that I just had to respond.He wrote, “Public schools were indoctrinating students to hate themselves because of their race.”The irony here was that this person presented this argument as if it were his own. In his tiny little pea brain, he never once considered that he might think this because it's been repeated over and over and over by the malicious and deceitful right wing media.It never occurred to him that he might be the one who was indoctrinated.It's not the accomplished and educated people who work in education that indoctrinate. It's the liars that work in the media and in religion.One of the most frustrating things about our society is how otherwise good people have been lulled into a state of non-action. The only way progressives could be called indoctrinated is in the way they are inclined to treat absurd arguments with civility.“Let me try to use reason and kindness to explain your error,” is how we've responded in the past.We need to start saying, “You're late on your child support, you're drowning in credit card debt, you don't have any friends, you're constantly angry, and you are accusing me of being indoctrinated? Why don't you get your own life together before you say anything else?”I've gotten into the habit of checking the profile page of accounts that leave hostile comments. What that's taught me is that we have to stop taking these people seriously. I've worked as a teacher. You don't stand in front of the classroom and listen to the nonsensical arguments of students who reject lessons out of defiant ignorance.No.Anyone who refuses to demonstrate a sincere commitment to honest intellectual inquiry is acting maliciously, and we have to stop pretending that impulse doesn’t exist.Worse, we have to stop allowing the dishonest members of the sanctimonious right to accuse sincerely curious individuals of being disruptive when they propose completely legitimate ideas.Right-wing ideology crumbles under examination. Pointing out contradictions isn’t “disrespectful” it’s the pathway to understanding.We need to take back control of the classroom.We must tell the dishonest forces to sit down, shut up, and stop wasting everyone's time. If they are sincere about needing help, they can show up after class, but if they refuse to demonstrate humility and respect, they can just leave the classroom and never come back.I do believe that everyone is entitled to an education, that's why I don't tolerate people who show up in a classroom and attempt to sabotage everyone else. They need a different kind of help. No shoes, no shirt, no service.The argument that public schools were conditioning kids to “hate themselves” has always been ridiculous.The only thing I can think of that conditions kids to “hate themselves” is telling them that they're “sinners” and that they're going to burn in Hell.That, my friends, is indoctrination. Why isn't anyone complaining about that?But again, I keep expecting logic to enter into this debate. Of course it won't. When you're dealing with individuals who have been brainwashed and conditioned and indoctrinated with right-wing hate speech, logic never enters into the equation.These are pathetic little man-children who are so convinced of their own superiority that they've become blind to any evidence of the contrary. These are men who are so entitled that they think it's the responsibility of everyone who enters into their sphere to assist them in maintaining the lie of their personal delusion.When they're having a bad day, we're all supposed to clear the way for them. But the second anyone else is struggling, they start mocking us and piling on in other ways.It's the most pathetic, sorry excuse for an ideology that I've ever come across in all my days. This ideology has spread like a cancer and whined all the way to the White House. All it can do is destroy because to build anything you have to practice self-examination and accountability.Right-wing hate indoctrination acts like those concepts should be dismissed with contempt.The only thing that should be dismissed with contempt is everything about the political right.It's comical to me that the right can't perceive the extent to which they've been indoctrinated. It's comical how they don't understand that they are the source of absolutely every problem in the world they've been conditioned to hate.It's pitiful how they will go online and create profiles with their name and image, and then leave diatribes of such blistering ignorance that it's embarrassing to their bloodlines for seven generations in the past and in the future.But here we are.The simple, unvarnished truth is that if you don't treat other human beings with a basic level of respect, you're going to end up miserable and wallowing in a pool of your own filth. We've got a whole political movement that's wallowing together, and they look up with their fecal matter stained faces and try to mock disciplined, decent, and accomplished people for not joining their revelry of self-destruction.“You're indoctrinated,” they say as they gnaw on each other's festering tumors.It doesn't work to attempt to convince them they're wrong. Our job is to hose them off and intervene because they represent a danger to both themselves and others. This is the mindset we have to adopt going forward, otherwise we will fail in our responsibility to uphold a standard of basic humanity.You all make this newsletter happen! Thanks for your sponsorship! I have payment tiers starting at as little as twenty dollars a year.Upgrade at 30% offUpgrade at 40% offUpgrade at 50% offUpgrade at 60% offI'm so happy you're here, and I'm looking forward to sharing more thoughts with you tomorrow.My CoSchedule referral linkHere’s my referral link to my preferred headline analyzer tool. If you sign up through this, it’s another way to support this newsletter (thank you).I'd Rather Be Writing is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to I'd Rather Be Writing at walterrhein.substack.com/subscribe