Mainline conservatives have learned that you can endorse or quietly accept a person and advance their views without having to openly advance their views. Ellen's reasoning here is why they get away with it, and it's genuinely shameful. Shameful for her. Shameful for the GOP. https://twitter.com/ellencarmichael/status/1294472707732647937

Already relatives in my family are sharing the "she's not really eligible" line with one another. Days in. Do you know why? Because mainline conservs aren't out there shouting at the top of their lungs that QAnon is dangerous quackery and disassociating from everyone peddling it.

And by quietly allowing it to spread under an allied banner as they do, it gets tossed into the traveling suitcase of ridiculousness alongside "I'm against PC culture", as though being a Q believer is the same as accidentally stepping over some arcane language barrier.

People like @ellencarmichael look at the media and scream bias over "extremists" like AOC and wonder why? Maybe look in the mirror a bit. Democrats come out against their extreme left. They denied the extreme left the 2020 ticket.

While the GOP jumps under a white hooded snuggie with their extremist right playing tickle-me-boogaloo so they don't risk the wrath of the 35% of the population they've outright mentally and spiritually poisoned.

If these people want to lay claim to any pretense of being serious ideologues worthy of liberal democracy, they're going to need to drop their overworn weapons of "the media is biased" and "Democrats are socialist cultural marxists" and soak in a tub of shame for a bit.

Because shame is healthy. Shame is a necessary component of community's immune system. Because shame bypasses ridiculous word games and shouting matches and communicates "the more you struggle to justify being a horrific person, the less welcome you are here."

The worst thing you can do for someone being truly horrible is act as though it's fine, that love alone will get you through it, that we all just have different opinions and thoughts. Think back to child rearing, the formation of our moral centers.

What was most effective then? Not angry punishments. Not being whipped or slapped. It was disappointing someone whose approval you crave. Someone you love and respect.

Shame isn't only an internal feeling we experience independent of those around us. It's a reflex. Sure, some people just won't have it. But most people? Most people have enough innate reflex that the proper response will elicit shame in them. Exercise it because you love them.