Should we gather in free speech zones and carefully designated areas at the right times
That’s not what I’m aiming at, at all.
All I’m trying to say is ‘protest the policies, not the people’. That’s just the vibe I’m getting from some protesters.
Maybe it would be more helpful if these concerns were voiced in a way suitable to win people over, rather than alienating them before even getting into any of the issues.
Trumps proposed policies are racist, misogynistic, etc. No dispute here. But are you going to believe that every 4th American is a racist and misogynist? I don’t think so.
I honestly feel that it doesn’t matter what I say or how I “appropriately” voice my fears and concerns. There are people who will not and do not take me seriously or think I’m so fatally compromised that they dismiss me.
This country doesn’t care about me, or at least some portion of it. It doesn’t matter how much I bend over back wards to listen to opposing view points, which I have actually done in my life. THEY WILL NOT LISTEN TO ME AND NEVER HAVE.
I did not say that every fourth person is racist or misogynist. But they voted for a person who will try and implement racist or misogynyist views. At the very least, they just don’t care about those things and how is that any different.
Everyone has a right to peaceful protest. But this was, in a sense, a competition. When you lose a baseball game, you shake the hand of your opponent and practice harder. You don’t just start smashing stuff, blocking traffic, and demanding that they change the rules. You can do those things, but it would be counterproductive.
They seem to be protesting the fact that their team lost, and that the rubes in hicktown were allowed to vote. Or that the rubes did not vote the way that they were ordered to. I am not sure what they hope to actually accomplish, except to register their anger that their team lost. But, as long as they keep it peaceful, they can protest forever.
Yeah, I am genuinely depressed about the future of discourse in the next four years. The current tenor seems to be variations on a theme of victim blaming…
The vast majority of them haven’t been “smashing stuff.” And shit doesn’t get done by not causing some disruption. Ask the civil rights movement, who regularly broke laws in a peaceful manner.
This isn’t about sports. It’s about the safety of many of your fellow human beings. There have been a spike in racist attacks after the election. You really don’t seem to care about that though. Sore winners being really fucking nasty to their fellow human beings, but you’re getting upset about some peaceful protests.
One common line of thinking goes something like “maybe the right wouldn’t have voted for Trump if the left wasn’t so angry all the time.”
Or that the this is basically the left’s fault for “political correctness run amok”.
Or that the left is “ignoring” rural America.
Implicit in these lines of thinking is a notion that they realize on some level that they done fucked up by electing this guy, but this is somehow Hillary’s fault.
It isn’t a perfect analogy. But the traditions of concession speeches and peaceful transfer of power are about the same things that govern the principles of good sportsmanship. I think it also says something about why we have elections instead of civil wars or coups.
Got ya. I will say that I do think the Dems have been pretty bad about shutting out their left wing for years, the wing that actually actively sought to speak directly to the white working class. So, I’m not entirely saying we should let them off the hook here. Just that it wasn’t JUST class issues that drove the vote for Trump.
The person who ran against him GAVE a concession speech and the current president made CRYSTAL FUCKING CLEAR that a smooth transition of power is his priority.
That doesn’t mean the rest of us have to shut the fuck up.
If I see someone bullying anyone else because of racism or sexism, or orientation, I am going to come to the defense of those bullied, which is exactly what I would have done before the election.
Please tell that to the people getting called the N-word and young women having their hijabs ripped off, and people having swastikas draw on their doors.
In the past, I might have agreed with you, but not now.
For ages, the US has had this mythos about our supposed excellence ‘above all others.’
And part of that myth is that, in theory, our leader is supposed to respresent the very best of us; the smartest, the most talented, the most competent.
That ideology was never exactly accurate, but now it’s an obvious shit-covered lie.
Many of our fellow citizens voted for a horrible person bottom line; his non-existent policies be damned.
Now the message is clear:
You don’t need to be smart to be the President of the United States.
You don’t need to be experienced.
You don’t need to be a decent person with impeccable moral character.
##You just need to be a rich, white guy with a huge ego and a lack of conscience.
I don’t believe you.
Your consistent comments on this board do not mark you as an ally; they mark you as an enabler of the oppressors, and you don’t get the benefit of the doubt from the people who are most at risk right now.
It seems reasonable that at least some of the incidents are actually happening. But none of the Trump people I know would allow that sort of thing without intervening. There have been plenty of incidents of anti-Trump people smashing windows, attacking people, and burning stuff. At least Trump expressed displeasure that anything was happening in his name. Has HRC made any statement?
