The poor little dears

[iuwclurker]

It’s simple. You guys elected the most unfit candidate to ever occupy the White House. And even after it continues to be painfully clear that he’s way in over his head (among other things), you continue to find ways to justify support for him. Because some of the policies you like are enacted- the hell with everything else.

The Trump supporting right (making a distinction from “old school republicans”) is united in a few things. The thing that Rock is referencing is the phenomenon of “owning the libs”. I’ve seen it a LOT on the right, and it drives the behavior many of the Trump supporters. Never mind that they know deep down that what they are doing is out of bounds- all that matters is that a “lib” is pissed off by their actions (see Stephen Miller as a classic example of this).

On a basic level, it’s a combination of white privileged folks feeling threatened, and emotional immaturity.

If you can’t acknowlegde that is out there, you’re either too tribal to notice or you’re not paying attention.

Note that some on the left are like this also- but there are far many more on the right at this moment in time.

I've got a simpler version of your theory: Propitiation. Trump couldn't care less about anything but himself. He realizes that to survive this he has to propitiate to Republicans so he kisses their asses by agreeing to do anything they want policy-wise. The only exception to this is trade, which he does to propitiate to his base. Meanwhile, Trump puts on his cowardly bullying tough-guy image, destroying everything civil that crosses his path and Republicans groan and grimace behind closed doors and publicly applaud Trump.

Propitiation all the way around and it's the most emasculated behavior I've ever seen by a political party, to a man.

 

[SuperHoosierFan]

I think they are saying Trump is the GOP equivalent of a sub-par prop comic.

Edit: Also, bad hair.

I’m just not particularly fond of heavily insulting sub-par prop comics.

 

[DrHoops]

I’m just not particularly fond of heavily insulting sub-par prop comics.

 

[T.M.P.]

I think they are saying Trump is the GOP equivalent of a sub-par prop comic.

Edit: Also, bad hair.

and fake skin tone

 

[sglowrider]

I've been criticized because (it's been said) that when I say mean things about the mouth-breathing morons who support Trump, this merely triggers them to go out into the real world and stomp around like petulant children. As a result (people tell me) it's my fault that the mouth-breathing morons are acting out like petulant children. One wonders how they learned to routinely do this pretty much every day of their existence before they encountered me on an obscure internet message board, but let's assume that the broader critique is true:

Interweb assholes like me are unnecessarily inflaming the nitwits, and if only assholes like me would stop inflaming the nitwits, then maybe the nitwits would calm down and stop electing corrupt unfit imbeciles to the White House.
​

Many things boggle me about this critique. It's hard to prioritize them but the first one I'm going to talk about is obviously the exceptionally bleak picture it paints of Trump supporters -- they lack all agency and are impelled to act like morons in lockstep response to perceived insults. This should be deeply offensive to each and every Trump supporter who doesn't remotely resemble that description. Both of them. Maybe.

And another big thing that baffles me about this is that it's primarily a criticism of people like me. Now, of course, let's leave lots of room for people to have fun with that. Of course the know-it-all doesn't see he's the butt of the joke. If I were you that's where I'd go, so I sort of have to be okay with it. But let's stop and think for a moment.

It's now regarded as a thing in politics -- the sort of thing that gets discussed on cable news shows -- that conservative white guys are getting massively emotionally triggered and are acting out all over the place. And -- just so we're clear what I'm emphasizing -- this isn't regarded as the fault of the people acting irresponsibly like petulant children. It's regarded as the fault of liberals triggering them. Again, whether it's Sean Hannity of Fox News or earnest liberals right here, the diagnosis is the same: It's liberals' fault that wingnuts are stupidly excited.

You know what? Maybe so. I once saw a Twilight Zone like this. A petulant child unexpectedly gains God-like powers, and all the adults have to cower in mortal fear of his grotesque whims. Well, f#ck that.

If I offend you, then I may apologize. But if you blame me for the stupid things that you do, then I laugh at you. As Orin Hatch contemptuously dismisses adult women, "Grow up." And after all, no one worries about whether people like him will trigger people like me.

Words to go by: Dont be cruel.

 

[Bruce1]

I'm not asking why you're mad at people like me. I'm focused on the major malfunction that causes you to elect a corrupt unfit imbecile because people you don't even know have hurt your feelings.

I feel Trump supporters' sneering contempt all the time. It's hard to miss. But that feeling wouldn't imaginably trigger me to look for some Democratic equivalent to Trump. (I don't even know who such a Democrat might be.) And of course no one's worried that your sneering contempt will emotionally trigger people like me. We're all supposed to be walking on eggshells so we don't trigger people like you, though.

What you feel isn’t Trump supporter’s contempt. It is the contempt of others, well earned, because your sole objective on this board is to make yourself look smarter than everyone else. Your condescending attitude toward others along with you 500 word dissertations do nothing but breed the contempt you feel. You clearly take yourself too seriously.

 

[Rockfish1]

What you feel isn’t Trump supporter’s contempt. It is the contempt of others, well earned, because your sole objective on this board is to make yourself look smarter than everyone else. Your condescending attitude toward others along with you 500 word dissertations do nothing but breed the contempt you feel. You clearly take yourself too seriously.

I honestly don't know what my objective is here, but if it were my "sole objective . . . to make [my]self look smarter than everyone else," I'd be a lot less smart than you think I think I am.

 

[mashnut]

Aggressively ill-informed. That’s a damn fine description. I think you could add “proud” in there somewhere.

How about enthusiastically uninformed?

It's so strange to me to criticize someone for putting together their thoughts in a well-reasoned and justified way. I don't always agree with Rock, but I do always enjoy reading him put together how he came to his conclusions and what his sources are.