My family's first niece is turning 2 in March. I love her to absolute pieces, and in just a couple years when she starts to comprehend the general idea of a single person being the head of one of the 3 branches of government, and when she starts to learn about all the past presidents, she'll inevitably make her way to Trump. And I swear to god I have absolutely no idea how I'm supposed to handle it. Say what you want about Bush Jr., say what you want about previous administrations, you could at least look at them and debate the pros and cons of what they were able to accomplish, but with Trump I genuinely don't know how we're going to explain it to up and coming generations.
Trump is something so completely off-balance, something so vehemently disrespectful, so sadistic and depressing and unfathomable to government as we know it, but we'll eventually be the ones to answer for our mistakes years down the road as a country. And frankly, I have absolutely no idea how I'll handle it.
You tell her the truth. That good-intentioned people who thought they were smart were manipulated by the bad-faith, hostile acts of a foreign government perpetrated by online disinformation campaigns scientifically developed to trigger certain emotional responses in certain segments of our population. And that it worked. And that this is why she needs to be careful when she uses the Internet, and is why she needs to think for herself and educate herself so she doesn't fall victim to the lies and crimes of others. Teach her that the Internet is a tool just like any other, and if she doesn't use it properly, she could seriously hurt herself. Tell her you wouldn't let her use a chainsaw without proper supervision or training, so you won't let her use the Internet without proper supervision or training.
Tell her that Trump was aberration - a representation of the worst of our country, which was brought to the forefront because another country wanted to tear us down to their level. And tell her that it doesn't represent the majority, not even close. Tell her to look at Trump as an example of why this country was founded, why the protections against the government in our Constitution are so important, and why it's important to participate in our democracy. And tell her that what makes our country great is that, while we may trip up or go the wrong direction at times, we nonetheless have the potential and capacity for great change, and that it's up to her and her generation to make sure this amazing experiment of a country moves closer and closer to fulfilling the aspirations set forth by our founders and ancestors.
Edit: The fact that this comment has brought the propagandists and the brainwashed out of the woodwork is just further proof of the veracity of my statements. Keep em coming, comrades. The more you post, the more you prove me right. This wouldn’t strike such a chord with you if there weren’t truth behind it.
Edit 2: To anyone who thinks blaming Russia is the wrong choice, you severely underestimate how effective their tactics were. These tactics were engineered using the scientific method and a complex understanding of psychology. They effectively figured how to use the Internet for inception purposes, and it worked. To think otherwise is, quite frankly, naive and dangerous. Trump simply would not have won without that effort being so effective. That’s the indisputable fact of the matter. And that’s why blame falls primarily on Russia. Refusing to blame them as the major force behind this is exactly what Putin would want, as well...
Also note how I never said to blame Russia and no one else. Of course racism and classism are huge problems in our society and there are other things to blame. But those existed before 2016 just as much as they did during the election. Fox News was always this way, the GOP was always this way, corporate influence was always this way. Trump would not have won simply because we are a racist, classist society. But what would have stopped him from winning was if Russia didn’t manipulate and brainwash a massive portion of our population. If we’re ever going to come together as Americans, we need to forgive those good people who were brainwashed. And that’s going to take some careful thought on our part to mete out the good-intentioned brainwashed from the bad-intentioned racists and fascists. But that’s not a story to tell your sons and daughters, because that’s not their fight (yet) - that’s still our fight. This was a suggestion on how to heal our country, and it has to start with teaching our children that our country isn’t full of horrible people because it’s not.
This comment is ridiculously optimistic, the racist US public coupled with their unique ability to lock their brains against education is proof that something is deeply wrong with America and voting democrat for the rest of your life isnt going to fix it.
No, it’s just reality. You’re insane if you think the Russian disinformation campaign wasn’t far more effective than anyone realizes. That’s the real problem. Nearly half of our voting population was brainwashed. We can’t ignore that and just chalk it up to racism. Yes, racism is a huge issue in this country and we shouldn’t give up the fight against that, but racism alone was not sufficient for Trump to win.
Nearly half of our voting population was brainwashed.
This is the convenient lie you tell yourself to avoid the very real circumstances that better articulates the situation.
Hand waving the personal agency for the actions of people is a lame type of dehumanization.
People loved the refugee, islamophobic, anti-mexican, white nationalist, cult of personality, climate change denial, triggered sjws memes on facebook because they appeal to their personal sensibilities.
Russia helped those memes along by purchasing facebook space and fake accounts on twitter, but given we know the amount they spent and the amount of trolls that operated, it isn't reasonable to be making the leaps you do.
Your thesis isn't provable and is just a narrative designed to make naive nationalists like yourself dismiss the ugly nature of your culture.
These sensibilities that have been normalized by your media's out right support of this culture (Fox News) and the politically correct position that both sides of American political discourse are valid and not underpinned by anti-social impulses and racism (most of the other broadcasters)
If there's one thread that runs through US history it's the power of groups of racist white people.
racism alone was not sufficient for Trump to win.
Yes, it's more than sufficient. If you had taken away Trump's moronic blunders and blatant misogyny, he would have won the popular vote without any Russian help.
Directly collaborating with foreign states is a big deal, don't get me wrong, but this case hangs on contingent little things like Trump's real estate financing deals from decades ago and how people digest news on the internet. By the time this kid is of voting age, the internet isn't even going to look familiar.
The larger issues that will still be with us are the systemic problems in our own society. Why are rich people allowed to be widely-known criminals for decades? Why is the media so reticent to call racists racist? Why does no one care that conservatives have given up all pretense of advancing a consistent ideology?
It's pretty sad that this comment is being downvoted. You're not wrong, Russia manipulated many people and played on the human need for familiarity, and our tribalistic tendencies. This resulted in a loud minority of racists agreeing with Trump, but it's not unreasonable to believe that most Trump supporters were convinced to behave more aggressively toward other races because that was the mentality they were shown from the leaders of their own group.
That too. It was the perfect storm of Democrat leaving office after 2 terms, civil unrest, Russian interference, a lack of any real candidates, and dnc horsefuckery.
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u/whatsaphoto Jan 09 '19
My family's first niece is turning 2 in March. I love her to absolute pieces, and in just a couple years when she starts to comprehend the general idea of a single person being the head of one of the 3 branches of government, and when she starts to learn about all the past presidents, she'll inevitably make her way to Trump. And I swear to god I have absolutely no idea how I'm supposed to handle it. Say what you want about Bush Jr., say what you want about previous administrations, you could at least look at them and debate the pros and cons of what they were able to accomplish, but with Trump I genuinely don't know how we're going to explain it to up and coming generations.
Trump is something so completely off-balance, something so vehemently disrespectful, so sadistic and depressing and unfathomable to government as we know it, but we'll eventually be the ones to answer for our mistakes years down the road as a country. And frankly, I have absolutely no idea how I'll handle it.