Ignorance is not a compelling argument at this point.
We’ve all heard the theories for the past ten years: people still supporting Donald Trump are somehow victims of the partisan media and the Evangelical alternate reality that they’ve been raised in and are still captives of. They’re continually surrounded by fake news and carefully curated false stories, and so they aren’t bad people they just aren’t seeing what we are seeing, and we need to be more understanding.
This just isn’t acceptable anymore.
There simply isn’t a sufficient excuse for being an adult so sheltered from facts and so truth-deprived that you can’t see Trump’s complete sociopathy and you can’t discern the existential threat he and his party are to this nation.
These people aren’t being asked to dig beneath some complex, brilliantly crafted ruse perpetrated by Conservative media and religious conglomerates working in concert; they’re being asked to see what’s in front of them and respond with something resembling working humanity.
If you can simply read Trump’s own social media feed and not be fully disgusted to the point of vomiting, you either aren’t a reasonable human being or you are willingly choosing to engage in an hourly regimen of wild intellectual and theological gymnastics in order to avoid a reality that makes you uncomfortable, and to intentionally avoid some really vile stuff that no one is even attempting to conceal anymore.
I’m fully convinced that the lion’s share of people still supporting Donald Trump know he is a reprehensible human being, guilty of both high crimes against this nation and sexual violence against women and young girls, but they simply can’t admit to themselves or anyone else that they made a mistake, and so they are tripling down while the world burns.
They’re not stupid; they’re just willing to let America die on the altar of their pride, which may be far worse.
Being an adult means being responsible for ferreting out what is real and what isn’t, for making good decisions with the available information, and being willing to change an opinion in light of new data. This is what we demand from our children, isn’t it? We only let their ignorance be an excuse for so long, and then we remove that option because we expect them to be smarter than that at some point. And if we realize that they are smart enough to know better, then it becomes an indictment of their character.
If grown men and women aren’t willing or able to sift information and choose wisely because of their media choices, their circle of friends, or their mental effort, the result is the same: they are enabling and protecting reprehensible behavior that places people in great danger.
If Fox News creates your reality, you’re going to be hateful toward lots of people. You’re going to be afraid of Muslims, LGBTQ people, immigrants, people of color, refugees—and on and on and on. And if you’ve been on the planet for a few decades, you should have developed the critical thinking not to allow a network that brokers in fantasy and fiction to be your baseline for truth. That’s a you problem.
If the Evangelical Right defines for you what it means to be a Christian, your Christianity is going to look nothing like the actual teachings of Christ. It’s going to be an angry, violent thing devoid of compassion and gentleness. That isn’t your preacher’s fault and it isn’t Franklin Graham’s fault and it isn’t the Devil’s fault. As a thinking Christian who supposedly reads the words of Jesus and reflects on them regularly, you should see through this sham in a hot minute and soundly reject it.
If the brazen, unapologetic racism and xenophobia and misogyny on display right now is too subtle for your sensibilities, and if Nazis marching through town squares and supremacist politicians and election interference fall beneath your radar, you either intentionally have your head in the sand or it isn’t on straight to begin with—and either is a problem.
Many of my white Evangelical friends supporting Trump aren’t as much stupid or unaware as they are cowardly. They held their noses in 2016, voted in anger or haste or error, and then quickly got out of the politics business, choosing to escape the consequences of their decision on other people. So Fox News and the Conservative Christian Church have become convenient places of sanctuary for people with privilege wanting to hide from the results of their vote.
Again, they aren’t unaware of reality; they’re just opting out of it altogether. If it is stupidity, the affliction is highly selective, extremely localized, and very convenient, allowing them to retain their tribal affiliations despite the harm they are doing.
And worse than all of this, of course, is the possibility that the people who voted for him are neither ignorant, uninformed, or misled, but fully cognizant of the implications of their partnership.
It’s time we stopped giving adult human beings the benefit of the doubt, simply because we think they’re not smart enough not to be fooled by religious shysters, fake news peddlers, and political snake oil salesmen. If that is true, then they’re also not smart or mentally stable enough to be presented with objective data or compelling arguments and to filter them responsibly. They are, practically speaking, unreachable with rational measures.
I’m tired of having to treat people like children when they aren’t capable or willing to see what even a child can see, what my children can see. They know hatred and bullying and dehumanization without needing to read a think piece or do online research or unpack layers of religion and history.
I’m over justifying bigotry and racism and the horrible stuff happening in the country, and giving people who perpetuate it a pass because they supposedly don’t realize they’re supporting a monster when most of the watching world seems to get it.
In a time when information is available at our fingertips and when conversation, study, and exploration are limitless, I’m through excusing supposed adults for not being able to make a decision that is based in reality, simply because they’re in some hateful, self-righteous, nationalistic bubble. That’s their fault, not ours.
I don’t hate these people, but I’m also not going to coddle them and encourage their ignorance anymore because lots of people are injured when that happens.
Sooner or later, we adults all have to own our past sins and previous stupidity–and choose to be wiser.
I know some excellent examples of low information voters. They like to think of themselves as well informed but rely on Fox because, in the words of one individual, “it’s entertaining”. He doesn’t even recognize that he has been indoctrinated.
Many people, my husband included, simply choose to vote for whoever has a 'R' behind their name, refusing to even consider voting for anyone else, regardless of their views or stances.