Friday, August 7, 2015

Why Donald Trump Can Hate Women And Still Succeed In The Polls

Although I prefer to refrain from blogging about "The Donald", since his candidacy is more of a sideshow than a realistic bid for the White House, I could not ignore his obvious hatred of women, and wondered why he is even getting the amount of support he is. 

Donald Trump has called women "fat pigs, slobs – and disgusting animals". And when being called out about it, his response was that he doesn't want to be politically correct. This is another phrase that I rather passionately dislike, because apparently Trump thinks that treating women with respect is being "politically correct" (apparently a very bad thing), instead of, you know, a decent human being.

And then later, he lashed out at the woman who dared to call him out on his treatment of women, by calling her a bimbo on twitter, among other things  He even went so far as to say she had "blood coming out of her eyes. Or blood coming out of her wherever"

Why is this acceptable for someone running for President to say? How is this man still alive in the polls? Who are his base? Well, they are people who think the same things. They are mostly (probably white) men, who hate immigration, and apparently, also hate women, and love that Trump is willing to say what they think for them so they don't have to say it themselves and face the consequences. They are the shy racists and sexists of the world who enjoy writing nasty things on the internet, and saying what they think among those who agree with them, but who get rather prickly when challenged.

The truth is that Donald Trump is just a louder version of what all the other Republican candidates think, but value their political chances too much to say. He is the mouthpiece for all those annoying white male acquaintances and relatives on Facebook who cry about political correctness, and spew misogyny at every turn. He is the commentators on YouTube posts who write nasty things about women. He is a physical representation of some of the male dominated parts of the internet. People might say he is ridiculous and that his comments are absurd, but the reality is that he represents a very loud and rather annoying part of our society. The unvoiced (and sometimes voiced) part. The part that is honest about their misogyny and racism, instead of trying to cloak it. 

In this way, I almost prefer Trump to the men who won't come out and say that they hate women. At least this way we can have a dialogue, because he is so over the top that people are forced to see what many of us see all the time on the internet, but because it is not said out loud, we tend to dismiss. I think it is time to talk about the Donald Trump's of the world, and ask ourselves when did our society become like this? When did we start praising anger and vitriol and hatred? When did being openly racist and sexist become "edgy", or fighting the good fight against some perceived "politically correct" oppression? But above all, I hope that the sideshow that is Donald Trump will expose the Republican Party for what it is: A bunch of old white men who hate diversity, hate the poor, hate women, and love money.

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