Calling it "Politically Motivated"

[Some Schmo]

One trend I've noticed among members of the Trump cult is that their broad defense of all the heinous crap they do is to call criticism of it "politically motivated." How often have independents been labeled "progressive" or "radical leftists" simply for pointing out what a useless person Trump is? Idiot terms like "TDS" and "woke" are applied to regular people who see a character like Trump and are disgusted, or witnessing his incompetence and having the audacity to point it out.

Being disgusted is the normal human reaction to an obvious piece of crap in every other context, but because Trump lives in the context of politics, these fruitcakes want to claim it's only about politics. Of course they do, because they don't want to own his crap, despite the fact that they're covered in it.

[Kishkumen]

When they have no Social Security, their investments are in the toilet, and they are living in a poorer, weaker, and more isolated country with high unemployment and inflation, they can rest assured that they don't have to see the acronym DEI on a federal government webpage, which they probably never visit anyway.

[Some Schmo]

When they have no Social Security, their investments are in the toilet, and they are living in a poorer, weaker, and more isolated country with high unemployment and inflation, they can rest assured that they don't have to see the acronym DEI on a federal government webpage, which they probably never visit anyway.

DEI is an attempt at systemic decency, which is a direct assault on systemic racism, so I understand why Trump fans hate it.

[Kishkumen]

DEI is an attempt at systemic decency, which is a direct assault on systemic racism, so I understand why Trump fans hate it.

Yeah, I have no doubt that a lot of the motivation behind support for Trump is racism, especially with people like Stephen Miller and Elon Musk involved.

[Some Schmo]

I believe the reason is that you permit him to post on Ceeboo's thread, posing absurd questions such as whether Ceeboo has taught his grandchild the Nazi salute yet.

It's a completely fair question given what we knew about Trump and Musk going into the election. Just how supportive of Trump is ceeboo? He's got to at least be ok with some fascism/racism. His DEI thread a while back gave it away.

He also mentioned that Ceeboo's grandchild is in a difficult situation and faces significant challenges in life due to the family circumstances he'll be born into.

Yeah. I told the truth. As you "strong alpha males" like to say, facts don't care about your feelings.

I’m assuming that sharing pictures on his thread to express my feelings about his progressive beliefs...

Because he can't help himself in the very thread talking about how moronic this defense is.

I do endorse a picture of a baby crying to "express his feelings" though.

[Kishkumen]

It's a completely fair question given what we knew about Trump and Musk going into the election. Just how supportive of Trump is ceeboo? He's got to at least be ok with some fascism/racism. His DEI thread a while back gave it away.

For what it's worth, I don't think ceeboo is a racist or a fascist. I believe that he fell in with Trump because of religious identity and his idea of common sense. On the face of it, some of the extremes on the Left do not make a lot of sense. I think that some of this stuff really is debatable.

For example, I don't like land use statements that often find their way into email signatures in academia. In these statements, white people make themselves feel good by stating publicly that they know their ancestors stole the land from the Native Americans. Of course, they have no intention of giving that land back, and they don't really do anything else to help indigenous peoples (at least, most of them don't), so these self-righteous performances kinda nauseate me.

I also have big problems with identity politics on both extremes of our politics. All this bellyaching about the oppressed white man, and all this bellyaching about social justice. I am in favor of equality under the law and equal opportunity to succeed. Doing this in practice would mean changing quite a lot to offer substantive help to poorer people of all races. The focus on particular identities, on the other hand, causes a lot of the problems. It is divisive, and I think it is a loser. It atomizes support for things, whereas economic opportunity tends to unite people.

Honestly, I think corporate Democrats do DEI so they can avoid redressing the unfairness of our current system, dominated as it is by corporate and billionaire donors who would rather have someone in their employ write new DEI policies than pay meaningful taxes.

[Some Schmo]

It's a completely fair question given what we knew about Trump and Musk going into the election. Just how supportive of Trump is ceeboo? He's got to at least be ok with some fascism/racism. His DEI thread a while back gave it away.

For what it's worth, I don't think ceeboo is a racist or a fascist. I believe that he fell in with Trump because of religious identity and his idea of common sense.

So then he didn't know Trump was a fascist/racist, or he was simply ok with it because of other dubious beliefs clouding his judgment?

I appreciate your take, as forgiving as it seems to me. I don't agree with it, but I respect it coming from you.

On the face of it, some of the extremes on the Left do not make a lot of sense. I think that some of this stuff really is debatable.

Agreed, but I've made this point before: the most extreme stuff labeled "on the left" is not coming from Democrat politicians. The lunacy of the right is fully represented by their elected officials.

For example, I don't like land use statements that often find their way into email signatures in academia. In these statements, white people make themselves feel good by stating publicly that they know their ancestors stole the land from the Native Americans. Of course, they have no intention of giving that land back, and they don't really do anything else to help indigenous peoples (at least, most of them don't), so these self-righteous performances kinda nauseate me.

I also have big problems with identity politics on both extremes of our politics. All this bellyaching about the oppressed white man, and all this bellyaching about social justice. I am in favor of equality under the law and equal opportunity to succeed. Doing this, in practice, would mean changing quite a lot to offer substantive help to poorer people of all races, but it is the focus on particular identities that causes a lot of the problems. It is divisive, and I think it is a loser. It atomizes support for things, whereas economic opportunity tends to unite people.

I don't care for identity politics, but I'm not a political slave to it either. It weighs very little in my evaluation of which party is going to do a better job governing the country, especially at this point in our history.

We can debate identity politics once the unexpected argument over democracy is settled.

Honestly, I think corporate Democrats do DEI so they can avoid the unfairness of our current system, dominated as it is by corporate and billionaire donors who would rather have someone in their employ write new DEI policies than pay meaningful taxes.

That's a reasonable suspicion.

I'll say this again too: if you're looking for systemic change (or beginning any difficult pursuit), you aren't going to execute on it perfectly the first time. I believe there are companies out there genuinely interested in making things better for everyone, as imperfect as their implementations might be.

[Kishkumen]

So then he didn't know Trump was a fascist/racist, or he was simply ok with it because of other dubious beliefs clouding his judgment?

I appreciate your take, as forgiving as it seems to me. I don't agree with it, but I respect it coming from you.

Recently, I read that almost all Evangelicals are Trump supporters. The source was "conservative." I know there are a few Evangelicals who do not support Trump, but I think the vast majority do. Some of my favorite Christians in this discussion group, people who are lovely beings, unfortunately support Trump.

I am afraid that many Christians do have clouded judgment on this issue. I side with the Christians who have a better understanding of the situation, in my view. The Christians I side with see Trump's amorality, ignorance, and authoritarianism to be too much of a threat to side with him. Trump is not really a Christian anyway. His views of the world were not forged in Christianity but rather the New Thought Movement, which is not in any way truly Christian.

Agreed, but I've made this point before: the most extreme stuff labeled "on the left" is not coming from Democrat politicians. The lunacy of the right is fully represented by their elected officials.

Elected officials on the right have almost completely caved to Trumpism. Democrats were better at fending off losing extreme positions in their party, and that is ironically why we are where we are. The left's populism failed, while the fascist populism on the right succeeded.

I don't care for identity politics, but I'm not a political slave to it either. It weighs very little in my evaluation of which party is going to do a better job governing the country, especially at this point in our history.

We can debate identity politics once the unexpected argument over democracy is settled.

Agreed! And this is what I mean when I say most Americans have lost their sense of priority. It was always more important to see to the welfare of all Americans than it was to have DEI officers or join the NRA, but as a country we have totally bought into single-issue hobbyism. We are losing our democracy because some Christians would rather rewrite the Constitution to follow their bizarre interpretation of the King James Bible or some such. It is mind boggling.

I'll say this again too: if you're looking for systemic change (or beginning any difficult pursuit), you aren't going to execute on it perfectly the first time. I believe there are companies out there genuinely interested in making things better for everyone, as imperfect as their implementations might be.

Sure. And it doesn't hurt them that they still get low taxes.

[Some Schmo]

Sure. And it doesn't hurt them that they still get low taxes.

There's no rebuttal for that. Conceded.

Recently, I read that almost all Evangelicals are Trump supporters. The source was "conservative." I know there are a few Evangelicals who do not support Trump, but I think the vast majority do. Some of my favorite Christians in this discussion group, people who are lovely beings, unfortunately support Trump.

I am afraid that many Christians do have clouded judgment on this issue. I side with the Christians who have a better understanding of the situation, in my view. The Christians I side with see Trump's amorality, ignorance, and authoritarianism to be too much of a threat to side with him. Trump is not really a Christian anyway.

This goes to show that religion relies on outrageousness to survive. Outrageousness grabs people's attention. Believing outrageousness makes a person "openminded." Outrageousness is the delimiter between normal people and the "chosen few." Some will even go so far as to call you gullible if you don't buy into the outrageousness. You're the deranged one, not me.

That evangelicals have deified Trump is the poster child of outrageousness. I don't think they understand (or care) that they don't raise Trump's credibility, they only punch a massive hole in whatever credibility they think they had.

[Kishkumen]

This goes to show that religion relies on outrageousness to survive. Outrageousness grabs people's attention. Believing outrageousness makes a person "openminded." Outrageousness is the delimiter between normal people and the "chosen few." Some will even go so far as to call you gullible if you don't buy into the outrageousness. You're the deranged one, not me.

That evangelicals have deified Trump is the poster child of outrageousness. I don't think they understand (or care) that they don't raise Trump's credibility, they only punch a massive hole in whatever credibility they think they had.

Yes, this is an emergency. To think how much impact their extremism has on all of us. It could already be too late. We may have lost our democratic republic to their authoritarian idol. The way that the authoritarian Trump regime is treating people with green cards is, in my opinion, a testing of the waters to treat all opponents in the same way. Trump may be a buffoon, but he is a deadly dangerous buffoon, and no one is doing enough to stop him. We are closer to civil war than ever, but the authoritarians with the guns will likely be the victors.