Trump Supporters are Imbeciles

[laklak]

Urban vs rural, North vs South, East Coast vs West Coast, Black vs White, Christian vs Muslim, Alt-Right vs Antifa, Trumpistas vs Bernie's Bros, Boomer vs Millenial, Pro-life vs Abortion, NRA vs gun-control, Public Services vs Small State, Coke vs Pepsi, blah blah blah... It all boils down to the same thing in the end: Rich vs the rest.

Way too simplistic. I don't know any rich people, but I know a hell of a lot of people that fit into one or more of those categories. The average Trump supporter isn't rich, and neither are Bernie Bros or AOC whatevers. Maybe the rich fucks control the parties, but on the ground it's not that simple.

[Brian Peacock]

What I mean is that the supposed antagonisms between these apparently dichotomous groups are faux, manufacutred conflicts. As you say, Bernie supporters and Trump supporters overlap in both their concerns and their conditions, and lately for example we've seen how small-stateists also have a vested interest in well-resourced public services. However, when you look to see who is promoting these kinds of conflicts between, generally speaking, regular folk, you find the PR-minded fear-mongering of those who already have the majority of the power. We can't have Bernie supporters and Trump support recognise their common interests, recognising that they have far more in common that that which is said to divide them - we must has teh #OUTRAGE to keep them distinct and separate from each other and at each other's throats.

[Sean Hayden]

I'm afraid you're too sane for this world Mr. Peacock.

[NineBerry]

[Seabass]

What I mean is that the supposed anagonisms between these apparently dichotomous groups are faux, manufacutred conflicts. As you say, Bernie supporters and Trump supporters overlap in both their concerns and their conditions, and lately for example how small-stateists also have a vested interest in well-resourced public services. However, when you look to see who is promoting these kinds of conflicts between, generally speaking, regular folk, you find the PR-minded fear-mongering of those who already have the majority of the power. We can't have Bernie supporters and Trump support recognise their common interests, recognising that they have far more in common that that which is said to divide them - we must has teh #OUTRAGE to keep them distinct and separate from each other and at each other's throats.

You're bothsidesing. Most Bernie supporters would agree with you about the rich and powerful. Bernie supporters don't want anything that isn't already the norm in the developed world. The Trumpzis have bought into the preposterous notion that America is "great" because of its whiteness and Christianity and that brown people and immigrants are the source of America's woes.

[JimC]

Not if you're into blaming Trump voters for Trump.

If that's all you do, then sure, it hides examining structural issues.

But their blind delusions need some criticism.

Besides, it's fun...

[pErvinalia]

[Svartalf]

Not if you're into blaming Trump voters for Trump.

If that's all you do, then sure, it hides examining structural issues.

But their blind delusions need some criticism.

Besides, it's fun...

criticism? ha ! I'd bet my tighty whities that they would survive unscathed a high power bullet through the head, because they have no vital organs there for the bullet to destroy.

[Brian Peacock]

What I mean is that the supposed anagonisms between these apparently dichotomous groups are faux, manufacutred conflicts. As you say, Bernie supporters and Trump supporters overlap in both their concerns and their conditions, and lately for example how small-stateists also have a vested interest in well-resourced public services. However, when you look to see who is promoting these kinds of conflicts between, generally speaking, regular folk, you find the PR-minded fear-mongering of those who already have the majority of the power. We can't have Bernie supporters and Trump support recognise their common interests, recognising that they have far more in common that that which is said to divide them - we must has teh #OUTRAGE to keep them distinct and separate from each other and at each other's throats.

You're bothsidesing. Most Bernie supporters would agree with you about the rich and powerful. Bernie supporters don't want anything that isn't already the norm in the developed world. The Trumpzis have bought into the preposterous notion that America is "great" because of its whiteness and Christianity and that brown people and immigrants are the source of America's woes.

Nazis vs Socialists, Good vs Evil. But then again...

... the Right's identity politics agenda is a distraction we can all buy into eh?

Read what you quoted again. Who tells people in insecure jobs, up to their necks in debt and only one unexpected expense away from destitution, unable to afford basic medical services, seeing their kids growing up with fewer opportunities and financially worse off, etc, that their concerns and fears can be simultaneously embodied in and magically wiped away by a slogan, that the sight of a black man in their neighbourhood is a moral danger and most likely a physical threat, that their ethnicity and/or religion mark them as exceptional human beings apart from others and therefore deserving of higher regard and greater rewards than brown people and immigrants? Don't you see that these people are grasping at straws?

I'm not 'bothsiding' at all. I'm saying, quite plainly, that ordinary people have far more in common than that which is said to divide them. I'm saying that those divisions are faux, manipulated conflicts and we should look to those who are telling us they represent reality -- that 'others' are separate from us, that their 'otherness' is the root of our ills, and that 'they' cannot and should not be trusted -- whether that's someone saying that progressives are moral bankrupts or that Trump voters are malign idiots. We should ask ourselves, and them, why we should be concerned and frighted by the 'others' and then identify what we, and them, might have to lose or gain by that.

[Brian Peacock]

Not if you're into blaming Trump voters for Trump.

If that's all you do, then sure, it hides examining structural issues.

But their blind delusions need some criticism.

Besides, it's fun...

Indeed. And it keeps the perpetual #OUTRAGE machine steaming ahead full tilt.

[JimC]

Brian Peacock wrote:

I'm not 'bothsiding' at all. I'm saying, quite plainly, that ordinary people have far more in common than that which is said to divide them. I'm saying that those divisions are faux, manipulated conflicts and we should look to those who are telling us they represent reality -- that 'others' are separate from us, that their 'otherness' is the root of our ills, and that 'they' cannot and should not be trusted -- whether that's someone saying that progressives are moral bankrupts or that Trump voters are malign idiots. We should ask ourselves, and them, why we should be concerned and frighted by the 'others' and then identify what we, and them, might have to lose or gain by that.

The trouble with this analysis, for all the considerable truth that it contains, is that the people you are talking to are highly unlikely, in the main, to listen to your arguments. For a start, they mainly have relatively low levels of education (and yes, I know that this suits the powers that be very well), and are consuming their views from media that is finely tuned to maintain their attitudes. The people that are vocal in attacking Trump and his Republican allies are frequently wealthier and more educated, which helps to maintain their rage. The critical part of their indoctrination is to ignore (and in fact deride) anything or anyone with a connection to higher learning, science and progressive views.

To make the bridge you are saying should exist would require a seismic shift in the whole outlook of most Trump supporters, which is highly unlikely to occur. I find it difficult to see a way that America can stop being the Disunited States...

[pErvinalia]

I want to know whether Brian agrees that these people are morons. Regardless of "othering".

[NineBerry]

Everyone is a moron

[Brian Peacock]

I want to know whether Brian agrees that these people are morons. Regardless of "othering".

Imbecility is ubiquitous.

[pErvinalia]

Not that level.