Some of this is just a part of the cesspool that is Twitter, along with other social media platforms. But, unfortunately, all too frequently what crawls from the slime that is Twitter becomes a part of the more general political discourse in America.
Here are a few examples of liberals and other opponents to Trump going a step too far:
A Fox News commentator was accused of calling the sorority Kamala Harris was in a “colored” sorority. For days, this was repeated ad nauseum in my Twitter feed. The outrage was … outrageous. I eventually listened to the audio and the commentator did, in fact, say “college” sorority. The word was a bit jumbled, admittedly, but it was pretty clear he said college. That didn’t stop the outrage from continuing on … and on … and on.
Trump also did something similar a few days later. The details escape me, but he made a statement and one of the words was a bit jumbled and the left-wing outrage machine leapt into action. Again, filling my Twitter feed with endless messages of anger and disgust that Trump had said something offensive. Once again, I eventually listened to the audio and he, in fact, did not say what everybody was so outraged over. That didn’t stop the outrage from continuing on … and on … and on.
The coup de grace of all these most recent faux events generating outrage was the story that JD Vance jumped a sofa. Allegedly, he admitted this in his book Hillbilly Elegy. The only problem is that there is nothing in his book that remotely supports the claim. And!!! The guy who originally tweeted this almost immediately tweeted that it was a joke. But that hasn’t stopped people on Twitter from referring to Vance as a sofa humper. There are countless memes about this now and all sorts of people who I once respected in their opposition to Trump have continued to repeat this as though it were true, even though the correct debunking of it has been made clear. When I see that you’re willing to propagate a lie, I really don’t need you anymore.
And now we have the newest thing. Calling Trump, MAGAs, and anybody who supports Trump “weird.” I have a special distaste for this word. Somebody I know uses it regularly to describe anything he doesn’t like, doesn’t understand, or wouldn’t do. So, consider me triggered. But beyond that, it’s just juvenile. We can be better than this, can’t we? (Add to this, another lie that was propagated throughout Twitter and initially filled me. Somebody created a fake tweet from Elon Musk purporting to be him in which he called this a slur against Trump supporters and he wouldn’t tolerate it on his platform. Turns out it was a fake, but EVERYBODY was sharing it and expressing their outrage. I did that too, until I stopped and checked his feed. Where the tweet was nowhere to be found.)
There are plenty of other examples of liberals and anti-Trumpers pushing lies about Trump and his followers. It is pretty much endless these days. And it is all a poor reflection on those of us who want a better world than what Trump offers. There are so many honest, legitimate reasons to attack Trump, Vance, and others in the MAGA universe. So many. We don’t actually need to propagate these kinds of lies and dishonest personal attacks to make it clear who and what they are.
Yes, I get it, for nine years, Trump has destroyed the norms of civil discourse and has sunk to levels of juvenile behavior the likes of which we never thought we’d see in our candidates for higher office. That doesn’t mean we need to stoop to that level as well. When we do, we contribute to the growing divide. Instead of offering another fist, o let’s turn the cheek. Let’s offer an olive branch and seek to understand why millions of our country men and women are willing to follow such a despicable human being. If we don’t, there really is no hope for healing the rift that exists between us.
On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln delivered his first inaugural address. As you know, this was at a time when the country was staring down the barrel of a Civil War that killed hundreds of thousands of Americans and threatened the Union. Here was the final paragraph of his address. I’d like us try to live up to the ideal, rather than choosing a path of hate and division.
I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
So, this is a tangent, but: I've always liked the word, and the concept, of "weird." Things that are weird are interesting. If something is not in some sense weird, that means it's not novel, original, innovative etc. That's not to say that everything that's weird is good, of course, but just that the path to new and interesting ideas often goes through some weirdness.
And the funny thing is... I remember when the Left used to be champions of weirdness. Of not dismissing someone just because they are different, unusual, or offbeat. It was the boring, stodgy old conservatives who didn't like anything except the familiar and the routine. So the fact that folks on the Left are now using this as an insult is... dare I say it... weird.