General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe smaller pachyderm in the room: a significant percentage of our fellow citizens are
people we would not want living in our neighborhood or anywhere in our community. They are small-minded, self-centered and astonishingly and proudly ignorant.
Their world consists of their like-minded friends, right-wing media and internet sites that preach racism, misogyny and all manner of hateful conspiracy theories. Like their cult leader, Donald Trump, they see no problem with kids in cages, discrimination against anyone not straight, white and Christian and suppressing the votes of the poor and people of color. They deal with the hypocrisy and cruelty of their hero mostly by not thinking about it: if they and theirs have cable TV, gas in their cars and food on the table, that is all the proof they need that Trump has made America great again. If it will not impact them in the very near future, it just doesn't matter.
We pass these people daily as we go to work and shop. Their children go to school with ours. They sit on our city councils and county boards.
If you are "different" or willing to defend those who are, know this: given any excuse and "permission" from their leadership, these neighbors of ours would happily destroy you and me. Some would eliminate our jobs or destroy our businesses. Some would harass us until we fled from their community. But, do not doubt that some, with the right instigation, would beat and stomp us to death.
This is much of Trump's base. Refusing to look at it does not make it less ugly.
democratisphere
(17,235 posts)lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)olegramps
(8,200 posts)Until that problem is resolved with the reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine it is nearly impossible to counter the rightwing lies that are disseminated 24/7 by those preaching hatred and division. It can not be overcome in the present situation and the result is that over a third of our nation has been convinced that Democrats are unpatriotic, immoral scum that must be destroyed so they can save the nation. It is not unlike dealing with religious zealots who can justify any action, regardless of its evilness, in the quest for their righteous cause. If the nation is to survive as a liberal democracy born of the Enlightenment the Republican Party must be destroyed since it has become the captive of the Ayn Rand immoral philosophy that justifies destroying anyone who opposes you. Greed and satisfaction are the sacred goal at any cost.
calimary
(81,507 posts)I wont bore anybody with yet another long post about the deregulation of the ownership restrictions et al toward the end of his second term.
But this is at the heart of it. This is how fucking Limbaugh and others were able to deliver nonstop messages of hate to small markets across America - where the closet haters suddenly heard themselves and all those mean-spirited thoughts they kept closeted now enabled with a huge microphone and a very loud bloviator. The whole wow! Hes SAYING what IVE been thinking! At last, somebodys out there is saying what Ive been thinking but didnt have the nerve to say in public! thing.
It opened a Pandoras Box of CON shit and unleashed the worst, meanest, nastiest, most selfish and short-sighted, racist, sexist, and frankly UN-Christian thinking. Brought it all out into the open where its flooded and infected the politics of America like a contagious death-virus.
Atticus
(15,124 posts)VOX
(22,976 posts)And yes, the expletives are NECESSARY! Who, in their right mind, should be okay with the ceaseless, near-40-year flood of lies and hatred emanating from the right?
Thanks, calimary.
Response to Atticus (Original post)
Post removed
Atticus
(15,124 posts)GeorgeGist
(25,323 posts)and leave the deplorables behind.
Atticus
(15,124 posts)your car in a store parking lot because he doesn't like your liberal bumperstickers.
It is difficult to "leave behind" those who scream obscenities at you because they are offended by your "Impeach Trump" shirt.
I will not change my bumperstickers or my shirts in order to "get along".
FakeNoose
(32,777 posts)... which is fine with me. We have plenty of them in Pennsylvania but they aren't my neighbors. Another factor is that many of them are old and dying off. When the liberal, progressive, Democratic voters (like us) - when we do our jobs and elect the right representatives, we won't have to worry about these weak, old deplorables.
Take heart Atticus, it's going to be OK! You may be in a red state, I don't know, but the blue team will win in the next election.
Atticus
(15,124 posts)FakeNoose
(32,777 posts)I have a feeling it's going to come back. Stay strong my friend!
Im also in a deep red county within a currently healthy and progressive New Jersey, I feel your anguish... you are definitely not alone in this. Im so honored we have a governor we can be proud of, with a positive vision for the future, but its very difficult to remember these things at times. Im surrounded by old school racists whove never bothered to hide it, new school racists who slyly say things theyd have never said out loud in the pre-Tramp days, gun nuts, and anti-education knuckle-draggers. Lol, sometimes I just breathe a sigh of relief when I get into Philadelphia to visit my daughter, its like a mini vacation from being on guard.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)Honestly more than the rural places I go.
Marengo
(3,477 posts)Atticus
(15,124 posts)that if more of us had the courage to publicly call out their racism, their ignorance and their self-centeredness, most would crawl back into the holes they crawled out of 3 1/2 years ago. They are, for the most part cowards. Trump did not create these people; he simply gave them permission to be the racist ignoramuses they have always been.
If the larger society once again makes it clear that their attitudes are not just deplorable, but will cost them acceptance, respect and, indirectly, prosperity, they may once again keep their ignorance and hate to themselves.
Just a thought.
alterfurz
(2,475 posts)...to the awareness that ⅓ of your people would kill another ⅓, while ⅓ watches." --@WernerTwertzog [sic]
Freddie
(9,275 posts)I recently retired and friended some ex-coworkers. One is (I thought) a nice guy, my age, a retired cop in a low-stress security job. Appearances are deceiving. He defends guns no matter what (are all retired cops like this?), buys into the Dems kill babies upon birth bullshit, thinks kids in cages is perfectly fine because their parents broke the law. Etc. Scratch the surface and theres a lot of ugliness in some people. I just pray we put outnumber them when it counts.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)The more anxious and uncertain the times, the more people are likely to be drawn to troublemaking, destabilizing leaders who use resentments and promise "reform" to try to get power that aware, sensible people won't give them. And of course these have become very uncertain, anxious times.
What IS new is that we now know that people come to reflect their leaders' decisions far more reliably than they select leaders who reflect their own principles and goals. We identify with groups, then usually accept the groups' choices of leaders, and then adopt the attitudes and goals of the leaders who get control of those groups.
The primaries are currently a second stage, of course. We all vary widely in just how much we'll loyally support whatever our leaders decide, but we all have this tendency to some degree. Good leaders uplift, bad ones drag us down.
On the right, as Republican leaders became more and more socially and economically extreme, corrupt, and fascistic, much of the right has, in copying that, become close to their worst versions of themselves. This could reverse amazingly fast -- if somehow they were allowed to elect better leaders. But they would be better with good leaders, have been and can be again. Some far better.
And to be part of the solution, rather than the problem, we at least need to understand there are solutions, that change causes change, and big problems create reactions. Even potentially to the problem of neighbors we currently fear and despise but who will always be with us.
yonder
(9,678 posts)PaulRevere08
(449 posts)Keeping minorities in their place
Keeping women under their thumb
Keeping their gun cabinet stocked with any weapon in any numbers they want
And they will perform any religious and political hypocrisy and chicanery to get them.
MyMission
(1,850 posts)And have had to listen to their rhetoric on too many occasions. I work in an old Army/Navy type store, that
sells other stuff: socks, hats, rain and snow gear, shoes, t-shirts, etc. The owners are Democrats, friends, but we are all circumspect in dealing with the folks who shop there and assume we feel as they do. The bosses never respond. I can't always hold my tongue.
I estimate my ratio of response at 1in 50. I say nothing 49 times. Then the 50th I've said simple things like "I think Obama is/was a very fine president." Or, "I did not vote for Bush " or "I did not vote for Trump" or "No offense but how many guns do you need? You only have 2 hands." That last one, the man replied "My wife says the same thing."
We've had a few part-time employees over the years who are evangelicals, and know the owners leanings. One horrid woman left after frump was elected, because of our subtle hostility towards him. We were glad to see her go.
We have another one, who didn't get along with that one. The bosses and I would privately joke about the fact that they both supported Rump yet couldn't have a civil conversation with each other.
Now about the one that stayed. She is kinder, gentler, not officious. Was actually a social worker in her former life. But very loyal evangelical, and we have had some interesting discussions over the years. We were somewhat friendly before rump was elected. Since then, not so much, although we mostly maintain a cordial relationship when we work together, 1 day a week, sometimes 2.
Anyway, I generally consider her a poor misguided soul, but agree with you about how "they" would stomp on us. We recently had a very interesting conversation, very telling. She said her pastor fully expects to be arrested some day for preaching against homosexuality. Evilgelicals preach fear, and they fear us=liberals and non-evilgelicals. She has expressed being fearful of us at various times.
This was one of those times I couldn't hold my tongue. I said"Really?! You fear us?!? Well you may be fearful, but I'm terrified. We aren't the ones who shoot up gay nightclubs, black churches, or synagogues, or places immigrants shop. We're not the ones so filled with hate that we go after anyone who is different and doesn't believe as we do. That's what y'all do. You are fearful, but we are terrified in response to your fears!" Then we agreed not to discuss it anymore.
So, they, the evangelical churches are breeding fear and hate, and their Christian soldiers would really take up arms. Or sticks and stones. Like the crusades of old, I read this as a new crusade. A recent local online article addressed this, declaring we are a Christian country. I wasn't taught that in school.
Frrump is not their leader, he is their excuse and figurehead. The pastor's take the lead. If they deemed him as evil, not in line with Christian values, their congregations would support them. Some few evangelicals have tried to promote this, but are met with the same fear and hostility they promote to "others" On the bright side, they are aging, and not being replaced in the same numbers. Of course this is another piece of their fear.
Sorry about the long rant. Started out to agree with you, and give some examples.
Glad to have DU community, where we can rant, express ourselves, and encourage and support each other.
extvbroadcaster
(343 posts)Previous posters are correct about the right wing media. Limbaugh is broadcast on AM stations around the country. I believe it is one of those sharing deals. He provides the programming free, takes half the commercials and the station takes the other half. For the station, it s a profit center. But listen to the program. Limbaugh rants for 3 hours, showing how disturbed he is mentally. And the show is set up to confirm right wing talking points. He spreads lies and half truths in a simplistic format where everything the democrats do is wrong and a crime, and the GOP is always right and Trump is innocent of everything. The callers are screened, and almost all of them begin with telling the gas bag what an honor it is to talk to him. After 3 hours of this, no wonder so many rubes voted for Trump. And will again.
MyMission
(1,850 posts)When I started typing my reply there were only a few responses. By the time I hit post, there were 16.
To be honest, I don't think about Limbaugh or rw media much. He is scary!
I know evangelicals get their news from Fox, but conveniently forget about the other rabid sources of hate out there. I don't think about the folks who listen to that stuff, and I should. In my experience here in the south, I assume they're getting it from church. But I know the pastors get it from somewhere, and folks listen to it too And one reinforces the other. And not all who listen are evangelicals or church-goers.
My father, not a church goer, gone 20 years this month, was a hateful, racist republican, who moved the family to NC because he admired Jesse Helms. Seriously! I stayed in NYC, only moved South to care for my mom after he died. She was a Democrat. How they stayed married for 40 years I don't know.
When I hear repug rhetoric I remember the worst of him and get bad flashbacks of our fights, and my frustration. He loved talk radio, and it certainly wasn't as bad or prevelent then as it is now.
Personally, I don't watch TV. I listen to NPR, maybe a local rock station for music sometimes. And l
I look at DU and various websites for my news, to get a broader picture. Rarely a podcast or snippet from a major news source on YouTube, but never fox or rw media. I can't stomach it.
Mosby
(16,364 posts)They hate liberals/progressives so profoundly that it blinds them to the truth and enables dehumanization of the other.
Skittles
(153,193 posts)yes INDEED
cilla4progress
(24,776 posts)to take the position that I would not disassociate from, much less hate, others (including family) for being trumpers.
But now I just think they are so fucking STOOPID... got no time for them.
cilla4progress
(24,776 posts)BEAUTIFUL comments and sentiments.
Thank you.
Duppers
(28,127 posts)We live among them and hold our tongues, for the most part.
yonder
(9,678 posts)Last edited Thu Sep 12, 2019, 12:00 PM - Edit history (1)
Thanks to the OP and everyone else.