Sorry, not going to give this a rest.
Okay, so it's been a week. A horrible week full of gleeful racists and misogynysts celebrating that "they" won, by harrassing women, PoC, LGBTQ+ people and full of that smiling lizard person who's set to be the next president of the USA and full of frightened friends and family (Mom actually cried on the morning after the election :( ) and people who follow me on social media probably had the strongest urge to kick me off their timelines and friends' lists or at least mute me (and that's okay, by the way. Activist self-care sometimes means to pull yourself out of the 24h news cycle and I'd rather you throw me out of your own news cycle than see you burn out). I have read a ton of articles, from resistance strategies to Trump's supposed foreign policy and I have just a couple thoughts I need to write down to get some sense of order into them.
So, in no particular order of precedence:
#1 Trump's foreign policy is going to be one long stream of "No, not like that!"
As in,
"Improve relations to Russia... no, not like that!"
"Support Israel... no, not like that!"
"Defeat IS... no, not like that!"
"Reform NATO... no, not like that!"
And so on and so forth. Everything related to foreign policy that comes out of the future Trump administration's camp makes me want to hammer my head against the wall, screaming "NO NOT LIKE THAT YOU ABSOLUTE COMPLETE MORONS!" (same goes for what little we know about his defence spending and policies. And my personal favorite, the possible reversal of the repeal of the ban on women in combat. Also, if I have to read the words "social engineering" just one more time, I will have to destroy something). It's like no one in there has any idea what they're doing or where they want to go or how the fucking world works.
I've had heard names from Newt Gingrich to Rudy Guiliani (you know, a guy who's had business ties to Iranian terrorists, Hugo Chavez and Saddamn Hussein...) being floated around for Secretary of State and no convincing names for either National Secruty Advisor or Secretary of Defense and apparently, some of Trump's cronies are already jumping ship and what the fuck? This is already a real foreign policy clusterfuck and I'm actually scared of the outcome. Shafting the Iran deal alone would make the world an infinitely more insecure place (diplomats from seven nations worked on that. For thirty fucking years. And this orange buffoon will just jump and stomp on it gleefully like the big bully he is, just because a bunch of deplorable racists told him that he can. I want to retch), cozying up to autocratic assholes like Putin and Erdogan goes against everything the USA stands for, destabilizing NATO massively endangers the US's national security...
Mark my words, we will utter the words "No, not like that!" constantly in the next four years.
#2 The normalization of Donald Trump has already begun and we must fight it every step of the way.
Be it two asinine radio show hosts on radioeins who couldn't possibly fathom what might be so bad about a Trump presidency (Margarete Stockowski is a national treasure, by the way) or the Guardian of all papers telling us that "there is potential in Trumpism" (potential? What kind of "potential" could there possibly be in racism, misogyny and hate for minorities?), ironically just mere hours after telling us how to resist Trump and his cronies (that one actually is a really good article) and before telling us that the Trump White House staff is "a layer cake of horrors", we are already being told that there is nothing unusual about a man who ran on racism, misogyny, bigotry. We are being told to, you know, stop being hysterical idiots because he's the president-elect and we have to accept that (as Stefan Liebich said: "I have to accept it. I don't have to like it, though."), there's no way around it, it's just four years, not the end of the world, we survived Reagan and George W. Bush (although many didn't, but since when do AIDS victims and grunts count, anyway?), blahblahblah. But the truth is exactly what John Oliver said: this. Is. Not. Normal. It wasn't, it isn't and it will never be. It should never be.
We need to speak out every time we are being told to "calm down" or "look at this rationally" because "calming down" in the face of hate is catering to the bystander effect. "Calming down" in the face of hate tells the haters exactly one thing: that they're right and that we support their hate. There still is that liberal delusion floating around that if you just calmy and rationally talk to people who hate, they will simply see the force of your argument and stop hating, and that delusion has to go, if we want liberalism and democracy to survive. Outrage needs to lose its bad reputation because outrage is good, it's important, it's vital. Outrage is justified, whenever Trump names another anti-semitist, white supremacist and/or misgynyst as a member of his staff or his cabinet. Outrage will have to be prolonged and sustainable and it'll have to last us four years (because even if Trump does get impeached as NYT and Washington Post already predicted, it'll be Mike "it's totally a good idea to torture kids to make them heterosexual" Pence at the wheel and quite frankly, I'm almost more scared by that thought).
We'll also have to be vigilant, because even the NYT wasn't above calling Bannon a "provocateur" rather than a fucking neo-fascist and because in Germany, calling Trump a racist apparently falls on second row MPs (such as the aforementioned Stefan Liebich. Don't get me wrong, I consider Stefan Liebich one of the best MPs my party has to offer but for all his undoubtable competence and outspokeness, he's still second row and will not be cited nearly half as often as Sahra Wagenknecht, whom I find one of the worst people my party has made famous, ever). Everyone else keeps dancing around it, and we should be furious about that. We shouldn't only call out the obvious racists and bigots, we also have to call out the liberal and leftist politicians like Sahra Wagenknecht who manage to give lengthy statements and interviews about Trump without uttering the word racism even once, the green politicians who think that "we really shouldn't overdo the political correctness", the press who thinks "racism" is such a dirty word it shouldn't even be used for actual racists... You get what I mean. The worst thing we could do now is simply let this normalization happen. So, let's not.
#3 As trite as it sounds, unity, love and kindness are the key.
It has been mentioned here or there that many Hillary supporters and Trump adversaries reacted to Trump's win like people usually react to other disasters: with fear, panic, sadness... and love. Time and again, I have managed to find hope in seeing that while there is indeed plundering and egoism, but most of all there is an incredible amount of support for each other. People who invite complete strangers into their homes after earthquakes, tenants who share their electricity with everyone on the street who needs to charge their phones in the wake of hurricanes, kids freely giving their toys and stuffed animals so that refugee children would have something to play and love in a strange country... and the same happened after Trump won. I truly love my US friends (you know who you are, folks) every day of the year but in the last couple days, I felt it just a little more keenly than usually. I empathize with you, I feel your pain, your sadness, your anger and your fear and I will be here for you whenever you need me.
To my European friends (you know who you are, too ;)) who, just as me, feel like the EU in which we all grew up in security and welfare is slowly (or maybe not so slowly, after all) unraveling, and who see the rise of Geert Wilders, Marine Le Pen, Frauke Petry, Nigel Farage and are deeply scared by that, I am here. I hear you, I see you, I feel the same. This is not an isolated phenomenon, something that happens in one country and leaves the others untouched. It's all over Europe. It's been going on in Hungary for far too long, it's genuinely threatening Austria, it's pushing Poland away from democracy and liberty towards misogyny and anti-muslim hysteria. It's rapidly killing all remnants of a free press and human rights in Turkey. But here's the thing: it's not something we have to face alone, not anymore. Neither us Europeans nor the Americans. Not even the Russians, for God's sake.
Globalization, while clearly and undeniably terrible in its impact on the environment, on workers rights and the poor, has given us one tiny gift among all the shit it left us with: community. Globalization means that none of us are truly alone, truly isolated (unless we live in North Korea, and seriously, when will we tackle that in earnest?). It gave us the means to find friends and allies, sometimes even (chosen) family in the most unlikely places. It means that, if we only want to, we can learn and educate others about blood minerals in Africa, worker mass suicides in China and murders of gay people in Russia. It means that none of those people affected by terrible things like that have to fight their fight alone, and neither do we. Globalization gave us the means to unite. If racists and bigots can use the global amplifier that is the Internet then by God so can we.
We can use it to organize, to educate, to vent, to rage. We can - and should - also use it to console, support and encourage each other. Like I said a couple days ago, the good thing about being in this together is that we can tell each other, "It's okay, take a break, I got your back." If you think about it, it's kind of amazing that I got to know most of you through our shared love for this TV show or that videogame or this book series and that we're here now, saying "There are terrible things happening in our countries, and we need to stick together to get through this. I see what's happening in your country, you see what's happening in my country and we see what's happening in other countries, and if we have each other's backs, we have a fighting chance to change it."
I am resolved to use the fear and panic and anger that the Trump win sparked to fuel my fight and to tell you: I'm here. I have your backs. Let's do this.
So, in no particular order of precedence:
#1 Trump's foreign policy is going to be one long stream of "No, not like that!"
As in,
"Improve relations to Russia... no, not like that!"
"Support Israel... no, not like that!"
"Defeat IS... no, not like that!"
"Reform NATO... no, not like that!"
And so on and so forth. Everything related to foreign policy that comes out of the future Trump administration's camp makes me want to hammer my head against the wall, screaming "NO NOT LIKE THAT YOU ABSOLUTE COMPLETE MORONS!" (same goes for what little we know about his defence spending and policies. And my personal favorite, the possible reversal of the repeal of the ban on women in combat. Also, if I have to read the words "social engineering" just one more time, I will have to destroy something). It's like no one in there has any idea what they're doing or where they want to go or how the fucking world works.
I've had heard names from Newt Gingrich to Rudy Guiliani (you know, a guy who's had business ties to Iranian terrorists, Hugo Chavez and Saddamn Hussein...) being floated around for Secretary of State and no convincing names for either National Secruty Advisor or Secretary of Defense and apparently, some of Trump's cronies are already jumping ship and what the fuck? This is already a real foreign policy clusterfuck and I'm actually scared of the outcome. Shafting the Iran deal alone would make the world an infinitely more insecure place (diplomats from seven nations worked on that. For thirty fucking years. And this orange buffoon will just jump and stomp on it gleefully like the big bully he is, just because a bunch of deplorable racists told him that he can. I want to retch), cozying up to autocratic assholes like Putin and Erdogan goes against everything the USA stands for, destabilizing NATO massively endangers the US's national security...
Mark my words, we will utter the words "No, not like that!" constantly in the next four years.
#2 The normalization of Donald Trump has already begun and we must fight it every step of the way.
Be it two asinine radio show hosts on radioeins who couldn't possibly fathom what might be so bad about a Trump presidency (Margarete Stockowski is a national treasure, by the way) or the Guardian of all papers telling us that "there is potential in Trumpism" (potential? What kind of "potential" could there possibly be in racism, misogyny and hate for minorities?), ironically just mere hours after telling us how to resist Trump and his cronies (that one actually is a really good article) and before telling us that the Trump White House staff is "a layer cake of horrors", we are already being told that there is nothing unusual about a man who ran on racism, misogyny, bigotry. We are being told to, you know, stop being hysterical idiots because he's the president-elect and we have to accept that (as Stefan Liebich said: "I have to accept it. I don't have to like it, though."), there's no way around it, it's just four years, not the end of the world, we survived Reagan and George W. Bush (although many didn't, but since when do AIDS victims and grunts count, anyway?), blahblahblah. But the truth is exactly what John Oliver said: this. Is. Not. Normal. It wasn't, it isn't and it will never be. It should never be.
We need to speak out every time we are being told to "calm down" or "look at this rationally" because "calming down" in the face of hate is catering to the bystander effect. "Calming down" in the face of hate tells the haters exactly one thing: that they're right and that we support their hate. There still is that liberal delusion floating around that if you just calmy and rationally talk to people who hate, they will simply see the force of your argument and stop hating, and that delusion has to go, if we want liberalism and democracy to survive. Outrage needs to lose its bad reputation because outrage is good, it's important, it's vital. Outrage is justified, whenever Trump names another anti-semitist, white supremacist and/or misgynyst as a member of his staff or his cabinet. Outrage will have to be prolonged and sustainable and it'll have to last us four years (because even if Trump does get impeached as NYT and Washington Post already predicted, it'll be Mike "it's totally a good idea to torture kids to make them heterosexual" Pence at the wheel and quite frankly, I'm almost more scared by that thought).
We'll also have to be vigilant, because even the NYT wasn't above calling Bannon a "provocateur" rather than a fucking neo-fascist and because in Germany, calling Trump a racist apparently falls on second row MPs (such as the aforementioned Stefan Liebich. Don't get me wrong, I consider Stefan Liebich one of the best MPs my party has to offer but for all his undoubtable competence and outspokeness, he's still second row and will not be cited nearly half as often as Sahra Wagenknecht, whom I find one of the worst people my party has made famous, ever). Everyone else keeps dancing around it, and we should be furious about that. We shouldn't only call out the obvious racists and bigots, we also have to call out the liberal and leftist politicians like Sahra Wagenknecht who manage to give lengthy statements and interviews about Trump without uttering the word racism even once, the green politicians who think that "we really shouldn't overdo the political correctness", the press who thinks "racism" is such a dirty word it shouldn't even be used for actual racists... You get what I mean. The worst thing we could do now is simply let this normalization happen. So, let's not.
#3 As trite as it sounds, unity, love and kindness are the key.
It has been mentioned here or there that many Hillary supporters and Trump adversaries reacted to Trump's win like people usually react to other disasters: with fear, panic, sadness... and love. Time and again, I have managed to find hope in seeing that while there is indeed plundering and egoism, but most of all there is an incredible amount of support for each other. People who invite complete strangers into their homes after earthquakes, tenants who share their electricity with everyone on the street who needs to charge their phones in the wake of hurricanes, kids freely giving their toys and stuffed animals so that refugee children would have something to play and love in a strange country... and the same happened after Trump won. I truly love my US friends (you know who you are, folks) every day of the year but in the last couple days, I felt it just a little more keenly than usually. I empathize with you, I feel your pain, your sadness, your anger and your fear and I will be here for you whenever you need me.
To my European friends (you know who you are, too ;)) who, just as me, feel like the EU in which we all grew up in security and welfare is slowly (or maybe not so slowly, after all) unraveling, and who see the rise of Geert Wilders, Marine Le Pen, Frauke Petry, Nigel Farage and are deeply scared by that, I am here. I hear you, I see you, I feel the same. This is not an isolated phenomenon, something that happens in one country and leaves the others untouched. It's all over Europe. It's been going on in Hungary for far too long, it's genuinely threatening Austria, it's pushing Poland away from democracy and liberty towards misogyny and anti-muslim hysteria. It's rapidly killing all remnants of a free press and human rights in Turkey. But here's the thing: it's not something we have to face alone, not anymore. Neither us Europeans nor the Americans. Not even the Russians, for God's sake.
Globalization, while clearly and undeniably terrible in its impact on the environment, on workers rights and the poor, has given us one tiny gift among all the shit it left us with: community. Globalization means that none of us are truly alone, truly isolated (unless we live in North Korea, and seriously, when will we tackle that in earnest?). It gave us the means to find friends and allies, sometimes even (chosen) family in the most unlikely places. It means that, if we only want to, we can learn and educate others about blood minerals in Africa, worker mass suicides in China and murders of gay people in Russia. It means that none of those people affected by terrible things like that have to fight their fight alone, and neither do we. Globalization gave us the means to unite. If racists and bigots can use the global amplifier that is the Internet then by God so can we.
We can use it to organize, to educate, to vent, to rage. We can - and should - also use it to console, support and encourage each other. Like I said a couple days ago, the good thing about being in this together is that we can tell each other, "It's okay, take a break, I got your back." If you think about it, it's kind of amazing that I got to know most of you through our shared love for this TV show or that videogame or this book series and that we're here now, saying "There are terrible things happening in our countries, and we need to stick together to get through this. I see what's happening in your country, you see what's happening in my country and we see what's happening in other countries, and if we have each other's backs, we have a fighting chance to change it."
I am resolved to use the fear and panic and anger that the Trump win sparked to fuel my fight and to tell you: I'm here. I have your backs. Let's do this.