I think my favorite line of argument from tonight's batshittery was when Herschel Walker said that Trump wasn't racist because he (Herschel) grew up around Trump's base and those fuckers are so racist that Trump just doesn't compare.
I think I just saw the McCunt couple famous for brandishing a firearm at protesters behind me in TSA. You gotta think how bad it sucks to be that kind of famous. Or maybe they like the way piss and spit tastes.... Either way, not fun times ahead.
This is a hard topic, but by and large, for me the answer is, "no." For those who have been suckered into it, many of whom I already knew to have suspect intelligence, who are simply parroting the party line... okay. I already knew some of them were dumb. The fact that they're dumb and republican doesn't offend me. I can move on. A few people I know, though, have really exposed a raw maliciousness and I'm not sure I will be able to go back to the way things were before. Depending on who they are to me, I may still need to interact with them or treat them civilly, but my relationship with them has changed. A couple extended family members are never going to be my friends again because Trump emboldened them to express their racist or hateful views out loud. The person in office doesn't change their opinions, and as Maya Angelou said, when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. I think Bush may have done worse things on the global scale, but Trump has changed parts of this country that I don't think are going to go back to normal for a long time.
SO much this. @malisbad and I were chatting last night about just this, where it got to the point a co-worker and previous friend was being absurdly racist and PISSED that others were taking it the wrong way, or "making it political". Dude... there is nothing political about it, you're a racist piece of shit, are now talking about it out loud, people are calling you on it, and you're getting offended over "your opinion". It's mind boggling.
It's starting to become apparent that there is no "platform" or ideology around Republicans. It's basically "don't make me change a Goddamned thing", "own the libs" and lastly "benefit me", with that "me" largely being lumped in with donors and corporate interests that seem to benefit from deregulation or corruption. So, what are we doing here? What's happening to the Conway family is going to be played out over and over again. The politics of "fuck you and leave me alone" don't have a long shelf life, and "fuck you until it happens to me" is even shorter. I see the future for the faces of this administration being very bleak, "Dancing with the Stars" notwithstanding. Politics of rage don't necessarily subside with an election, and I don't think anyone on the national scene counts as a "healer". This Thanksgiving and Christmas you're going to see some ugly holidays, as families confront ugly realities about their politics. Trump has functioned as a giant wedge, and it's remarkable how well that's worked. I think about things like the NFL,hunting and guns, attending my parent's church, Facebook (DEAR CHRIST), and even my position working for the government that used to be...tepid. Mild. Barely conversation. Now...they are dividing lines, causing tension that feels both inexorable yet sudden. And we're all tense enough, you either avoid that shit if you're lucky enough, or you let it rip things apart: you, families, relationships. It's Goddamned masterful: for example, how you have people deflecting cops shooting an unarmed man in the back in front of his kids. I will say if my family got gunned down like that, a riot would be the least concern: I would patiently and ruthlessly murder everyone I could until I was satisfied with what justice could be had or I got caught. Yet that's the definition of my entitlement and privilege: I expect justice, and the idea of my family being murdered by police seems heinous. Are you kidding me? How many corpses does it take? Riots? Hell, I'm surprised someone hasn't done the simple and obvious thing of finding the cops' house and returning the favor....how long before that becomes the reality? You think kids can't read X's book, find pics of the Black Panthers armed to the teeth and realize what that was about? Then what? What happens when they can't find who did it and the cops demand retribution anyway? This is what happens when "fuck you, leave me alone" and "own the libs" are operationalized and leadership is absent. Change is the one thing that the most powerful office on Earth can't hold back, and he's let so many opportunities slip away. It's not necessarily an intelligence thing, and God knows I'm tired of hearing how Trump voters are stupid. There are plenty of Democrats who re-post the Onion as if it was real. Plenty of people just see nothing wrong with being that self-interested, or apply no critical thinking to the news they receive. Their beliefs didn't crystallize in the last three years, they evolved, likely over decades. People make different assumptions, and I can't fault them. Some people cling harder to things that are abject fantasies, and that's a human thing. I struggle with the fact that many of these guys truly fantasize about a violent righteousness that simply will never exist. Again, listen to Alex Jones' rhetoric: it's the sort of shit that made men join the Crusades. It's "we're persecuted" while the persecution is purely mental, or at best, has nothing to do with politics. The most powerful man on Earth, and this is what he does: plays golf, watches trash news and shitposts on Twitter. He could wipe out humanity with a few punches of a button, and yet he feels the need to defend every possible slight. I can't seriously conjure any emotion more deeply than pity. What a fucking waste. The one person, who for four years, has the opportunity to remake the world in his image, and this is what he's done. Jesus. We could have Mars. We could have annexed Mexico. We could have ended world hunger. Hell, we could have committed genocide, if he were so inclined. Think of what you would do, just for a moment, to truly leave your mark on history, and realize this guy couldn't turn off "Fox and Friends" long enough to even begin to do any of that. The most compelling image of the Trump White House is the one with the lights turned out, and the next one is of the fucking hedges. Sad...getting sadder by the day. Putting it another way, this guy is so toxic, his staff can't eat out in DC, their families can't tolerate working for him, and the people who support him are the wrong kind of famous. This is going to get worse as we get closer to November, and when the cult of personality finally is over, then what?
Because it's a good time to drop some wild predictions so someone can dig them up in years and say how wrong I was. I expect three election cycles of Democrat majorities federally. I think that State Repubicans will hold onto power for one more election cycle until they finish eating themselves. After 14ish years we'll see the Democrats split into two new parties. One made up from former republicans and the other being the left leaning chunk. In real terms I expect that the right left divide will line up more closely with the rest of the world. The left wing democrats will still be a centrist party like the Liberals are here in Canada. The right wing democrats will be a bit further left then the Bush Republicans and miles farther to the left then the Alt-Right nazis and white supremacists that have worked for decades to co-opt the Republican party. Currently I think that we're watching the death spasms of the Republican Party and it isn't going to attract young voters in the numbers they need to survive.
Yeah about that bolded part. An RNC Speaker Said Cops Would Be 'Smart' to Racially Profile Her Own Son "Statistically, my brown son is more likely to commit a violent offense over my white sons," anti-abortion activist Abby Johnson said in a YouTube video earlier this year. https://www.vice.com/amp/en_us/arti...profile-her-own-son?__twitter_impression=true This is the base the republican party is composed of and trying to further appeal to.
I could also see "Alt Right" becoming a political party Because people suck *edit* before someone else makes the joke: alt right, you mean current republicans?
Do you mean actually having three parties on the final ticket or just bickering and bashing within the party until one is picked to represent the party, like they do now?
Hey, Trump hasn’t driven a wedge between all families. For the first time in the twenty years since I married their daughter, I align politically with my in-laws. None of us can stand him.
I got the same response from a couple guys I used to work with. It's really startling when someone who is genuinely intelligent is presenting naked racism and refuses to see it as such. On the other hand, I have a few people I know like a girl on my in-laws' side... she's nice, but, uh, simple. She's a Trump supporter, and remains one. She thinks taxes and the government are bad, though she's a mostly-unsuccessful multi-level marketer and her blue collar husband doesn't top $40k, so with two kids they basically pay no taxes. She has been sexually active since she was a teen and taking advantage of Planned Parenthood to provide health services and birth control, without which she probably would have been a teen mom. They were on Medicaid last time her husband was out of work. She's saving nothing for retirement and has no skills that would allow for a late career surge in earnings and savings. Her mother and sister have both struggled financially off and on, and have been helped by various programs. She sees absolutely nothing ironic in her staunch support of Trump. At least she's not a horrible person, though. Misinformed, misguided, dumb as a potato... But not horrible.
As @Nettdata noted, I've essentially severed friendly relations with a coworker who I knew was racist, but I also thought was salvageable. This person does the typical thing where they will say something _inherently_ political, and then get mad at you for "making it political" when you don't just nod in agreement. They also don't like Japan, Japanese people, just the pussy. You see it a lot with racists (read: white supremacists) where they'll have a huge streak of yellow fever. This guy is no different. He stays because his girlfriend is hot, and let's him play World of Warcraft all day. He's also the *worst* kind of racist because unlike @Binary's women they know, this person is an intelligent fellow. Intelligent racists are the worst because they have to purposefully separate themselves from the drive for empathy and ignore the privileges they've had in life. He got mad because a friend of his stopping being his friend because of facebook photos of him wearing a MAGA hat. He thought he'd complain about it to me, and I just said "whatever you think it is, it's a symbol of racism and white supremacy now." and his response that it was fucking stupid to think that and wishes people weren't just sheep. I didn't have the heart at the time to let him know it was an appropriate description.
I avoid political or tangentially political topics as much as possible, and have learned to say something that can be interpreted multiple ways to avoid engaging. Because it has happened more than once that I am having a fine interaction with someone and then when it becomes apparent that we have different views on X topic, I get treated differently, worse, and/or dismissively. I am in trumper territory and in the extreme minority. If you can see shades of gray in the world around you, we can have a conversation. It seems that anyone who looks favorably on the orange dude in office has a problem seeing shades. Every topic is black or white, if you're not with me you're against me. I'm sorry if you like Trump and don't identify with that generalization, but anecdotally it has proven to be the case every time for me. Even with family. I have one sister I can talk honestly about what is going on in this country, or what my interpretation is at least, and the others are quietly trumpers. Occasionally they rant or complain about Y topic and it is very obvious they have been listening to spin doctors and bullshit artists. Their opinions and actions regarding the covid stuff, due to politicalization of the topic, is maddening. I could give a psychological evaluation of each member and why trump appeals to them but you don't know these people or care. I will say that it makes me question their good judgement, morals, and outlook on the world. Whether they always were like this or their consumption of specific ''news'' sources and podcasts have more recently rotted their brains, I no longer feel that I totally trust them. Even if we get this doofus out of office that will not change.
@bewildered I think it's the nature of people who don't really understand what they're discussing to see it in black and white. This happens everywhere. If you truly understand a topic, it's rarely a black-and-white issue. It's far more likely that there are considerations and shades of grey throughout. Listening to a hot take on talk radio gives you one facet of an issue, and if that's all you know, it's easy to think it's just an all-or-nothing argument on the subject. That, combined with being the type of individual who is willing to accept a sound bite without further evidence, makes for the ideal Trump supporter.
I think the DNC should start being concerned after the RNC. I think Trump has a real chance of repeating 2016. If Biden tries skipping debates (which it doesn’t sound like he wants to do), then they are in real trouble.
I have to call hypocrisy here, because this is exactly how people are about Trump on both sides. "Orange man did bad" with very little context is just as dangerous as "own the libs", because you're not going to get anyone to switch sides by demonizing them or refusing to see shades of grey. My liberal colleagues are just as likely to accept a sound bite without evidence as anyone. Keep in mind how much of your own knowledge of Coronavirus came from a peer-reviewed journal: very few of us dug into the details, and doing so for some of us is a matter of life and death. Most of us skim, regurgitate and move on, precious little knowledge is collected first hand. I had a conversation a few months ago, and while it's hard, it's vital to find some good in what Trump is doing. He's taking a much more protectionist stance. He's started the uncomfortable but necessary process of divorcing us from China. His treatment of actors like NK and Russia fly in the face of nearly all our doctrine and history, yet that radicalism might open new doors. He's made us question a lot of things, and especially examined the price. I can appreciate someone coming along and saying "is this still the right deal?" He's truly unveiled the folks left behind in a knowledge economy and there are legitimate grievances that politics previously ignored (or gave lip service to) and in some ways, Trump is the price we paid. "Learn to code" isn't a viable strategy, and there's some genuine logic to the question of "why is the Chinese middle class expanding and ours is shrinking" when the economy is growing, and "why is it suddenly My values are under assault, when they have been what this country espoused for centuries?" There's a certain issue with someone from a Christian slant going, "I don't want my child to be gay" for whatever reason, and that being extrapolated to "you're homophobic, prejudiced and evil" against an entire swath of humanity: doing it curdles the spirit, hardens the convictions (if God says so, do you think a liberal is going to change their mind???) and tears apart community ties. You can't have change with closed minds, and I keep seeing this over and over: a vote for Trump was a vote for radicalism, it was a "let's shake things up and see what happens." and it was surreal to have that come from the conservative party. It is not a label of stupidity, or racism in and of itself. Do the un and underinformed support him in larger swaths? Yes. However you could say the same thing about Bernie supporters: many of them have very little understanding of what they are actually voting for. Do the racists support Trump? Yes, and I think that's going to emerge as the curse of the conservative movement: that's the only place politically where they will ever fit, because many of the racist notions have historical underpinnings. In other words, racists will almost always be conservatives, but equating the two is dangerous. I think history should be far less kind to Bush than Trump, at worst, Trump is a lazy, 70-something retiree that moved from NY to FL because the times shifted under his feet. Right now, we judge Bush by his intentions (because he's "compassionate" and Trump by his execution, and that's going to have to change. But just like the "un-survivable" storm that left most of Texas with shrugs, the rhetoric that Trump is the Devil's condom is distortion at best, misleading at worst. He's an amateur, he's embarrassing, he's corrupt, he's certainly not elegant, but he is a survivor, and he's made fools of experts for decades. I can identify with that, especially as I've seen the fortunes of the older generation unravel. He's the "Dr. House" of politics: he doesn't have to be liked, and the smooth, charming douche bags have largely been hollow, insincere and useless. I also think that the entirety of the nation won't change it's mind on Trump or Biden by calcifying into "I'm not racist, and fuck the side calling me a racist for my vote." "I'm not stupid, and fuck the side calling me stupid because of who I vote for." or "fuck that racist idiot gang." I am very leery of a vote for Biden as an act of desperation, because it will end in disappointment. It may end the constant corruption and end amateur reign, but the intolerant minority that's currently driving things will not be brought to heel by less tolerance.