How Half Of America Lost Its F**king Mind

[calinewarkwc69]

I'm going to explain the Donald Trump phenomenon in three movies. And then some text.There's this universal shorthand that epic adventure movies use to tell the good guys from the bad. The good guys are simple folk from the countryside... while the bad guys are decadent assholes who live in the city and wear stupid clothes

Comments

[drglam]

Plus gerrymandering and the electoral college effectively make rural votes count more than urban votes.

[calinewarkwc69]

I mean, it's really .2% of the problem. This is the problem Democrat's are having right now. Excuses, excuses, excuses. All those red areas with white Christians watching their way of life fall apart could be turned blue. No Democrat has the balls to go into those territories and win these people over. This is why the 50 state strategy was so crucial to the DNC and the moment they abandoned it was the moment they sealed Trump's victory.

[meadowphoenix]

One day I'm going to make that blog post about how people should be very clear about which liberals they're asking show ~empathy, because asking me? Okay, I'm fairly privileged for a black person. Can I drive through these rural towns without fearing for my life, no, but still fairly privileged. Asking my southern rural black maternal relatives who have fewer jobs, and have been legally and socially pushed out by these ~nice white people in that same area, who are there because we share-cropped on land for people who owned us, who always vote Dem and still managed to not vote Trump? Fuck y'all.

[lovedforaday]

thank you.

[executivehpfan]

Yup

[lightframes]

*applause*

We're ALWAYS being asked to carry the burden of "being understanding" or "building bridges" and that same courtesy is hardly ever extended to us.

[mimblexwimble]

You can call it a rural/urban divide, or an elite vs. non-elite election, but it all boils down to the fact that cis, white, straight people, once confronted with the fact that the days of their supremacy were coming to a close, elected a racist, sexist, white supremacist-backed president. That is literally all this article is saying, couched in terms like "racism once removed".

And the fact is, if we somehow accept this idea that Democrats didn't do enough to alleviate the fears that this "way of life" is ending, we get very close to suggesting that the racism/misogyny/hate this fear stems from should be indulged.

And perhaps everyone does lash out when they lose their voice, but only white people have reacted to their perceived oppression by overwhelmingly voting for an oppressor, and we only ever suggest this is okay when we're talking about white people.

[calinewarkwc69]

And this exact comment is why Trump is President now. Congratulations, we played ourselves. We can complain about "cis, white, straight people, once confronted with the fact that the days of their supremacy were coming to a close, elected a racist, sexist, white supremacist-backed president" all we want, and I'm not arguing that there isn't validity to it, but guess what? There votes count the same as ours.

There is a way to reach out to these people without indulging their "racism/misogyny/hate" but instead, we're all gonna come through here leaving comments like the one you left, absolving ourselves of blame because hey, we didn't vote for Trump, we didn't vote in evil, we're so much better than them-- and hell-fucking-lo, that is exactly why they voted in Trump. It has nothing to do with them liking him-- he has over 50% unlikeable/untrustworthy ratings-- it is LITERALLY to remind us-- me and you and every other "elite" leaving condescending commentary about their vote that they do still have power in this country and they can

[meadowphoenix]

How about you tell your white friends to do that, and I'll tell mine, and you stop telling the POC that it's their fault they didn't empathize with their oppressors enough?

[lightframes]

omg you're on fire in this post, thank you so much

[lovedforaday]

But what I can say, from personal experience, is that the racism of my youth was always one step removed. I never saw a family member, friend, or classmate be mean to the actual black people we had in town.I wonder how old the author of this is or how many Black folk lived in his town. Most of the kids were indifferent to me, but there were mean ones both for racist reasons and pick on the weirdo reasons. There was no way other kids didn't witness that shit. I mean hell, I remember walking home on the last day of seventh grade and someone in a truck, probably a high schooler, screaming fucking n- at me

[lightframes]

And how is the writer judging "being mean to"? The writer might never have seen someone being lynched, but I definitely experienced parents not wanting their kids to visit my house and being asked if I got good grades because I was afraid my parents would beat me if I didn't. But that's not "mean," right?

[lovedforaday]

yes, this. or the jokes his friends told when their black friends were gone. or excusing grandma's racism by saying "she loves everyone, but calling black people the n word was how it was in her time". instead of asking everyone to understand his former neighbors maybe he should examine how many microaggressions and other subtle shit he missed because they were good people.

[blackjedii]

These deteriorating towns are sad, but they chose to vote the way they do even when a Dem runs who ~knows their way of life~ and is offering a slightly better way than the GOP.

What Dems?

Do you think the national party pours any money or resources into these areas? Not even the state bothers with it unless they see an edge to get into office and even then it's more based on cities than rural areas. We've not had a legitimate Democrat running in Virginia's 9th District since Boucher got ousted in 2010 and the Democratic Party don't even bother trying to finance a challenger. Meanwhile, the Repubs poured THOUSANDS of dollars into a state delegate race to get a guy below 30 into Richmond.

It's not that simple, sorry. Republicans may hate poor people after they've fleeced their vote but Democrats tend to forget actual structural poverty exists.

[lightframes]

This might be because it's way too close to the election, and I feel like at some point I could have this conversation with someone similar to the writer of this article, but I'm having a really hard time with this specific writer

[calinewarkwc69]

I think, in particular, this was referencing white people more so in the rust belt than in the south, and I don't particularly think he was excluding the narrative of POC, but because he is white, was only able to offer that perspective credibly. And when you say "Where is all this magic sympathy for black people when we "act out" coming from?" I think he is referring specifically to the "elite." You know, the white city liberals who go on Facebook and the news and DO fight against harmful racism and stereotypes, and by no means is there any suggestion here that this is not important work. But, what I think happens, is that to the people discussed in this article, as stated, regardless of wrong or right, they feel forgotten, and who goes out and panders to them? The fucking Republicans and Trump's of the world who tell them their hurt is OK to take out in the form of oppressing others so they can get theirs. Instead, we need, and "we" as the left, need to find a way to make OURSELVES the panderers. Surely there is a way to be able to

[lightframes]

Regarding your last sentence I don't disagree that Democrats need to win back the working class but at some point voters have to take responsibility for their actions. If I was struggling, and someone came up to me and said "I'll solve all of your problems BUT gay people will lose their rights" I would ask that person to leave me alone. I can't sympathize with someone who's willing to step on others to alleviate their own suffering. I can extend all the empathy I want but it doesn't look like I'll get any back.

[calinewarkwc69]

I said in another thread, but I think it's relevant here as well