My whole adult life I have partaken of the “don’t normalize it” notion. Like, we have to quickly correct the bad actions in our politics while they still generate outrage.
But I’ve come to realize that it’s all already normalized.
1/?
The whole country was founded on genocide and slavery. There has been a generations-long effort by white Americans to sanitize and soften the sins of the past, and by accident or design it has sanitized and softened the sins of the present.
Cowboy Reagan, Bush Jr’s war, trump getting elected and re-elected...none of it could have happened if a huge chunk of the populace weren’t already comfortable with daily atrocities.
2/3