They were more responsible for giving us Trump compared to those who drank the Trump Kool-Aide.
This is exactly what I disagree with you about, and now you have repeated it once again in plain English. No, I don't agree, and no, I didn't misunderstand or misrepresent you. You believe an informed crime of inaction is more serious than a misinformed crime of action, and I do not agree. Being deceived by social media is not some magical cop-out that absolves a person of moral accountability for their actions. It simply is not. I do not agree. These are adults and citizens, and social media is not going away no matter how much we might wish it. Ultimately, every citozen must make an informed vote, whatever it takes to get there. If they don't, they deserve to be remembered poorly.
Ok, we can disagree, but you never answered the question regarding meeting any Trump voters and realizing they were victims of a cult. Maybe if you had met and talked to some of these people personally and even tried to reason with them, you would understand things better.
My point was that the people who didn't vote knew better while the Trump voters were being manipulated by a man who's only talent was creating a cult, They didn't know or understand the facts. They weren't all capable of making an informed decision. The non voters were smarter and should have voted. Trump manipulated people into believing he would lower grocery prices on day one, protect the border from criminals, end the war in Gaza on day one and other bullshit.
Oh well. It's too late now so I don't know why we are still wasting our time when we should be trying to encourage people to vote and stop watching Newsmax, Fox or reading The Daily Mail.
During Trump 1.0, I really clung to the idea—and reality that many/most of the Trump supporters I know and/or am related to were manipulated by press, ie in a cult or cult like association (GOP). Many/most of these people are decent, hardworking law abiding people who are generous and kind to those they know and to strangers as well.
But the reality is that many of these same people are exactly like my mother’s stepfather: in many ways a kind and even generous man, within the limits of his means to be generous and kind. He did not have much money but always made a large donation of apples from his orchard to the local schools; he raised at least one foster child and afaik, treated my mother and her siblings like his own kids, even though he married my widowed grandmother when her kids were 16-24 yo. He certainly acted like a grandfather to me and my siblings. BUT: my feelings fir him changed dramatically when I saw him behave with needless cruelty towards a black man and his young son in what could only be considered dared a power play when I was about 6 yo, followed by some extremely nasty and horrific comments he made about a black biy who was in my first grade class ( in other words, another 6 yo) solely because he was black. I did not fully understand what he was trying to warn me about until I was nearly an adult ( basically he was warning me that this child might try to rape me—at 6 yo!). Anyway, while I always loved him, I never wanted to be around him beyond the brief and mandatory hugs hello and good bye. Years later, well over a decade after his death, we learned he had been in the Klan. I had seen his ugly, disgusting racism up close—the Kan membership made complete sense, even though my siblings and I were all horrified.
Oh, afaik, I do not know any actual members of the KKK or similar but sympathizers? Probably.
The terrible truth is that people who seem very nice and kind and generous can be horrifically racist, sexist, homophobic—even as they sit in church pews, tithe weekly, give generously to the poor. Frankly I quit going to church because of the bigotry. Of course plenty of non-church goers are just as racist, sexist, homophobic as those sitting in pews every Sunday.
Whatever else is going on in their lives, there is a core truth to the Trump supporters: they support him because he gives voice to their fears and their bigotries. They watch Fux and NewsMax because those networks reinforce their fears and bigotries.
They are bigots, racists and homophobes and sexist and they embrace Trump, NewsMax and Fox because they make them feel less ashamed and even proud of their bigotries. They are willing to harm many many many people for generations because they are fearful bigots.
I am currently struggling very hard to reconcile this with the good qualities I know some of my relatives and friends/former friends hold, beliefs I was able to ignore before.
I cannot ignore it any more and I will not pretend that the bigotries are only because they watch Fox.
No.
They watch Fox because it lets them feel good about their bigotries. They are unhappy with how their lives have turned out—and they want to punish those whose lives seem
better or easier.
And all of them are incredibly lonely and isolated.
They think Dems or libs are responsible for the bad things in their lives instead of looking at the choices they’ve made and looking at how the power structure today gives so much power with so little accountability to corporations and businesses and the wealthy.
I find it incredibly painful to acknowledge that they are worse than my father, with whom I went toe to toe since I was 14.
I am struggling so hard to see the good and to ignore the bad in a way that I’ve never felt before. Yes, I’m ending friendships and maintaining contact with some relatives only because they are relatives.
Because in every way that is real, they prefer fascism to democracy. They prefer ignorance to cold, hard truth. Because they feel so small that the only way they can feel less bad is by causing others pain.
www.independent.co.uk
