Quote:
Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague
Let me first say that your suggestion that I'm not sensitive to those issues because I'm straight and white is pretty obnoxious from where I sit, but I'll leave that aside because I get that not everyone shares my view on the inherently toxic nature of identity politics. Instead, I'll just note that I'm definitely alive to those problems, and absolutely aware of suicides that will certainly result from these policies. It's horrific. And I'm not necessarily talking about WW3, there are a number of ways he can really screw us up just by not knowing what the hell he's doing and not being smart enough to be careful.
There is just no conceivable version of the world where Trump as president doesn't lead to a number of deaths and probably quite a bit of avoidable suffering for innocent people, and not just Americans. I think that the only likely scenario for "keeping Trump under control" (as you put it) to make sure he doesn't do broader, more catastrophic damage than rolling back civil rights for gays and women might actually be Mike Pence and his ilk. That would look like a more-right-wing-than-usual Republican administration, which would be bad, but not the end of life as we know it. I'm more concerned about a world where worries about not having ready access to health care or the ability to marry the person you love seems like a quaint and fond memory.
It has nothing to do with who's a bigger risk for me, it's about who's a bigger risk to the progress of humanity more broadly. My sense is that Pence exercising control leads to more certainty and less downside risk, and though the results of that are bound to be pretty awful, they're nothing compared to the potential ruination of society. So far no one's really been able to convince me that the likelihood of that outcome is insignificant, even though it seems far fetched intuitively.
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But that's the thing, these aren't
my identity politics. I'm incredibly fortunate and privileged, even despite this disaster of an election, my world doesn't change. I'm a straight woman, I can marry whomever I choose if I decide to do so. I make more than the same men in my company because I work harder. I have a boss who loudly and proudly protects my rights as a woman and will continue to do so. I am protected from all of these things.
But there are
millions of Americans who are not so lucky. There are people who can be discriminated against for housing, for jobs, if Pence and his ilk have their way. It will
change life as they know it. I really am just asking you to stop acting as if these are minor concerns because they are
not. For millions of people, their safety is at stake. Their livelihood is at stake. Their access to medical care is at stake.
These are huge issues that are much more imminent than are all of the other problems that Trump brings with him. These are problems that would have happened regardless of what Republican candidate had won office. If somehow Trump is impeached and all of those other issues you're bringing to the table are mitigated, the threat to these groups still remains, because they are not inherent to Trump, they are inherent to the Republican Party, which runs all three branches of government at this point in time.
I'm not saying that Trump isn't a major threat to mankind's safety and nothing you're saying with regards to that is wrong, but to write off a blatantly anti-LGBT man to a major post on his cabinet that is
absolutely certain to have negative effects on those communities is infuriating, and to treat it as basic "identity politics" is belittling and demeaning to the people who are facing those incredibly real threats long before Trump is even inaugurated.