Friends have posted generally that they hope Trump supporters are starting to see how badly they were duped.
Here’s the thing, though: you can’t have a sudden insight into something you were completely aware of the whole time.
Trump supporters weren’t duped. They were fully aware of his racism, his sexism, his anti-semitism, his white supremacy leanings. They knew, and they either supported all of it fully or didn’t care because they believe taxes/abortion/Muslims are the greater threat. *
They made that decision, and I want everyone, especially Liberals/progressives, to accept that fact.
Instead, we’re being inundated with this Liberal trend of infantilizing Trump supporters — “oh they didn’t understand! oh they didn’t mean it! oh they just want to fix the economy! oh the rural poor white folk! Let’s all sit around together and hold their hands and make them see the error of their ways!!!!”
No, let’s not.
They are adults, they made their choice in full cognizance of what they were doing. They did not question anything FOX news told them, they refused to listen to those of us telling them that they were endorsing racism, sexism, antisemitism, and fascism. THEY KNOW and they DO NOT CARE.
Some have argued that we need to listen to what they have to say, to mend fences/build bridges/etc.
Nope, we do not. These are not toddlers who do not know how to express themselves and just need an understanding adult to sit down and figure out what’s wrong. They didn’t listen before the election, and they won’t listen now; all they will do is demand that we see things their way.
It’s important to start with what people do, more so than what they say. In fact, the actions they take are all that matters. What they say afterwards about why they did what they did is completely immaterial.
Sure, maybe a few were, literally, tricked into voting for Trump and other Republicans…so what? Again, they are not children, they are adults who had all the tools at hand to figure this election out. Tools they ignored, cautionary voices they refused to listen to.
Their reasons for fucking shit up do not matter. Liberals are only undercutting our own efforts to fight this disaster by trying to placate Trump supporters…and make no mistake, that’s what this is about, not dialogue, not open-mindedness, not fairness. It’s about normalizing Trump supporters and treating them with more respect than they deserve.
I get that it grates liberals’ moral centers to not be super accepting of all points of view, but in this, it really does not matter what their unique snowflake motives were for voting for him — they knew what they were doing, and THEY DID IT ANYWAY.
Again, and again, I point out: it doesn’t matter why.
Again: it doesn’t matter why.
Our united breath is wasted on them, and they certainly have not earned the right to have us listen to their complaints. Being “nice” to the supporters of fascism and racism and anti-semitism is not in any way shape or form a solution to this problem.
And allow me to point out something very seriously that has been better said by others:
It is the habit of abusers to do something awful, and then say, “I didn’t mean it! I love you!” They may even genuinely believe it. But again: it doesn’t matter, because they have done the damage.
Further: when someone is hitting you and then telling you it is your fault for not giving them their due respect, that is gaslighting and also victim blaming.
Liberals need to stop believing and putting faith in what the abusers are saying, and instead take their actions at face value. It’s not our fault that some people put their good judgement aside and voted for a heinous, racist, sexual predator and wanna-be fascist; the fault rests exactly and only in the hands of those full grown-ass adults who made that choice.
(We do not need them, anyway, they are a minority in this country. Liberals need to focus on the people who are open to listening to what we have to say, and that is de facto not Trump supporters.)
* Yes, maybe they were duped by his claims to build a wall and send Hillary Clinton to jail and “drain the swamp,” but that is something they will never acknowledge because it’s easier to believe lies that reinforce their beliefs that there is a war on Christianity and Millennials are spoiled and socialism is devilry.
