Adam asks a really great question here, and I'd like to offer something that many of us have been saying for going on three years now: Trump folks are not speaking from a place of consistent ideology. They're speaking from a place of petty hatred and resentment. (thread)
I feel like a lot of well-meaning reporters/journalists/pundits/politicians really want to make sense of all this and many of them still refuse to believe that Trump folks are just hateful people who prioritize their need to hate over common sense and integrity. Sorry but...
It really is that simple. This was never about so-called "economic anxiety". It was never about "feeling unheard". Trump folks feel the ground beneath their feet shifting away from White America, and it's that shifting of power that angers and terrifies them.
Can I emphasize that for a second? It's not even so much about white, hetero males losing power but about others gaining it. Trump folks would gladly see their rights chipped away if it meant patriarchal white supremacy endured.
AND THUS... all of this performative, selective outrage over queer women kissing on national television while they ignore Trump openly flaunting his sexual indiscretions (and denying his sexual crimes) isn't really surprising. It's not about morality; it's about enabled rage.
It's rage over a Black president. Rage over LGBTQ folks marrying and serving in the military. Rage over folks of color protesting police brutality. Rage over women being outspoken and unapologetic. Rage over white male patriarchy collapsing into itself like a dying star.
Trump folks are white people who believe that America is a white country where men are men and women are women and God is God and all should be that simple. And since Trump promises to stave off the fading of that dream, he is allowed to get away with anything and everything.
To reasonable, mature people, it is unthinkable that grown adults could be so completely petty and hateful that they would sacrifice their own well-being and supposed "moral values" to see those they hate suffer. Trust me when I say that is not just possible but quite prevalent.
The outrage over two queer women kissing each other on Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade isn't about "sin" or morals. It's about an overall resentment of progressive politics. It's a convenient vehicle to rant about all things progressive. Hypocrisy need not be considered.
Let me go further: if Trump personally officiated a lesbian wedding tomorrow and bragged about it on Twitter, the vast majority of his supporters would share it as proof he's not anti-LGBTQ. There would be no self-reflection or cognitive dissonance. Just pivoting to other things.
Folks need to stop giving the benefit of the doubt to Trump supporters. There's nothing there to understand. Three years and countless shitty "focus groups" should convince you these people sacrifice "values" for their own hate. Stop trying to rationalize bigotry. /thread
