Most People I know on the Left Think Trump Supporters are "Garbage"
A quick note
One of the first things I ever said on Twitter when I was pulling away from the Left was that my side treated Trump supporters like “human garbage.” That’s one of the main reasons I left. You can search for that phrase and my name and see it come up a lot. I felt that way four years ago, and nothing since has changed my mind.
I was disgusted to be a part of it, especially after I got to know the world of Trump and MAGA. There I was, on the side with ALL of the power - all of the culture, all of the institutions, all of the corporations and we were treating the other side like they didn’t belong, that they were not worthy of sharing our pure and perfect utopia.
It wasn’t just that we all disagreed on issues. They turned it into something else: they were “racists” and bigots and “white supremacists” and “fascists.” This goes on to this day. Most of them are, as we speak, terrified that if Trump doesn’t lose he won’t accept the results, or that his “cult members” will storm the Capitol, etc.
And even if Biden didn’t mean it (he did, they all do) we’ve just lived through years and years of the media taking one word or sentence Trump said out of context and turning it into a national crisis. The media won’t fact-check themselves. They run with it because their readers demand it. For once, the narrative slipped away from them.
They did not have to go so far. They didn’t have to go to HITLER FASCISM BIGOT RACIST.
They did not have to go to four indictments, two impeachments, non-stop attacks and some hippie rando picking up a rifle. It’s insane. They did not have to shut out half the country from movies, books, music. Even now, rock stars throw hissy fits if Trump plays their music.
I will say that the book Pendulum, How Past Generations Shape Our Present and Predict Our Future, did predict we’d end up here. They say the pendulum swings in two 40-year cycles: the “me” cycle (individualism) and the “we” cycle (collectivism). At the end of the collectivist cycle, we get to the “witch hunt phase.” They predicted that it would be in 2023. They wrote the book in 2011.
They write:
The second half of the Upswing of “We” and the first half of the downswing from it (2013–2023) bring an ideological “righteousness” that seems to spring from any group gathered around a cause. The inevitable result is judgmental legalism and witch hunts.
…
If enough of us are aware of this trend toward judgmental self-righteousness, perhaps we can resist demonizing those who disagree with us and avoid the societal polarization that results from it. A truly great society is one in which being unpopular can be safe.
This is how they see the pendulum:
The good news is that all of this will change over the next ten years. I tried to map it out to see how long we have to wait until the madness ends. But it’s headed in a better direction. If you want to buy the book, it’s on Amazon.
They can’t pretend they don’t believe Trump supporters are “garbage.” Most of them do. I know, I come from that world. Very few offer any kind of compassion, empathy, or the benefit of the doubt - nothing. If they could put them all in gulags and get rid of them, they would not hesitate.
Does that make them bad people? I don’t think so. I wrestle with it. I think they are victims of a closed system, a feedback loop one might get if they were in a closed community, like the Amish or Scientology. The internet allowed them to build that kind of inside/outside world.
They’ve paid a price for shunning and exiling half the country. No one watches the movies, reads their news, has any investment in anything going in the culture because it’s become a mono-culture and that makes it BORING. That is probably the thing that will eventually end the madness. A Trump win will speed it up.
I feel bad for them more than I hate them. Their worldview has become so small. I always tell them to turn off MSNBC, stop reading the New York Times, unplug, and get to know their fellow Americans. It’s so much better outside of the fear bunker.
Coming later today, a Halloween surprise.
I am a well-educated retired teacher who will proudly vote for President Trump. What kind of leader would call half of his fellow Americans “ garbage”? I realize his cognitive dissonance affects his intellect and his lack of vocabulary, but his remark is indefensible.
Of course Biden meant what he said - his history of this kind of remark goes back quite a while. Don't forget the infamous 'Red Speech' in Philly, or the post George Floyd verdict speech. I've never believed the kindly old grandpa image. One thing I've always always liked about Trump is that he may criticize opponents but he does not denigrate average American people the way Democrats do.