Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Accountability, motherfuckers.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Bark louder, little dog.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / Excellent Read: “How Trump Made Hate Intersectional”

Excellent Read: “How Trump Made Hate Intersectional”

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Rembert Browne, at NYMag:

… In the numerous civil-rights movements of the 21st century, a degree of savvy about how to deal with racists, or homophobes, or Islamophobes, or sexists in isolation developed. But this expertise, from years (or in some cases, generations) of experience, was typically learned one form of oppression at a time. Progressives talk a lot about intersectionality — meaning, thinking about race and sex and class simultaneously — but Trump won the presidency by making hate intersectional. He encouraged sexists to also be racists and homophobes, while saying disgusting things about immigrants in public and Jews online. Hate, like love, is infectious, and it is contagious. And for so many, the adrenaline felt by blaming one group for one’s personal ills bled into blaming all the others.

The story of America for many is a seemingly never-ending process of playing catch-up. The perspective of those at the back of the line has been a tunnel-vision reality of knowing who is holding you down. Black people focus on white racists, gay people are consumed with protecting themselves from homophobes, women struggle to exist freely in a man’s world, Muslims and Mexican immigrants feel the weight of the world against them from “true” Americans. This created a complicated ecosystem for the historically abused — a shared understanding of what it means to be discriminated against, but also a quiet resentment over who has it worse. Because if you’re the worst off, you’re at the bottom, but you have a reason to scream the loudest, avoiding perhaps the most frustrating status: invisibility.

Now we’re faced with a clear reality: one group that hates us all….

So many men hate the idea of a capable women breaking into all-male spaces, because with her comes instant accountability. It’s harder to talk about grabbing women by the pussy if there’s also a woman in the circle, and that in turn makes it harder to blindly assault. It’s harder to casually say nigger when there’s a black person in the circle, and that makes it harder to beat a black kid senseless without fear of repercussion. It’s harder to say faggot when someone queer is in the room, which lessens the ability to casually bully a gay person to the point where they take their own life. Yes, there’s hate spread throughout this country, but it stems from the sickness that involves stopping at nothing to keep spaces fully white, allowing white people to continue with behavior that is no longer universally accepted in the real world…

You don’t see America, the melting pot of cultures, genders, religions, beliefs, as a good thing if you can’t keep up. You hate it with an aggressive irrationality — typically while being unable to explain why you feel the way you do — if you’ve never met anyone who isn’t just like you. And you resent it when the systems you created to make people become overqualified just to attain near-equality come back to threaten your relevancy, your status, or your power.

All of the groups that felt the wrath of these white people in 2016 have to somehow find a way to fight back, to save America. The reason it’s so hard for the country to actually change is because these white people have so little left, whether it be economic or cultural relevancy. This election was potentially their final hand, and they pushed their chips all in. And wouldn’t you know it, it fucking worked. But know their celebrations aren’t confident ones, filled with true elation. On the contrary, this is a very real sigh of relief, one that you get from a new lease on life, the one that stands between bringing back the archaic ways of old and permanently becoming a fossil.

Reader Interactions

40Comments

  1. 1.

    Currants

    know their celebrations aren’t confident ones, filled with true elation.

    ..which is why there are so many sore winners out there right now, something that seems profoundly wrong and strange.
    Thanks, AL. Good read.

  2. 2.

    Matt McIrvin

    Seems to me it’s always been intersectional-Archie Bunker and the Klan have been around forever.

  5. 5.

    mai naem mobile

    I still can’t get overy Hilz losing to this unqualified completely clueless POS. You guys keep on talking about fighting this fucker and I can’t even get beyond that part. I can’t stand the family. I find him physically repulsive and that’s before I get to the shit coming out of his asshole shaped mouth . I have no idea how I’m going to watch the news for the next four years.

  9. 9.

    Srv

    @mai naem mobile: there’s really no need to watch the news. The media’s laziness and culpability in this recent election are ample reason to get your information elsewhere. And avoid ulcers.

  10. 10.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    I couldn’t convert any family members, because the only parts of my family that aren’t as appalled by Trump and Republicans as I am are some 2nd/3rd cousins that cut off communications with us years ago, over politics. I tried converting some friends, but I suspect that I’m not very good at the sort of diplomacy that takes. Lord knows, I’ve been using my Facebook feed to express my opinions of Trump and his followers

    That said, Rembert Browne is awesome.

  19. 19.

    Brachiator

    @mai naem mobile:

    I still can’t get over Hilz losing to this unqualified completely clueless POS.

    Yep. America, maybe like the UK, has a strong anti authoritarian anarchic streak on the left and right. There are a couple of local talk radio hosts who are giddy over the election, in part because they are totally fed up with the Establishment. They don’t care that Trump is incompetent. They don’t mind if the gears of national government stops, because they stupidly believe that the impact will only be positive. They see the government as mainly a bunch of boobs lacking common sense who enact laws that make life tough for the average guy. If there were any coherence to their thinking, you might call these dopes pro business Libertarians. They were early on the Trump train.

  22. 22.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @debbie: I simply can’t live by the approach of never saying anything on a public forum like Facebook that miht keep me from getting employed. That includes politics, as well as stuff like talking about my autism and depression.

  23. 23.

    Brachiator

    @James Powell:

    Every local talk radio host was on the Trump train early because he generates calls to local talk radio shows.

    Really? In LA, it was mainly the afternoon drive time hosts on the most popular English language station who were big Trump supporters. They even hosted primary viewing shows in Orange County. But they were the exception. Oddly enough, this radio station, KFI, has a large number of listeners, but doesn’t really encourage callers. It’s almost more monologue radio than talk radio.

  25. 25.

    GrandJury

    @mai naem mobile I feel exactly the same way. It’s like a nightmare I am trying to wake up from.

    I think about half of Americans feel the same way. Buyers remorse with 1/2 of the other half will set in quickly. Demagog Facists tend to lose support quite rapidly. He’s saying that he is going to keep running his business so that’s gonna be a constant shit storm. Everytime some diplomat or lobbyist or CEO stays at his hotel there are going to be questions.

    I really don’t see him lasting that long once he starts losing support and the press smells blood. The problem is that plan B is VP Dence. That is apparently what lots of people in gov’t call him.

  28. 28.

    J R in WV

    I’m not familiar with the guy who wrote the quote in the original post.

    But he is dead wrong about one thing, where he writes:

    The reason it’s so hard for the country to actually change is because these white people have so little left, whether it be economic or cultural relevancy. This election was potentially their final hand, and they pushed their chips all in.

    These white people he was talking about make upwards of $70,000 a year. They’re doing way better than average economically. I’m sick and tired of the poor little me whining from Trump voters. This was about racism, sexism and xenophobia of all kinds. Trump used hate as his primary topic every time he spoke to one of his rallies.

    I don’t know if Trump really hates as much as he talked about hate; I don’t know why he would, as he never lost a dime to the people he orated about. I’m sure he hates other wealthy people in “society” in NYC, because he never figured out how to belong to that self-selecting elite. He was too cheap to actually participate in their charity ball nonsense.

    It is going to be a long four years. Maybe we could tour abroad for most of that time? Until the social security payments stop, anyhow.

  30. 30.

    Brachiator

    @James Powell:

    640 is #1? Who knew? I only listen to sports talk.

    Actually, I checked and KFI is starting to drop in ratings compared to all LA radio, but still does well in English language talk radio.

    I listen to Petros and Money for sports, but that’s about it. I do like the idea that sports radio is the only genre that will take calls from kids.

    I greatly enjoy the general news program Air Talk on KPCC, the best of public radio.

  32. 32.

    shortribs

    @mai naem mobile: Take it from our wisest:

    Even by ten o’clock, Obama said, “I’m still not watching television, which is just a general rule that I’ve maintained for the last eight years, not watching political television.” Not watching, in the Obama household, he said, “is part of how you stay focussed on the task, as opposed to worrying about the noise.”

    I stopped watching tv news about half-way through election night when I started having doubts about the outcome. The next day I said I’d never watch another minute and I do what I can to tell friends and family the same. TV political news needs to go away, I don’t think it can be fixed. More reading, more long form reading and as someone mentioned above, podcasts (Amicus and Keeping it 1600 are the only ones I’ve listened to so far).

  33. 33.

    Gretchen

    @AliceBlue:Yes! Winning makes them even angrier! That’s why this spoke to me:
    “But know their celebrations aren’t confident ones, filled with true elation. On the contrary, this is a very real sigh of relief, one that you get from a new lease on life, the one that stands between bringing back the archaic ways of old and permanently becoming a fossil.”

  34. 34.

    Lizzy L

    @shortribs: I stopped watching TV (with the exception of baseball and an occasional recommended drama, like Wolf Hall) about 3 years ago. I don’t miss it. I stopped listening to NPR during this election, because they insisted on the BOTHSIDESDOIT narrative, and never questioned or even acknowledged the Republicans’ 20 years of turning Hillary Clinton into a demon. I do miss it, but not enough to start listening again.

    I hang out here, and I read a lot.

  36. 36.

    Brachiator

    @efgoldman: RE: I do like the idea that sports radio is the only genre that will take calls from kids.

    Really? Not in Boston

    I am not a big sports fan, but I sometimes listen to sports radio to get away from lame political talk radio. Some local and a few national shows will take calls from kids, especially when a kid is passionate and knowledgeable about a game or a team. It’s almost a rite of passage. And the best hosts do this without talking down to the kids.
    .

  37. 37.

    seaboogie

    @mai naem mobile: @Lizzy L:

    And replies to almost everyone on this thread…just don’t watch the news. You know that you go there expecting to find a fresh reason today to be outraged, and you know that you will find it. Go for a walk outdoors instead. Meditate. Read books. Take care of your psyche in ways that speak to you.

    I am off to the bathtub, then meditation, and in bed with a book.

  38. 38.

    frosty

    My TV watching is for shows I like (fiction) either HBO or network. And a few “reality” based ones for diversion. Haven’t watched TV news for over a decade and *never* watched the Sunday shows. Dunno why some of you torture yourselves like that.

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