Post by robeiae on Aug 6, 2019 13:24:24 GMT -5
Kind of a take-off on Cass's thread to third party voters here.
In that thread, Cass wanted to know how she might sway third party voters to vote for the Dem candidate in 2020, based on the idea that this would help secure Trump's defeat.
Reading/watching the media and social media across the past 48 hours or so leads me to a different question: how can I possibly support ANY Dem candidate (Biden, maybe?), given their behavior and the behavior of their supporters?
I know that social media is dominated by those who scream the loudest, who deal in outrage and extremist positions. And there are a ton of examples of Trump supporters, other Repubs, and conservative talking heads acting like jackasses in this same period (hell, in every time period). And there are always examples of Trump haters, Dems, and liberal/progressive talking heads doing the same. Generally, I ignore them all quite easily.
But in these last 48 hours, I've seen and heard new levels of bullshit from the latter group. I say "new levels" because it has literally dominated my twitter feed. Dominated. Lots of retweets to be sure, but also plenty of tweets from people I follow (or used to follow). I've reported a lot of tweets and blocked a lot of people in the last 48 hours.
For what, you ask? Well to start with, there have been an unbelievable of "fucks" lately, as in "Fuck Trump," "Fuck Ivana," "Fuck white people," "Fuck you if you don't agree with me," and so on. And these "fucks" aren't coming from random twitter users across the board. A lot are coming from the blue check mark crowd, supposedly notable people, many of whom are closely linked to candidates, the Dem party, or the professional media.
Then, there's the nonstop "white people"/"white men" shtick. There's no nuance in any of it, it's just unabashed hate and racism. I refuse to take ownership of every violent act committed by a "white man," in the same that I would never expect a "black man" to take ownership of every violent act committed by other "black men." All of these progressive activists saying this shit are telling me that I'm not welcome anywhere near them, so I sure as hell have no interest in voting for any candidate whom they support.
And how about the NYT, caving to pressure almost instantly because it ran a headline that wasn't sufficiently critical of Trump? WTF is that about? And make no mistake, much of that pressure was applied by Dems holding elected office.
And this issue lead right into the next one: people--including media people--have been (rightly) calling on Trump to denounce white supremacy for a while now. So he does. And damned if he's not catching more flak for doing so. It's not that I think simply denouncing the ideology is enough; actions speak louder than words, after all. But still, taking a necessary first step is always better than not taking it, imo.
Then there's the shit going down with Mitch McConnell. Look at this thread:
Hey, I know exactly who Saaverda is; I don't trust him. But the conduct of the people outside of McConnell's home (who I can't stand and who I think should step down) is indefensible, imo. So too is the trending hashtag #massacreMoscowMitch
The people involved in all of the above are--by and large--the public and active faces of the Dem Party, either as elected officials, water-carriers in the media, or proponents of current Dem candidates. In my view, they are all awful people and I don't want anything to do with them, in the same way that I want nothing to do with Trump and cadre of belligerent supporters.
I'm not voting for Trump, but how can I--in good conscience--vote for any of these other turkeys? That's my dilemma.
/rant
In that thread, Cass wanted to know how she might sway third party voters to vote for the Dem candidate in 2020, based on the idea that this would help secure Trump's defeat.
Reading/watching the media and social media across the past 48 hours or so leads me to a different question: how can I possibly support ANY Dem candidate (Biden, maybe?), given their behavior and the behavior of their supporters?
I know that social media is dominated by those who scream the loudest, who deal in outrage and extremist positions. And there are a ton of examples of Trump supporters, other Repubs, and conservative talking heads acting like jackasses in this same period (hell, in every time period). And there are always examples of Trump haters, Dems, and liberal/progressive talking heads doing the same. Generally, I ignore them all quite easily.
But in these last 48 hours, I've seen and heard new levels of bullshit from the latter group. I say "new levels" because it has literally dominated my twitter feed. Dominated. Lots of retweets to be sure, but also plenty of tweets from people I follow (or used to follow). I've reported a lot of tweets and blocked a lot of people in the last 48 hours.
For what, you ask? Well to start with, there have been an unbelievable of "fucks" lately, as in "Fuck Trump," "Fuck Ivana," "Fuck white people," "Fuck you if you don't agree with me," and so on. And these "fucks" aren't coming from random twitter users across the board. A lot are coming from the blue check mark crowd, supposedly notable people, many of whom are closely linked to candidates, the Dem party, or the professional media.
Then, there's the nonstop "white people"/"white men" shtick. There's no nuance in any of it, it's just unabashed hate and racism. I refuse to take ownership of every violent act committed by a "white man," in the same that I would never expect a "black man" to take ownership of every violent act committed by other "black men." All of these progressive activists saying this shit are telling me that I'm not welcome anywhere near them, so I sure as hell have no interest in voting for any candidate whom they support.
And how about the NYT, caving to pressure almost instantly because it ran a headline that wasn't sufficiently critical of Trump? WTF is that about? And make no mistake, much of that pressure was applied by Dems holding elected office.
And this issue lead right into the next one: people--including media people--have been (rightly) calling on Trump to denounce white supremacy for a while now. So he does. And damned if he's not catching more flak for doing so. It's not that I think simply denouncing the ideology is enough; actions speak louder than words, after all. But still, taking a necessary first step is always better than not taking it, imo.
Then there's the shit going down with Mitch McConnell. Look at this thread:
Hey, I know exactly who Saaverda is; I don't trust him. But the conduct of the people outside of McConnell's home (who I can't stand and who I think should step down) is indefensible, imo. So too is the trending hashtag #massacreMoscowMitch
The people involved in all of the above are--by and large--the public and active faces of the Dem Party, either as elected officials, water-carriers in the media, or proponents of current Dem candidates. In my view, they are all awful people and I don't want anything to do with them, in the same way that I want nothing to do with Trump and cadre of belligerent supporters.
I'm not voting for Trump, but how can I--in good conscience--vote for any of these other turkeys? That's my dilemma.
/rant