I Am What’s Wrong With America*

[Ilsa]

I Am What’s Wrong With America*
*According to some guy
08/16/2016

By Anand Giridharadas

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/i-am-whats-wrong-with-america_us_57b32ad4e4b0a8e1502555d4

On Friday, I went on TV and called for empathy for supporters of Donald Trump. Forget the candidate for a second, I said. Let us ask what kind of pain is throbbing in those precincts most drawn to his theme of destructive renewal. And let us ask, those of us who have felt history to be moving in our direction, whether we listened to ― not redressed, but listened to  ― the grievances of our “brothers and sisters” before they graduated into anger:

I think we need to listen to each other again... The fact that immigration scares people. I’m a son of immigrants. I’m not going to reduce my commitment to immigration. But can I empathize with the fact that if your town was 95 percent all white and now it’s down to 60, that that can scare you? Can I empathize with that? Yeah. And did people like me do a good job of doing that? No. We didn’t. And I think we need to rediscover each other as a people. We need to hear each other’s stories. We need to listen. We need to adopt someone from the other side and just say, like, “Beneath your ideas, what is the life story that gives rise to those ideas?” We need to do that at the level of individual conversations, families, TV shows. But we have a huge getting-back-together to accomplish.

Snip

But on Facebook, some guy named James didn’t like my call for reconciliation. He offered this comment:

An effeminate, domesticated male like you will never comprehend this rage. You are literally incapable of viscerally understanding. The rage will continue. What are we upset about? We are upset that a guy like you has a voice in the public square. You can be in the square as long as you sit in the corner, facing outward without a pen and pencil and only speak when spoken to. That is the source of the rage. What is the deal with your hair? Grow up man/boy.

Snip

The rest of the article is a scream. "James", it turns out, was born to US missionary parents in Japan. Giridharadas is hysterical and logical and brilliant! I'm really glad Joe Scarborough had this guy on today and last week.

[Warren DeMontague]

1. He's oddly preoccupied with that dude's hair.

[awoke_in_2003]

2. Too be fair...

the only person I have seen with crazier hair is that nutcase on Ancient Aliens

[Warren DeMontague]

3. Maybe he's going for the Brock look.

but "get a haircut" is so hackneyed and cliched.

I remember some redneck dickhole yelled it at me from his pickup truck in about 1994, and even then I was like "what the fuck, Merle Haggard*, you're in Northern California and Jerry Garcia has his own fucking ice cream flavor. Get over it, already"


* I do understand Mr. Haggard was being a bit intentionally ironic when he wrote "Okie from Muskogee", of course

[awoke_in_2003]

4. I always wondered that about Merle. nt

[Javaman]

5. there is a meme for everything....

[LWolf]

6. Over the course of my life

I've noted that hate and bigotry are not easily eradicated.

When it becomes too uncomfortable, too socially incorrect, to express hate and bigotry toward one group, a new target is found. The hate and bigotry are always present; the targets just change.

It's not a surprise to see how eager people are to yank their hatred out from whatever closet they stuffed in it; to see them take pride in their hate. It's grievous, but not a surprise.

This IS a part of what is wrong with America. I think his suggestion has merit:

a sign of how the republic we share might get out of this dark, sad moment: speak our truths, listen to each other’s, heal, repair, rectify, restore, and maybe, after all that, become friends.

DUers like to pat themselves on the back and consider themselves so much smarter and better than their opposition. How many channel their hate and bigotry toward their political opponents? How many would agree to listen to their opposition? How many just post here as a "safe" place to post political hate and bigotry?

[Ilsa]

7. I think most of the hate on DU is toward an ideology, not

necessarily a person. For example, if I was to run into say, Joe Scarborough, I'd thank him for his patriotism, but also tell him I'm a D.

I despise dirty tricksters like Karl Rove. I think Trump is an ignorant mess. I don't like Mitt Romney. But I don't hate any of them. I certainly wouldn't dox them or threaten them or their kids, or knowingly lie about them or try to run them out of the country. I might want a couple of them to be incarcerated.

Hate is a very special category on a spectrum.

[LWolf]

8. I've noticed

a great deal of name-calling and personal attacks...against the people, not the ideology they hold.

I have some strong feelings about ideology, myself. I can't hate the people who don't agree with me, though.

[Ilsa]

9. Yes, there are some very personal attacks & hate. nt