One of the most dumbfounding things this past cycle was that, not only did the Clinton crowd demonize the right, they vilified the left as well, their allies! If you weren't on their specific hue of the political spectrum, then you were part of the problem. If you were too progressive, you were naive and delusional and your ideas would never have a chance of being enacted so you shouldn't even try. If you liked Bernie, well look right here, we've got this nice Bernie Bro narrative to run with to label people as sexists and racists, even Bernie himself! The implications that people wouldn't have prodded issues in Hillary's policy if she were a man. The implications that they weren't actually taking anything seriously and that they weren't gonna show up at the polls. Anyone not 100% on board with the queen was a problem.
Since the election has ended, so many people on gaf, myself included, have finally been able to step out and speak about how we were effectively chased away from political discussion here. I voted for Bernie in the primaries, and voted for Clinton in the GE, I never once ever considered anyone on the Republican side, including Trump. Voted for Obama, live in a blue area in a state that just went red, pro LGBTQ+, pro civil rights, supportive of BLM, supportive of religious tolerance [being athiest myself], etc, etc, etc. I'm on your fuckin' side and you managed to push people like me away by shutting down any concern or dissent. I can't even imagine how people on the right truly feel about you if you manage to chase your own side away. You don't want to hear it but you have to consider the perspective of other people that aren't in your left but not-too-left bubble, including poor and racist white people. Everyone has their story that brought them to the person they are today.
Despite being the side of inclusion and tolerance, your behavior echoes that of the right in that you only have compassion and empathy for the people you've decided you want to have compassion and empathy for. Don't get me wrong, it's clear as day, a ton of Trump supporters are bigoted, fucking tell them off for doing bigoted shit. But in the past few days so many on gaf have made it clear that they don't even want to entertain the idea of understanding their perspective, AKA 'why they are the way they are' AKA bigoted. They won't extend an olive branch to you so you won't extend one to them. Well, guess what? No olive branches for anyone ever. You can sit in your pile of Trump until you die, convinced that somehow hate won't breed more hate. But they're Americans, too, and they also have the power to vote.
For as shitty as America is, it's a lot less shitty than it used to be, and it blows my mind that nobody wants to be a bigger person because they've got some moral high ground to uphold instead of taking the morally high action of trying to enact change. This election has made it clear that there's a divide between urban and rural Americans. Urbanites can afford to give a shit about trans rights and the injustices of police brutality. Most jobs in the city aren't really going anywhere, and if they do, you can fall down the ladder a few steps. Yeah, it sucks to work at Mickey D's, but at the end of the day, you're at least alright. Out in the boonies, they don't have that shit. One job down and that's it. Factory closed and all those workers need something to do. Meanwhile, us cityfolk are rallying behind green energy and letting immigrants and refugees in because we're thinking of the greater future, the long game. These are things that are ultimately better in the grand scheme of things, but will only serve to make things shittier for the countryfolk. But instead of trying to understand, you've decided they're all a bunch of bigots and they can't be helped and they shouldn't be helped. Deplorable, racist, uneducated. Doesn't matter if it's true or not, if your morals are actually good, you'd find a way to help those people without giving into their hate. At least Trump had his bullshit wall, which kills the immigrant and job birds at the same time. Again, doesn't matter if the wall is viable or true, he at least offered something. Clinton didn't offer them anything, and neither did you, leaving them with Trump. Because you didn't want to give an inch in order to gain a mile. You think you're doing the right thing, but they also think they're doing the right thing. But because you don't have in interest in their perspective, you'll never find a way to fix things. That's a defeatist attitude, the idea that nothing can be done about racism and sexism.
That's why you shout them down and drown them out. If the bigots don't have a voice, then it's almost like the country is moving forward. But no, they're just silent, but the hate is still there. The hate pops up every now and again, maybe a baker somewhere doesn't want to make a cake for a gay wedding. Hits the news. We all denounce it. We send the bad press their way. We send the hate their way. They go out of business. We think we've won. Another step of progress. They go home to their kids and tell them 'the faggots are ruining this country'. We didn't win, we made things worse. Now that hate is festering into a new form. But at least we got to feel morally superior to the homophobe, if only for a moment. Again, doesn't matter that we are morally better because we didn't actually fix anything. Cycle this over a billion times and everything is worse. We could have worked to invite these people to our side, to get them under our umbrella. Bernie had a shot at it, but Clinton didn't try. What a huge step it would be to convince that side there was common ground with the socially progressive. Instead, the left was content with letting the bigots vote for the bigot so when they lost they would continue doing bigoted things. Well now they've won and we didn't want a bridge so none of them split off with us. Bonus points because the winner has terrible healthcare and economic policies and also doesn't believe in climate change. Good thing we let all those eggs gather in one basket. Half the country didn't even vote, and this toxic behavior did no favors towards getting them to take action. Be the change you want to see. I'm going to bed. This is a worthless post.
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