re: #14 Unabogie

This is why I bristle at the idea that I can make common cause with Trumpers. When they say that Trump “just says what we’ve all been thinking,” they are telling me that they have held hateful views all this time but were just scared to say so out loud. So when I see with my own eyes that people are so intensely drawn to this kind of bigotry that they won’t even Google something before screaming at teachers, I know there is nothing I can say to them to bridge that divide.

Thanks for this. This is where I’ve been at for a while. I’ve been saying Trump essentially gave people the go-ahead to say all the shitty things they’ve been keeping to themselves; that somehow being an open bigot and moron is compatible with being a functional member of society.

That’s been compounded by the endless Cletus safaris the press has been publishing for what seems like 15 years, since the dawn of the Tea Party. Probably longer. It completely normalizes what had been up until 2015 unacceptable, abnormal behavior.

It’s why I got so irritated with the “Well, he’s not really talking about a literal bloodbath” idiocy from last week. Trump and and quite frankly, anyone who votes for him, do not deserve one fucking iota of the benefit of the doubt. They have been incredibly upfront about who they are and what they want.

And what they want is a dictatorship. Full stop. The Principle of Charity has its limits.