Attention whores are out in force following the election of the most disliked person in American political history. Go figure.
All of the laughing people were doing about "morons" who were scared of Obama because of his campaign rhetoric and yet these same people are genuinely terrified of Trump.
From what I recall, people were afraid of shariah law and Obama taking away their guns. Obama never campaigned on that. I am most worried about the prospects of a national registry on Muslims and the concept of a deportation force. Something Trump campaigned actually on. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Obama campaigned on a lot, and he probably followed through completely on 50%, had to compromise on 25%, and failed to implement the other 25%. But being a socialist or Muslim theocracy were not promises. Although, TARP and the Auto bailouts were probably socialist in retrospect. I am glad the economy survived 2008-09.
I'm shocked that you can't understand the logic of the other sides fear. (I'm not) So in 8 years when there is no national registry of people's religion you will be in the same basket as those who talked about Sharia in 2008. You won't be nearly as ridiculed or socially marginalized though. Tolerance and all that.
I hope you're right. But he campaigned on it. It was something he stated he would do as policy. He won. It was not even innuendo. His supporters on the pro-Trump reddit seem thrilled by idea because to many of them Muslims are just rapists and terrorists. When the next Muslim does something heinous like San Bernardino or Boston, how do you think Trump is going to respond? Do you think he response will be like W or Obama? Explicitly, how do you think he will respond? edit: and more importantly, how do you want him to respond?
I think that there are some bad people out there.....but it's not an excuse for hate. If a person showed you a youtube video of black people attacking a white person...would you think that was an excuse to take to the streets and express hate of your own? Seriously, it isn't valid justification, it's just a sorry ass excuse for sorry ass people. I mean, wasn't that pretty much the moral of American History X? Edward Norton's character had his father murdered by black people while trying to put out a fire in their neighborhood and so he became a hateful b*stard. The whole rest of the story is denouncing doing exactly that. If you respond to perceived hate with hate all you've done is cause the next generation of hate. Right now we've had a HUGE outpouring of hate from the left over the past few years. Towns have been burned over it, numerous riots, countless assaults and murders. There's no justification for it....certainly not some person being an ******* at a political rally or a possibly fake account of someone saying a mean thing. If you look at the big picture, the "anti-Muslim violence" that is so focused on is a tiny drop in a huge ocean of violence, focusing on that for political purposes is ridiculous. Just so we're clear, when you talk about attacks on Muslims you're talking about somewhere around 150 instances a year in the entire country....that's your major concern? That's what has people living in fear? That's your excuse for expressing hate towards others? C'mon, that's just fear-mongering fed to you during an election to try and get a larger turnout.
Who said it is an excuse though? I just wish you would actually address the hate on the right. All you seem worried about is saying that the left is responsible for everything. That really isn't helping moving the conversation forward, just more finger pointing. I'm saying there is hate on both sides, but for you it's more about just blaming the left for the racial division in the country and not putting ANY blame on the actual racist that call themselves republicans. You talk about Obama going after the 2nd amendment. What about years of pure division from the GOP using the southern strategy? What about a conservative justice saying black people are too dumb for certain colleges. What about that? That is just excused but never addressed.
Again, I'm against ANYONE who is out expressing nothing but hate. Those on the left are responsible for the hate that they spew, those on the right are responsible for the hate they spew. I certainly don't defend it when racist assholes do racist things. In fact, when there are legitimate examples of it, I speak out against them. That said, SOOO many are excusing the riots and violent protests which are nothing but expressing hate and the reason they don't speak out and in many cases even support it is because the hate is coming from those on the left. Those who came together to spew hate outside of Trump tower are no better than the 150 examples of hate against Muslims that you pointed out earlier as a serious problem. If there were 10K people on the right taking to the streets to express their hate, I'd call it out as such....and so would you. If it's those on the left doing so, I'll call it out, a lot of the people on the left on this board will either outright support it or try to excuse it away. That's where we stand right now. I'm pissed off about Trump too, him becoming the face of the Republican party means the death of the more Libertarian Republicans out there and the rise of jackasses like Chris Christie......and it's not even my party! Like I said, I get being angry, but it's simply not an excuse for what has happened in the streets the last 2 nights.
@Bobbythegreat , it's wrong for people to ask you to apologize or even denounce the actions of a few who may share some aspects of your core philosophy. Trump did not run on a platform of either conservatism or libertarianism, but instead shrouded himself without conservatism and packaged it with demagoguery. I know you are not like them, and they only way I will think otherwise is if you just come out and say otherwise. Until then, you're just a reasonable person with different values. To me, a lack of a response from you against the racists, bigots, xenophobes, etc who are suddenly speaking loudly and now with vindication will not be taken as an endorsement of their behavior by you.
Well the main difference here is I don't see protesting the president as dangerous. The KKK protests and hold rallies, I really don't care. People have a right to it, no matter if you disagree with it. If the protest turned into a riot, I'm against it. If it didn't, then I'm all for people making their voices heard. Depending on what they say, it could be hate. Obviously a KKK rally/protest is most likely hate. I would not equate peaceful protest ever to violent attacks, against Muslims or anyone else. Our forefathers and American ancestors fought for the right to protest. People are protesting the president, I don't see how that is even close to being seen as hate. People protested, mocked, attacked Obama for 8 years. And I'm not even asking him to apologize for any of the stuff going on. I know he's not racist, I've never called him that once even as I've seen others call him that. I know he's against that stuff, I read his post. I pretty much respect his opinion and where it comes from, I think despite this conversation we've had it never once devolved into namecalling or insults. I really just want him to put blame on the right for the division in this country too. I think both sides are deeply in the wrong here when it comes to the racial division and when it comes to conflicts and arguments the only way to solve it is stop discussing whose to blame more but realize the mistakes each side has made.
To me, Trump ran on a bunch of empty rhetoric. Some of those motivated by it were racists, I don't doubt that for a second.....but that's certainly nowhere near the majority and it's wrong to characterize it that way. The terrorist ******* who shot up the gay club inspired by ISIS was someone who was motivated by Hillary's campaign but if someone was trying to demonize all or even a majority of her support that way it would be wrong. Had he not died in the attack and had Hillary won, he'd have been happy about it....but so what? Racists and xenophobes might like the idea of a secure southern border due to their racist or xenophobic beliefs, but that doesn't mean the idea itself is racist or xenophobic. It's actually a pretty good idea. All manner of bad things are smuggled into the country that way. Are the border walls and fences in Europe "racist"? I mean that's just one example of something very much demonized that has the support of bad people that isn't actually a bad thing. I guess I just want to say that even if racists, bigots, and xenophobes feel vindicated by Trump's victory....it'll be short lived and hollow because that's simply not how things are going to go. They'll just end up as disappointed as those idiots who were dancing in the streets saying things like how Obama was going to pay for their gas and mortgage. Stupid people think and do stupid things.
Well yeah, you might not see it that way, but the hate that is being spewed is leading to situations like the man attacked in Chicago where they were accusing him of voting for Trump or the situation in Charlotte during the riots there where a group attacked a man simply because he was white. I mean, that kind of thing really is dangerous. For sure if there was a history of large scale riots by racist Trump supporters who were going around beating people and burning towns then I would absolutely be speaking out against it and for the record, I'm totally against those 150 instances a year where Muslims are attacked due to their faith. I just feel like the large riots and violent protests that are becoming more and more common are a bigger problem. One thing that is for sure is that the country needs some healing, which is why despite the fact that I find Trump to be an awful person, I have to give him credit for doing and saying the right things so far. Nothing he's done or said since his victory speech has given ANYONE any reason to lash out.
