March | 2016 | amuseofire

Well, we certainly are seeing the character of these Trump supporters. Yelling vulgarities, spitting racist vitriol, punching out protesters, throwing up the ‘Sieg Heil ‘ salute, and generally, just being horrible human beings. THIS is apparently the way they’d like to make ‘America Great Again.’

Everyone knows I’m a liberal Democrat, but I have many conservative friends and family. I try and respect everyones’ point of view, and really don’t like the idea of invalidating another person’s opinion or censoring their freedom of speech. I’m also not a huge fan of political correctness, but for very different reasons, and I certainly find this kind of anti-P.C. crap revolting. I try to be open-minded.

And yet, I struggle to see any worth or value in these Trump supporters. I am ashamed to share a country with them. And I’m sorry, I know it’s insensitive of me, but I can’t help but wishing people like this couldn’t vote. Naturally, the democratic idealist in me believes everyone deserves a vote, but the human in me rejects all the hatred and violence they stand for AND that their collective vote could potentially destroy all the progress we’ve genuinely made in this country.

I know many of my friends are writing on their walls: “If you’re a Trump supporter, please unfriend me immediately.” I have really tried to reject saying such things, and giving such ultimatums. I think we should all have a mixture of friends, of various cultures and political beliefs. But man, it’s getting harder and harder for me to resist making the same declaration. How can I condone such hatred and violence? All I can say is, if you’re a Trump fan, we clearly have VERY different values and principles, and I pity anyone who has so much anger in their hearts.

I just saw someone comment on the recent picture of the woman at last night’s Trump rally doing the Nazi salute and say, ‘Stupid, stupid woman. Of all inadequacies, ignorance is the worst.”

I take some exception to this comment, and would simply clarify a very important detail.

IGNORANCE IS A REALITY. It is what far too many people deal with all across this country and world. There are people who are poor and uneducated, and who are simply born with a disproportionate degree of ignorance. Some of them attended failing public schools, and were simply not given the privileges of knowledge and discernment like the rest of us. Remember, we don’t know what we don’t know. That’s just the way it works out sometimes. Some people are ignorant through no fault of their own.

WILLFUL IGNORANCE IS THE WORST. It’s the people who are defiantly and willfully ignorant who are the worst. These are the people who pride themselves on following authoritarian rule, are anti-intellectual, anti-science and technology, and just plain happily dumb. They eat this shit up. These are the ones who do not care about facts or the truth. When confronted with Trump’s lies, they simply respond, “It doesn’t matter. Who cares about the facts? He tells it like it is.” THIS is the way they want to make “America Great Again.” Yes, they are ignorant. But not necessarily through chance or misfortune. They are ignorant because they CHOOSE to be!