Monday, December 5, 2016

You Might Just Be Stupid (or Burn It All Down)


In the last few weeks, I've heard a lot of Trump supporters attempting to defend their vote for Trump and explain how it is that they did not cast a vote for racism (and sexism). Some of these have been declarations online (whether they were blog posts, articles, editorials); some have been actual conversations I've had with people. After listening to some very blatantly racist things being said (the least of which was repeatedly referring to President Obama as "Osama") followed by the statement "I don't see how that's racist," I've come to the conclusion that racism may not have been the only reason people voted for Trump... but I'm not sure the alternative is better.

Let's look at the three reasons (or kinds of people) people voted for Trump:

1. Overt racism: You can't deny that Trump's campaign didn't promote and encourage racism. All of the racist termites crawled out of the woodwork during Trump's run for the Presidency, and, now that he's won, they don't plan on crawling back in. Participation in White Supremacy groups is spiking upwards as are race-based and hate crimes. These people feel like this is their time, their time to "make America great again" by putting minorities back in their place.  Just to point out, these people, also, do not claim to be racist, not even someone like David Duke, former leader of the KKK, CLAIMS to be racist. People don't label themselves "racist" just like they don't label themselves "asshole," no matter how apparent it is to everyone else.

2. Inherent racism: This is where most of Trump supporters lie, and they don't call themselves racists because they don't fall into the first category, though, as I said, even the people in the first category don't call themselves racist, so it's rather a moot point, but it is why people are so upset about suddenly being on Team Racism. If I woke up on Team Racism one day, I would be upset, too. Of course, I would also immediately do everything I could to get off of Team Racism, which none of these people seem to be doing. Rather, they are defending their stance of being on Team Racism by saying, "Yes, I want to play on Team Racism, but I am not a racist." Sorry, it just doesn't work that way.

Which is not to say that I don't understand the logic. No, really, I get it. Trump said he would give you A, B, and C, all things category two desperately want, but he said he was going to give you those things by being racist and misogynistic to the point of persecuting certain peoples and, yet, you said, "Okay, I'm willing to leave with that." That, my friend, is RACIST. This is the equivalent of me offering you a piece of the best chocolate cake ever BUT, every time you take a bite, I'm going to punch a black person in the face. You think to yourself, "Well, I would never do that, never punch a black person in the face so that I can have cake, but I'm not going to do it, and I really want that cake...," so you tell me to go ahead and let you have the cake and you don't really want me to punch the black person but you're willing to allow it so that you can have cake. Of course, the black person doesn't have cake or even enough normal, healthy food to eat (which you do), so it's adding injury to insult as you agree to allow him to be punched in the face so that you can have cake.

IT'S RACISM. Because the message there is that you having cake is worth more than the well being of these other people, and it's worth more BECAUSE YOU'RE WHITE.
But, still, you're not racist.
Right.

Of course, the joke is on you, because Trump isn't going to give you any cake. He and his rich buddies are going to eat all the cake while also punching black people and brown people and gay people... well, anyone who isn't white and male... in the face.

Let me give you a real, concrete example of this kind of thing (and you can read the whole story here and here (actually, that's just a part of the story, but it's the most essential part)):

When I was in my early 20s, the church I grew up in was finding itself in financial difficulty due to the aging out of the congregation and the church's inability to draw in a younger crowd. This inability to draw in a younger crowd was directly related to its unwillingness to allow people of color into its congregation of old white people. My church, itself, wasn't a young church; it was somewhere around 80 years old. Many of the elderly members of the congregation had spent their entire lives being members of that church.

Now, you would think (or, at least, I would think), that when you had built something up over that length of time, you would want it to continue on. You would want it continue to grow and persevere through hardship. However, when the aging white congregation came to the point of conflict over whether the church should continue by being welcoming to (mostly black) persons of color in the neighborhood or whether they should just destroy it all and go somewhere else, they chose to destroy it all and go somewhere else. I call this the "burn it all down" option.

It reminds me of that episode of The Jeffersons when George gives CPR to a white guy and saves his life only to have the white man tell him that he would rather have died than be saved by a black man.

The vote for Trump was a "burn it all down" vote. It's the vote that says, "I would rather destroy the USA than share it equally with people of color and women and people of non-normative orientations." It's the vote that says, "White people, specifically men, should be on top, and I'm willing to sacrifice everyone else to see that that happens."

So, yes, a vote for Trump was a vote to join Team Racism.

However, there is a third category:

3. Blatant stupidity: Sorry, I don't know any other way to say that. Initially, I didn't think anyone was THAT stupid, but I've talked to a few people who are completely convinced that Trump just says things because he has no "tact," but he doesn't really mean the horrible things he says. Basically, he's just thinking out loud but he would never really do any of the things he says he will. Which, you know, boggles the mind on how you could then believe he would do any of the "good" things he says, but that's some mental manipulation that I can't quite wrap my head around. The short of all this being that maybe there are some people who legitimately believe that Trump is not a racist asshole and just says stupid shit. I suppose those people could have voted for Trump for reasons that don't include inherent racism BUT that makes them blatantly stupid, people who bought into the lies of a conman. And, you know, even smart people get conned sometimes, but Trump isn't even very good at it, so anyone of fairly normal intelligence should have seen the con for what it was: Trump getting to have his cake and eat it, too, and getting to have your cake and eat that, too.

[Frequently, these people also cannot understand how the racists things they say can be considered racist. Sometimes, this is willful or ignorance (or just denial) but, maybe, some of these people really don't understand, cannot understand, how offensive their language is. This plays into the stupidity.]

So, you know, if you're one of those people out there claiming, "I'm not racist!" feel free to lump yourself into category three. I won't argue with you about it.

23 comments:

  1. It legitimately scares me that Trump got into power and that people actually voted for him. Now that he's in power, you're right, the racist termites think it's their time--they've been validated, and not just in the USA. Even here in Australia, the racists/misogynists have some out in support of Trump--we got plenty of coverage of the election. A friend of mine was verbally abused on public transport by someone declaring themselves a trump supporter, for wearing a shirt promoting a book by a well-known Aussie feminist writer (Clementine Ford, 'Fight Like a Girl'), and there have been obscenely offensive neo-nazi posters going up at a couple of the universities around Melbourne. It boggles the mind! Racist, sexist, or stupid--this is nuts. How have you had a conversation with anyone who voted for him without punching them in the face? I commend you for your efforts! Well articulated post--and the cake analogy was spot-on.

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    1. Bonnee: It's not that I want to punch them in the face (though that might be cathartic) but more like I want to beat some sense into them. But, you know, you can't argue with stupid.

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  2. Excellent post Andrew. I have a very good Mexican friend who told me the election result had damaged their economy right away. It has certainly damaged the world's perceptions of the US. I cannot believe anyone who spouted so much racism and mysogynistic ideas got to President. But then I couldn't believe Brexit either.

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    1. Jo: There's a lot of things I can't believe right now. I wish the utter stupidity of stupid was one of them.

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  3. The "I'm don't support the racism but he'll shake things up" people drive me nuts. They're like people who say "yeah but Mussolini made the trains run on time." There's a certain level of moral relativism that I think is acceptable; you can for example like Morgan Freeman while disapproving of his relationship with his step-granddaughter without me thinking you a terrible person.

    I've been struggling with where to draw that line: where is the point where you can no longer support someone even though the other things they do might be admirable? The 'admirable' part is the question: for example, if you support Michael Vick as a quarterback, I think you're terrible: playing football at a high level isn't so worthy that we can look past electrocuting puppies.

    So if you assume Trump is going to do wonderful things for the country, how heinous can certain aspects of his life be before you cannot in good conscience support him? That's where I think the category 3 people are really the worst: they're ignoring overt racism in favor of generalized policy statements that promise to make things better. At least with Hillary! or Bernie you had the option of saying "OK have this concrete idea they're proposing, and they have a track record against which I could measure that."

    In short, great post, and I think that people who claim to be supporting Trump despite the racism are actually worse than the honest or at least only slightly dishonest racists, because they are just burying their head in the sand.

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    1. Briane: People do like to bury their heads in the sand. Or run off of cliffs because everyone else is doing it. It's all much the same thing.

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  4. I have to disagree with you on one small point: I think that there is a lot of overlap in categories two and three so I'm not sure they should really be separate. But other than that, yeah, right on.

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    1. Jeanne: I would have agreed with you before some of the conversations I've had. But, you know, when you give people the option: "You're either racist or you're stupid," it's interesting to see what they come up with in response. So far, it's all been very sarcastic, "Well, I guess I'm a racist, then!"
      heh

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  5. You forgot greed. That's my wealthy brother's category.

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    1. Nancy: The greedy people, being willing to sacrifice others for their own good, fall under category two.

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  6. Boy, nice to be the man with all the answers. I know a lot of trump supporters, and you do too- that fit NONE of those categories. Thoughtful, intelligent people that just don't agree with you. And you can call them all the despicable things you want, sir, and they will still be intelligent, thoughtful people, and you are being a horse's ass characterising them this way. Unfortunately, you are just an outspoken example of the people all over FB right now on both sides- ready to insult, refusing to give even the slightest consideration that someone just doesn't see the issues the same way you do.

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    1. CW: Actually, no I don't. Because, in the end, it comes down to the question, "Am I willing for some other group (some group not as good as MY group) to be hurt so that I can have my piece of (fantasy) cake?" If you voted for Trump, it most definitely puts you into one of these groups, because your answer was either "yes" or it was trying to pretend that Trump wasn't saying the things he was saying.

      Sorry, it most certainly puts ANY Trump voter on this list.

      It has nothing to do with issues. When you agree that people should be hurt for your own well-being, you have stepped outside of the "issues."

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  7. And then you support Hillary, with her record of corruption, her record of treating people "beneath her" like crap (an accusation Trump seems to be burned on but not her), her POSSIBLE record of manipulations to cover her sex-addict husband, and her laughable charity that functions as a financial dead Sea? Maybe if you spent a little time discussing THAT, instead of merely citing "new and better ways to insult the other side", your last line to me would be profound instead of hypocritical.

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    1. Martin: You have obviously been eating the sugar cereal for way too long and have no ability to think beyond what the Republican Party is spoon feeding into your gaping maw. The only record of corruption is Trump's. He's done more corrupt things THIS YEAR than Hilary has done in her entire career. When you back that kind of record, even if he wasn't a racist, misogynistic piece of shit, you have no room to talk. I think you are the one busy being the pot...

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    2. No record of corruption on Hillary? Wow, in one move you've given me my big laugh of the day and totally blown any iota of credibility you had. Enjoy that koolaid, sir.

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    3. Martin: Your response shows you're inability to look at actual facts and just proves that you're fat on the Republican diet of unverified, unproved, 99% fabricated meat-like substance. Why don't YOU go and look at actual facts, not Right Wing propaganda, THEN get back to me.

      And, you know, if you're talking about the emails, you can just stop right now, because that will just put your stupidity and gullibility on full display.

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    4. Oh, come on, Andrew. You forgot I already mentioned the Clinton Foundation; You step aside from her setting up the DNC to stop Bernie... not to mention what the deep down truth about Benghazi might be. Ture, the e-mails are damning enough- at least to someone with an open mind.

      You keep accusing me of being lost in right wing propaganda, but show no ability to look at the people on "your side of the aisle". Each reply you make to me accuses you of the same things you try to blame on me. I thank you, though, because you will become the centerpiece of a post I'm thinking about as we type- about how the real enemies of this country aren't the Republicans OR the Democrats, or even the Socialists. No the real enemy is people much like yourself who have discarded your ability to listen.

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    5. Martin: Oh, I listened. I listen to you proclaim that you chose a self-professed abuser of women and a racist and a cheat to someone the Republicans have been persecuting for decades. You, SIR, are the one who has no ability to listen. Or discern the truth. Or even know the difference between propaganda and facts. Why don't you hit up some of the non-partisan fact checking sites and see what reality looks like.

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    6. You realize that, even according to your above comment, the only thing you listened to was something you and you alone said. I'm not about to play the "which news site do I gather from" game with you, because it would seem apparent YOU don't pay attention to them either. At this point, though, your inability to have an actual debate with someone who isn't a cardboard cutout of yourself has gotten me to the point of being as insulting and dismissive to others as you are, and I'm not going there. I will say this, I can see why Stephen T McCarthy speaks of you so highly. He HAD to have torn you a new one, lol!

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    7. Martin: McCarthy descended beneath the level of being someone worth talking to. He models himself after one of the most disgusting people in American history, is full of what, at best, can be called conspiracy theories but are little more than delusions, and his rhetoric amounts to, basically, "well, you're stupid!" I don't have time for people like that.

      You seem about the same. Someone who stays so far on the Right that you can't distinguish fact from the delusional propaganda spewed by far Right wing media.

      Just to state it, I read NO Left Wing publications. I stick to reputable news focused on objective material: NPR, the Washington Post, New York Times. I'm sure you consider them part of the "liberal media," though, which lies at the heart of your problem.

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    8. Also, that McCarthy talks about me shows who's gotten under who's skin. I'm not the one who's had anything torn.

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