I said
“In the vast majority of cases, it doesn't matter whether an individual is "a racist / sexist," what matters is the systems and patterns in place, and the way that people speak and behave and vote within those systems.
Put another way, if someone is a horrible virulent racist in their heart of hearts, but I can't tell by the way they speak / behave / vote, then I don't care. It's completely irrelevant what someone *is,* what is important is what they *do.*”
Then you said:
Absolutely. Nobody can control other people's thoughts or prosecute thought crimes. The problem is too many people want to ascribe motive when they truly have no idea what a person's reasoning behind their actions are, as well as an intolerance in allowing someone else to interpret events differently than their own.
My reply:
No, you’re not getting the point. In most cases, it is completely irrelevant whether someone’s motives are racist or not. What matters is whether their actions contribute to the continued subjugation of non-white peoples.
Meaning — a person could vote for the Donald for any reason they like — maybe the hair? — but that action actively contributes to the subjugation of non-white people. The whole I’m-not-racist-but-I’ll-vote-for-one thing is some childish, responsibility-denying bullshit.
*****
I said:
“And if you still support the Donald at this point in history ... if you are denying the existence of societal systems that are changing but have been in place for literally thousands of years and are still running today ... if you are getting defensive about new ideas that you don't understand, instead of trying to understand them ... then your actions are saying everything that needs to be said about who you are and what you stand for, and it ain't equality or democracy.”
Then you said:
What ideas are out there that you think Conservatives don't understand? What societal systems do you think are changing? Honest question.
My reply:
Patriarchy, white supremacy, and classism are three ideas I am sure conservatives do not understand. Mostly this is because they believe they have nothing to learn from people who aren’t rich and white and male, so they willfully refuse to listen.
It’s a well-known response called “White Fragility” (Google Robin DeAngelo’s work on this) where white people deny stories and statistics about racism, and especially their own participation in it, because to admit that you have bias is seen as being incompatible with being “a good person.” (Whatever that means.) It’s painful to open one’s eyes to the suffering around them and realize that you are on the upper end of the see-saw only because there are lots of other people at the other end. So most will do anything — up to the most incredible kinds of mental tap-dancing as we’ve seen on this thread — to avoid it.
But these hierarchies are changing. These traditional social systems are breaking down. Black people and women and disabled people and marginalized folks of all backgrounds are not content to let rich white men dictate the rules of society any more, and we are taking more power.
I believe / hope / pray that Donald Trump and the whole phenomenon around him — the buffoons who get themselves puffed up off his hot air, the mercenaries who exploit his popularity for their own Randian ends, the fools who like his racism more than they fear not having health care or clean air or water — I believe it is all nothing more than the extinction burst of the old “conservative” way of thinking.