We All Live Downstream: Laura Loomer's "Five Years Sober" tweet on the Fifth Anniversary of George Floyd's Death

“Everyone lives downstream … What I do here matters … my pond drains to the brook, to the creek, to a great and needful lake.” - Robin Wall Kimmerer (biologist)

We recently passed the five year mark since the death of George Floyd.

His death was a seismic event in the Minneapolis/St. Paul community (where my family lives.) As posts commemorating the anniversary show up online, we are once again seeing the incredible polarization of current American life.

On again/off again presidential adviser and far-right raconteur, Laura Loomer, posted this on X:

“Congratulations to George Floyd on being 5 years sober today.”

I’ll confess I didn’t know a lot about Laura Loomer. I’d heard things (none good). She’s an interesting person, and intelligent (she was the valedictorian of her college class), although I probably disagree with her on every possible topic. (She’s very far right, “debunking” high school shootings saying students were “crisis actors reading from scripts” and she has long called 9/11 “an inside job.”)

It would be easy for me to simply hate her. She is part of the MAGA machinery, advising Trump and trying to ferret out people who are “disloyal” (i.e. think independently and have some degree of moral courage) so he can fire them. She has also had lip augmentation … multiple times … leading to the “Mar-A-Lago duck face.”

But I have tattoos that I’d rather not be judged for so I guess I can try to think that way about a cosmetic procedure that I don’t understand even a little bit.

And as I was writing this post I did hate her, sort of, for a couple of days. I think she knows that her rhetoric is divisive in a way that is harmful and then proceeds with it anyway. She was a valedictorian after all. Maybe dividing and negative polarization is part of what “makes America great” in her mind, I don’t know.

But ultimately nothing good comes from me hating her, just as nothing good comes from me hating Trump. Do I hate the vast majority of what Trump does and the way that he thinks, and how that trickles into society and acts as a poison in the minds of the populace? Sure. And do I think he is aware that it’s harmful? I think probably so.

But I don’t hate the person.

Christ taught that we should “love our enemies” and pray for them. As he was being crucified he said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He said to love your neighbor as yourself and then defined your neighbor as “everyone.”

This is deeply counterintuitive. It’s not commonsensical. It seems it would never work. But Christ is not talking about building empire. He is talking about how humans relate to each other and to God. And so I try to do this, albeit imperfectly.

So, people of MAGA, if you’re reading this (and to be fair, you’re probably not) I dislike the philosophy of MAGA. I believe it is profoundly antisocial. I believe it divides people in harmful ways. I believe it has hijacked America and the church in the same way that hijackers take over a plane. BUT I DO NOT HATE THE PEOPLE WHO SUBSCRIBE TO IT.

I do not have hate in my heart for you. I hope you can say the same for me.

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As a longtime Minnesota Twins fan, I saw their post about George Floyd on Facebook, which is as follows:

“Five years after the murder of George Floyd, we reflect on a moment that forever changed our city and reverberated around the world. Today and every day, the Minnesota Twins respect and celebrate our differences, and we aspire to create equitable and empathetic spaces that shape a better tomorrow for all.”

(The anniversary fell on Memorial Day weekend, which explains some of the following. And yes, Memorial Day was also celebrated by the Twins.) The comments section was truly brutal (and why I read it is beyond me - morbid curiosity I guess) but in it I noticed something:

“5 years of being sober. ” - Dave Olsson

“Congrats on 5 years sober! I knew you could eventually get there! Now let’s honor our true heroes … the fallen soldiers who risked their life for us” - John Pohlkamp

“Five years sober! But this is for the men who serves our country, not a man who did drugs among other crimes” - Kyle Grams

“We honor our fallen troops!!!!” - Chris Todd

(Some of the comments were worse yet, with “worthless piece of shit” being thrown around a few times, in reference to Floyd.)

Laura Loomer’s line had spread far and wide. It had 1.8 million views on X, and obviously was widely talked about as it was short, clever, and a very hot take. This is the work of the echo chamber.

It’s also important to note that this line shapes people’s thinking. Words matter. When prompted to comment on the issue more than a few people said, “Congrats on five years of being sober.”

We All Live Downstream

I grew up with a creek running through a ravine on our property. Mostly the water in the creek was clean and clear but sometimes a can or a candy bar wrapper would float down and hang up on a branch.

In the old days the stream would have been our drinking water. The “we all live downstream” metaphor is, I think, a very good way of looking at our human interconnectedness. If someone were to dump a can of paint upstream from us it could poison the stream itself and all of the animals and humans who rely on it. People downstream suffer from the carelessness (or malice) from those upstream.

Loomer’s “5 years sober” post is a cup of gasoline upstream. It’s a sort of poison. If you are the sort of person who thinks it is a) funny, and b) true, then it creates a permission structure for you to look at anyone struggling with drug use as “less than” or subhuman in some way. The act of rendering someone subhuman in your mind and finding it acceptable (and reinforced by others who are doing the same) makes it easier to do again and again. This leads us to the dangerous “other” that leads us to the politics of grievance.

Muslims are terrorists.

Black men are dangerous.

Haitians are eating our cats and dogs.

Hispanic immigrants are rapists and murderers.

Ukraine asked to be invaded.

Africans come from “shithole countries” and are criminals.

Diversity kills. (Loomer)

Far-left activist judges are destroying everything.

Bruce Springsteen is anti-American.

Taylor Swift is anti-American.

So on and so forth, ad nauseum…. I’m quite sure if I continued this list it would probably be five-plus pages long.

Pretty soon so many people and classes of people and entire races are on the bad list it’s impossible to keep track. Diversity (which clearly means anything other that white christian republicans) itself is bad. The “good people” are patriotic, white Trump supporters. “Good” and “bad” are subjective terms then, measured simply by loyalty. Pro-American is pro-Trump (or pro-MAGA) and anti-American is opposed.

This is a particularly bizarre mechanism: taken to a logical extreme one might say that if you believed mass tariff implementation - including against islands inhabited largely by penguins - was a bad idea on the economic merits, you were being “unAmerican.” This is not a world I wish to inhabit.

This type of thinking breeds prejudice, which is literally to render a judgment about something without any actual knowledge of the thing. This is, ultimately, a self-inflicted intellectual handicap.

If this rhetoric is taken at face value, it can close the book on the subject, and once the book is closed, you stop learning. Am I saying this leads to ignorance? Yes. Am I saying this makes your vote easier to get? Also yes.

(I do know many people who would subscribe to MAGA generally speaking who aren’t simply “monkey see, monkey do” repeaters. Many are quite intelligent and opposed to the democratic party and see MAGA as the only alternative. As my friend says, “they’re trying to pick up a piece of shit by the clean end.” But some people are repeaters, and that’s what worries me.)

Making a judgment without proper evidence is, by definition, to be ignorant of the facts.

Just know that if someone is telling you to close your mind on immigrants or Bruce Springsteen or the judicial system, or Somalians, they are doing it for a reason. They have something to gain: votes, or attention, or money, or control.

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My wife was in the hospital recently. One of her nurses was named Somaya, a Somalian muslim woman. She wore a hijab. We talked with her quite a bit, as you do with your nurse. She was very funny and intelligent, married with two kids. We got on quite well. She said an older white man had tried to strangle her with her hijab (though she called it a “neck scarf”). This happened recently. She told us, “If someone has hate in their heart, there is nothing I can do about that.” She forgave him, but stopped being his nurse.

How did this man develop such hate that he tried to strangle a very pleasant young mother who was (I’m quite sure) behaving professionally and helping him while he is confined to a hospital bed?

He got that way from drinking “all muslims are terrorists” poison, and then he ran into one, and he choked her.

Clean Water

There was one comment, down near the bottom of the George Floyd comments section, that gave me a sliver of hope.

“My dad was a Twins fan he was also an active drug addict and alcoholic on the streets of Minneapolis until he was 45. It could have been him. He spent the last 14 years of his life finding his faith, and sobriety. He was an example of a love that extends to all, regardless of their actions or worthiness. Cheers to the Twins for being an example of empathy. He would be so proud.” - Therese Johnson

If you see a homeless person struggling with addiction, you don’t have to personally help them (though it would be great if you can). Instead of saying in your heart “these homeless people are ruining our city” try saying to yourself “I wish you well friend. I hope you get the help you need.”

Drink the clean water.

****If you enjoy this newsletter and find it helpful, consider becoming a paid member to support my work here. I would like to do more of this, I do think this type of thinking is needed to offset the incredibly corrosive rhetoric, and I don’t know of any better way to get it out there than substack. Thank you.****