Hatred Does Not Cease by Hatred

It’s Gonna Take a Lotta Love

“This election was never about policy, or morals, or even age. It was about rage, however misplaced. The Trump we elected isn't really human; he's an avatar for America's hatred and threatened privilege, for its misogyny and racism. If we hate, if we're fearful and angry, he's our guy.” --The GenZ Report

'Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.' --Buddha

I know a number of us were kinda hoping for a Truman Show ending, where the T***p shitshow just went off the air and we could get back to a favorite book or some gardening. But now, just like Truman, we are stuck in the never-ending doom loop of days listening to a deranged fascist spew his hateful rhetoric and amp up his minions.

As for his fascist agenda, that remains to be seen. Maybe by the time Abuela is being dragged out of her apartment in her nightgown the media will have been taken over by only RSBN and NewsMax and the sanitized version will be “Abuela is taking a little vacation!”

After the broadcasting licenses for ABC, CBS, NBC and the rest have been revoked and our only source of information is the Dear Leader Channel (DLC).

God help all the Latinos that fell into favor with Orange Jesus. They will find out soon that they are simply the wrong color. They can look it up in the index under: Doh! And let’s say, for arguments sake, you are not inherently fearful and angry and you just wanted to be able to make your rent, explain to me how jizzing yourself over Elon Musk gets you to that place while he promises “Temporary Hardship?” One of the world’s richest Plutocrats is promising you hardship, so you voted for the autocrat? DAFUK

One thing is for certain, there will be NO REACHING ACROSS THE AISLE. We have seen this movie before. Republicans take power and they just hammer the living fuck out of the legislation. With three branches of government and a SCOTUS filled with six Catholic-Extremist judges, the USA is fucked, quite literally Six Ways to Sunday. And for the young people that bought into the con man’s bullshit, add two more extreme far-right justices and you have secured your future into retirement with laws that will rob you and your potential progeny of any liberties.

Join Me

We all saw how, during the first four years of the Trumpocene, he never once reached out to anyone beyond his rabid and Theocratic base. Throughout the 2024 election there was never a move to invite anyone with a slightly different opinion. It was an all-out assault to envelop low-income, low-educated whites, low-information blacks and Latinos…and it paid off handsomely.

These people are not going to treat you with kindness. They never have and they never will. You have seen how, at the rallies, they transform into Satan’s minions with the screaming, the Nazi salutes and the literal Charismatic Christian body movements when the Dear Leader speaks.

Our task is monumental. 99% of these MAGA are going to remain firmly entrenched in the cult. They see no world other than the one where the autocrat tells you simple solutions to complex problems.

Rick Steves, in his must watch documentary The Story of Fascism, explains this is how fascism works: Simple solutions to complex problems. In other words: T***p will Fix It! Reading Timothy Snyder: On Tyranny you learn the same. Simple solutions to complex problems.

We have gone from “I alone can fix it,” to “T***p will fix it.” Simple solutions to complex problems. Otherwise known as Fascism.

Activism & the Resistance

Our solution is going to be much more complex. We need to go to what Jack Kornfield calls Heart Wisdom, or Loving Awareness. In a recent podcast, Kornfield talks about individual and collective trauma. If we are genuinely about to see a Hitler unleashed on America, we need a response to our collective trauma. And this will require activism.

“The whole notion that spiritual practice doesn’t have anything to do with activism is fiction.” –Jack Kornfield

Kornfield, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Eckhart Tolle and other “Mindfulness” teachers have used James Joyce’s quote: “Mr. Duffy lived a short distance from his body” as call for us to recognize what we are feeling and dealing with and program that into some form of action.

“So in short, the body is our connection to the present moment. How did we end up living a short distance from our bodies? I think stress has a lot to do with this. One of the most common coping skills used during fight or flight is our ability to disconnect from ourselves during the perceived threat to our survival.” –Scottsdale Institute

I am writing this today because I have experienced extreme “Disassociation” in the past. The results of the election send me into my Amygdala and I ‘check out.’ This is a learned response. In the fight, flight or freeze…I ALWAYS go to freeze. But in the podcast above, Kornfield says: “Trauma doesn’t get healed unless the grief and the suffering is actually honored. And it’s not an individual honoring, but a collective honoring.”

It may be dangerous, it may be scary, but collectively we need to honor the feelings in our bodies and transmute that into activism. I don’t mean buying into the corporate media clickbait about “Civil War” and all that bullshit. I’m talking about genuine heart space to create what we need to see in America. Where the Christian Nationalists and the Christofascists have failed, we must now BE The Living Christ.

“When you squeeze an orange, you'll always get orange juice to come out. What comes out is what's inside. The same logic applies to you: when someone squeezes you, puts pressure on you, or says something unflattering or critical, and out of you comes anger, hatred, bitterness, tension, depression, or anxiety, that is what's inside. If love and joy are what you want to give and receive, change your life by changing what's inside.” –Dr. Wayne Dyer

We must be what they are not. As the author Edward Hays wrote: “Our lives are also fed by kind words and gracious behavior. We are nourished by expressions like 'excuse me', and other such simple courtesies. Our spirits are richly fed on compliments just as our bodies are on whole wheat bread.”

“It's gonna take a lotta love

To change the way things are

It's gonna take a lotta love

Or we won't get too far

So if you look in my direction

And we don't see eye to eye

My heart needs protection

And so do I”

-- Nicolette Larson