Hello – important rhetorical reminder.
When you see propagandizy “save da wimminz and da cheeldren” nonsense like this the WORST thing you can possibly do is get into a Facebook fight with your conservative cousin about how trapped they are or how propagandizy this kind of photo is with all the little girls surrounding the grody “hero” man saving schoolgirls and whatnot.
It is propaganda. It is gross. I don’t dispute that reality. But it is NOT useful to try and convince someone they’re being propagandized. That belief is not based on reality, it’s based on perception and a person must come to that conclusion on their own.
We can help be a voice of reason on their journey, for sure, but remember –
People learn they are powerful by being told they are powerful.
People do not learn they are powerful by being told they are trapped.
That is just…how brains work. And the right wing propaganda machine knows that, and conditions their social norms and defensive responses deeply within their communities.
Why do you think crazy right winger Christian nationalist whackado men are so laser focused on the messaging that they are “empowering” people with their vouchers and abortion bans and whatnot?
Because it is **super fucking easy** for these guys to point at the average democratic / feminist messaging in comment sections across the land and say “these librull wimminz think you’re powerless and I don’t!”
And it sucks people in. They are attracted by the temptation of empowerment in a world that feels increasingly powerless and this machine has been goin’ for decades so it just looks and feels so right and neat and they’re tired of the fighting and the having to pay attention and and and…. and then they’re deep in it. And they feel powerful.
That patriarchal empowerment is fake, but it *feels* genuine and direct. Because it SAYS explicitly – you are powerful. And for white women in particular (ahem, the group that benefits the most from its proximity to this flavor patriarchy) they DO become empowered by it (in some ways) and don’t mind that their world must become increasingly legislated into existence for it to maintain any semblance of sustainability.
Don’t. Fuel. The. Propaganda.
I look at photos like these and cringe at how familiar they seem. Buncha white girls crowded around a politician or pastor or whatever man is “empowering” them and I get sad not just for the crappy man that’s got them under his thumb… but for all the well-meaning women that will unintentionally reinforce that powerless with their words. I remember being in that world and being utterly un-convinced by feminist messaging being yeeted at me and mine.
So please. Speak truth, but be intentional with your language. Understand it will take time – and pain – for the folks in that world to get out. But they can and do get out – when we use our words to pave their offramp, rather than solidify their walls.
Ask questions. Engage face-to-face. We can push back on propaganda and misperceptions, but in a way that encourages self-reflection and genuine empowerment instead of shame. Right-wingers count on left-wingers to meet them on their binaric, shamey turf and we can deflate this whole monstrosity of a culture by simply… not doing that.
Our job is not to tell people who aren’t ready to hear they’re getting got that they’re getting got. It’s to build a space that is ready for them to engage in a more sustainable world once they realize it themselves.