I definitely need to save this. I’ve been trying to figure out what I’ll say to the Trumpists at my conservative workplace, and that seems like a way to bring the point home. This would definitely land me in hot water, but I’ve always promised myself that I would be an ally, and no time like the present.
My wife and I are also looking for the biggest damn safety pins we can find to start wearing them.
An acquaintance of mine wrote this on Facebook (with permission to share):
Imagine you’re in a room, and Fred stands up and says “Vote for me and I’ll give everyone fifty bucks and I’ll punch everyone named John right in the face.”
You can probably assume most people will divide into one of three categories:
1) Those who want to see John punched in the face, so vote for Fred.
2) Those who don’t particularly want to see guys named John punched in the face, but want $50 enough that they vote for Fred anyways.
3) And those who are like “Fuck no, I can’t get behind someone who will punch people named John in the face!”
(I think we can easily rule out “people who don’t want $50” as insignificant)
To the people who vote for Fred, the distinction between #1 and #2 is pretty big. The people who fall in catagory #2 probably don’t even talk about guys named John at all – it isn’t a thought or conversation at all. And when Fred gets in and goes around punching guys named John in the face, #2 will say “Yeah, but we don’t hate John! We’re not John-haters!” and really believe it.
But for guys named John, the difference between #1 and #2 is miniscule. They’re all John-haters in John’s mind, because even if #2 doesn’t actively want to see John punched in the face, they didn’t care enough to give anything up to stop it when Fred openly declared he’d punch John in the face.
I think the Johns are in the right here.
Not everyone who voted for Trump voted for him because he is a racist, but everyone who voted for Trump clearly wasn’t turned off enough by his racist speech, platform, and supporters to not vote for him.
tl;dr: Saying “I only supported Mussolini because I wanted to see the trains run on time!” doesn’t change the fact you supported Mussolini.
And Trump is just as willing to fake up some train schedules as Mussolini was…
I definitely need to save this. I’ve been trying to figure out what I’ll say to the Trumpists at my conservative workplace, and that seems like a way to bring the point home. This would definitely land me in hot water, but I’ve always promised myself that I would be an ally, and no time like the present.
My wife and I are also looking for the biggest damn safety pins we can find to start wearing them.
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2016/11/10/the-cinemax-theory-of-racism/
whatever.scalzi.com – The Cinemax Theory of Racism – Whatever
An acquaintance of mine wrote this on Facebook (with permission to share):
Imagine you’re in a room, and Fred stands up and says “Vote for me and I’ll give everyone fifty bucks and I’ll punch everyone named John right in the face.”
You can probably assume most people will divide into one of three categories:
1) Those who want to see John punched in the face, so vote for Fred.
2) Those who don’t particularly want to see guys named John punched in the face, but want $50 enough that they vote for Fred anyways.
3) And those who are like “Fuck no, I can’t get behind someone who will punch people named John in the face!”
(I think we can easily rule out “people who don’t want $50” as insignificant)
To the people who vote for Fred, the distinction between #1 and #2 is pretty big. The people who fall in catagory #2 probably don’t even talk about guys named John at all – it isn’t a thought or conversation at all. And when Fred gets in and goes around punching guys named John in the face, #2 will say “Yeah, but we don’t hate John! We’re not John-haters!” and really believe it.
But for guys named John, the difference between #1 and #2 is miniscule. They’re all John-haters in John’s mind, because even if #2 doesn’t actively want to see John punched in the face, they didn’t care enough to give anything up to stop it when Fred openly declared he’d punch John in the face.
I think the Johns are in the right here.
Not everyone who voted for Trump voted for him because he is a racist, but everyone who voted for Trump clearly wasn’t turned off enough by his racist speech, platform, and supporters to not vote for him.
tl;dr: Saying “I only supported Mussolini because I wanted to see the trains run on time!” doesn’t change the fact you supported Mussolini.
And Trump is just as willing to fake up some train schedules as Mussolini was…