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the alternative to denouncing outright support for racist and sexist position is accepting it as normal political speech, which sounds worse. There's this trop

by rtpg 10y ago

the alternative to denouncing outright support for racist and sexist position is accepting it as normal political speech, which sounds worse. There's this trope that attacking this position doesn't harm (or even helps) Trump, but polling has shown the contrary. The scandals involving his comments about women, about the muslim veteran, his mocking of a reporter with disabilities, have always been followed by drops in polling for him. His tax policies, a bit less so. Talking about how Trump's positions are terrible cause his numbers to go down. If that's not effective political speech, I don't know what is. EDIT: Nate Silver made this point better than me in a mini-tweetstorm (tweet-shower?) https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/784777881482170368 https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/784777881482170368

Bartweiss 10y ago
Denouncing, sure. But what we're seeing is a push to fire, exclude, and not engage with Trump supporters. Think of how many people insist that they don't know a single Trump voter. That's not something which hurts his candidacy. It convinces his supporters that they're under attack (they literally are), and encourages people to keep silent rather than admit that they like any of what he says. Ignoring him might have worked at 5% in the polls, but at ~50% you need to engage his supporters. That doesn't mean treating his positions as 'normal', but there's plenty of room between that and firing donors and banning campaign signs.
- rtpg 10y ago
  Right, polling shows that 95% of Romney Voters are voting Trump (or at least this was the case a couple weeks ago), so excluding everyone is a bit much. There are many degrees of support to be given, as well. Thiel is not just a Trump supporter though, he's a major donor. Out there doing fundraising and fullheartedly defending Trump's positions through money. At what point do you have to actually take responsibility for your actions if not after writing a million dollar check? At what point does SV decide that having someone materially supporting a fascist as a major player in the community is not super hot? Fun side note, there was some polling done that showed that Americans are now extremely unlikely to date someone who supports a different political party.
- empath75 10y ago
  I don't think 'employees' should be fired on the basis of who they support. But Thiel is an extremely powerful and wealthy businessman, who, let's not forget, put a news organization out of business because he didn't like their reporting.
hueving 10y ago
The numbers dropped because of the events themselves, not because people shamed and threatened the supporters.

by rtpg 10y ago

Bartweiss 10y ago

Denouncing, sure. But what we're seeing is a push to fire, exclude, and not engage with Trump supporters. Think of how many people insist that they don't know a single Trump voter. That's not something which hurts his candidacy. It convinces his supporters that they're under attack (they literally are), and encourages people to keep silent rather than admit that they like any of what he says. Ignoring him might have worked at 5% in the polls, but at ~50% you need to engage his supporters. That doesn't mean treating his positions as 'normal', but there's plenty of room between that and firing donors and banning campaign signs.

rtpg 10y ago
Right, polling shows that 95% of Romney Voters are voting Trump (or at least this was the case a couple weeks ago), so excluding everyone is a bit much. There are many degrees of support to be given, as well. Thiel is not just a Trump supporter though, he's a major donor. Out there doing fundraising and fullheartedly defending Trump's positions through money. At what point do you have to actually take responsibility for your actions if not after writing a million dollar check? At what point does SV decide that having someone materially supporting a fascist as a major player in the community is not super hot? Fun side note, there was some polling done that showed that Americans are now extremely unlikely to date someone who supports a different political party.
empath75 10y ago
I don't think 'employees' should be fired on the basis of who they support. But Thiel is an extremely powerful and wealthy businessman, who, let's not forget, put a news organization out of business because he didn't like their reporting.

hueving 10y ago

The numbers dropped because of the events themselves, not because people shamed and threatened the supporters.