There's a lot here, and I have a lot of thoughts about it so I'll be chopping this bad boy up into some pieces.
we ignored or minimalised everything else.
It was by far the elitist rhetoric that marginalized and belittled the concerns of conservative Americans that led Trump to the white house. Not only did they fail to give any real, believable reason not to vote for Trump - instead hauling out the tired old "bigot" card that they'd already exhausted to give us 8 years of Obama - but they failed to give any real positive reasons to vote for Hillary. They made it a race of negatives, and it just so happened that the negatives on Hillary's scale outweighed the negatives on Trump's. Side note, but did anyone get the sense that they were losing when they pulled out that 10 year old recording? I felt like if that was the best they had, hoo boy were they already in deep trouble.
Trump honestly scares me
Don't buy the hype from either side. Trump will neither be as good nor as bad as people have claimed, myself included. I don't think most of the people who voted for Trump, even the ones who were online every day spouting everything you all saw actually believes he is some savior who will lead America into a utopian paradise in the next four years. What I've seen from people just like myself is sober reflection and realism. The money, the media, the politicians. Everything was stacked against Trump in the most poisonously vehement way possible. The only way to bring this about was to get hyped and whipped up over it but I believe most of his supporters hold no delusions. Even while they gloat at and mock the feverish Clinton supporters who continue to carry on with their invective, lessons unlearned, they readily acknowledge that Trump's presidency will likely be a lukewarm and mediocre one. I'd like to draw a parallel here. Democrats saw Obama as a savior and Republicans went so far as to posit that he may be the antichrist during the two election cycles in which he ran. At the end of the day, Democrats carried on in a frenzy drunk on victory. By contrast, Trump's supporters already are coming down from the high that they've had to maintain this past year and accepting reality as it likely is. They're not coming to lynch you. They're reflecting.
2016 has seen two massive blows to globalisation, which hurts me a lot, I love globalisation, I grew up believing in cyberpunk futures where countries didn't matter, I grew up in a multicultural society where everyone was just people, with different beliefs and cultures, and nobody really cared. Nationalism makes no sense to me. But it makes sense to a lot of people clearly, in both the UK and the US, and I guess the rest of us just have to deal with that.
I believe the underlying principles of nationalism aren't so foreign to you, Redezra. At its heart, nationalism is about the belief that people are different and that that isn't always a bad thing so long as it's recognized and approached in a way that allows people of various cultures and values to live in peace with people who share their culture and values. When you force people to be the same and try to fit them into boxes, you start having problems. Just think about how you suffered and were marginalized by an education system that found you incompatible with the pigeonholes it wanted to put you in. That is how globalism affects huge portions of the population wherever it rears its ugly head and that is what the nationalism of today despises.
I'm expecting trans rights to be dead as of... right now. I'm a little unsure, but I think the right swing of the supreme court that's inevitable now coooould result in some reverses as of late, pro-lifer policies would be much harder to counter now, so I expect that to start happening in the south again... but could it also be possible to bump creationism into schools or bump off gay marriage? I mean those would be Pence's big plays, but I dunno if that's like a double jeopardy thing, or just mass fearmongering wafting in from the left. They'd have to legislate for it, that's for sure. But yeah, lemme know what you think, I'm intrigued.
I don't see it honestly. There's support for trans rights among many of the people I've seen supporting Trump. Will the process be slowed? Probably, but I still think they're happening and what you'll get is something more people can agree on as sensible and that leaves far fewer people feeling left behind and disenfranchised by the whole deal... and isn't that really a big portion of what the metaphorical pendulum is about? What I see happening is a slower, more thoughtful, more collaborative and respectful approach rather than the farcical circus that modern feminism and social justice has brought us.
I'm not for any of this, I'm strongly against this, I'm actually fairly bewildered... but to be honest, the US is not my country, the US people are not my people. What you choose to do is your choice, I've said my part and the decision has been made. And, in all honesty:
Congratulations on defeating the establishment.
<3 Redezra
There's a post from the chans that's been on my mind a lot since the election was finally called for Donald Trump. It was about Brexit, but the sentiment was much the same as the one I'm sure many Americans felt when Trump won. It talked about something I touched on above. That all the money, media, and political clout was against these things. I'll end on just a short quote from the last bit of it.
"The people wanted it, lads. And the people won."
Rights for everyone who isn't white and heterosexual are pretty much dead in the water now. As for me, I'm done. No more politics, no more giving a shit. I'm out. My insides are dead. The depression that has been plaguing me all year was finally starting to lift, but no more. I congratulate Trump on a race well run. He obviously knew what he was talking about. He was right on every turn. I am glad that my friends, like Thrash, are happy, even if I think that happiness will be short-lived. But there is no place for me in Trump's America. This was my last election.
Learn your fucking lesson already you childish, insufferable hack. Even in defeat you learn nothing. Either that or nut up and take your toys to fucking Canada. I'm sure their socialist cuckold of a PM would be happy to have you.
Edited by Shokkou, 09 November 2016 - 01:51 PM.