I think this moment illustrates well the difference between what is right and what is advantageous in our country right now.
If you have done something wrong, it is right to apologize, but it is advantageous to deny.
It is right to submit yourself to the consequences of your actions, but it is advantageous to attack your victim and sow confusion.
If you want to be able to deny and attack your victim far past the point of credibility, it is not right, but it is advantageous, to appeal to a voting base that doesn't care about other people at all.
If you want a voting base that doesn't care about other people at all, you're going to want to have a propaganda apparatus in place creating an alternate reality for that base. Which is not right but...
For more credible media outlets, it would be right to call liars liars and clearly point out the bad faith of proven bad actors, but it would be advantageous to avoid charges of bias with equivocating language.
If you want to try to take power in such an environment, it would not be right, but it would be advantageous, to compromise with those who don't care about others, and leave some vulnerable groups behind.
And so the advantage is to do wrong. And in taking advantage you give advantage to some other wrongdoer.
And so the cycle continues. And so the worst of us take the advantage given. And the most vulnerable among us pay the price.
So what are we supposed to do? Are we to take advantage? Are we to do wrong? By no means.
If we win by taking or compromising with wrong advantage, we didn't win anyway.
Worse, if we win by taking advantage, we underscore a system that rewards taking advantage.
Worse, if we win by taking advantage, we underscore a system that rewards taking advantage.
There are many who supported Trump and support Republicans for all the bigotry and harm many of their supporters dearly want to cause.
And Trump and the Republicans are more than willing to provide that bigotry and harm. Because that is where the advantage lies.
But there are others who do so and aren’t bigoted – they’ll tell you so. They are just seeking their advantage. And so they name themselves.
It’s not that they hate Muslims, gays, transgender people, native people, people of color, women. They just don’t give a shit. They’re taking advantage.
There’s been a lot of talk about how we need to dialogue with these advantage-takers, flatter them, stop naming them for what they are, compromise with them.
That, I'm told, is how we'll persuade them.
That, I'm told, is how we'll persuade them.
But nobody is a bigger fan of compromising people than people who have no intention of compromising.
It creates such a wonderful advantage, you see.
It creates such a wonderful advantage, you see.
However, I don’t think dialogue persuades. For the few still persuadable out there in the alternate reality of Fox News and talk radio, I don’t think it’s our words that move the needle, but our deeds.
Take the disadvantage of standing up for women.
Take the disadvantage of standing up for black women.
Take the disadvantage of standing up for black disabled women.
Take the disadvantage of standing up for transgendered black disabled women.
If we do that, we win no matter what.
Take the disadvantage of standing up for black women.
Take the disadvantage of standing up for black disabled women.
Take the disadvantage of standing up for transgendered black disabled women.
If we do that, we win no matter what.
Don't win by compromising with the advantage-takers, but by becoming uncompromising *disadvantage* takers.
Be so much better by demonstrating clearly—not in words but deeds—that people matter, and we won’t compromise on that. We will NOT take that advantage.
People would notice who did that, and they'd notice who didn’t. It would be undeniable, because it would be action in the world.
Let’s all take the disadvantage. I think if we did, we might even flip where the advantage lies.
Good morning by the way.
