A Liberal Doesn’t Quite Get It

 

Ben Domenech shared an interesting column in yesterday’s Transom from a liberal who had a paradigm-challenging encounter with a redneck who fixed her car as she returned home from the Women’s March in Washington. It proves to be an experience that prevents her from going back to business as usual (apparently she hosts a podcast?) because she realizes that she has become a person she doesn’t want to be:

As I drove home, I felt the full extent to which Trump has actually diminished my own desire to be kind. He is keeping me so outraged that I hold ill will toward others on a daily basis. Trump is not just ruining our nation, he is ruining me. By the end of the drive, I felt heartbroken.

But this year, I realize, I retreated from my porch. Trump’s cruelty and mendacity demand outrage and the most vigorous resistance a nation can muster. Yet the experience with the man at the side of the road felt humbling. It reminded me that we are all just people trying to get home safe. It felt like a sign, that maybe if we treat one another with the kindness and gratitude that is so absent from our president and his policies, putting our most loving selves forward, this moment can transform into something more bearable? I want to come away from the march with that simple lesson, but it begs this question: How do we hold onto the fire fueling our resistance to the cruelty Trump unleashes, but also embrace the world with love? I wish I knew.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you a liberal in the grips of delusion. As I read the article I was expecting an introspective denouement to this interesting encounter. I thought it was going to be a reckoning with herself in which she resolves to change and see the humanity in the people who don’t share her political views.

Nope. She blames Trump!

He’s the one that is making her outraged, angry, and unkind. Not her. Him!

It’s going to be a long eight years.

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  1. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    Who is Trump being cruel to and how? How is she repressed as a woman? The last president pitted so many “groups” of people against each other, men against women, blacks against whites, law enforcement against the public,  gays against straight, coddled our enemies and ignored out allies, and created an atmosphere of tension where safe spaces were created, college kids had to color, cry and scream down any opposing opinion. How is that not cruel?

    • #31
  2. Joe P Member
    Joe P
    @JoeP

    Umbra Fractus (View Comment):

    cirby (View Comment):
    Back when Bush was still President, one woman I knew would continually rant about HOW STUPID he was. When I pointed out his actual education versus her not-finished undergrad college work, she nearly lost the rest of her mind.

    She KNEW just how amazingly, awfully, incredibly dumb this Harvard and Yale graduate was. And she was smarter than he was because her little record store was doing fine (never mind his MBA and his multiple successful business ventures, any one of which was a couple of orders of magnitude bigger than anything she ever managed).

    Now, we have a whole generation of people who are dead certain that the current President – a billionaire and successful TV personality/producer – is much, much dumber than anyone, even though he managed to beat their favorite candidate by spending a third as much money, while the press and most of Washington were trying to tip the scales.

    What gets me, and this applies to both Trump and Bush, are the ones who go back and forth between saying he’s the dumbest person ever to win election and that he’s a chessmaster in firm control of a vast right-wing conspiracy to install a plutocratic dictatorship. The same people seem to go back and forth between both extremes without a hint of irony.

    And the most ironic part of this behavior, is that it clearly tells the other half the country that it doesn’t matter who they elect, because that person will always be simultaneously a goose-stepper, yet not enough of one to use government “intelligently,” so any objection they might have is irrelevant.

    • #32
  3. Umbra Fractus Inactive
    Umbra Fractus
    @UmbraFractus

    Joe P (View Comment):

    And the most ironic part of this behavior, is that it clearly tells the other half the country that it doesn’t matter who they elect, because that person will always be simultaneously a goose-stepper, yet not enough of one to use government “intelligently,” so any objection they might have is irrelevant.

    Exactly. This woman’s tirade has nothing to do with Trump; she’d be just as mindlessly hateful towards President Cruz, President Walker, or President Rubio.

    • #33
  4. Fake John/Jane Galt Coolidge
    Fake John/Jane Galt
    @FakeJohnJaneGalt

    Wonder if she ever considered it from the other side.  Of all those folk that like Trump are even just do not hate him with the same white hatred the libs feel but are afraid to mention their point of view since they know the Left is so oppressed with Trump that they would be fired or marginalized for even suggesting that Trump may not actually be the incarnation of the anti-Christ / Hitler / Stalin in one.  It is sad to be like this woman and live in hate but it is also sad that so many have to live in fear of her type.

    • #34
  5. Ralphie Inactive
    Ralphie
    @Ralphie

    Pastor Hans Fiene wrote about outrage addiction in the Fedralist last year.  The need to be mad.

    So she is mad at Trump and is taking it out on others she didn’t understand could exist until the other day, someone like her, just trying to get through life, who was helpful and friendly.

    As noted, her anger isn’t Trump’s fault.

    I wish her epiphany is life altering; that when people are left alone, they can solve their problems in a congenial way without political interference. She needs to learn politics is overrated as a means to an end. Surpised she wasn’t mad at the car company for not making a perfect car that lasts as long as she desires.

    • #35
  6. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    Bereket Kelile:Nope. She blames Trump!

    He’s the one that is making her outraged, angry, and unkind. Not her. Him!

    It’s going to be a long eight years.

    Don’t forget Scott Adams’ observations on the Cathy Newman – Jordan Peterson interview: Peterson repeatedly induced cognitive dissonance in Newman; her response was repeated hallucinations. That is, she was not perversely misinterpreting him, she was, in her own head, hearing him say things that he did not in fact say… because that diminished the distress of the cognitive dissonance. I think the same thing was going on for Mayer.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igqRWx0asTA

     

    • #36
  7. Merrijane Inactive
    Merrijane
    @Merrijane

    A) I wish people would stop using “begs the question.” They almost always do it wrong, and it is so much easier to just say something like “it makes me wonder …”

    B) Yes, always be kind. You don’t have to tie it in with your particular flavor of politics.

    C) Even if you think Trump is awful (and I certainly don’t like him), being outraged by him 24-7 accomplishes nothing and makes you miserable—as it would if you spent all your time being outraged by any other person or situation, warranted or not. Constant anger is poison to your soul. It has the potential to cause you to mischaracterize everyone you meet. Let it go.

    • #37
  8. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    Front Seat Cat (View Comment):
    Who is Trump being cruel to and how? How is she repressed as a woman?

    Logic is racist and sexist.

    • #38
  9. Merrijane Inactive
    Merrijane
    @Merrijane

    Ray Gunner (View Comment):
    Our own Andrew Klavan has an insightful formulation that describes this phenomenon well: “Anger is the Devil’s cocaine.”

    I saw a bizarre tweet the other day—someone saying essentially, “Of course I’m angry. History shows anger is a great motivator for change and a force for good.”

    Yeah, anger motivates people to do a lot of things—but most of them are not good.

    • #39
  10. TheSockMonkey Inactive
    TheSockMonkey
    @TheSockMonkey

    Merrijane (View Comment):
    A) I wish people would stop using “begs the question.” They almost always do it wrong, and it is so much easier to just say something like “it makes me wonder …”

    Thank you.

    • #40
  11. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    Mayer wrote that she could no longer enjoy sitting out on her porch because she has neighbors who hold political views which make her feel so threatened that rage is an appropriate response. I mean really, doesn’t she have a right to enjoy her own property? And aren’t those people keeping her from doing so?

    What to do, what to do….

    When similar level of perceived existential threat became an organized political force, it led to this:

    The Population Registration Act, 1950 classified all South Africans into one of four racial groups based on appearance, known ancestry, socioeconomic status, and cultural lifestyle: “black”, “white”, “coloured”, and “Indian”, the last two of which included several sub-classifications. Places of residence were determined by racial classification. From 1960 to 1983, 3.5 million nonwhite South Africans were removed from their homes and forced into segregated neighbourhoods, in one of the largest mass removals in modern history. Most of these targeted removals were intended to restrict the black population to ten designated “tribal homelands”, also known as bantustans, four of which became nominally independent states. The government announced that relocated persons would lose their South African citizenship as they were absorbed into the bantustans.

    Mayer wrote that she lived in a “little two-block craftsman-home development.” If it has a HOA and she takes her activism to it, that place will probably become a little two-block craftsman-home outcropping of Hell.

    • #41
  12. Umbra Fractus Inactive
    Umbra Fractus
    @UmbraFractus

    Merrijane (View Comment):

    Ray Gunner (View Comment):
    Our own Andrew Klavan has an insightful formulation that describes this phenomenon well: “Anger is the Devil’s cocaine.”

    I saw a bizarre tweet the other day—someone saying essentially, “Of course I’m angry. History shows anger is a great motivator for change and a force for good.”

    Yeah, anger motivates people to do a lot of things—but most of them are not good.

    It’s like the bumper sticker, “Well behaved women rarely make history.”

    Well, yes, it’s true that Rosa Parks broke the rules, but so did Lizzie Borden.

    • #42
  13. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    Just leaving this here:

     

    • #43
  14. SuzanneHelmick Inactive
    SuzanneHelmick
    @SuzanneHelmick

    I can’t change, nor can I control President Trump’s behavior.   The only person’s behavior I can control and/or change is my own.  I choose to try to do my best (not always succeeding) to treat others with respect, dignity and compassion.  I also choose not to be “enraged” by the behavior and actions of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.  It’s a shame that this woman does not seem to understand her own power to choose how she responds to actions of those around her.

    • #44
  15. barbara lydick Inactive
    barbara lydick
    @barbaralydick

    dnewlander (View Comment):

    Bereket Kelile: Trump’s cruelty and mendacity

    They say stuff like this a lot. Is this Scott Adams’ reality filter thing? Because otherwise, what are they talking about?

    Exactly  my question

    • #45
  16. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    Umbra Fractus (View Comment):
    It’s like the bumper sticker, “Well behaved women rarely make history.”

    Or the one reading “If you’re not angry you’re not paying attention.”

    Both have been observed on the same vehicle as: the multicult “Coexist.”

     

    • #46
  17. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    dnewlander (View Comment):
    They say stuff like this a lot. Is this Scott Adams’ reality filter thing? Because otherwise, what are they talking about?

    It’s not Trump’s actions that are cruel, it’s his existence. Any actions they don’t like just prove it.

    Adams posits that reality is subjective (because the only instrument we have to perceive reality is our very subjective brains) and that to save time we use an array of “filters.”

    Here’s a start.

    And a useful piece on cognitive dissonance.

    • #47
  18. I Walton Member
    I Walton
    @IWalton

    Trump just needs to fix more flat tires.  Dispatch Trump look alikes with a bat flood light and bat mobiles.

    Hate to tell her, but the hate predates Trump; it’s a product of the density of directed hate themes  and osmosis.    I’ve seen in growing for many decades.

    • #48
  19. C. U. Douglas Coolidge
    C. U. Douglas
    @CUDouglas

    Ontheleftcoast (View Comment):

    Umbra Fractus (View Comment):
    It’s like the bumper sticker, “Well behaved women rarely make history.”

    Or the one reading “If you’re not angry you’re not paying attention.”

    Both have been observed on the same vehicle as: the multicult “Coexist.”

    Generally that last one should be appended “the way I tell you to.”

    • #49
  20. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    C. U. Douglas (View Comment):
    Generally that last one should be appended “the way I tell you to.”

    My mother used to say that when she saw the ones reading “Question Authority” she was tempted to take a marker and write “Why?” on it.

     

    • #50
  21. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Bereket Kelile: A Liberal Doesn’t Quite Get It

    Love your post!

    But really . . . don’t you think your title is somewhat trite?

    • #51
  22. C. U. Douglas Coolidge
    C. U. Douglas
    @CUDouglas

    Ontheleftcoast (View Comment):

    C. U. Douglas (View Comment):
    Generally that last one should be appended “the way I tell you to.”

    My mother used to say that when she saw the ones reading “Question Authority” she was tempted to take a marker and write “Why?” on it.

    I tried that on a co-worker once. He started answering the question …

    • #52
  23. Umbra Fractus Inactive
    Umbra Fractus
    @UmbraFractus

    Ontheleftcoast (View Comment):

    C. U. Douglas (View Comment):
    Generally that last one should be appended “the way I tell you to.”

    My mother used to say that when she saw the ones reading “Question Authority” she was tempted to take a marker and write “Why?” on it.

    I always preferred, “Don’t tell me what to do.”

    • #53
  24. Terry Mott Member
    Terry Mott
    @TerryMott

    The explanation for this woman’s anger was succinctly explained by Krauthammer:

    Conservatives think liberals are stupid.  Liberals think conservatives are evil.

    It’s a moral issue, to the point of often being a substitute religion.

    Christians are generally instructed to hate the sin but love the sinner.  This is often difficult to do, but that’s the ideal.

    Leftists have no such instruction in their moral framework.

    • #54
  25. Bereket Kelile Member
    Bereket Kelile
    @BereketKelile

    Stad (View Comment):

    Bereket Kelile: A Liberal Doesn’t Quite Get It

    Love your post!

    But really . . . don’t you think your title is somewhat trite?

    It’s pure click-bait.

    • #55
  26. cirby Inactive
    cirby
    @cirby

    Merrijane (View Comment):
    I saw a bizarre tweet the other day—someone saying essentially, “Of course I’m angry. History shows anger is a great motivator for change and a force for good.”

    Throughout history, moderate annoyance seems to be a lot better of a motivator.

    Annoyed people make new inventions so they won’t have to deal with the thing that annoys them.

    Annoyed people work to change society in reasonable ways, because it’s less annoying than tearing it all down and starting over.

    Annoyed people get things done, quickly, because they’re so over it.

    Angry people? Angry people break things, and they don’t care, because they’re ANGRY, dammit!

     

    • #56
  27. Sash Member
    Sash
    @Sash

    Anger is a choice.

    Choose to be understanding and your life will get better.

    Since when have these protests done anything anyway… I was in DC those days…one day pro-life, the next the women’s march.  While I agree with the Pro-life marchers, I just don’t see the point of a march.

    Also those days there were many pockets of DACA marches… I think they are learning the wrong things about being American.

    I hope as they get older they realise the people who are supporting them now do it to stay in power.  But the Republicans who will eventually solve this issue will do it, even though it will likely hurt us.

    I hope they will see that Democrats are selfish and corrupt and like most Americans refuse to support them.

    • #57
  28. Chris Campion Coolidge
    Chris Campion
    @ChrisCampion

    This can be the only response from people who place, inexplicably, all their hopes, dreams, and aspirations, and humanity, in a person who sits in an office who will never, ever know who they are.

    So:  Obama as president?  All is right with the world.  Trump?  World on fire.

    It’s neither of those things, nor should it be.  Her failure is her thinking that the president should take up so much space in her head, whether she supports a president or not.

    This is the last thing the founders were looking for.  It’s hero worship, for a politician.  Has she not seen what these idiots do all day?  Does 20 trillion in debt and 100 trillion in unfunded liabilities sound like good job performance?

     

    • #58
  29. ToryWarWriter Coolidge
    ToryWarWriter
    @ToryWarWriter

    So has anyones internet rates gone up?  Any sign of broadband throttling?

    • #59
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