What is good, what is decent, and appeal to the better angels of people's natures, as smarmy as that sounds it won't get people on the defensive.
I fail sometimes in that regard. There were so many dogwhistles and symbolism Donald used:
- the Wall is a Symbol. It won't get "built" , but it's a symbol for isolationism and rigidity, uniformity - this is not the history of America, we're a melting pot. The American Dream is liberal in concept.
- the Mexicans are rapists / criminals. The rebuttal I get is "well he means the illegal ones" - but Let's really examine the wrongness of calling a human being "illegal" . Immigrants come here for a better way of life, to improve their circumstances. Why is this such a bad thing? Even if we want to control the immigrant flow, is it so bad "They" want to come here? "Illegal" , "alien" are terms selectively used to dehumanize and isolate groups.
- Judge can't adjudicate my case because he's of mexican origin - This is "textbook" racism. Trump's habit of personally attacking decent Americans will set the tone of his presidency. This is why so many Americans are afraid- who does this language embolden?
- Sexism. Disrespecting women who challenge you by shaming their looks is dumb, shameless. He isn't being some hero for the anti-pc movement by doing this, he's simply being a jackass. That he's not aware of it or thinks nothing of it speaks volumes.
- Islamophobia; I'm not so naive I'm unable to recognize culture clash, but denigrating an entire group of people because of their beliefs? Not all beliefs are equal, not all beliefs are to be respected, but to castigate almost a billion people on the planet with one brush? These are human beings, some flawed, some misguided, some are reformers, some are activists, some just want to get on with their lives- dehumanizing them erodes our own moral code and the beliefs we stand for, our ideas of who and what we could be in the West , which is all centered on the right to self determination.
To get into a non-defensive frame of mind to explain these things to a Trump supporter who is using motivated reasoning, who is deeply biased, is a challenge.
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