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On Recent Events (CW: Politics)
4 years ago
I haven't been nearly as outspoken here as I have been on social media, but for those who don't follow me there and aren't aware of my positions already, I categorically and absolutely condemn the attempted violent coup by supporters of Donald J. Trump in Washington, DC.
This violent attempt to usurp US democracy was motivated and spurred by a malicious and false conspiracy theory that the 2020 Presidential Election was rigged against Trump, who was an instrumental figure in inciting violence among his supporters as he has done for years. Trump is guilty of attempting to overturn the results off a fair election, but also of doing so violently through his hateful rhetoric and inciting those who follow him to violence.
This chain of guilt extends far beyond him however: it extends to members of his family such as Don Jr. who played a role in spreading conspiracy theories about the election. It extends to members of his government and cabinet who have enabled Trump's behaviour and refused to remove him from office when he did so. It extends to members of Trump's party who have, similarly, embraced a malicious lie concocted by a narcissistic man who refuses to admit that he lost a fair election. It extends to his supporters who have remained loyal to him, who have voted for him, and who have enabled his worst tendencies.
From highest to lowest, anyone who at any level supported the coup attempt in the Capitol or enabled it to happen through the propagation of malicious lies must be held accountable for doing so.
If you are someone who personally supports Donald Trump, please unwatch me, do not favourite my pieces, speak to me, or otherwise attempt to contact me. Because I cannot accept someone who supports an administration which does not value democracy or human rights.
If you are still a Trump supporter even after everything he has done, I urge you to move away from the path of hatred and violence before it is too late. But I cannot accept any kind of support from people who are hateful.
For those of you reading this and maybe wondering why I am so strident on this matter, I offer the following rationale: this is an issue that goes beyond talking. I have said for the past 4 years, and continue to say this: Donald Trump is someone who fundamentally does not care about democracy, about the law, or about human rights. Donald Trump is someone who simply does not value human life.
I cannot accept this on a moral, personal, or political level. I am LGBT+ and I stand in solidarity with others in my community who experience persecution whether now or in the past. But it also goes beyond me and my personal identity.
I am not a woman, but I support women's rights. I am not an immigrant, but I support immigrant's rights. I am not African-American, but I support rights for African-Americans and oppose the horrific police violence that is epidemic in the United States against people and communities of colour. I am not Muslim, but I support without reservation the right of Muslims or those of any other religious tradition to practise their faith in peace and without suspicion or persecution in the United States. Supporting the rights and livelihoods of those who are different from myself is something I consider to not only be the right thing to do, I consider it to be a moral imperative.
I strongly believe that diversity makes the United States a stronger, more moral, and more advanced nation. Knowing this to be my belief, I cannot in good conscience accept an administration which stands against all of those things and devalues the common humanity shared by all people.
That's pretty much it, I had to formally say this somewhere, though those who know me will know this to already be my position on the matter.
This violent attempt to usurp US democracy was motivated and spurred by a malicious and false conspiracy theory that the 2020 Presidential Election was rigged against Trump, who was an instrumental figure in inciting violence among his supporters as he has done for years. Trump is guilty of attempting to overturn the results off a fair election, but also of doing so violently through his hateful rhetoric and inciting those who follow him to violence.
This chain of guilt extends far beyond him however: it extends to members of his family such as Don Jr. who played a role in spreading conspiracy theories about the election. It extends to members of his government and cabinet who have enabled Trump's behaviour and refused to remove him from office when he did so. It extends to members of Trump's party who have, similarly, embraced a malicious lie concocted by a narcissistic man who refuses to admit that he lost a fair election. It extends to his supporters who have remained loyal to him, who have voted for him, and who have enabled his worst tendencies.
From highest to lowest, anyone who at any level supported the coup attempt in the Capitol or enabled it to happen through the propagation of malicious lies must be held accountable for doing so.
If you are someone who personally supports Donald Trump, please unwatch me, do not favourite my pieces, speak to me, or otherwise attempt to contact me. Because I cannot accept someone who supports an administration which does not value democracy or human rights.
If you are still a Trump supporter even after everything he has done, I urge you to move away from the path of hatred and violence before it is too late. But I cannot accept any kind of support from people who are hateful.
For those of you reading this and maybe wondering why I am so strident on this matter, I offer the following rationale: this is an issue that goes beyond talking. I have said for the past 4 years, and continue to say this: Donald Trump is someone who fundamentally does not care about democracy, about the law, or about human rights. Donald Trump is someone who simply does not value human life.
I cannot accept this on a moral, personal, or political level. I am LGBT+ and I stand in solidarity with others in my community who experience persecution whether now or in the past. But it also goes beyond me and my personal identity.
I am not a woman, but I support women's rights. I am not an immigrant, but I support immigrant's rights. I am not African-American, but I support rights for African-Americans and oppose the horrific police violence that is epidemic in the United States against people and communities of colour. I am not Muslim, but I support without reservation the right of Muslims or those of any other religious tradition to practise their faith in peace and without suspicion or persecution in the United States. Supporting the rights and livelihoods of those who are different from myself is something I consider to not only be the right thing to do, I consider it to be a moral imperative.
I strongly believe that diversity makes the United States a stronger, more moral, and more advanced nation. Knowing this to be my belief, I cannot in good conscience accept an administration which stands against all of those things and devalues the common humanity shared by all people.
That's pretty much it, I had to formally say this somewhere, though those who know me will know this to already be my position on the matter.
Yeah...he's screwed but then he was always screwed up...good riddance to the oversized Oompah Loompah.
When Nixon resigned and was pardoned for all of his crimes as President, he started a tradition of impunity but also of abuse of presidential power.
I think it is imperative that Trump not experience the same lack of prosecution and punishment for his crimes.
The moment I first saw that guy I've been seeing all the red flags.
My parents only voted for him because he's a Republican, but not me.
I've always known that there was something wrong with Trump.
First of all, he's such a bad loser because he refuses to accept defeat and claims that it's rigged.
And now he's encouraged rioters to storm the capital.
And instead of taking responsibility for what happened, he pinned the blame entirely on the rioters.
His speech in his video didn't fool me.
No wonder he's gonna lose everything in NYC.
And if the rumors about his wife divorcing him after he leaves office, then Trump will be left with nothing at all.
I say that Trump was a failure as a president.
He was a failure as a Republican.
He was a failure as a human being.
Personally, I knew that the guy was trouble since before he even got the Republican nomination in 2016.
I knew he was bad then, and he's gotten worse since.
We cannot say we weren't warned.
We cannot say that he did not gave abundant indications that this was the kind of person he was and that his supporters were capable of anything.
Trump's actions have been dangerous since the very beginning, there are those who will say in the aftermath of the attempted coup in the Capitol that they didn't know.
They will say that Trump has finally gone too far.
But this is always who he was, and we should accept that sooner rather than later.
Honestly I cannot overstate how happy and validated it makes me to get so much response to this post. Like I mentioned above, I honestly wondered if I should even share my thoughts at all because I wondered if anyone would even come across my post. Or that I'd get a bunch of responses from alt-right trolls or something.
I'm glad to see that this is not the case and that you and other decent, conscientious people have come across my words!
The only reason he was elected was because he is a bully; he thrives in the spotlight of shaming other people and pointing the finger at anyone else who isn't him. He hates the word "responsibility" and ownership. He can never be wrong. He can never be at fault for anything.
The whole point of him being president is simply power. He never once wanted to actually run or do anything to help the country. It was simply a muse for him to have status. The "MAGA" slogan was to divert a large group of Americans and make them believe that they could bring the US back to an era of prosperity under a white leader. It never happened.
If anyone is still a Trump supporter, it's out of blind and sheer ignorance and hate. No longer are these people conservative or anything. They're simply content with the notion that nobody is right except for them, and they'll die with nobody to care for them.
I think, at the end of the day, Trump sees the world as a zero-sum game. By which I mean, he sees the world as divided into "winners" and "losers", and that if you aren't one of those things, you are the other. Every interaction and transaction has a winner and a loser. And to him, if he doesn't "win": which he defines as totally screwing over the other side and getting everything he wants, then in his mind, that makes him the loser.
More than anything, I suspect a lot of Trump's actions and plans stem from not wanting to be a "loser". That's why he can't stand the idea that he actually lost the election. That's why he prefers the idea that the vote was somehow rigged by corrupt Democrats even though they somehow forgot to also rig House and Senate elections so that they won those too.
Though I will also add that Trump is not an aberration. He is not a one-off freak occurrence in US politics. But rather he and his supporters are the culmination of decades of corrosive far-right ideology. The kinds of people who have been exposed to years of rhetoric intentionally designed to radicalise and supercharge their hateful attitudes. This is the responsibility of Republican politicians who employed such rhetoric in their election and re-election campaigns. It is the responsibility of past Republican Presidents who used racism and other forms of bigotry to win votes. It is the responsibility of hate-for-profit media like Fox News which used malicious disinformation and bigotry to build a vast media empire.
Though, on a somewhat more sobering note, we must admit that many of these developments draw upon a long and dark history of white supremacy in the United States. And ultimately, that in confronting Trump, we must confront this ugly legacy as well.
Soon Trump will be out of the White House and we can move forward again as a country. It will take a long to time to repair the damage he has done, but we can push through and become better for it.
And always nice to encounter someone else who is on the spectrum. :>