Kartari
Active Member
Hi everyone.
It's been a while since my last visit here. I enjoyed a number of discussions and debates here. But I had to leave, as I just couldn't deal with the Trump supporters anymore. Both here and in my personal life.
I still can't.
Facing the waking nightmare of having the poster boy for the Dunning-Kruger Effect running the most powerful nation in the world is bad enough. Between the dangerously gross incompetence, the compulsive lying, the autocratic tendencies, the corruption, his seemingly probable treason, his apparent racism, misogyny, and other forms of bigotry, and the cynically complicit support given by most Republican representatives and senators for it all, this is an entirely unacceptable state of affairs which goes well beyond the scope of normal political arguments of the past.
What makes it all the worse is Trump's supporters, though. The moron circus is in town, and way too many people are still buying tickets. Public interest in democracy as a form of government in the United States has sharply declined over the past two decades. This is not referring to a lack of trust in politicians, understand, but an explicit rejection of our democratic institutions, like having checks and balances or holding fair elections. Support for tough-talking strong men, nationalism, and even military rule has simultaneously risen to an astounding high in the U.S.. This is according to research conducted by the WVSA. Google Analytics research of search terms also reveals a sharp rise in racism since the 2008 presidential campaign. For instance, Google recorded a sharp increase in users' searches for terms like "n***** president" in reference to Barack Obama since his initial election. Yep, that n-word. Trump is not the root cause of our problems. He is the symptom of the open expression of American nationalism, bigotry, and ignorance. These have been brewing for a while now, and merely found in Trump a catalyst for more open expression. While not all of Trump's supporters are bigots, racists, or nationalists (i.e. the once aptly-named "deplorables"), the rest of them buy into the fictions of Fox News, Breitbart, Russian-sponsored Facebook conspiracy theories, Alex Jones, and other propagandists and lunatics. They've let themselves become groomed into living in an alternate reality, with its own set of "alternative facts" in defiance of actual factual reality.
As this seems to be a safe space for us, my questions are posed to those of you who remain as rightfully frightened as I am for not only America's future but humanity's. How do you deal with this? How do you get along with and speak with people who are still buying tickets to the moron circus? In particular, how do you deal with friends and loved ones who drank the Kool Aid and started letting their horrifying ignorance and/or bigotry shine out more openly?
It's been a while since my last visit here. I enjoyed a number of discussions and debates here. But I had to leave, as I just couldn't deal with the Trump supporters anymore. Both here and in my personal life.
I still can't.
Facing the waking nightmare of having the poster boy for the Dunning-Kruger Effect running the most powerful nation in the world is bad enough. Between the dangerously gross incompetence, the compulsive lying, the autocratic tendencies, the corruption, his seemingly probable treason, his apparent racism, misogyny, and other forms of bigotry, and the cynically complicit support given by most Republican representatives and senators for it all, this is an entirely unacceptable state of affairs which goes well beyond the scope of normal political arguments of the past.
What makes it all the worse is Trump's supporters, though. The moron circus is in town, and way too many people are still buying tickets. Public interest in democracy as a form of government in the United States has sharply declined over the past two decades. This is not referring to a lack of trust in politicians, understand, but an explicit rejection of our democratic institutions, like having checks and balances or holding fair elections. Support for tough-talking strong men, nationalism, and even military rule has simultaneously risen to an astounding high in the U.S.. This is according to research conducted by the WVSA. Google Analytics research of search terms also reveals a sharp rise in racism since the 2008 presidential campaign. For instance, Google recorded a sharp increase in users' searches for terms like "n***** president" in reference to Barack Obama since his initial election. Yep, that n-word. Trump is not the root cause of our problems. He is the symptom of the open expression of American nationalism, bigotry, and ignorance. These have been brewing for a while now, and merely found in Trump a catalyst for more open expression. While not all of Trump's supporters are bigots, racists, or nationalists (i.e. the once aptly-named "deplorables"), the rest of them buy into the fictions of Fox News, Breitbart, Russian-sponsored Facebook conspiracy theories, Alex Jones, and other propagandists and lunatics. They've let themselves become groomed into living in an alternate reality, with its own set of "alternative facts" in defiance of actual factual reality.
As this seems to be a safe space for us, my questions are posed to those of you who remain as rightfully frightened as I am for not only America's future but humanity's. How do you deal with this? How do you get along with and speak with people who are still buying tickets to the moron circus? In particular, how do you deal with friends and loved ones who drank the Kool Aid and started letting their horrifying ignorance and/or bigotry shine out more openly?