evince (05-06-2018)
I’m done trying to understand Trump supporters. Why don’t they try to understand me?
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/opinion/a...210497509.html
She is a nice lady who wrote me a nice email in which she spoke about the need to try to understand Donald Trump’s supporters. As Rose put it, “We need to not close ourselves off to how the other side thinks.” It’s a sentiment I hear a lot from progressives, and it bespeaks a great generosity of spirit.
But I couldn’t disagree more.
Don’t get me wrong. Thinking people will always try to see past their own ideological blind spots, to put themselves into the shoes of those they disagree with. That’s an admirable trait. In normal times it’s a trait I would applaud with enthusiasm.
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But these are not normal times. Indeed, sometimes, I wonder if we appreciate just how abnormal — how fraught with danger — they really are. Under Trump, American laws, news media and mores are under assault, to say nothing of American democracy itself.
And I’m sorry, but I don’t think “understanding” Trump followers will ameliorate — or even address — any of that. Besides which, is there really so much left to “understand?”
Not from where I sit. Long before Trump even existed as a political force, many of us noted with alarm the rise of a backlash among right wingers deeply angry and profoundly terrified by the writing on the demographic wall. Said writing foretold — and for that matter, still foretells — the declining preeminence of white, Christian America. As several studies now show, a sense of alarmed displacement among white, Christian America is the soil from which the weed of Trumpism grew.
The idea that we must “understand” those folks carries with it an implicit suggestion that in so doing, we might find some ground for compromise. It would be a great idea in normal times. But again, these times are not normal.
No compromise is possible here for a simple reason Trump followers seem to understand better than the rest of us: You can’t compromise with demography, can’t order numbers to stop being what they are and saying what they say about the coming tide of change. But what you can do is seize the levers of power and change the rules of the game in hopes of blunting the force of that tide. That — again, look at the studies — is what Trump supporters elected him to do.
So while, it is admirable to think “understanding” can fix this country, it is also naive. Progressives should ask themselves: When’s the last time you heard any Trump supporters talking about the need to understand you? You haven’t — and that ought to tell you something.
Here’s the thing: the rest of us have the moral high ground here. We see the same demographic writing on the wall that Trump followers see, but where it makes them angry and fearful, it leaves us energized. Many of us are excited to see the nation that will arise from this cauldron of change.
That’s because the idea of change doesn’t threaten us. It will challenge us, yes, but we’re ready for that. We know that this a big country, big enough for many different kinds of people, many different ways of life. We know what it means to live and let live. And we know that welcoming the stranger, caring for the stranger, is simply what you do as a human being.
I submit that those are core American virtues. And that now would be an excellent time for progressives to exhibit a little courage in their defense. Trump followers see a nation in demographic peril, so they seek a nation where those who frighten them can be regulated into irrelevance. There’s no big mystery about that. There never has been. So no, they don’t really need to be understood.
What they need to be, is defeated.
"Do not think that I came to bring peace... I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." - Matthew 10:34
evince (05-06-2018)
Fuck Trump supporters. Fuck you. Fuck your children. Fuck your family. Fuck all your friends. I hope you children get cancer and die right before you eyes, and then you get cancer and die, specifically in that order.
"Do not think that I came to bring peace... I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." - Matthew 10:34
I will piss on your childrens graves. The child of a Nazi monster.
"Do not think that I came to bring peace... I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." - Matthew 10:34
I understand Trump supporters perfectly, that's why I hate them and want them to be utterly destroyed. They are a noxious weed, a flower of evil sprouting in our nation.
"Do not think that I came to bring peace... I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." - Matthew 10:34
Another night of WM not getting laid. I feel for you young buck.
cancel2 2022 (05-05-2018)
we Deplorables understand progressive needs to inject government and regulations into virtually aspect of our lives -including bathroom transgenders.So while, it is admirable to think “understanding” can fix this country, it is also naive. Progressives should ask themselves: When’s the last time you heard any Trump supporters talking about the need to understand you? You haven’t — and that ought to tell you something.
If you have a penis and are directed to women's bathroom -that's a clue your mindset is a mess
The OP is the usual about "Christian white nationalism" - because that ilk only understand identity politics as governing.
#Maga baby. It's not difficult to understand at all. America 1st.
cancel2 2022 (05-05-2018), Darth Omar (05-05-2018), PostmodernProphet (05-06-2018)
no conservatives are worried about the liberal professed holy land of the "coming demographic shift"... it's classic liberal projection of one of their deepest sexual fantasies. They jack off to this thought left and right, it's so quaint.
first the study that was cited in that article about "whites being afraid" has already been proven to be fake news, and I have elaborated on that point in previous posts. second, the demographic shift will never come because being white is tight, and 2nd generation mexicans identify more with white than hispanic. 100 years ago, italians, irish and many others also weren't considered white and now we are white as bread. Us white people are going to assimilate the mexicans just like we assimilated george zimmeran and thus we will continue with our awesome domination.
(as a side note, this is the reason why identity politics have taken off... sjw's will do anything to make whites bad because they know we are going to convert the hispanics. so they want to group everything up and yell at whites opening taco shops as cultural appropriation, fearful of our awesome racial persuading and assimilation).
it's also retarded to think that just because america becomes more diverse that conservative politics will melt away forever. As soon as some of the walmart workers get a piece of the pie, they'll too start learning how much to hate the government stealing our money. Once they aren't distracted by fake libreal waged race wars, they too will probably want to start bombing different countries, stop funding the EPA, deny climate change, and many other things. Humans are bred and born in fear and otherizing. If we can't do it to one group, we'll do it to another. and another and another and another. Utopia will never come. the same shit will exist 50 years from now.
Last edited by BRUTALITOPS; 05-05-2018 at 03:31 AM.
Being sceptical of the vastly exaggerated claims made by climate alarmists is not denial, it is plain common sense, and an example of the scientific method in action. Not one of their claims have ever happened in practice yet still they worship at the Algorian Church of the Divinely Docile.
countryboy (05-05-2018)
Frank Apisa (05-05-2018)
Lots of sense being shared here. The part I highlighted is especially important. There is almost no compromise to be made with the extreme American conservative...especially the ones who support and enable people like Donald Trump. They, indeed, MUST BE DEFEATED...and the sooner the better.
Your follow up posts sucked, though.
Thats because there's nothing to understand with progressives. True liberals are a different matter, but when progressives' entire strategy is to immediately label someone as some sort of "-ist", "-phobe", or attack their education and intelligence they have shown that they have no desire to be heard. Their goal is to end the conversation as quickly as possible with no discourse. If their ideas were so superior they'd have no reason to fear and would engage in rational debate. If the person is truly what the leftist claims they are, then let them speak, let them show what buffoons they really are. Don't take the easy way out and take your ball and go home.
dukkha (05-05-2018)
As I've mentioned in a dozen posts...I dislike labels and seldom apply them to myself.
I am not a liberal...nor a progressive...nor a conservative...nor a disgusting American conservative.
I advocate for a progressive agenda, because I see the progressive agenda as being the most humane road for humanity to take.
I loathe the American conservative agenda, because I see it as a festering sore on the ass-cheek of the American body politic...and the the low point of post-feudal human history.
In any case, the only people I ever hear of who advocate for trying to get along and find areas of compromise...are from the left of American society. The right is too occupied with "I've got mine, fuck you."
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