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Posted on the 17 July 2024 by Cathy Leaves @cathyleaves

I've been having a difficult time thinking about US politics in the run-up to the election. Just one recurring thought: the greatest weakness of the debate is the idea that anti-fascism and literal Nazis are equidistant from the political center (a true showcase of how far the Overton window has moved), and the imprecise nature of calling the political climate "polarised", when one side has moved so much further than the other to create a climate where political values become impossible to contain in the same polity. The last few days have also been a lesson in forcing readers and listeners to parse sentences - the idea that violent speech and action are equally present, are perpetrated by both sides, is laughable, and can easily be disproved, and any news outlet not stating this equivocally is seriously putting its ability to truthfully report and analyze reality in question - at a time where misinformation and conspiracy theories are already having such a choke-hold on narratives.