It’s the sense of entitlement
Obama says men are just getting on his damn nerves now, ok?
Barack Obama thinks that more female leadership when it comes to social movements and governance will improve policies.
The former president of the United States said that “men have been getting on my nerves lately” and suggested that the solution might be to empower women, in a speech during a town hall meeting with young African leaders at the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa.
“Everyday I read the newspaper and just think like ‘Brothers, what’s wrong with you guys? What’s wrong with us? We’re violent, we’re bullying. Just not handling our business,’” Obama said. “I think empowering more women on the continent, that… is going to lead to some better policies.”
He’s not wrong.
There’s a whole lot of room for holding men to higher standards, too. When “boys will be boys” seems to be code for “boys will be rapists”, the standards aren’t in the right spot.
Hey, fellow liberals, do you want to win, or do you want to bask in your superior virtue?
If it’s the former, let’s define some ideals and goals and accept everyone that’s working toward them.
If it’s the latter, let’s signal our virtual by bashing men and whites. Ha ha, look at that bunch of people that don’t know their own privilege and/or are idiotic, poor hicks! Hey, wait, why aren’t they voting for us? Racists! Look at those stupid white men, what a bunch of racists! Wait…we’ve lost the elections again? How did THAT happen? I don’t get it.
I voted for Hillary, and most of my friends voted for Hillary, but I have friends and family members that voted for Trump. A lot of them are mad, because they’ve never judged anyone based on their race or gender, they want all people to be treated equally, and a lot of them came from hard backgrounds and had to claw their way to a decent life. They feel after they’ve spent their wholes lives not disparaging anyone for their race or gender, that it’s not fair for them to be disparaged because they’re white and/or male.
They’re not wrong.
‘…empowering more women on ANY continent…’
Unless, of course, some troll calls them a TERF on the interwebz.
Skeletor – yes they are wrong. They voted for Trump; that is wrong. Basking in your own superior virtue much?
Skeletor, my entire family voted for Trump. They range from the unemployed, unemployable to people with MBAs. They didn’t vote for him because they are poor and downtrodden (even those that are) but because they believe they are entitled to be otherwise without actually changing what they are doing. They would be outraged to be called racists, but racism takes many faces, and in some cases is subtle enough that people who refuse to see it will be able to state “no, they aren’t racists”. My parents taught me in words not to be racist, but in deeds, they taught me to be racist. I feel myself fortunate that I respond well to words and cringe at their deeds. They would say they have never judged anyone on their race or gender, but they do – every single day. Every move they make is based around an idea of how the world should be set up, which is roughly how it is set up in Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best.
Many people, including my family. believe that they have been oppressed not because they are prevented from doing things, but because other people are allowed to do the same things. When you perceived people who have always been below you as being beside you now, it does not feel like they moved up, but like you moved down.
I do not know your family, and I will not judge people based on assumptions and prejudices, but the reality is, they voted for someone who was openly racist, sexist, and ugly as hell about other people during the campaign and has remained so ever since. They’re tired of being disparaged as racists and sexists? Well, I am tired as hell of being disparaged because I believe in equal opportunities for all people, because I believe in environmental protection, because I believe that other nations, other countries, and people who look different from me are as good as I am…I am tired of people assuming I eat sprouts (I hate them), drink latte (I hate it), and all the other things that are attributed to “libtards”, some of which I do indeed believe and do and do not believe are bad.
Is it okay to call people libtards? Low IQ Maxine Waters? Animals? Crazy? Idiot? Pocahontas? Whether your family does any of that or not is irrelevant, because Trump was no secret prior to being elected. He was as open about his nastiness as any candidate has ever been, and they could have voted for someone else, or not voted. Unless your family lives in a place where they had no access to newspapers, television, radio, the internet, or other people, and just ventured out to vote and liked the look of the name “Trump” on the ballot, they have to consider themselves tarred with his brush.
#2
Skeletor, your post assumes the claim that calling Trump voters racist, sexist, deplorable etc. pushed them further down that path. If that is the case, then that means every time they call us something in return, we become more _____ in response. Has that happened? I can’t say I have noticed any change, despite being called SJW, snowflake, white knight and similar for years. Have your politics changed in reponse to being called _____? If not, then we can conclude the claim is bunk.
Holms, I have been called feminazi…I think it does make me more “feminazi” – at least as they define the term.
But otherwise, your point is good. ;-)
We’ve received the hard sell for accepting Trump voters as good people who were tired and wanted a change. It’s been such a hard sell, that I’ve really tried to visualize tolerant people driven to such a point that they would vote for Trump….It just doesn’t compute.
As someone defending these voters, Skeletor, please explain to me how it computes! Every line I try leads to eventual conscious racism or misogyny on the part of the imagined voter.
As a woman I experience misogyny every single day, albeit most of the time it is limited to small, subtle demonstrations and messages. These demonstrations come from loved ones almost as often as from anywhere else. It’s so goddamn disheartening that sometimes I just want to stop breathing! People I love voted for Trump. Nobody wants to go down this rabbit hole when this is about real people that we know and see and love every day, voting for someone who would have us live in the world Trump wants to create. It breaks my fucking heart!
They love me enough to tell me there are other reasons for that vote, like wanting a change, but that doesn’t distract me from the fact that they knew what it could do to me and millions of their fellow Americans. I’m not going to be quiet about that anymore. Maybe this happened because I was quiet and polite about it before it came to this.
Maybe I have to speak up every single goddamn time I am 2nd classed by family, friends and peers. I don’t even know if that’s possible. But I do know I’m done giving these people a pass, and I was done WHEN they voted for Trump. That was my apocalyptic alarm. That was the day they lost all benefit of the doubt that I ever had to give any of them, utterly and completely.
Here are some more of those Trump voters we’re supposed to respect.
People who believe in a literal, physical hell and heaven, and speculate on what appliances they will have in their kitchen in heaven. (But I was assured that Gnu Atheists were arguing against a literal form of religion that nobody actually believes!)
People who dismiss Trump’s vileness on the grounds that “we are not to judge,” but claim that Hillary Clinton is “of Satan.”
People who believe Obama was a Muslim.
People who believe that the annihilation of Christians in America is nigh. (But don’t you dare call them delusional!)
People who believe that when Jesus said “love thy neighbor,” he meant “love thy American neighbor.”
People who believe that they can look around a hospital emergency room and figure out the immigration status of everyone there. (Gee, I wonder what basis they use?) People who are sure that hospital staff — for reasons unknown — are choosing to treat the illegal immigrants first and make Americans wait untreated.
People who think slavery wasn’t that bad — hey, the slaves were fed and clothed!
People who oppose having memorials to the victims of lynchings, because they’re afraid that African-Americans will be motivated to take revenge.
People who think that “Rosa Parks time” was “scary.”
But don’t you dare call them bigoted!
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