Please...

[poliphilo]

Please, fellow liberals, less of the illiberality.

Try to understand why people who aren't liberals have voted the way they did. No-one is without reasons. No-one has a monopoly on virtue.

And please stop accusing Trump voters of racism and misogyny. It may be true of some. But not all by any means. Don't demonise your opponent. It just deepens the division.

Understand that this election was between two of the least popular candidates ever. There were good reasons for not supporting Hillary. Very good reasons.  Many will have voted for Trump as the lesser of two evils.

And try to rein in the fear and hysteria. Fear is disabling. You're only hurting yourselves.

Comments

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

There are very good reasons why we're frightened.

Because people kill us. It's nice that you don't have to be frightened. But don't say that the fear of people who are in danger is unjustified.

[redatt.livejournal.com]

Your fear is justified. People who put a cross next to Trump's name can dress it up any way they like, but the bottom line is Trump stated plainly a varity of racist (and other nasty) goals and that's what they validated. It is not hysterical, or demonising, or illiberal to call a racist act a racist act.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I don't think Trump, himself, is necessarily a white supremacist, anti-semite, homophobe, or any of the rest of it.

I just know that he pandered to them, and has now emboldened them, and my gay, Latino, Asian, Black, transgender, and everything else friends are in danger, and once they get through those, they'll be coming for us Jews. Unless we head them off.

[redatt.livejournal.com]

He said the bad things. That is inherently racist, homopho etc. It matters not whether he was doing it more for expediency's sake or more because of deep rooted hatred of a particular group. He ran on those terms, on those stated aims. That too is a racist act, homophobic, etc act. It does not warrant being or deserve to be couched in terms of speculation about what Trump is or isn't deep down. It is what he chose to do.

He emboldened others, as you say, and that is frightening. I am deeply saddened by it and sorry for everyone directly affected. And I hope like mad no one's worse fears are realized.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

A lot of people who are in no particular danger are ramping up the fear too.

Fear is a natural human reaction to danger. Doesn't mean it's a good thing- or to be indulged.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

And ignoring it is worse.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It should be acknowledged. And confronted. And converted- where possible- into something more positive and energetic.

As Obama said (it was him, wasn't it?) "We have nothing to fear but fear itself."

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Why do you think fear isn't positive or energetic?

[tagryn]

IMHO I think its certainly energizing - anyone who's had an adrenaline rush while afraid has experienced that - but pain and fear also narrows one's perspective...which is good if the situation really is a fight-or-flight one that requires quick decision making, but bad if wisdom and considered action is what's called for. We're fortunate in our society to rarely experience true life-or-death immediacy in our everyday lives, but the biomechanism is still there in our nervous system and brains, ready to be triggered.

I think that's also why appeals to fear and negative ads work so well - it makes the brain simplify things that are complex, regardless of whether the simplification is actually appropriate or not.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm speaking from experience. Feat stops me from doing things I ought to do.