The Condescending, Intolerant Left Blows My Mind

[Fuzzy Bear]

https://newrepublic.com/article/160035/trump-supporters

Nicholas Kristof touched on this a bit in a column that could be a coda for the tense weekend that just passed. Kristof politely tried to explain to his conservative friends why he doesn’t just oppose Trump as a normal politician but as a threat to the nation and democracy itself.

Very noble of him. And he’s not wrong to argue that those who support Trump support an existential threat to the republic without an evident shred of self-doubt or concern.

https://nypost.com/2020/11/05/the-left-is-again-showing-that-it-cant-stand-anyone-who-disagrees/

In The Atlantic, meanwhile, Tom Nichols worries that “a large portion of the electorate chose the sociopath.”

“Sadly, the voters who said in 2016 that they chose Trump because they thought he was ‘just like them’ turned out to be right. Now, by picking him again, those voters are showing that they are just like him: angry, spoiled, racially resentful, aggrieved and willing to die rather than ever admit that they were wrong. . . . It’s clear now that far too many of Trump’s voters don’t care about policy, decency or saving our democracy. They care about power.”

I have liberal and conservative friends.  I always have.  I read these sort of things and conclude that a lot of people have just lost it.  But the thing that blows my mind the most is that I spent so much of my life believing that Liberals were the ones most dedicated to free speech.  It's still a disconnect to see that Conservatives are the ones that advocate the 1st Amendment.

[It’s so Joever]

Sorry, if you can still support this man after everything this year, that is a reflection on you and your character. I know it sucks to hear...but that’s just the truth as I see it.

I will be friendly and even “a friend” to someone who supports Trump, but I will secretly think little of them as a person.

And obviously you don’t know what free speech means, but go ahead and cry about some college student who got their feelings hurt and now is too ashamed to say Covid is a hoax or climate change isn’t real, or people with pre-existing conditions should be charged more for healthcare.

[John Dule]

It's not just the left. Plenty of people on the right, myself included, feel this way too. Sorry, but I don't see how one's political views aren't a direct reflection of one's values as a person-- and therefore one's character. And Donald Trump reflects pretty freaking poorly upon his supporters.

[Hammy]

Does Steve Bannon saying the FBI director and Fauci should be beheaded blow your mind? Does Trump trying to undermine the election blow your mind? Does Trump supporters targeting vote counting locations so the counting can never finish blow your mind?

Complaining about THE LEFT!!!!!!!!! as if they're the only ones that do this is beyond hypocritical, especially as your side who actually hold the power in the country continue to have nothing to offer other than "lol this triggers libs"

People are assholes, especially when it comes to politics--acting like it's limited to one side is nothing short of willful ignorance.

[Starry Eyed Jagaloon]

Nobody is calling the right of free speech into question lmao. We're just exercising ours by emphasizing how contemptable a vote for Trump is.

Now it might be time for your side to take a good hard look at how little you care about liberal democracy.

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

This isn't going to fade away when Trump leaves office (as Biden will almost certainly win now).  Ultimately, this isn't about Trump.  So much of what Trump was attacked for was standard Republican stuff.  Whoever the Republicans nominate in 2024, even if that's Nikki Haley, will be branded as a fascist.

One side is being increasingly conditioned to believe that there has been an eternal force for good in America, liberalism, contrasted with the eternal evil force of conservatism.  American history is being forced to fit this narrative.  Half of the country is supposedly racist, and reality has to be constantly contorted to fit that narrative.  The right is no longer misinformed, they are evil in the eyes of many.  And its not just a few partisan hacks (those always have existed), but it's people who are part of respectable society.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Trumpians are a minority of the country not the majority or else Trump would have won the popular vote.

They are afraid to lose power due to fact as a Minority party, R, thanks to Reagan has won including Congress 16/20 elections. There won't be any 413 maps, the R party isn't dead, but it's safe to assume they are in for a rough decade like D's were in 2010s

[SteveRogers]

https://newrepublic.com/article/160035/trump-supporters

Nicholas Kristof touched on this a bit in a column that could be a coda for the tense weekend that just passed. Kristof politely tried to explain to his conservative friends why he doesn’t just oppose Trump as a normal politician but as a threat to the nation and democracy itself.

Very noble of him. And he’s not wrong to argue that those who support Trump support an existential threat to the republic without an evident shred of self-doubt or concern.

https://nypost.com/2020/11/05/the-left-is-again-showing-that-it-cant-stand-anyone-who-disagrees/

In The Atlantic, meanwhile, Tom Nichols worries that “a large portion of the electorate chose the sociopath.”

“Sadly, the voters who said in 2016 that they chose Trump because they thought he was ‘just like them’ turned out to be right. Now, by picking him again, those voters are showing that they are just like him: angry, spoiled, racially resentful, aggrieved and willing to die rather than ever admit that they were wrong. . . . It’s clear now that far too many of Trump’s voters don’t care about policy, decency or saving our democracy. They care about power.”

I have liberal and conservative friends.  I always have.  I read these sort of things and conclude that a lot of people have just lost it.  But the thing that blows my mind the most is that I spent so much of my life believing that Liberals were the ones most dedicated to free speech.  It's still a disconnect to see that Conservatives are the ones that advocate the 1st Amendment.

What does any of what you quoted have to do with the First Amendment?

[Meclazine for Israel]

Well,

Now is the Democratic Party's xhance to unite the country.

Let's see if President Biden can do it.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

I have liberal and conservative friends.  I always have.  I read these sort of things and conclude that a lot of people have just lost it.  But the thing that blows my mind the most is that I spent so much of my life believing that Liberals were the ones most dedicated to free speech.  It's still a disconnect to see that Conservatives are the ones that advocate the 1st Amendment.

https://twitter.com/nbcnews/status/918179926917906432?lang=en

[WMS]

This is like a somewhat tarnished kettle being called black by a pot that is actually a black hole.

[SWE]

Nobody cares Fuzzy

[Hindsight was 2020]

Nah it’s pretty spot on. Trump behavior since running has been so abhorrent that to continue to support him does reflect on your personal character and quite poorly

[Hindsight was 2020]

This isn't going to fade away when Trump leaves office (as Biden will almost certainly win now).  Ultimately, this isn't about Trump.  So much of what Trump was attacked for was standard Republican stuff.  Whoever the Republicans nominate in 2024, even if that's Nikki Haley, will be branded as a fascist.

One side is being increasingly conditioned to believe that there has been an eternal force for good in America, liberalism, contrasted with the eternal evil force of conservatism.  American history is being forced to fit this narrative.  Half of the country is supposedly racist, and reality has to be constantly contorted to fit that narrative.  The right is no longer misinformed, they are evil in the eyes of many.  And its not just a few partisan hacks (those always have existed), but it's people who are part of respectable society.

Last year at CPAC the biggest applause line was Charlie Kirk saying “democrats are not fellow citizens with political differences but enemies that must be destroyed”. And when I made a thread on it one of the first replies was by Reaganfan who agreed with that statement and defended by spewing a bunch of culture war garbage about “disrespecting the flag” and “taking Andrew Jackson off the $20 bill” and guess who liked that comment. I’ll give you all a hint ^^^^

[SingingAnalyst]

Nobody cares Fuzzy

Actually, I care.

As Ayn Rand (there, I dropped a name) said waaaaay back in 1964, voting for a candidate does not commit one to support all of the candidate's positions-- and it certainly does not commit one to agree with all of the candidate's supporters about everything. Many Trump voters, both in 2016 and 2020, did not like either candidate-- but voted for what they believed was the lesser of two evils. (I didn't vote for Trump in either election.)

Check out some of the comments under the topic "The Blacklisting of Trump Supporters Has Begun" to see how eager some are to treat vocal Trump supporters in a way reminiscent of how suspected Communists were treated by McCarthyites in the early 1950s.

I have friends on both sides of the spectrum. There are good people who voted for Trump and good people who voted for Biden. I will not pre-judge anyone's experiences or observations that led them to their conclusions. And I will not be intimidated into distancing myself from my friends based on political views.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Prez Biden already said yesterday we must take the temperature down, stop being partisan hacks on issues, the Rs should take heed, Hillary conceded to Donald Trump, and Romney and Jeb and Toomey have already conceded the election for Donald Trump, since Trump won't concede.

It's time for us to take down the temperature that why we shouldn't criticize Pelosi, as to losing vital seats, we know redistricting is coming and Partisan gerrymandering is only gonna happen TX, GA and FL, but D's are gonna take some of those seats back in Cali, NM, PA, MI and and IL

[Crumpets]

This isn't going to fade away when Trump leaves office (as Biden will almost certainly win now).  Ultimately, this isn't about Trump.  So much of what Trump was attacked for was standard Republican stuff.  Whoever the Republicans nominate in 2024, even if that's Nikki Haley, will be branded as a fascist.

One side is being increasingly conditioned to believe that there has been an eternal force for good in America, liberalism, contrasted with the eternal evil force of conservatism.  American history is being forced to fit this narrative.  Half of the country is supposedly racist, and reality has to be constantly contorted to fit that narrative.  The right is no longer misinformed, they are evil in the eyes of many.  And its not just a few partisan hacks (those always have existed), but it's people who are part of respectable society.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I actually agree with a lot of this as someone on the left side of US politics. I don't think this started with Trump, either. It's been going on at least as far back as Bush's second term, if not longer. I would obviously disagree with some of how you're characterizing the debate, or that we're only believing this stuff because we're "conditioned" to do so, and not at least partly because our fears are genuine. But, even beyond that, if the right thinks that it can continue down its current path and not be viewed as fascists by a significant portion of the country, then they don't understand Americans any better than those on the left who get confused as to anyone in Miami can seriously think Biden is a Castro-loving socialist.

[Roemerista]

Politics is just applied ethics.

Why on earth would I stay friends with someone whose applied ethics put them in league with Donald Trump? Someone who worked so hard to advance the cause of Satan. The evil is not "conservatism" but Trumpism. The conspiracy minded, petulant racism, founded on hate and greed, and spiced with no-nothing incompetence.


No, unlike Neville Chamberlain, we shouldn't appease evil just for the sake of civility or fear of these deplorable souls. The racist nationalism of Trumpists has no place in America. And certainly no place in God's Kingdom.

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

If conservatives like you are such advocates for the 1st amendment, shouldn’t you be the one celebrating the right of Kristof and Nichols to speak their minds?

[Asta]

Remember when Megyn Kelly asked if it's presidential to make misogynistic remarks and received death threats? Tolerance

Remember when the brave women came forward against Trump to accuse him of sexual assaults and were showered with death threats? Tolerance

Should actions not have consequences when you're the victim?

[Mr. Smith]

This isn't going to fade away when Trump leaves office (as Biden will almost certainly win now).  Ultimately, this isn't about Trump.  So much of what Trump was attacked for was standard Republican stuff.  Whoever the Republicans nominate in 2024, even if that's Nikki Haley, will be branded as a fascist.

One side is being increasingly conditioned to believe that there has been an eternal force for good in America, liberalism, contrasted with the eternal evil force of conservatism.  American history is being forced to fit this narrative.  Half of the country is supposedly racist, and reality has to be constantly contorted to fit that narrative.  The right is no longer misinformed, they are evil in the eyes of many.  And its not just a few partisan hacks (those always have existed), but it's people who are part of respectable society.

It's about time the shoe dropped the other way after the 80's and 90's were spent turning the words "liberal" and "socialism" into all sorts of things. If we're going to be fair here.

Has there not long been conditioning that the young deserve their fates?  How about the branding of any sort of action to change said fates as "criminal"?

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

Politics is just applied ethics.

Why on earth would I stay friends with someone whose applied ethics put them in league with Donald Trump?

Because they didn't put much thought into applying their ethics, like the vast majority of voters (who lack a consistent philosophy). Even if one had no good reason for voting for a bad candidate, it's wise to keep in mind that most people vote for any and all candidates weren't giving much thought to their reasoning before wielding what amounted to a very small influence in a large democracy.

[Alcibiades]

It’s unfortunate that Fuzzy can’t spare some of his outrage for the constant undermining and total lack of respect for the institutions and norms underpinning American democracy and republicanism by Trump over the past few years.

[Alben Barkley]

The fact that you’re so mad gives me life, Fuzzy.

Cry more, triggered snowflake.

[John Dule]

Nobody cares Fuzzy

Actually, I care.

As Ayn Rand (there, I dropped a name) said waaaaay back in 1964, voting for a candidate does not commit one to support all of the candidate's positions-- and it certainly does not commit one to agree with all of the candidate's supporters about everything. Many Trump voters, both in 2016 and 2020, did not like either candidate-- but voted for what they believed was the lesser of two evils. (I didn't vote for Trump in either election.)

Mrs Rand also said that the midpoint between good and evil is still evil. She was not the sort of person who promoted compromising one's principles, to say the least. My guess is that she felt this way about voting simply because she didn't consider it as important as other aspects of life.