Last week Trump called Walz the 'R slur', and now his base is using it regularly. We must all speak out against this. It's a term that pushes a eugenicist agenda and feeds directly into fascism.
He is such a bad person it is unfathomable that he is our "leader." It is abhorrent. Disgusting! And no Republicans call it out, which again is unfathomable.
Republican complicity is further evidence that that entire party is toxic. While they *should* be embarrassed and revolted, all those "Christian" republicans were already fully invested in denying aid to any who needed it.
It says a lot about Republicans. I remember when Sarah Palin came out against the use of this slur and people criticized her for being overly sensitive. It's one of the few times I agreed with her, but she seems to have lost her tongue now.
Palin has been always phony and amoral. You left out the fact that she herself has a son with Down's, so it was affecting her personally. That's the *only* reason she had issue.
I she had a son with Down's Syndrome that was affecting her personally. I forgot to mention that. Seeing as there's evidence that she acts like a Mafia boss when it comes to her kids getting arrested it's not hard to believe she's a phony.
Ah yes. This brings to mind a smartphone video recorded by protesters in Alaska over something bad Palin was up to as governor (roughly 10 years ago). Alaska is a very small place in terms of population, and so you could count the protesters on one or two hands. Palin’s large, burly adult sons were out there trying to physically intimidate the protesters. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, as they say.
Thank you for this post. I have a son who has Down syndrome who is an amazing human being. I have had to put up with Republican business clients who knew that and used the R word in meetings with me, knowing that I couldn’t saw anything without jeopardizing the team’s engagement.
My son is loving, helpful, kind, funny, creative and a great dancer—better than the Trumps in so many ways!
I am sick of the party that pretends to care about Down syndrome fetuses but clearly doesn’t give a shit the second they are born. Red states and anti-abortion politicians (when it isn’t the hypocrites own wife or daughter with an unwanted pregnancy that they will travel out of state to deal with) can always issue debt for billionaire tax breaks and then turn around and undermine and refuse to fund early intervention, special ed, Medicaid services for people with disabilities, etc.
Most outrageous, they defile the Christian faith by following someone who shows us daily his values are anti-Christian, giving those searching for a faith an absolutely appalling view of what Christianity must be about. They are really evilgelicals because what they preach isn’t Christian, and they turn people with good hearts away from a faith that should be about lifting people up and helping those in need.
Bizarrely, many on the radical, hate mongering right who claim to follow the one who said “love your neighbor as yourself” have started describing someone who shows empathy as “radical leftists.”
Empathy and kindness are the two central values Jesus taught in defining what it means to “love your neighbor.
Most people miss the deeper subtext of the Good Samaritan story by not asking, “Why a Samaritan?” Samaritans were looked down on by the high priests and seen as heretics for having a slightly different set of beliefs. Consider that and read this:
When you run into postings by the evilgelicals, you can ask them how hate speech, cutting Medicaid and gutting the research into improving the health and education of kids with disabilities is consistent with this most unsubtle of Jesus’ teachings:
How do they praise someone who pursues personal wealth above serving others and brags about being rich while cutting aid to the poor when Jesus does not forgive that sin:
When fishermen from Trinidad are slaughtered by US missiles, how do those who want the Ten Commandments posted in government buildings miss the “Thou shalt not kill” part or dismiss Trump’s porn star hush money while ignoring “Thou shalt not commit adultery” ?
My son embodies Christ’s teachings. The Trumps’ hatefulness could not be further from them.
Somehow at times like this I need to find a way to be loving towards those who hate the way Jesus and Dr. King were. It’s worth noting that Dr. King and his wife drove the road to Jericho where the Good Samaritan story takes place, and he mentioned it in his “I’ve Been To the Mountaintop” speech the day before he was assassinated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27ve_Been_to_the_Mountaintop
Stay strong, love each other. Trump flings hate and distraction when he is failing. Tim Walz never built a gold leaf ballroom while Americans can’t pay for heat. Tim Walz never ordered the murders of fishermen without due process. Tim Walz is a decent man.
Thank you for this thoughtful reply and for pointing out the extreme hypocrisy of this administration.
I'm sorry that your son and your family have to deal with this word making its way back into the public vernacular, not to mention the other awful ways he treats the disabled.
As you said, nothing about his behaviour aligns with Christian teachings, and it's important we remember that. He's pushing hate and division and believes empathy is wrong.
As a Christian myself I am deeply, deeply offended by 20th and 21st century evangelicals (19th century evangelicals are their exact opposite; a wonderful call for activism to aid those in need.).
While all older protestant faiths were founded in resistance to abusive orthodoxy, the 1920’s Fundamentalists (precursors to mid 20th century evangelicals) became more orthodox themselves in their condemning of symbolic interpretations of scripture in favor of literal ones. Later they would evolve into the "evangelicals" we know today: fully intolerant on all levels.
I’m 100% certain that today’s evangelicals are destructive by design: I believe they are a sinister creation of capitalists enraged by their loss of slavery due to Christian activism. When most people not fully embracing of the faith think of Christians, they first think of the cruelty they've seen in evangelicals. There is not a single teaching of Jesus which evangelicals don’t despise. They are quickest to invoke Jesus’ name but last to follow his teaching.
I've known a number of people with Down. They've been really nice and fun to be around, and many of them had real jobs. They also have empathy, unlike MAGA.
Thank you for being an actual follower of Christ's teachings, and all best to your family.
Thanks. He’s amazing. Scored at the 20th percentile on one statewide science test in middle school—which makes him smarter than RFK and his appointees!
Southern Baptists and Mormons align themselves with evangelicals the way libertarians gravitate to republicans. And never trust a "born again" on *anything* ... they are the most deluded of evangelicals. "Prosperity Gospel" is also a horrible level of delusion, though in a different way.
It is sad to see one manchild and his sycophants be able to rope in such a huge section of Americans into dumbing down, and then proudly pushing that ignorance into everyone else's face and space. That all human beings do not naturally react with compassion and care for others who have to deal daily with their physical or mental differences is a failure of humanity. And just another indication of how we are still woefully far from attaining what it truly means to live as a human being.
Epstein, i.e., “euthanized,” the Russians caught up to him before he could reveal how he manipulated Trump, into the arms of wealthy Russians. Bought Trump. Epstein knew they’d come for him.
It’s most likely that Trump is a serial MURDERER. Trump enjoys starving & murdering! It’s likely that he’s also behind the murder of Charlie Kirk. Trump holds reverence only for himself! He only saw a young widow & babies to rape & abuse. That was his motivation. Kirk was also pushing for Trump’s promise to expose all details behind Epstein.
Epstein & pedophilia are Trump’s power over Congress & the courts!
Kirk had a conflict between his followers, who weren't ready to change their minds on Epstein, and Trump (who he worships) and who demanded it. He decided to go silent and uncharacteristically say "I trust the government".
I suppose they know how to make those that have a mental health condition work a job? Otherwise they are not going to get Medicaid? Then those with these challenges will be off of their medication? And then what? Chaos and fear, and then prison? The people that think those without physical disabilities are just lazy are so - the S word- Stupid. As a mother of an adult son struggling with this disorder, I am sickened by this president and his administration. They have no compassion. I have said this before, these people are not people, but monsters. I pray the monsters get taken out before anyone else gets hurt.
I'm so sorry this is happening and that your son is struggling. The idea that people must get a job to 'prove they matter' is so utterly dangerous.
Many of Trump's supporters say its about time and we should all be forced to work or be left behind. They never consider that in an instant they too could become disabled.
Republicans want maximum wealth be diverted to the very wealthy and they hope that the rest of us will become so desperate for relief that we'll fight each other over the remaining crumbs (This worked with MAGAts.).
I hate that slur as much as gay being used as a slur and all of the other slurs. Handicapped still feels like a slur since I heard it used that way when I was a kid back in the 70's. There are tons of slurs that I know about and a few that I've learned about such as blink for someone who is blind which I found out during my college days. I love the fact that some groups have taken slurs used against them and rebranded them as something positive like Queer Nation, but I don't think all slurs should be used like that. Sorry for this long response, but this issue both angers me and fascinates me.
No need to be sorry Bill! Thank you for taking the time to write a reply. There's still way too many slurs being used to spread hate and division and it's important we all call them out.
Also some groups have taken to insisting that a universal symbol for acceptance applies only to them, such as the LGBTQ community appropriating the rainbow [Everyone else is now afraid to use it because it's no longer for everyone.].
I've seen some articles/podcasts with psychologists that are analyzing his behavior and they believe he has dementia of some sort. Signs include the nastiness coming to the forefront as he loses the ability to control those outbursts. Also, the falling asleep and incoherent sentences of rambling nonsense. He has taken 3 cognitive tests with this past year alone along with an MRI which we will never see the results of. Paid off the doctors, I'm sure.
Yes that's certainly possible, though I would point out that he was very nasty to disabled people even ten years ago so he's clearly always had a eugenicist mindset.
Yes, the short form cog eval followed by a month wait and an mri and long form eval definitely point to cognitive impairment. If there was no underlying neurological medical condition and he passed the short form eval, he would not have received the long form. It's a day long ordeal.
When I was a tiny wee child in the (yikes) Nixon administration, in an all-white suburban largely conservative school, we were NOT ALLOWED to use the R word.
Yes. During the war and the dirty tricks boys running things, that was a word too far.
Thank you for sharing! So many people are acting like this is just the 'woke left' complaining and policing words. Yet I was in school in the 80s and we weren't allowed to say it then either.
We can't let them take us back decades in our progress towards acceptance and inclusion!
I looked it up in old photos -- this was probably in 1969, judging from my lunchbox. Mainstreaming schooling had just begun. '
I've been posting this everywhere I can find lately.
People didn't use the N word in public either, because it was considered at best, low class. Even by racists! They'd still be prejudiced, but self-respecting white racists wouldn't use the N word ... though I didn't live in the South, and I learned even high-class Southern racists would say "Negro" in public down there.
Nobody ever claims the Nixon administration was "woke".
He is such a bad person it is unfathomable that he is our "leader." It is abhorrent. Disgusting! And no Republicans call it out, which again is unfathomable.
Agreed. As Tim Walz said, every Republican should be calling this out. The fact that none are is deeply shameful.
Yes, and so very sad that it's easy to fall into a deep depression but we must hold our heads up and stand for what is right.
Republican complicity is further evidence that that entire party is toxic. While they *should* be embarrassed and revolted, all those "Christian" republicans were already fully invested in denying aid to any who needed it.
True!
It says a lot about Republicans. I remember when Sarah Palin came out against the use of this slur and people criticized her for being overly sensitive. It's one of the few times I agreed with her, but she seems to have lost her tongue now.
So many of them have lost their tongue and their spine it seems!
So, we've noticed.
Palin has been always phony and amoral. You left out the fact that she herself has a son with Down's, so it was affecting her personally. That's the *only* reason she had issue.
I she had a son with Down's Syndrome that was affecting her personally. I forgot to mention that. Seeing as there's evidence that she acts like a Mafia boss when it comes to her kids getting arrested it's not hard to believe she's a phony.
Ah yes. This brings to mind a smartphone video recorded by protesters in Alaska over something bad Palin was up to as governor (roughly 10 years ago). Alaska is a very small place in terms of population, and so you could count the protesters on one or two hands. Palin’s large, burly adult sons were out there trying to physically intimidate the protesters. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, as they say.
Is the "r" word "republican"? That is a vile, loathsome word.
This is a must read. Well done!
Thank you! I really want people to understand how it feeds into eugenics which just fuels fascism.
Same!
Thank you for this post. I have a son who has Down syndrome who is an amazing human being. I have had to put up with Republican business clients who knew that and used the R word in meetings with me, knowing that I couldn’t saw anything without jeopardizing the team’s engagement.
My son is loving, helpful, kind, funny, creative and a great dancer—better than the Trumps in so many ways!
I am sick of the party that pretends to care about Down syndrome fetuses but clearly doesn’t give a shit the second they are born. Red states and anti-abortion politicians (when it isn’t the hypocrites own wife or daughter with an unwanted pregnancy that they will travel out of state to deal with) can always issue debt for billionaire tax breaks and then turn around and undermine and refuse to fund early intervention, special ed, Medicaid services for people with disabilities, etc.
Most outrageous, they defile the Christian faith by following someone who shows us daily his values are anti-Christian, giving those searching for a faith an absolutely appalling view of what Christianity must be about. They are really evilgelicals because what they preach isn’t Christian, and they turn people with good hearts away from a faith that should be about lifting people up and helping those in need.
Bizarrely, many on the radical, hate mongering right who claim to follow the one who said “love your neighbor as yourself” have started describing someone who shows empathy as “radical leftists.”
Empathy and kindness are the two central values Jesus taught in defining what it means to “love your neighbor.
Most people miss the deeper subtext of the Good Samaritan story by not asking, “Why a Samaritan?” Samaritans were looked down on by the high priests and seen as heretics for having a slightly different set of beliefs. Consider that and read this:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke%2010:25-37&version=NIV
When you run into postings by the evilgelicals, you can ask them how hate speech, cutting Medicaid and gutting the research into improving the health and education of kids with disabilities is consistent with this most unsubtle of Jesus’ teachings:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2025%3A31-46&version=NRSVUE
How do they praise someone who pursues personal wealth above serving others and brags about being rich while cutting aid to the poor when Jesus does not forgive that sin:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark%2010:17-22&version=ESV
How do they claim to follow the literal word of the Bible and not get his story about a camel:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2019:24&version=NIV
When fishermen from Trinidad are slaughtered by US missiles, how do those who want the Ten Commandments posted in government buildings miss the “Thou shalt not kill” part or dismiss Trump’s porn star hush money while ignoring “Thou shalt not commit adultery” ?
My son embodies Christ’s teachings. The Trumps’ hatefulness could not be further from them.
Somehow at times like this I need to find a way to be loving towards those who hate the way Jesus and Dr. King were. It’s worth noting that Dr. King and his wife drove the road to Jericho where the Good Samaritan story takes place, and he mentioned it in his “I’ve Been To the Mountaintop” speech the day before he was assassinated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27ve_Been_to_the_Mountaintop
Stay strong, love each other. Trump flings hate and distraction when he is failing. Tim Walz never built a gold leaf ballroom while Americans can’t pay for heat. Tim Walz never ordered the murders of fishermen without due process. Tim Walz is a decent man.
Thank you for this thoughtful reply and for pointing out the extreme hypocrisy of this administration.
I'm sorry that your son and your family have to deal with this word making its way back into the public vernacular, not to mention the other awful ways he treats the disabled.
As you said, nothing about his behaviour aligns with Christian teachings, and it's important we remember that. He's pushing hate and division and believes empathy is wrong.
Empathy is never the wrong choice.
Exactly!
As a Christian myself I am deeply, deeply offended by 20th and 21st century evangelicals (19th century evangelicals are their exact opposite; a wonderful call for activism to aid those in need.).
While all older protestant faiths were founded in resistance to abusive orthodoxy, the 1920’s Fundamentalists (precursors to mid 20th century evangelicals) became more orthodox themselves in their condemning of symbolic interpretations of scripture in favor of literal ones. Later they would evolve into the "evangelicals" we know today: fully intolerant on all levels.
I’m 100% certain that today’s evangelicals are destructive by design: I believe they are a sinister creation of capitalists enraged by their loss of slavery due to Christian activism. When most people not fully embracing of the faith think of Christians, they first think of the cruelty they've seen in evangelicals. There is not a single teaching of Jesus which evangelicals don’t despise. They are quickest to invoke Jesus’ name but last to follow his teaching.
I've known a number of people with Down. They've been really nice and fun to be around, and many of them had real jobs. They also have empathy, unlike MAGA.
Thank you for being an actual follower of Christ's teachings, and all best to your family.
Thanks. He’s amazing. Scored at the 20th percentile on one statewide science test in middle school—which makes him smarter than RFK and his appointees!
He's smarter than all of MAGA!
Southern Baptists and Mormons align themselves with evangelicals the way libertarians gravitate to republicans. And never trust a "born again" on *anything* ... they are the most deluded of evangelicals. "Prosperity Gospel" is also a horrible level of delusion, though in a different way.
Where are the good Minnesotans I know, physically standing up and protecting this family. Come on, guys. Get on the bandwagon and stop this crap!
A bunch of high school students in Burnsville walked out today to protest ICE! That gave me some hope!
And people wonder why Canadians are not interested in visiting the Excited States of America…
It is sad to see one manchild and his sycophants be able to rope in such a huge section of Americans into dumbing down, and then proudly pushing that ignorance into everyone else's face and space. That all human beings do not naturally react with compassion and care for others who have to deal daily with their physical or mental differences is a failure of humanity. And just another indication of how we are still woefully far from attaining what it truly means to live as a human being.
It is very sad indeed. I expect very little from Trump, but it's all those who enable and support him who have really let me down.
mass insanity
Very well said....it is appalling.
Often said, about Trump and “projection.”
Plus, Trump has declined especially fast especially recently. He arbitrarily lashes out, a symptom.
Trump takes shortcuts because he cannot find the words; life is getting complicated as paranoia sets in.
Trump is not a real human being! He’s a pedophile, surrounded by equally morally empty scum that also want to starve & kill millions of 99% of us!
Trump & his pedophile MAGAts must be euthanized!
Epstein, i.e., “euthanized,” the Russians caught up to him before he could reveal how he manipulated Trump, into the arms of wealthy Russians. Bought Trump. Epstein knew they’d come for him.
It’s most likely that Trump is a serial MURDERER. Trump enjoys starving & murdering! It’s likely that he’s also behind the murder of Charlie Kirk. Trump holds reverence only for himself! He only saw a young widow & babies to rape & abuse. That was his motivation. Kirk was also pushing for Trump’s promise to expose all details behind Epstein.
Epstein & pedophilia are Trump’s power over Congress & the courts!
Kirk had a conflict between his followers, who weren't ready to change their minds on Epstein, and Trump (who he worships) and who demanded it. He decided to go silent and uncharacteristically say "I trust the government".
Epstein led Trump into the arms of the wealthy Russian oligarchs. Trump is Putin and Netanyahu’s tool.
Money & praise motivate the greedy HOG!
Probably has his employees bring him all coins found on the floors & street
You are right. It is horrible. Looking on from afar, Australia.
I suppose they know how to make those that have a mental health condition work a job? Otherwise they are not going to get Medicaid? Then those with these challenges will be off of their medication? And then what? Chaos and fear, and then prison? The people that think those without physical disabilities are just lazy are so - the S word- Stupid. As a mother of an adult son struggling with this disorder, I am sickened by this president and his administration. They have no compassion. I have said this before, these people are not people, but monsters. I pray the monsters get taken out before anyone else gets hurt.
I'm so sorry this is happening and that your son is struggling. The idea that people must get a job to 'prove they matter' is so utterly dangerous.
Many of Trump's supporters say its about time and we should all be forced to work or be left behind. They never consider that in an instant they too could become disabled.
Republicans want maximum wealth be diverted to the very wealthy and they hope that the rest of us will become so desperate for relief that we'll fight each other over the remaining crumbs (This worked with MAGAts.).
An embarrassment to humanity…just when you think he’s hit a new low, he goes further
86*47 ASAP FUBAR
I hate that slur as much as gay being used as a slur and all of the other slurs. Handicapped still feels like a slur since I heard it used that way when I was a kid back in the 70's. There are tons of slurs that I know about and a few that I've learned about such as blink for someone who is blind which I found out during my college days. I love the fact that some groups have taken slurs used against them and rebranded them as something positive like Queer Nation, but I don't think all slurs should be used like that. Sorry for this long response, but this issue both angers me and fascinates me.
No need to be sorry Bill! Thank you for taking the time to write a reply. There's still way too many slurs being used to spread hate and division and it's important we all call them out.
Very true.
Also some groups have taken to insisting that a universal symbol for acceptance applies only to them, such as the LGBTQ community appropriating the rainbow [Everyone else is now afraid to use it because it's no longer for everyone.].
I've seen some articles/podcasts with psychologists that are analyzing his behavior and they believe he has dementia of some sort. Signs include the nastiness coming to the forefront as he loses the ability to control those outbursts. Also, the falling asleep and incoherent sentences of rambling nonsense. He has taken 3 cognitive tests with this past year alone along with an MRI which we will never see the results of. Paid off the doctors, I'm sure.
Yes that's certainly possible, though I would point out that he was very nasty to disabled people even ten years ago so he's clearly always had a eugenicist mindset.
It's utterly enraging.
Yes, the short form cog eval followed by a month wait and an mri and long form eval definitely point to cognitive impairment. If there was no underlying neurological medical condition and he passed the short form eval, he would not have received the long form. It's a day long ordeal.
*6 month wait, sorry. Can't edit comments
When I was a tiny wee child in the (yikes) Nixon administration, in an all-white suburban largely conservative school, we were NOT ALLOWED to use the R word.
Yes. During the war and the dirty tricks boys running things, that was a word too far.
Thank you for sharing! So many people are acting like this is just the 'woke left' complaining and policing words. Yet I was in school in the 80s and we weren't allowed to say it then either.
We can't let them take us back decades in our progress towards acceptance and inclusion!
I looked it up in old photos -- this was probably in 1969, judging from my lunchbox. Mainstreaming schooling had just begun. '
I've been posting this everywhere I can find lately.
People didn't use the N word in public either, because it was considered at best, low class. Even by racists! They'd still be prejudiced, but self-respecting white racists wouldn't use the N word ... though I didn't live in the South, and I learned even high-class Southern racists would say "Negro" in public down there.
Nobody ever claims the Nixon administration was "woke".
This is disgraceful , as are the Republicans who are allowing this abominable behaviour to continue and even encouraging the same attitude.