Read on Twitter
I think maybe the people who believe so fervently in Trump are perhaps just desperate to believe someone is on their side. Maybe they don't see themselves as racist or misogynist or homophobic or transphobic or abelist... maybe they are literally where Privilege meets Oppression.
I mean, I'm trying to push through my Fear with Compassion, here, so bear with me. I look at "red" states and MAGA hats and feel unsafe. But then I imagine... being a person with white/male privilege who is pushed aside by "fancier" white folks: And I feel voiceless and ignored.
Hating on BIPOC, or women, or LGBTQ folks, or people with disabilities, then, is a way for Me to *be* the bully instead of *being* bullied, and take back a feeling of power. "White privilege" doesn't resonate with me because bougie, uppity white people shit on on me, too.
Then I hear all the BLM and LGBTQ Pride and Women's March shit and think, "Wait, so they skip right over me just cuz I'm white & straight & a man, and all these minorities get the special attention and sympathy and social/civic/cultural spotlights?" Victims=Heroes? It's not fair.
Maybe I feel oppressed, and undervalued, and I suffer, too, you know. Maybe I lack access and opportunity and wealth, so the "identity politics" of race/orientation/gender/ability stuff feels superficial, cheap, disingenuous, and arbitrary to me.
I don't see "white privilege" the way Black folks explain it to me. I don't see it the way "hippie-dippie lefty" white folks explain it either, cuz it's not my lived experience. To me, being white has not privileged me enough to be equal to the whites who look down on me.
So I am frustrated and angry. I feel invisible. Voiceless. So maybe I invest a little more of my heart in ideas and stories that resonate with those feelings. Maybe I invest in machismo and bigotry because they turn my indignation into righteousness.
Maybe I grow attached to systems that simplify the world into "us vs them." Maybe I know some of the friends I am making and the words I am saying are unkind. But maybe the feeling of finally being seen, heard, and understood feels so good, so True, that it can't be *that* bad.
Maybe I don't like how Trump treats some people, but maybe I feel like he's my champion because he says and does all the things I wish I could do and say. Maybe I like that he seems to live without fear of consequence -- maybe that is Freedom. Maybe that is Power.
Maybe the weight and the complexity of Humanity, the Universe, and Everything is just too much for any one person to try to understand. I can't please everybody and I only have one life and I'm sick of feeling like I'm spending it drowning.
Maybe I don't even like Trump but he's sowed so much doubt in me about anything and everything the Left is saying that I feel Trump is the lesser evil. Maybe I don't recognize he's playing my fears and anxieties against me. Or maybe I do but I still allow it cuz I feel SEEN.
Maybe I've felt so angry and frustrated for so long I don't even recognize that I am afraid. What if "they" are doing to me what "they" say has been done to "them"? You know, the Black people, the Queer People, the Women, the people with disabilities, the Native Americans....
What if *I* am being colonized, silenced, intimidated, raped, humiliated, enslaved, forgotten, and disenfranchised? No one cares about me! Not the elite white folks, or the politicians. Even the so-called "tolerant" Liberals bully me! They say I'm stupid, crazy, brainwashed.
The Progressives think they are so nice and inclusive and sweet, but they are mean to me. They think they are better than me while talking shit like how "Equality" and "Equity" are different things. Trump is mean to everyone equally, so isn't that better?
At least no one is surprised Trump is a selfish asshole. That, to me, compared to the superior Left (who thinks they are nice but are OK badmouthing me) is way more honest. So they say Trump lies. It's hard for me to tell what is True when everyone accuses everyone of lying.
I am now so fundamentally mistrustful, suspicious, and afraid, I'll just go with my gut. Trump is an alpha. An alpha's job isn't to be liked, it is to lead the pack. I might not even agree with him on everything, but it's the simplest, and therefore truest thing.
He makes shit easy to understand. So that resonates. It feels true even if it isn't. If everything is lies, why not just hang onto what feels true? Ultimately, It's up to me, my guns, and my family, then. I must romanticise a Great American Melodrama just to get through the day.
