August 31, 2020 ā¼ š ā¼ ā¬ļø
I canāt remember where it comes from, but thereās a common self-improvement refrain along the lines of āyou are who you surround yourself with.ā
Some of the most vocal groups of Trump supporters are Qanon followers, Holocaust deniers, and Neo-Nazi/KKK members. Obviously not all Republicans and Trump supporters believe these things and I have some faith they are a vocal minority, but when vocal Qanon theorists start winning primaries, I think itās important to look at the groups who support the things you do and consider why these groups, who stand for things you hopefully find abhorrent, are so passionate to support Trump.
It doesnāt take much to see how the coded language of Trump matches up so closely to David Duke during Dukeās own political campaigns. Give the most recent season of Slow Burn a listen and you can hear Duke, in his own words, use very similar language to Trump. Or a recent episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver where Oliver plays tape of a political strategist for Reagan and H.W. Bush stating since they canāt use the N-word anymore in public, they need to use racist, coded language instead in order to appeal their base.
When there are āgood people on both sidesā at a rally for Neo-Naziās and KKK memberās where they chant āJews will not replace usā but āthugsā at Black Lives Matter protests, the language from the current president says it all. No decoding necessary.
People are more important than property. It shouldnāt need to be said, but apparently thatās where we are. And while you may believe protests should not turn into riots; arrests should not turn into murders. Nobody wants to riot, but just remember it was only a few years ago when kneeling was abhorrent and the wrong way to protest (which is complete bullshit), but still nothing changed when people were outraged over men dropping to one knee. Obviously things will escalate when peopleās and an entire race continues to be ignored when voicing their concerns about being muttered in the streets by police officers.
To those Republicans who believe Black Lives Matter and arenāt huge fans of Trump and his followers but still plan on voting for him: Iām guessing youāve said or believe something like this: āIām fiscally conservative and socially liberalā. Well good on you, Iām sure you think you deserve a pat on the back for believing other humans should have equal rights. But if you vote in favor of the fiscal half over the social half then you donāt actually give a fuck.
What that says to me, is you care more about your wallet than then ensuring all individuals have equal rights to your own.