Just to be clear I wasn’t saying that Clinton was to blame for calling them deplorable, I was saying that she was right. Some are misled and some are deplorable.
I know I sometimes jack off to the idea of wishing a plague on Trump supporters and shit kicker America, but then I wake up, rub my eyes, have a glass of water, 3 cups of coffee, and eventually sober up…and realize, they’re Americans too. And not all of them are bad.
Some of them are irredeemable shitheads, I acknowledge.
One thing I’ve learned during the Trump era is that nearly every single political opinion - left, center, right, or just flat-out crazy - holds traction because of some nugget of truth within. To try to understand people, I try to temporarily focus on that nugget and ignore the rest of the lies/disinformation/fallacies that accompanies the nugget. The time for refutation or debunking can come later, but I just try to see the truth they’re trying to communicate first.
On the whole, I support your idea. Don’t hate the people, it’s ultimately fruitless. Though you can certainly hate the message.
Part of the secret of Fox’s success is that they market an addictive product. I’m not using that term lightly. Their “debate” panels are one of the more overt cases. This is a bit of a tangent but it’s still relevant to the OP, just come with me for a little bit.
You get a “liberal” on and have them make progressively more outrageous claims. The more ridiculous, the better. The more differently they look, the better. An attractive young woman is ideal. The conservative champion will remain essentially silent until the last few minutes, when they can tear the “liberal” apart and “save” the day. None of it is news and the conservative champion even gets the liberal’s script so they can prepare a day in advance for an extra-smug putdown.
What the viewer gets is a progressively increasing sense of outrage and dread, then the sudden dopamine release as the conservative champion dunks all over the liberal puppet.
Tobin Smith, one of the conservative “champions” featured on Fox, has a book describing his experiences and revealing some behind-the-scenes details. There’s also an article or two he wrote, should you wish it. I don’t feel like driving somebody else’s business so I’ll not be leaving linkshere.
Anyway, the point is, getting fully back on topic, is that you should think of conservatives deep in the Fox cycle as addicts. It’s not going to be easy getting them off their fix, you understand. If it wasn’t for the fact that they were voting based on their intellectual smack, they’d be objects of pity.
Right after the 2016 election I came to the conclusion that Trump supporters fall into three categories:
- Stupid
- Assholes
- Stupid fucking assholes
No matter how many articles I read and no matter how many people I talk to my opinion has not changed.
Hate? Nah, I don’t hate them. But I have systematically edited them from my life and I am happier for it. None of them (including those that used to be family and friends) are worth my time or attention.
This, but I can spare some hate for the stupid fucking assholes empowered and acting out because of their Dear Leader.
I know, it’s like, even I can admit that Bill and Hillary probably murdered at least one or two of the people on the “Clinton body count” list.
Right? Like, though the science of climate change checks out, I can see how The Left (which is a real thing, composed of Liberals who are as described on Fox) is totally using it as a Trojan Horse to leverage Socialism down our throats, to put an end to religion once and for all. In fact, I can see how they think climate change is a religion, since Trumpers have their religion and beliefs, while people with strange skin tones or those freakish Liberals believe something different, all for basically the same kinds of reasons!
This attitude was part of why he won.
The idea that “it’s the libruls that made me do it! They called me an asshole for wanting to vote for one of the worst human beings on the planet, and what choice did I have then but to be an asshole and vote for him to spite them” is not one that can withstand scrutiny.
If you voted for Trump because someone said you were an asshole because you wanted to support Trump, no matter how you slice it, you’re the asshole.
I don’t think the idea is that calling someone an asshole makes a non-Trump voter flip to Trump (although some perhaps did,) but rather, that doing so fires up the Trump base and increases their turnout.
Fair enough.
I have heard “you made me vote for Trump by saying I was a deplorable!” line from Trump supporters, though.
Some are worthy of hatred. Most are just deluded. The art of gentle persuasion seems to work best on them. Screaming insults? Not so well. They are people too.
Not anymore. They’ve had 4 years. They are willfully, obstinately ignorant and revel in being that way.
No it isn’t. The only people who got mad at being called a deplorable Trump supporter were people who were already Trump supporters. You can’t incentivize somebody who is already incentivized.
And you can’t reason someone out of a position that they didn’t reason themselves into. You can’t use logic, when they think racism is logical (that’s only one of their many ‘logical’ positions).
Some people were duped into voting for him in 2016. Some are idiots that bought into all the Hillary conspiracy theories. Some thought “why not roll the dice, what’s the worst that could happen?” Now we’ve seen what can happen. So if you supported him then, you had a chance to redeem yourself. If you support him now, you’re a worthless piece of shit.
Disagree
Intolerant much?
Yes, it’s terrible how some are intolerant of people openly willing to excuse any crime, any corruption and any treason as long as it’s being committed by a member of their tribe. If only liberals were nicer to Trump supporters, Trump supporters wouldn’t be making voting decisions based on a metric of “Will this candidate hurt the people I want to be hurt?”.