The Biden Administration and All Things Politics

[Deleted member 365]

This describes some posters on this board perfectly. They can’t admit that trump has been awful. They can’t admit that he’s a threat to our democracy. They just can’t allow people they hate to have been right about Trump. So they rapid fire a bunch of paranoid nonsense hoping that something sticks and that the subject will be changed from Trump to “something else.” Drag queens story hour, CRT, Hillary, Hunter’s laptop, Biden’s bike, inflation, gas, etc.

They make threats to elected officials like Kinzinger. They make absurd arguments justifying their ugliness and hatred of fellow Americans by accusing “the left” of things they’re currently doing. A great example of this was Chris Christie today claiming that Hillary didn’t believe Trump won in 2016. She conceded on election night yet we’re still waiting for Trump to actually concede. They more they protest the harder they protest the guiltier they feel.

I just can’t help but wonder if all the hate they’re taking out on LGBTs isn’t honestly in part due to the hatred they have of themselves? Deep down inside they know that supporting Trump was wrong. But they can’t admit that so now they have decided to make LGBTs their scapegoats.

What Are Trump Supporters So Afraid Of?

The voice inside that tells them how wrong they are.

www.theatlantic.com

 

[Red]

They can’t admit that trump has been awful. They can’t admit that he’s a threat to our democracy. They just can’t allow people they hate to have been right about Trump.

As I mentioned to you privately, I have a highly intelligent, majored in philosophy, (gotta like the world of the mind to major in philosophy, my kind of guy), close friend, who apparently has been ensnared by the Trump cult of personality.

So we stay away from politics. Wouldn’t you know, the Mrs. let slip the word “Trump” when we bumped into him at a local park last week. The two of us were off to the races. He left, screaming at me, at the top of his lungs: “Donald Trump was the greatest president in history!!”.

I have thought about this incident a great deal. Is my friend “in danger” of hating me? Yes, he is, and I ask myself why? I believe he admires me and considers me an intelligent individual. The anger towards me is precisely because he understands, in the moment, if only below the surface of his conscious mind, that I am in fact reasonably intelligent, and having an opposite opinion of Trump threatens his opinion/beliefs, and he does not want to go there. I become a symbol of the people he hates, and he certainly does not want to hate me. I am a good friend, and have been for years. So he walks away, screaming and angry, and his day is soured.

But I was also raising my voice to him last week. It does distress me to see a friend not realize he has enrolled in a cult. But I am not in danger of hating him. I have voted Republican in many past races. Just not any presidential race.

I do believe, although I would apply this observation only to those truly ensconced in the Cult of Trump, that they embrace and support Trump because he has made it quite clear that he hates the people they hate. I believe a lot of his most close minded supporters are in that position. Trump hates those Americans that they themselves hate. Or fear.

When people are in that position, rapprochement is perhaps at its most difficult.
It seems like all of America is in a similar position. Obviously, we are not all friends. But growing to hate “the other side” sure is not helping. If one accepts the old saw that “politics is the art of compromise”, we’re in tough shape.

 

[Al-O-Meter]

they embrace and support Trump because he has made it quite clear that he hates the people they hate.

Question: Being that you said your friend was in danger of hating you, does that mean you are in danger of becoming THE people? What in your mind is it that makes someone THE people “they” hate?

 

[Al-O-Meter]

Yeah, once the Italians were let in the "white" club it was basically no holds barred.

I wasn’t thinking so much of Italians as much as those of Middle Eastern ancestry. For a long time most Arabs, Persians, etc. been classified as white in the US but lately there is a movement in the community to be classified as something separate to gain minority status. The whole thing is imaginary lines people draw wherever they want to.

 

[One Brow]

There is no way he reads what I write.

I see The Thriller differently than you, and I'm not interested in discussing why.

Quite frankly, that you are on fishonjazz's ignore list should be a great caution light to you. Few posters are as accepting and even-minded.

 

[Al-O-Meter]

Quite frankly, that you are on fishonjazz's ignore list should be a great caution light to you. Few posters are as accepting and even-minded.

I won’t say that it has no effect but my opinions are what they are. I believe that when taken too far, “accepting” can be harmful. The single stance that likely caused me to land on the greatest number of block lists is my stance in the transgender debate.

I see transgenderism as very much like anorexia. It is subject to social influence and it causes the afflicted to see themselves in a way that is not biological reality. An anorexic will see themselves as fat as they starve themselves to death. It is very real to them. Affirming ‘their truth’ by exclaiming “oh gawd yes you’re fat” and “I can barely stand to look at you fatso” and “you keep going like that and the world will run out of food” is not helpful. When an anorexic person starves themselves to death, it isn’t because the world wasn’t accepting enough of ‘their truth’. I believe they died because of too much acceptance.

I’m not one to tell people how to live their lives. I know people are in situations that I cannot fathom, but the parallels between transgenderism and anorexia are not a thing I can pretend I don’t see even if that lands me on a large number of block lists. I will continue to oppose things that could add to the social aspect causing an ever greater number of impressionable children toward that statistically destructive path.

 

[One Brow]

... even if that lands me on a large number of block lists.

How do you know what landed you on any particular block list?

I will continue to oppose things that could add to the social aspect causing an ever greater number of impressionable children toward that statistically destructive path.

I will continue to oppose your egregious misuse of statistics to defend your position.

 

[Al-O-Meter]

How do you know what landed you on any particular block list?

It is admittedly imperfect but temporal deduction gets me in the ballpark.

I will continue to oppose your egregious misuse of statistics to defend your position.

Deny the data all you want but it doesn't make it any less real.

 

[One Brow]

Deny the data all you want but it doesn't make it any less real.

I am unsurprised that you don't seem to understand the difference between "misuse of statistics" and "deny the data".

 

[Red]

Question: Being that you said your friend was in danger of hating you, does that mean you are in danger of becoming THE people? What in your mind is it that makes someone THE people “they” hate?

I most likely misspoke, as he is really not likely to hate me any more than I am ever likely to hate him. The more likely outcome is he will not speak to me for awhile. This happened just one other time, just before the 2016 election. We stayed out of each other’s hair for awhile, and when time had passed, we share too many associations and hobbies for the breach to last forever, he apologized for what he had said to me, I accepted his apology, and we entered into an unspoken agreement not to bring up politics again.

Last week, we slipped. It’s a shame, but it’s a microcosm of our society at this time. That’s worrisome. And we all know this. We all know our country is in very deep trouble right now. And I am not talking about inflation. Or gas prices. Or the heat waves and fires. Or the war in Ukraine. I’m talking about the Great Divide. That trouble. That most fundamental of troubles.

As for myself, I’m not in danger of becoming anyone other than who I am. I’m not understanding your question that well at all, honestly. I know who I am, and I cannot have full control over how someone else sees me, or interprets me. They filter their own impressions through their own mind and emotions, not through mine. My friend can create a false interpretation of me, in his own mind, a misguided understanding on his part, based off his own decision to allow himself to be ensnared in a cult. He can see me as a Trump cultist would see me. With blinders firmly in place. He tells me I am wrong, very wrong, that Trump is greatness personified. OK, well, that’s one tough wall for me to topple, and I’d be foolish to try. Making flareups like last week something to be avoided.

I suspect, in general, not specific to me and a friend, that each side likely sees the other side as a caricature, which is a stumbling block to understanding. I don’t hate Trump supporters. They are misguided, and don’t realize it. I gain nothing by hating them. I see America fell victim to a right wing populist. The MAGA cult members were the victims of this populist. Not that they are not responsible for their own decisions, but I prefer to see them as misguided, uninformed, and frankly, deceived.

 

[Al-O-Meter]

I prefer to see them as misguided, uninformed, and frankly, deceived.

The secret is that every person on earth is misguided, uninformed, and frankly, deceived. That is what it is to be a human. If you believe those things to be exclusive to people who voted for the presidential candidate you didn’t choose, then I’d say you are being very human. Omniscience isn't in the cards for any one of us.

As far as your friend being swept up in a cult, that is true if you go by the definition of a cult being “a misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular person or thing”. That too is human. It is said to never meet your heroes because the admiration you have for them is nearly always excessive.

I know you think Trump is a special case, but he’s just a guy you’ll never meet and who has next to no impact on your life outside of being the subject of an awful lot of media you take in. It would be a shame to lose friends and family over but I know a lot of Americans disagree with me.

 

[fishonjazz]

How do you know what landed you on any particular block list?

For me what landed him on my ignore list was a build up that culminated in his cavalier attitude in regards to jan 6th. His stance was/is basically who care what the protesters did as long as the final result was biden sworn into office? Like what if the protesters killed 100 people but biden was still sworn into office? Would the fact that 100 people were killed not matter at all?
That complete dismissal of what happened on january 6th was the straw that broke the camels back for me.