Critically Examining a Pro-Trump Meme

Back when I was growing up, Facebook had a word limit on posts; you couldn't go over 60 words. Once they removed that, however, folks (myself included) started posting novel-length entries on the social media page, with whatever was on our minds at the time. And that's fine, since sharing whatever you're thinking, no matter how detrimental or stupid it might be, is what social media is for. Well, that and FOMO -- fear of missing out -- but applying a critical eye to marketing tools will come later. Today, I want to take a look at a pro-Trump novella that circles around the right-wing noise-o-sphere and examine it.

How I Feel About Trump

I'm pretty sure most folks can grok how I feel about Pumpkin Spice Berlusconi, but just in case you can't: I don't like him. And it's not just policies, although I differ there too. One day, I'm going to do an economic break down on just how much of a disaster his tax plan has been, and how your tax dollars as an American citizen are literally subsidizing corporate welfare (via a negative income tax), but that's for a different post as well. No, I personally dislike him, and I always have. I didn't like him when he was a Democrat in the 90s and I really don't like him now that he's a Republican in the 2010s. The current Evangelical messiah du jour is a Big Mac-powered bully; he's a narcissistic, incurious, malignant buffoon. If a student ever acted like him in any of my classes I'd throw them out and not think twice.

But this isn't about how I feel about him; this is a post about how right-wingers feel about him. And, well, let's put it diplomatically and say here's an awful lot of antiprocess and post hoc justification happening here.

You've been on vacation for two weeks, you come home, and your basement is infested with raccoons.. Hundreds of rabid, messy, mean raccoons have overtaken your basement. You want them gone immediately!.. You call the city and 4 different exterminators, but nobody can handle the job.. But there is this one guy, and he guarantees to get rid of them, so you hire him.. You don't care if the guy smells, you don't care if the guy swears, you don't care if he's an alcoholic, you don't care how many times he's been married, you don't care if he has a plumber's crack, you simply want those raccoons gone!.. You want your problem fixed!.. He's the guy.. He's the best!

Here's why we want Trump: Yes, he's a bit of a jerk; Yes, he's an egomaniac; but we don't care!.. The country is a mess because politicians suck, the Republicans and Democrats can be two-faced and gutless, and illegals are everywhere.. We want it all fixed!.. We don't care that Trump is crude, we don't care that he insults people, we don't care that he has changed positions, we don't care that he's been married 3 times, we don't care that he fights with Megyn Kelly and Rosie O'Donnell, we don't care that he doesn't know the name of some Muslim terrorist.. This country became weak and bankrupt, our enemies were making fun of us, we are being invaded by illegals, we are becoming a nation of victims where every Tom, Ricardo, and Hasid is a special group with special rights to a point where we don't even recognize the country we were born and raised in; "AND WE JUST WANT IT FIXED”.. And Trump is the only guy who seems to understand what the people want..

We're sick of politicians, sick of the Democratic Party, sick of the Republican Party, and sick of illegals!.. We just want this thing fixed.. Trump may not be a Saint, but we didn’t vote for a Pope.. We voted for a man who doesn't have lobbyist money holding him back, a man who doesn't have political correctness restraining him.. We all know that he has been very successful, he’s a good negotiator, he has built a lot of things, and he's also NOT a politician, NOT a cowardly politician.!.. And he says he'll fix it.. And we believe him because he is too much of an egotist to be proven wrong, or looked at and called a liar.. Also, we don't care if the guy has bad hair.. We just want those raccoons gone, out of our house, NOW!!!

The abuse of ellipses there makes me want to cringe so hard I'll eat my own teeth. The style is terrible; I'd flunk anyone who turned this in as a final project in my class on all the stylistic errors alone.

The very first thing that stands out to me is the comparison between undocumented immigrants and, quote, "rabid raccoon." During the Rwandan Genocide, the Hutu compared the Tutsi to "cockroaches." During the Holocaust, the Jews were compared to rats. Comparisons with vermin and animals is a popular dehumanizing technique. This piece continues the trend, using the word "illegal" as a short-hand of "illegal alien," the use of which gets justified as "legal terminology" despite the fact that these same people never use legal terminology at any other point in political discussions.

But the it's that comparison to "rabid raccoons" that would make the organizers of Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines proud.

Having wasted all those pixels, let's dive into the, *ahem* "substance."

Raccoons and Right-Wingers  

Hundreds of rabid, messy, mean raccoons have overtaken your basement.

Except that undocumented migrants produce a great deal for the economy. Their impact on the economy is tremendous; dismissing that impact shows how little the poster actually understands modern economics. Which, to be fair, he's in good company (I'm assuming he. It might be a she. But it's probably a he): I've yet to find a right-winger on Facebook who does understand economics. Oh, they'll insist they do. But they don't, and will never admit they don't.

Interesting sidebar: Notice the use of possession there -- your basement. The raccoons were here first. You took land that had been theirs for years to build your basement. If anything you're the invader. Given that most of the people sharing this are white Europeans, I guess it isn't as inaccurate as I originally gave it credit for being.

You call the city and 4 different exterminators

I can't be the only person unsettled by this comparison of a national leader to an exterminator, can I? The last time we had an exterminator as a national leader was in the 1970s and Cambodia is still reeling from the effects of the Khmer Rouge/CPK. 

You don't care if the guy smells, you don't care if the guy swears, you don't care if he's an alcoholic, you don't care how many times he's been married, you don't care if he has a plumber's crack

I find this amusing. It mattered a lot when the individuals last name was Clinton, didn't it? Why I was just a wee lad in the 90s, but I seem to recall an impeachment scandal blowing up over the perceived lack of morals and the fact that the President lied about an affair. 

It also mattered when the guy's last name was Obama, too. But Obama was just a superior human in every way to Trump that the comparison feels wrong and offensive (at least Bill Clinton was also a sexual predator, just like Donald Trump is). 

By the way, you'll notice this is a running theme with this post: yes, we know this guy sucks. He's just the worst human being in the world. But that ain't gonna stop us from supporting him, now will it?

illegals are everywhere

And here we see more of that dehumanization.

We don't care that Trump is crude, we don't care that he insults people, we don't care that he has changed positions, we don't care that he's been married 3 times, we don't care that he fights with Megyn Kelly and Rosie O'Donnell, we don't care that he doesn't know the name of some Muslim terrorist

Once again, you don't care now because he's your guy. But these would really have mattered if, say, his last name was Obama or Clinton. 

Also, this is a hell of sale's pitch; there's something to be said for "professionalism," and if your guy comes over and he doesn't bathe, and he smells like roadkill warmed over, and that he insults people and is crude, then maybe you need to find a different guy. Because that behavior would get me fired from every single job I've ever had regardless of how "good" I might have been at it. 

AND WE JUST WANT IT FIXED

I'm skeptical. I don't think they want it fixed, because if they wanted it fixed, there are more efficient ways to do it. For instance, you could build-up Latin American states and stop supporting right-wing dictators that turn those countries into genocidal war zones and the companies that enforce income inequality people are currently fleeing from. You could end the War on Drugs, since the illegal nature of drugs powers these violent cartels and gangs. 

No, there are thousands of ways to stop immigrantion, and all of them begin with "improving people's conditions." They aren't interested in fixing it, though, because that'd require work, and change, and possibly improving the world for people who aren't white. And we can't have that. 

And Trump is the only guy who seems to understand what the people want

Trump is a verbal Rorschach test; he makes vague self-aggrandizing statements between racist dog-whistle word salad and people are left to draw their own meaning from what he says. Just because your alphabet soup spells out your name doesn't mean that it was intentional. The same is true with Trump; perhaps even more so. 

a man who doesn't have political correctness restraining him

Like "socialism," most of the people who use this term can't define it. At most there's a vague bellyfeel definition that ultimately manifests as "whatever I disagree with," which is also how they define communism, progressivism, liberalism, feminism, and whatever other -ism they have their sights on. 

If you ever want to end a debate with these people but don't want the impression you're backing out, ask them to define their terms and what they mean by certain words. Nine times out of ten, my request has been met with deafening silence and yours probably will, too. 

We all know that he has been very successful, he’s a good negotiator, he has built a lot of things,

Trump is very good at one thing: projecting the image of success. Just like Newt Gringrich is described as the idiot's idea of intelligence, Trump is the middle-class white guy's idea of wealth and success. As the ensuing four years have shown, Trump is none of those things; he's a terrible negotiator who's been taken advantage of by the likes of Putin, Jinping, Kim, al-Assad, Erdogan, and others. He's thrown our allies under the bus, destroyed our relationship with the Kurds, severely weakened NATO, and has let the world know loud and clear that you can't trust the United States anymore. He's destroyed institutions, undermined the very notion of professionalism, and wrecked our reputation abroad. 

Of course, when they say "we know X" what they mean is "we've already decided X and nothing will convince us otherwise" -- go back up that word I used earlier, bellyfeel. Or perhaps duckspeak is a more appropriate word from Nineteen-Eighty-Four to use here. 

and he's also NOT a politician, NOT a cowardly politician.

Politicians are specialists, like lawyers. And like lawyers, they are absolutely necessary to ensuring society runs since their fields are incredibly complex and archaic, with a lot of specialized jargon and rules that take years to learn. Go back to what I said about professionalism, above. Relatedly, you wouldn't call a roofer who had no idea what they were doing to repair your roof, now would you? No, you look for experience. Someone who knows what they're doing. Politics is the only area where experience is actively frowned upon by the voting public, and it makes me want to beat my head against a wall. 

A lot of this comes from a need to compromise weighted against a reluctance to do so. To quote the Expanse, a good compromise "pisses everyone off." And while that doesn't always have to be the case, we're dealing with people who see compromise as cowardice and are no longer interested in sharing society with the rest of us -- see also the possessive pronoun use when referring to the theoretical house in this metaphor. That sure as hell ain't a "royal we" that we're looking at here; the very tone of the piece is exclusionary from start to finish. They aren't interesting in sharing this house with anyone different from them anymore, and they outright say as later in the post. 

I do think that a lot of campaign rules and such need to be reformed, and lobbying needs to be more transparent with laws that shut down the "Congress-Lobbying Division" revolving door, but childish expectations and broad, sweeping generalizations anchored in ignorance like this make having adult conversations damn near impossible. And until we can have adult conversations, we're stuck at the kiddie table with uneducated meandering platitudinous know-nothing chucklefucks who think expertise in the area of one's employment is somehow a bad thing. 

And we believe him because he is too much of an egotist to be proven wrong

It doesn't need to be said, but this is not a good personality trait. 

or looked at and called a liar

This statement has not aged well.

We just want those raccoons gone, out of our house

Once again, there were better, more thorough ways to do it. But because we don't want to put in the actual effort, we'll settle for a clown-shoes jackhole who just makes every problem that much worse.

Also, we couldn't not end without more of that dehumanization, now could we?

So What Does This Accomplish?

The short answer? It's just more insight into what makes these folks tick. The truly insightful thing here is the extent to which they're willing to go to justify their choice; I hope psychologists are taking note because this is a perfect demonstration of the Sunk-Cost Fallacy in action, and that's me being generous.

The long answer? Not a whole lot; the people who post these pro-Trump comments won't read all the way through to the end, and so I won't be changing any minds. Hopefully, you found it at least entertaining; I figured something lightweight following my piece on Hauntology last week was in order and I wanted to get at least one more post out before the New Year when I plan to truly overhaul this blog and start experimenting with new things.

Anyway, enjoy your New Year, and here's to a 2020 that doesn't absolutely suck.