A little story about my work out at the gym today..spoiler: "Ah LIKE Trump"

[jodymarie aimee]

Up front, I am fascinated by people, that is just my personality. I am a writer and I learn so much from all different types. It may be because I was abused as a kid, but I reach out to people and engage. I make cards and buy little treats for folks I just met, as I want to make them happy.

There is a maintenance man at my gym in Stevens Point, WI.. James, 52, from Tennessee. He was homeless and got the job at the gym and lives in low income housing. No car. He will walk thru while I am on the treadmill, and no other client would ever think to speak to him, unless something was broken. But I introduced myself about 2 years ago and he stops at my machine each day and we chat. He has a nutty sense of humor and that southern drawl and we like each other. Topics: music, what he bought at Good Will, how many fish he caught, the price of cigs, etc. I have invited him to concerts and told him I would pick him up, he offered to change the oil in my car when my mechanic retired.

Yesterday I had a huge smile on my face and I told him about Cheeto and the peeing hookers. He scoffed. So today, he comes up and tells me it was all fake news. I said "James, who has been saying for 2 years that the media lie....don't trust the media...who has been laying the groundwork for this fake news?" Well, he was having none of it. I asked if he thought it was a good thing for a president to scream at a CNN reporter at his presser yesterday? Isn't that dangerous?" Oh no, he would have had the reporter arrested. Ok now, I see that this funny guy is not who I thought he was. I asked " what if Trump takes away your housing?" James replied, "That don't matter". I just stared at him. I said Trump may end the world as we know it. I said why were so many crying when he was elected? That has never happened in our country before. Sheer terror. People in the streets. HERE IT COMES. He said the same thing happened when Obama was elected. I said where...where were folks crying in the streets? I wouldn't let it go...I wanted examples and where he saw this. I said people were happy. He says "Not the republicans." I asked, why, what did they fear? He said "He was a black man."

Then he said "Ah LIKE Trump." In a million years I never thought he would be one of them. I don't stereotype, and like to think I have good instincts about people and their hearts/common sense. On the way home it struck me. It wasn't Hillary so much. They wanted a way to strike back at Obama. The eloquent moderate humble brilliant black President. Before I left the gym, he came up and said "you're not mad at me are you? this stuff don't matter."

[guillaumeb]

1. President Obama is the person that Trump can never be.

And that angers a great many white people.

[blue cat]

2. I swear

It's like a cult.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

46. Trump supporters...

[bettyellen]

3. It was Hillary hatred too- they revel in it away from women so as not to be pegged...

But basically it's about keeping both women and POC in their place.

[BlueMTexpat]

7. Absolutely.

We. Must. Learn. Our. Places.

[MrPurple]

36. There are women that called her 'Killary' too

The negative campaign against her was like Swift Boats x 1,000. There were legitimate questions with the emails, but there are plenty of otherwise not completely stupid people who bought into the cyclone of negativity about her, yet were blind to the fact that the supposed issues of corruption and lying were infinitely worse with Trump. They're convinced that she would have started World War III - because Putin said so.

[TheFrenchRazor]

40. these women have major cases of Stockholm Syndrome, and i'm not even kidding. nt

[bettyellen]

41. In authoritarian households women and children learn to ape daddy's bullshit....

The consequences for non compliance are brutal.

Blows my mind when people say women can't be sexist.

[MrPurple]

43. Except something like 53% of white women voted for Trump

They weren't all self denigrating female uncle Tom's (sure there's a better way to phrase that). I'm not saying that sexism wasn't a factor, but there was also intense propaganda and the billionaire living in a golden palace atop a skyscraper was somehow able to convince them that he was the populist and his opponent was the elitist.

[bettyellen]

44. You think they are aware of their self denigration? LOL, not nearly ...

They very often consider themselves tough little mamas- much more so than any weak ass Liberal.
When you buy the bullshit you're all in. If they were aware of their self denigration they'd be working to get out. Ain't easy when your totally surrounded and it's all your family and friends. I've seen a few try to rise up and fail miserably. And they're nastier than ever because they're stuck, and gotta pretend they chose it.

[flying rabbit]

53. +1 nt

[Buckeye_Democrat]

47. Take away the white evangelical Christian voters and...

Hillary would have won the majority of the white vote too (men and women combined).

[MrPurple]

49. Good point. They have to be the most gullible people in North America.

Has anyone ever been more obviously pandered to than Trump babbling about how The Art of the Deal is his 2nd favorite book next to the Bible? He loves Two Corinthians. They must be the ones who all the reverse mortgage scams are aimed at.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

51. If there weren't so many of them, I sometimes think they'd be labeled...

as delusional by the American Psychiatric Association.

I mean, wouldn't someone who believed they were inhabited by the spirit of a being named Xanu from the planet Klaxon be considered crazy?

Humanity definitely has problems! Belief if god(s) is prevalent in all kinds of cultures and throughout history, and we're surprised by the gullible people who voted for Trump? (Some of them are just hateful, of course.)

I'm not totally immune to that kind of thinking sometimes -- e.g., superstitious ways of thinking while watching sports or whatever -- so I'll get off my high horse.

[TheFrenchRazor]

39. yep; some men could not bring themselves to vote for a woman president. nt

[bettyellen]

45. I was so disappointed in some liberal friends over the past year.

[bettyellen]

4. Tommorrow explain Trump lied and accused CNN of reporting that Buzzfeed did and they never

Even linked to. Peetous viciously attacked and slimed the wrong organization. Does he prefer his president to be fucking stupid or a huge liar- because thems the choices.

[msongs]

6. facts are useless against this type of human being nt

[bettyellen]

42. Simply presented facts can shut them down. One by one I have gotten a few to STFU

On FB and it's something at least. Mostly assholes block me but I try to have hope for those who do not.

[LaydeeBug]

5. Yep...and it's not JUST BECAUSE he is black, but because his mother was white

and that should have NO BEARING, but somehow, it *does*. Were Barack Obama the son of a black woman and a white man, he would have been more accepted. I don't agree with it, but I promise you, that's the rightie's perception. He would be in better standing if both parents were black.

And many, many MANY Trump voters I know thought they were voting Obama out of office. Seriously. Like Trump was running against Obama and Hillary was just with Obama.

or something.

because Benghazi.

Kenya.

[TrekLuver]

10. Obama is black and he is white ....he is both...biracial...why is he only referred to as black??

[uponit7771]

11. Its what the legal system would call him, they don't care about genetics its culture

[LaydeeBug]

13. this.

[coco22]

19. Because they can see white.

[JHan]

20. well, we can thank the one drop rule from slavery days.

[malaise]

34. Law, precedent

and convention Forget not the one drop law

[Zambero]

56. African American

Is generally associated with being black, even for individuals with a multi- or biracial background. Perhaps this is shortsighted or even inaccurate, but that is the general perception.

[3catwoman3]

15. I have often wondered of any of the relentless Obama hate would have been...

...any different if he had married a white woman. Would the right have hated him more, or less?

[Fresh_Start]

23. definitely more

I have no doubt at all about that

[Different Drummer]

25. Much, much more. Pitchforks and torches level of hatred. n/t

[MrPurple]

31. And yet, Clarence Thomas' wife is white

When it comes down to it, the racist haters are hypocrites.

[marylandblue]

37. They don't love Clarence Thomas

They just use him. And they probably don't know anything about his wife. It's not like the FLOTUS who is seen every day.

[LaydeeBug]

32. Oh, it certainly would have been worse, but I am talking about HIS parents

It's the fabled 'white woman being defiled by a black man and no good can come of it, Praise Jaysus'

and good came of it.

REALLY fucking good came of it

They hate that shit

[malaise]

35. It would have been worse

The real hatred is for a white woman to love anyone who is non-white and they detest African-American men.

[Raster]

28. she was a "racial traitor." They are big on that kind of shit...

...the other thing that fries their lizard is that the Black Man of mixed parentage WON BOTH ELECTIONS FAIR-AND-SQUARE, with no extraneous interventions. No Daddy's money and connections. No brutally biased SCOTUS.

[sdfernando]

8. I'd say that No, I'm not mad at you but this stuff most definitly matters!

He will be one of the first to feel the effects of what he has done....and though you may feel sorry for him and his situation, he should be reminded that this is what he voted. He made his bed.

[TrekLuver]

9. They are also very scared...but don't fool yourself...Obama and Hillary hating do go hand in hand.

[Snarkoleptic]

12. Lots of Trumpists don't know/care who Trump is or what he stands for.

All they know is that voting for him if flipping a big middle finger at the establishment.
Never mind the fact that the liberal wing of the establishment is seemingly the only thing keeping James from falling throught the cracks.

[BainsBane]

50. Did you read the OP

Or do you think the establishment is black?

[Snarkoleptic]

52. Did you read my post?

I was painting the larger population of Trumpists.

[BainsBane]

60. What you were doing

Is ignoring the evidence in the OP so as to pretend racism didn't impact the election to repeat a trite and empty mantra.

The fact is the discourse about establishment was very much about race and gender and part of the determination to reinstate unchecked white male privilege. That is clear because it was only an issue when a woman, reviled in the most vulgar terms, ran to replace an African American. This from people with undying admiration for JFK and FDR, both born into extreme wealth, even as they vilified Hillary Clinton for daring to earn money rather than stay in her place.

I find it particularly hypocritical that people who spend their days pretending to care about money in politics present a billionaire as antiestablishment. He has no political experience, but he represents capital writ large and quite obviously is going to rule in that vein. What could be more establishment than the accumulation of capital?

Just because something is repeated ad nauseum on cable television does not make it insightful or relevant.

[dionysus]

62. It doesn't matter that he's not really anti-establishment... it's that people

believed he was anti-establishment.

For a lot of voters, perception is their reality. I've seen a toothless dockworker interviewed, saying he liked snifler because he was a "self made man"...

We may know that's bullshit and he started out with millions and millions of his dads money. But you know as well as i do, rethug politicians are experts at creating an alternate reality, and rethug voters are experts at eating up a pack of lies, so long as it fits what they want to believe.

These guys believe in their hearts that obama is muslim.. because he's... black. To those based in reality, that's laughable... but not to them. Some of them even simultaneously believe he's muslim and a cheistian devotee of reverend wright..

They believe he isn't a natural born citizen, despite the fact that none of them questions his mother being an american... so it doesn't matter if he WAS born in kenya, he'd still be a citizen.

Add the racism and sexism, to the ability to sincerely believe in the craziest of bullshit.. man.

They're mind boggling.

Obama is both christian and muslim, depending on the moment, a sniveling coward, but also a king-like dictator.

The way they view hillary is similar, they hold directly conflicting beliefs that shift on a whim of whatever lame line of attack they are using at the moment.

Facts mean nothing, they'll beleive whatever RW prpaganda coughs up, failing that, whatevet they want to believe to fit their preconceived notions.

Hopefully, enough of his voters are sane enough to realize how bad he turns out to be, and won't make the same mistake twice.

Or perhaps some of the "they're both just as bad" people will realize how flawed that thinking is.

Even sadder is that, even if hillary had won, nothing would change insofar as the rethugs owning congress and the SC and totally obstructing every single thing she would have tried to do for 8 years.

Sometimes i think, as a nation, we deserve what we get for being so totally insane as to elect the worst candidate in history. But it really sucks for those of us who didn't vote for the clown

[nolabear]

14. You know he might not function as well as you thought. People are amazing, aren't they?

I write too so I know that fascination. I'm also a therapist so I've had a great deal of opportunity to see people's minds at length and with a lot of time and room for comparison. And I'm here to tell you, people function differently in the most fundamental ways. It's easy to say dumb or smart, liberal or conservative, right to wrong, logical or illogical, but it's so much more complex. James just might not put two and two together and reach anything you'd recognize.

[femmedem]

16. I would access your curiosity about people and ask him why he likes Trump.

And I hope you don't let it ruin a friendship. We need to be kind to each other. He still shares your taste in music, still has his sense of humor. And he trusted you when he shared his political disagreement. It would, in my opinion, be a betrayal of that trust if you stop speaking with him.

I admit, I may be misunderstanding the situation. He said Republicans were sad when Obama got elected because he was a black man. But I don't know if this man is a Republican or how he felt about Obama. From what you wrote, he may be an unaffiliated voter who was pointing out that Republicans are racist, and that whenever someone's candidate of choice loses, they're unhappy.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

17. "this stuff don't matter"

"Oh no, I'm not mad at you. Just because you said that they should have arrested the CNN reporter for daring to interrupt your Fascist Emperor. Not at all.

I just know which side you'll be on when this all explodes, you anti-American fascist putz."

This is what I'd have seriously considered saying. This is why I barely talk to people anymore outside of my friends.

[Freedomofspeech]

21. I am just like you.

I was always smiling and talking to strangers... No more. 2/3 of the people here in SW PA, voted for that piece of crap and I will have no interaction with them. My whole life and demeanor has changed.

[Different Drummer]

26. ...

This is why I barely talk to people anymore outside of my friends.

This is me.

[True Dough]

30. I still engage with people on the regular

but I'm trying to gauge their political leanings as I get to know them. If they're pro-Trump, I pull back.

You read all those cruel and ignorant online comments on so many stories and realize there are a lot of those people out there, sadly. Some of them disguise it well in person though.

[dionysus]

63. People say a lot of things behind the safety and anonymity of a keyboard,

that they wouldn't dare sayface to face to another person.

[hatrack]

58. Yep, I'm done. Snip, snip, snip go the old connections . . .

If you're fucked in the head enough to vote to hurt people like me (whom you do know) as well as tens of millions of people you don't know (a matter of far greater importance) so that you can scratch some malignant itch in your brain stem, then I have no more time to waste on you.

[coco22]

18. A lot of us knew all along..

that they wanted Trump because they wanted a white President thinking they were proving that white is right and black is wrong no matter what. They wanted to take the smile off of Obama supporters faces but they will be crying in the long run because of this clown brainwashed by reality tv.

[KamaAina]

22. Aren't the dumbbells supposed to be in racks or something?

[Different Drummer]

27. What that we could put them in the historic meaning of racks. n/t

[ismnotwasm]

24. There's lots of them around

One of my friends--a former punk rocker--thinks Trump is great. So when I see him I say "How're doin ya Trump voting motherfucker?" He just smiles and respectfully says Hi. We exchange pleasantries. We don't talk politics because we have nothing in common there.

[Tatiana]

29. These are dumb racists that don't realize they're actually on "Obamacare."

The ones that benefit from programs Democrats implement to give those who are less fortunate a better quality of life.

This is why I'm at the point where I just want to let them repeal the ACA. Let those coal miners and their families enjoy the Trump cake they will eat.

[Warpy]

33. See, that's the problem with low information voters

They check out the packaging at the last minute and vote on whether or not they think they "like" the candidate. The only good thing is that this poor guy probably hasn't gotten it together to go cast a vote.

I tend to go on treating people the way they treat me.

[Wellstone ruled]

38. Knowing Point some what.

The way Wisconsin is trending,this Guy will have tons of Social Economic issues shortly. But then he will blame Obama anyway.

[nini]

48. I agree.. they needed a WHITE MAN back in charge

And it obviously didn't matter who.


Good luck to that guy..he's gonna need it.

[MFM008]

54. lets ask my mom

she will die without the ACA.
Thats ok though.........they like the maggot, hes a good maggot.

[lunasun]

55. His own housing doesn't matter . Willing to sacrifice just to have trump as POTUS

[Zambero]

57. The right would be crippled

without it's self-anointed sacrificial lambs.

[HassleCat]

59. Stevens Point is an interesting place

Not too liberal, in spite of being a college town. Many people I knew we're just as you describe, not at all concerned with reality, happy to play out their grudges.

[3catwoman3]

61. My husband and I went to a new workout class a couple of days ago.

One of the women there was wearing a T-shirt that proclaimed her to be an"Adorable Deplorable."

I did not even bother to introduce myself, beause I knew we would have nothing in common.

[indigoth]

64. The last sentence

Perhaps the most troubling thing he said ... because ... it DOES matter

[Duppers]

65. Sounds like many Tennesseans I know.

I couldn't help but be angry with him. Stupidity has consequences. He and people like him are taking the country down.

[pansypoo53219]

66. RUMP speaks stupid. like GWB. they think they can have a beer w/ assmouth.