When he complained, rightwingers sent him homophobic taunts online. Black gay
Republican podcaster Rob Smith has claimed that “white supremacist” members of
his political party called him “fa**ot” and the n-word during his Sunday night
attendance of Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest event in Phoenix, ...
I've got to wonder how your upbringing worked out when as a black and gay man you end up supporting trump. Over basically any alternative, including never voting and/or leaving the country entrirely. Both still far preferrable to subjecting yourself to the existential torture that is this, as per the article.
People are really good at supporting ideas that harm themselves.
Just see any country and any election ever. Hopefully they don't win but you will always have a significant minority wanting to create a shithole for everyone themselves included.
When I see someone who is LGBT+ and or a minority support trump it reminds me of of the Association of German National Jews who supported Hitler before he got elected.
They offer no resolution, no recourse and no route to better ideas. It's just "My life sucks so because that my life sucks, I want everyone else's life to suck so I will make it so."
I find that's often true, contrarians that wrap their identity around being the devil's advocate or "changing things from the inside." Bro... You're not intelligent, you're an asshole.
So gut instinct: he’s probably a misogynist first and black and gay come after that. It may not be correct but holy hell as a lesbian it describes a lot of the gay male conservatives I’ve met.
The more nuanced potential is that people don’t like being put into boxes or perfectly matching stereotypes. Additionally many people can’t read between lines even when it’s obvious. Trump went very hard against immigrants and Black Lives Matter protesters, and he has white supremacists supporting him and a history of anti black prejudices, but he’s never said that he hates black people. Similarly he’s ranted and raved about trans people, and he allies with people who hate gay people, but his words are not explicitly against cis gay people. So if he wanted to be willfully ignorant to declare himself as the special good one who won’t be boxed in by your preconceived notions of what he should be, all he has to do is not read the obvious messages between the lines and hope they go away.
I have a hard time feeling bad for people who bring bad things upon themselves. What the hell did he think would happen? The group of people calling themselves conservatives have made it their primary goal to eliminate the gays and minorities, and someone who checks both of those boxes wants to become part of their group? It's like those idiots at national parks that try to pet the bears. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
The local conservative party leader is gay... I think it's just that the members are too stupid to realize it or something and he just let's them say whatever they want so he can cling to power?
People here calling him all sorts of slurs are missing the point - people are conservative because they value their own money (even the potential of it) more than other humans.
Being Black and/or gay (or a woman, or disabled, or trans, or whatever marginalised group someone might belong to) doesn't make a person any less greedy or exploitative. You would wish it would make them more aware of the systems of oppression they face and who controls and benefits from them, but considering the quality of education and amount of propaganda and capitalism-serving socialisation we are all exposed to courtesy of said people who control and benefit from these systems, and the promises oppressors make to the tokens they recruit (the "good ones"), it isn't really at all surprising or confusing, and berating the guy as being "unintelligent" not only completely misses the reality of the situation (and therefore any possibility of resolving it), but is also flat out ableist.
Thank you for having something intelligent to contribute to the discussion, this place is just turning into reddit with less and less comments like yours.
I appreciate your position on identifying how someone who would otherwise be assumed to be more empathetic could find their way into these ideologies.
I'd add that it's because he as an individual has probably faced very little actual oppression. I make the assumption his parents had money and he lived in a relatively affluent area. He got to his mindset because he hasn't actually experienced what is a reality for so many others.
I will say that it’s an attitude that can only develop with a combined lack of wisdom and empathy.
Intelligence isn’t one thing, but the stories of tokens being used and thrown away are difficult to miss in our culture and even if not it takes a lack of wisdom to fail to see that the bigots don’t like the good ones either. And it takes a lack of empathy to get there. It requires being unable or unwilling to see consequences that others see easily and then to behave reprehensibly to get those consequences.
Conservative means "control the rate of change". In the context of the USA they are conserving the rate of change from a White Supremacist slaver society to society with the shocking idea of black people are people and black lives matter.
It is somewhat about money.
But this post is about the racism and homophobic character that lies at the feet of the Xian white US nationalists core values.
Second of all, you should really read up on the relationship between racism (and patriarchal heteronormativity) and capitalism (hint: they created ways to dehumanise others to justify the pillaging and hoarding of resources. Racism feeds capitalism).
The idea that they aren't inextricably intertwined, and that money isn't used to manipulate marginalised people in to acting against their own interests, is absurd and wilfully ignorant, at best.
The idea that money has nothing to do with force is beyond ridiculous.
You will never end racism unless you also abolish capitalism (and vice versa - fighting only capitalism but not racism is just white supremacy).
Black, gay and also incidentally TOTAL FUCKING IDIOT.
Or perhaps he’s just reeeeeally into being abused. Really gets off on humiliation from a particular section of white boomers and their inbred single-digit IQ MAGA offspring.
Just to note that not all white boomers are MAGA. My dad, a white boomer, though heavily fucked with dementia now, was a solid left-wing Democratic his whole life.
For sure not all boomers are conservatives, the ones that are close to me (including my parents) are all left wing and very progressive and none of them have an easy comfortable life or a big pension!
Yeah my mom was a die hard liberal our only political conflicts were that I’m an eco focused communist and she wanted a country just a bit left of what Obama campaigned on.
And it’s not even based on wealth every time. I’ve met boomers who drifted left as they got older and wealthier until they just started adopting their kids’ queer friends who had been rejected by their parents.
The question really comes down to whether or not they’re comfortable with the world changing and that people are different from them.
The right wing exists to preserve existing power structures. It’s all inclusive to those who accept their place in it or fear disrupting too many of those structures. A black preacher may very well be a Republican because while he may not like racism he dislikes women’s liberation and queer liberation more.
It’s popular to reference the Johnson quote "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." But it’s important to remember that it doesn’t just apply to poor white people choosing racism over economic solidarity with poor black people. It also applies to some rich black people choosing economic solidarity over racial solidarity with poor black people. It applies to straight people choosing homophobia against their best interests (hell look at Blaire White).