While we wait for Tucker Carlson to do his Russian agent misinformation imitation (or is he one in truth?) thing, how do you talk to a Donald Trump supporter, like the guy who set fire to a hay bale display in support of Joe Biden in Massachusetts, or the man in Florida who stole a bulldozer and drove around destroying Biden campaign signs? Well, you can’t, and you shouldn’t, unless you want to get hurt.
Of course if you have a family living on the other side of the country who supports Trump and get all their “facts” from Fox News, then it may be wise to maintain “distance” in discussing politics. There are “extenuating” circumstances to explain why I am the “outlier” of the family, and just taking a look at me and the “others” explains enough about why I see the world in a much different light than they do. I do communicate by that rarity of rarities these day, by letter, with one family member. A letter I received from him in August was an attempt to explain why us “liberals” were out to “destroy” the country:
Just wanted to write and say that I am pleased the CHOP conflict is over. The summer of block parties and love, was not impressive with two young people getting shot and killed. A mayor who is a coward along with the governor of the state. There is so much violence, called peaceful protest that makes me sick of the radicals no matter of what race. With the hate for Trump that you and the Dems have, I sure hope deranged Joe Biden gets elected in Nov. Of course he will be the puppet for the liberal left, ad we will see how fast this country will go into the Great Depression. Raise taxes and climate change, too loser programs to grow the economy.
Defund the police, how successful will this be when crimes are committed like murder, rape, home invasions and all the distraction you see on TV with the so-called peaceful protests. Don’t forget all the statues that have been defaced and pulled down by the so-called peaceful protesters. As for the COVID-19 Virus: It is not a problem for the country with the so-called peaceful protesters all nested together, but not for the rest of the country--close the beaches, social distancing and of course wear a facemask.
It is of course not possible to explain to a person who gets their “facts” from Carlson or Sean Hannity that this is mostly opinion and cherry-picking of images--especially in Seattle. I mean I actually live here; why wouldn’t I know better about what is going on in the streets than Fox News fascists, or those right-wing “populists” on KIRO radio or MyNorthwest.com? Those people were killed by troublemakers from outside the “zone,” and you saw a lot more people wearing masks at these protests than at a typical Trump rally. The only thing that I could do was attempt to offer a reasoned point-by-point rebuttal:
Thanks for writing. I should first say that it shouldn’t be surprising that I have a bit different perspective on what is going on in this country, although I admit if I viewed the world through a prism of hate propaganda from Fox & Friends, Jeannine Pirro, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity, that would be the perfect combustible material to keep a bushfire going. I wouldn’t trust all the imagery you get from Fox News; Capitol Hill is only about five square blocks of the city, and “happenings” there are hardly unusual, just the scale and “newsworthiness” is notable. I live here, not some Fox News producer using cell phone video. I’m glad the CHOP thing is over, but the fact that it only took a few hours to clear the area showed that these were people with just too much time on their hands, and needed an “excuse” to go home.
When Trump sends in DHS goons like they’re his personal militia just for show, it is bound not to be taken well; just look at what happened in Portland—his goons suddenly appeared in unmarked cars kidnapping random people off the street. Yeah, people are not going to take that well; note that everything was back to being (relatively) peaceful after the DHS goons were withdrawn from the city. Note also that the “umbrella man” who was rampaging in Minneapolis, a one-man wrecking crew, belonged to a white supremacist gang which “did not care” about the lives of persons of color, and had its own “agenda.”
In any case, if Trump hadn’t been fanning the flames of white grievance and nationalism in this country for almost four years now, none of this would be happening. Nobody believes that Trump wants to “heal” racial wounds or bring people together, nobody believes that he wants police held accountable (remember his “when the looting starts, the shooting starts”?), and certainly his white grievance supporters are happy that he doesn’t. No doubt Trump’s “advisers” are telling him that only “our” people count, not all people. Personally, I wish these protests would be more local and targeted to specific incidents, not some “national” movement, but I blame Trump for fanning the flames of hate and distrust, especially with the language that one would associate with a fascist dictator.
I can’t believe you say that the COVID-19 isn’t “serious,” especially when cases in Tennessee have been rising rapidly in the past several weeks, and the death counts have been artificially undercounted for political reasons because the state refuses to count “probable” deaths. Underplaying the seriousness of the virus and refusing to wear masks may be “good” for the “live free or die” types; they are “free” to do both, but they are not “free” to get other people sick. Frankly, I think that people who wear masks are more patriotic than those who do not. I had to laugh when I read that Fox News was declaring that the lower count of cases in Florida was “evidence” that things were improving; as usual, the Fox News misinformation machine forgot to tell you that Florida closed down some testing stations because of the hurricane, thus artificially lowering the count. Today, the daily death count in Florida was still two-thirds the national total.
Anyways, if this country is going to return to being a “shining city on the hill,” Trump has to go. Believe me, Hannity has no idea what he is talking about; the fact that Fox News (outside of Chris Wallace) ties itself so tightly to a moral and ethical monstrosity like Trump condemns it credibility.
I obviously didn’t expect him to change his views, since that would require him to stop getting his “news” from far-right conspiracy nutjobs and Trump sycophants. However, the last couple of letters I received since then omitted any more commentary on politics and social issues. Not a “win,” of course, just calling a truce. I know that if Biden wins, that he will be calling Biden a “radical socialist” just like he called Obama one (what happened to the “Great Depression” and anarchy in the streets then?), and if Trump wins, for me it will be the end of civilization as we used to know it.
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