Gunner,Gadianton wrote: ↑Mon Jun 26, 2023 7:16 pmBinger is wrong when he says I haven't known very many right-wingers. I've known many, and I've received the sales pitch for Trump many times over the years. As I've said elsewhere, I think Trump is a negative hero for most Trump supporters. As KG has said, there are those who simply say, "vote with your wallet" (although I don't see the benefit for most of those people) and pragmatic types who just assume he still represents the party and better that than a Democrat, so those types don't count.
I have not had the sales pitch from anyone who isn't in the negative hero camp. But there is a spectrum for those, and there are differences of opinion here. For the most vocal supporters, the ones who go all the way, the divisiveness, crassness, or whatever, is a big selling point for them, they want to troll the Left and be divisive. Two of my co-workers in 2016 (who are still great friends) high-fived the more offensive Trump got. Neither of these guys were Christian nor had any religious background at all. When Trump would say something that apparently people found offensive, they'd say things like, "And the wall just got 2 inches higher."
I guess I'm speaking mostly to Gunner. Perhaps Gunner has not been surrounded by right-wingers the way that I have. For a large swath of Trump supporters, they'll agree he's rude, but that's a good thing, and so if somebody says that a lot of conservatives would agree Trump is rude, absolutely, and many of them glory in it. It's kind of the point. But there is also a large swath a step down from that. They don't explicitly glory in Trump's "rudeness", to your face at least, but rather laugh it off and give you the "plumber" analogy. They can't reconcile his persona with their Christian values (at least the Christians with any kind of self-awareness), and so they claim that Trump is like the expert plumber with bad personal hygiene and a foul mouth. You may not like his manners, but you're sure glad he's there to fix the problem. And there's the implication that you're the one who took the gigantic crap that won't go down and so deal with it; you may deserve it a little.
And so yes, Gunner, you need to ask some follow-up questions to get a better idea of what's really being said when a person who voted for Trump admits Trump is rude or divisive.
If I may add my council as well.
Consider forming your opinions about people and making your judgements about people on an individual basis. As I am sure you are aware, all of the people that belong to a group are not the same. People are very complex beings. Very complex. This holds true for any group of people (Trump voters, Catholics, Atheists, X-Mormons, Muslims, Lawyers, Dentists, Bernie supporters, Pro-choice, pro-life, Vegans, Scientists, Authors, Tucker fans, Men, Women, Bowlers, Maddow fans, Etc, Etc).
Consider not making the critical mistake of placing individual people in neatly arranged categories that you yourself construct. In addition to being a really foolish thing to attempt, it is unfair, unnecessary, and absolutely impossible. Even if it were possible (it isn't), please consider the reality that People change, so whatever category you try to put them in may not be the category that they will remain in.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, consider how much importance you decide to place on a human being's political leanings (No matter what those leaning happen to be - or if those particular leaning change over time). Thier political leanings are but an extremely small fraction of who they are as a person. The only category that we ought to ever place another individual person in is the category called people. Rather than us telling someone what category we have placed them in, we would be quite wise to allow them to speak for themselves.
