Tessa I live in rural Texas. There is a whole lot more to the recent abortion prohibition vigilante reward system than just abortion (I am not sure spying and getting a reward for reporting abortion then handling as a lawsuit exactly qualifies as a law). I don’t dispute your sexuality explanation as one sub-element, but let’s consider the whole landscape of Texas politics in 2021.
The authoritarian regime of a one party non-compromising overbearing extremist group in Texas depends in large part on rural and gerrymandered voting districts — it’s not a democracy. Yes, there are fundamentalist religious zealots and white male far right votes in the cities — but the largest part of core extremists far right devoted voters are rural with state voting district lines drawn to incite a single party dominance with ever farther extreme views with no broad discussion of ideas or mainstream issues like education or infrastructure.
Fear underlies virtually all of the 600+ new state laws enacted in Texas this year. Fear of change, fear of loss of control, fear of loss of stratified privledge, fear of new social norms, fear of unknown, fear of loss of power, fear of loss of traditions and long standing institutions. And, yes, fear is an evil, dark, corroding thread that is as harmful to progress and a free society as a malignant cancer is to a living organism. As a Texan I only wish an outrageous and obnoxious convoluted abortion neighbor vs. neighbor ordinance was our only problem.
Cancer metastasizes. Unaddressed it will be invasive to your neighborhood. We first have to mount antibody fear defenses — evil prevails when the masses remain silent or numbed. This means voting, persistent refusal to become anesthetized, speaking out against the fear based actions. Once addressed the fear will fester unless it is dealt with openly in good spirit, honesty and open-minded binding of wounds and genuine compromise and consideration of some of the sound reasons behind the fears.
First comes containing the wildfire spread of fear. Thank you for starting the conversation. Please help by continuing to bring to light that which is crafted in darkness.
