I've made this same argument so many times in the past decade I stopped counting. The raw vitriol and anger I had spewed at me for saying that Trump's voters knew exactly what they were voting for was (occasionally) truly mind boggling.
My favorite (sarcasm obvs) accusation being that I was being just as bad as them because I was jumping to conclusions to call them evil just to make myself feel better.
With these lying excuse-makers I believe they are trying to set themselves up for plausible deniability in the future as well. That is another reason it is essential to call them out in a way that will be recorded, and remembered. They know that other people did this, and grabbed the same exemption ticket on their way out.
Noah, you have stripped it down to the basics with rational, critical thinking. Voting for a cruel, fascist and his minions is a choice. It's thrilling to be allowed to be one's meanest self.
I would only add that it is also historically profitable.
White people in this country rarely talk about their accumulated wealth from centuries of the cruelest slavery. We don’t talk about the massive land grab we live on which only required the nearly complete extermination of aboriginals.
Overthrowing democracy in other countries is extremely profitable for corporations seeking cheap resources.
It really is our turn to deal with this propensity ourselves, at home.
"they wanted to because, like many Americans in the past, they found hatred congenial, exciting, fun, even sexy."
It's a difficult truth especially when it comes to our own neighbors and family members. As Kate Manne pointed out, like misogyny, Trumpism is somehow immune from seeing itself as hateful. If anything, they call it "justice" which is crucially in line with all fascist propaganda.
Everyone reading this is a political hobbyist and highly informed so you have a blindspot. Anecdotal but there is, I believe, a segment of people that are truly just so friggin ignorant but have internalized and believe that it's their patriotic duty to vote despite being completely uniformed and maybe even a bit stupid, who voted and did so for trump. BECAUSE OF VIBES. They may have heard that Trump was convicted of crimes or maybe that he was accused of sexual impropriety (in reality convicted of rape) in small clips or allusions but all they know is the system is corrupt and fucking broken and not working for them and Trump is reads to people as a change agent and disruptor despite being the classic corrupt and self dealing authoritarian. I have met these people, and a chunk of the ones I've met are working class hispanic who are so busy with kids and working 80 hours a week that they have never read the news and voted just on hearsay in the community and vibes.
To that end, we need to inform people (establish liberal media ecosystem and better leadership and messaging from the dem party) and to the extent people don't want to inform themselves and vote for progressive causes why the fuck are we registering them to vote? The govt. should help all people to register to vote and increase access but liberals should EXCLUSIVELY be putting money and time into getting dem/liberal voters to the polls. Cant be that hard. We have voter data. We know who votes liberal and where they work (union jobs, public interest...)
you don't need to know very much about trump to know that he's a fascist.
"the system is corrupt and broken so why not vote for the white nationalist" is fascism. like, that's a fascist message. I think many people embrace fascism fairly casually (and did in Germany), but that still makes you a fascist.
I've made this same argument so many times in the past decade I stopped counting. The raw vitriol and anger I had spewed at me for saying that Trump's voters knew exactly what they were voting for was (occasionally) truly mind boggling.
My favorite (sarcasm obvs) accusation being that I was being just as bad as them because I was jumping to conclusions to call them evil just to make myself feel better.
With these lying excuse-makers I believe they are trying to set themselves up for plausible deniability in the future as well. That is another reason it is essential to call them out in a way that will be recorded, and remembered. They know that other people did this, and grabbed the same exemption ticket on their way out.
Noah, you have stripped it down to the basics with rational, critical thinking. Voting for a cruel, fascist and his minions is a choice. It's thrilling to be allowed to be one's meanest self.
I would only add that it is also historically profitable.
White people in this country rarely talk about their accumulated wealth from centuries of the cruelest slavery. We don’t talk about the massive land grab we live on which only required the nearly complete extermination of aboriginals.
Overthrowing democracy in other countries is extremely profitable for corporations seeking cheap resources.
It really is our turn to deal with this propensity ourselves, at home.
Let’s do it.
"they wanted to because, like many Americans in the past, they found hatred congenial, exciting, fun, even sexy."
It's a difficult truth especially when it comes to our own neighbors and family members. As Kate Manne pointed out, like misogyny, Trumpism is somehow immune from seeing itself as hateful. If anything, they call it "justice" which is crucially in line with all fascist propaganda.
Everyone reading this is a political hobbyist and highly informed so you have a blindspot. Anecdotal but there is, I believe, a segment of people that are truly just so friggin ignorant but have internalized and believe that it's their patriotic duty to vote despite being completely uniformed and maybe even a bit stupid, who voted and did so for trump. BECAUSE OF VIBES. They may have heard that Trump was convicted of crimes or maybe that he was accused of sexual impropriety (in reality convicted of rape) in small clips or allusions but all they know is the system is corrupt and fucking broken and not working for them and Trump is reads to people as a change agent and disruptor despite being the classic corrupt and self dealing authoritarian. I have met these people, and a chunk of the ones I've met are working class hispanic who are so busy with kids and working 80 hours a week that they have never read the news and voted just on hearsay in the community and vibes.
To that end, we need to inform people (establish liberal media ecosystem and better leadership and messaging from the dem party) and to the extent people don't want to inform themselves and vote for progressive causes why the fuck are we registering them to vote? The govt. should help all people to register to vote and increase access but liberals should EXCLUSIVELY be putting money and time into getting dem/liberal voters to the polls. Cant be that hard. We have voter data. We know who votes liberal and where they work (union jobs, public interest...)
you don't need to know very much about trump to know that he's a fascist.
"the system is corrupt and broken so why not vote for the white nationalist" is fascism. like, that's a fascist message. I think many people embrace fascism fairly casually (and did in Germany), but that still makes you a fascist.