election 2016

[seventhe]

Thought the first:

The results clearly show that white Americans hate the government more than they hate racism and sexism.

We see that they hate the system enough that relevant experience becomes a negative and lack of experience a positive; that they want change, regardless of what it is, more than they want to embrace and protect their brothers and sisters who are Black, Hispanic, gay, female, chronically ill.

When framed in this way I find myself beginning to find something that I can... understand isn't the exact word I want, because I do not (and will never) understand why anyone finds that man to be a suitable and respectable face of the United States, but it's a framework I can, at least, process. I was a research scientist in an old life; I need to understand some form of why before I can really begin*.

Thought the second:

The new President is not necessarily the scariest piece on this new chessboard (which is surprising in itself). The Vice President is equally terrifying in his horrible, backwards, compassion-less approach to women, to LGBTQ+, to foreigners. But the scariest thing of all is that a full half of our nation either follows this awful rhetoric or found it unoffensive enough to make a vote for non-traditional government a net win. The scariest thing of all is the possibility that 50% of the people I interact with either consider me through a set of sexist, racist**, homophobic filters, or care so little about my sex & gender, my race, and my queerness that they consider me - my friends, my family - an acceptable side-product loss in the all-important act of, basically, giving the government a middle finger.

Thought the third:

It is true that we don't know what the 45th Presidency will be like. It is possible that the situation will be less dire than people expect. But how true? How possible?

Actions speak louder than words, and the actions we have seen at rallies have been (socially, mentally, physically) brutal - and the actions of the P & VP have been to condone these actions rather than shame them; to encourage them, to laugh at them, to cheer them, rather than to denounce and disable them.
I refuse to give the "benefit of the doubt" to a set of people whose visible actions in the last 12+ months have been deplorable. Words and speeches mean nothing compared to actual data.

Thought the fourth:

There are calls to be kind, to attempt understanding and teamwork, and I would correct that phrasing somewhat myself: we need to be kind, yes, but we need to not let calm turn into complacency. We need to be a hard kind, a strong kind; we need our goodwill to have teeth. Working together is the only way we can move out of this, yes; but I see no real reason to be "kind" to someone promoting agendas of racism, of sexism, of assault on woman-bodies and conversion camps for the LGBTQetc.

We need to avoid descending to the low level of the very thing we are fighting, yes, but I do not truly think you can kill hate entirely with only kindness and love. I also - less, or maybe more, importantly - do not think myself capable of showing true kindness to someone whose actions and beliefs condemn myself and my friends to danger and to a lesser-than status.

Thought the final:

I still feel like this is a world that doesn't exist; like this didn't happen, like it couldn't have happened. Possibly because I watched it unfold while in the airport in another country, on another continent, through the tiny pocket-size screen of my smartphone -- but also partly because, I fear, I still had a piece of faith left in (white) humanity.

* begin here meaning the process of sorting through my own feelings and determining the path i want to take
** "racist" does not actually apply to me here, as I am white AF, but I needed to recognize it in this sentence

Comments

[sathari]

Thoughts on your thoughts:

Re: thought the first: Yes. I say, only half sarcastically, that the fact that we founded this country on a revolution has given a lot of us the mistaken notion that that's always how to effect governmental change; we romanticize revolution. And the fact that that abstract notion of "change" is more important than the many, many real lives that will be harmed by it... yeah, folks in Trumpland, do you really have it that badly? And do you think this will be better for you? (I have to wonder how many of those Trump voters are themselves recipients of some form of the government assistance programs that the Republicans want to cut. They're not just throwing "people not like them" under the bus, they're doing it to themselves too.)

Re: point the second: I agree completely with your hierarchy of awfulness: Trump < Pence < the nearly 50% of the voting public whose response to Trump's rhetoric was somewhere between positive and neutral rather than a horrified rejection on the face of it.

Re: point the third: Honestly, I think it's a measure of how awful this situation is that some of us are taking any comfort at all from Trump's rather long history as a con man. Like, the best we can say of this guy is that his electioneering rhetoric was a con game designed to tap a market share with no more plans to deliver than he had with Trump U. But I agree with you that it doesn't matter whether he personally believes it or not; he's let a very violent genie out of the bottle even if he personally doesn't plan to deliver what he's promised (any more than he has in so many instances, whether it's Tump U or stiffing his contractors) (and possibly especially then; now that he's riled people up, if he doesn't deliver, they'll turn on us AND him). (See me not giving the deplorables OR Pence for that matter ANY benefit of ANY doubt whatsoever.) (About the best I can hope for Pence is that he's as ineffectual in his deploability as another famous, albeit fictional, Indiana boy: Frank Burns from "M*A*S*H".)

Re: thought the fourth: Oh, yeah. "Tough love" indeed. Hillary's speech nailed that, IMO. CALL TO FUCKING ARMS. The people we most need to love and be kind to are all of us that he's rallied hate against.

Re: thought the final: I was here while I watched it and it still seems surreal.

[queenlua]

And do you think this will be better for you? (I have to wonder how many of those Trump voters are themselves recipients of some form of the government assistance programs that the Republicans want to cut. They're not just throwing "people not like them" under the bus, they're doing it to themselves too.)

this is my big question. the fact that the jobs are leaving rural america is obvious; i grew up in kentucky and it was obvious to everyone bothering to listen that eastern kentucky had been hurting for a long long time. i just have no idea what trump intends to do to fix it, exactly; if there were an easy answer i'd assume we'd have done it already, and i think the main thing he's suggested so far is Mercantilism 2.0, which p much all economist seem to agree is a Pretty Bad Idea and likely to end up hurting more than it'll help.

[sathari]

Yes, yes, yes! I too come from assorted red states, and I just. It's like, apparently there's a sizable chunk of the Trump-voting population that would rather see their own lives get worse as long as there are whole swaths of the population whose lives they themselves are allowed to make even "more worse"? That's the only conclusion I can come to. (And not even that it's necessarily a literal hate for any particular group, just the fact that they get to bully people based on some characteristic or other.) (That apparently many people will throw themselves and their families under the bus for the "fun" of being mean to other people... I need a gif of Padme from Star Wars going, "You're breaking my heart".)

[owlmoose]

Hear hear hear, allll of this.

[flonnebonne]

This is the first response I've read that has really resonated with me. I like how measured and evidence-driven you are. Thank you.

[p_cocincinus]

I agree with the surrealness of the whole thing. I was watching the news on Wednesday morning and kept asking Jack if it was really happening. I still wonder in the "Surely we're not going to LET this really happen" way. My city has had massive protests every night, so I suspect we're not alone.

I also think about the way I usually vote for a politician: nobody supports everything I believe in, so I vote for the person who's closest, or the Democrat. I imagine that's how lots of people voted for Voldemort; he said a lot of exciting things about jobs and making the country better and he's a Republican, and if you're a fiscal Republican who's been ignoring the social conservative agenda the past umpty-bump years, it's just one more step to ignore outright racism. I don't think most of the country really hates us, they just don't care enough about us to do something different. The issue is that now the people who DO hate us now feel like they have tacit approval to be awful.

[sathari]

I still wonder in the "Surely we're not going to LET this really happen" way.

This. And. This is probably not going to carry the day, but when you said "not LET this happen"... well, there are a chunk of people trying to get the electoral college to not let it happen. (Apparently there's a petition on the Republican side to get them to go for anybody but Trump, too.) Feel free to signal-boost in whatever ways you think best. :>

[seventhe]

I've seen that petition around, and I cannot decide whether I am for or against it -- mainly because I am sore afraid that the reversal of this decision would be a mandate for protests and rioting from the "other side", who have been far more violent in their rallies this year and would have no problem further attacking marginalized groups.

That doesn't mean it's a bad idea, but I'm concerned.

[sathari]

Oh, you're not wrong about the other side's potential for violence. I'm just at the point where I think they're going to be violent regardless (not least because they already have been; they're celebrating their victory in ways that are arguably identical to how they'd protest their defeat--- namely by attacking "outgroups") and if there's a shot at getting ourselves a President whom the majority wanted and who WON'T condone or encourage it, much less appoint officials who will, it's worth trying.

[ser_pounce_alot]

my biggest thought today was i am so fucking angry that i can't be in america to open my doors and heart and time to everyone who feels scared and wishes someone were there with them. i would host refugees in my house IMMEDIATELY god i'm so angry that japan let 11 refugees in TOTAL last year, god why xenophobic dick-lickers. i wish i could be there to stand up for my muslim sisters and my black sisters and brothers and my LGTBQ family. i wish i could be part of the movement of good and i'm so ANGRY that we are going to get stuck outside it BECAUSE OF THIS GOVERNMENT.

i miss you already lol

[seventhe]

will smuggle u over here in suitcase

[lassarina]

This post is so good. Especially kindness with teeth.

[novel_machinist]

<3

[albijuli]

Thank you for saying "kindness with teeth."

Because I'm fed up with being told to be kind*, when it has been made explicitly clear that a lot of people want my queer Black broke ass dead. As if mere kindness is gonna save me and other just as and more vulnerable than me, when the hate crimes have been steadily increasing as the year went on. As if both sides are on an equal playing field, when systematic oppression is still being ignored.

And for a lot of people, the election results... and the exit polls... just confirmed what they already knew. This dumpster fire is now the [citation needed] everytime someone dares ask me why I won't be complacent or accept the crumbs I'm given. I'll work together, but with people I KNOW are gonna have my back and not throw my ass under the bus.

And the "Good" that let this happen needs to learn that sometimes, Good is Not Nice.


*And I get it from People Who Voted For This Cheeto, who are most likely going to survive the next 4-year hellscape, and those that just don't get that we can't coast toward progression anymore. We're absolutely fucked if we don't start taking concrete action.

[albijuli]

And I'm just... I'm really feeling your Thought the Second. THROWN. UNDER. THE. BUS.

[seventhe]

I have a group chat with my immediate family, and when I started expressing how upset and worried I was - literal anxiety - the immediate responses were things like "I'm sure it'll be okay" and "Let's all just be kind to each other." And I understand where they come from, but?? Why would I be nice to someone who is racist, misogynist, homophobic? It doesn't mean I'm going to go stab folks in the throats, and maybe they just need to be told to google "white privilege", but you aren't going to get a whole lot of "heal the world" kindness and sympathy from me there.

I'm fucking tired of being nice and of the "benefit of the doubt". WE ARE ALLOWED TO BE ANGRY.