I did a very bad thing.
I got into a political conversation on Facebook.
Going into it, I knew it could have gone one of three ways.
1. A healthy exchange of ideas where both parties conclude with a healthy disagreement
2. A heated debate where we argue for hours or days where both of us have put in our thoughts but ultimately fall on deaf ears
3. An exchange of ideas leading to more parties becoming involved; having the thread result into a yelling match, ad hominem attacks, and childish taunting.
I feel like number one is wishful thinking, number two is the most common, and number three, like the Trump train of 2016, has gained more commuters.
After failing to gage an acquaintances view regarding Muslims, refugees, and Trump’s travel ban, the comment thread quickly spiraled out of control and was infiltrated by name callers.
One commenter wrote this, “Tonight, right now Donald trump is banging a supermodel, his wife. He has 0 political experience and is running YOUR country @ Sean goodman . He’s fucking awesome and he’s the fucking president, if your so upset then why don’t you bring it up with someone that can do something about it, not argue on a Facebook wall and post racist pictures and try to compare the 50’s to 2017 you knuckle-head.”
I think it’s worthy to mention that I never insulted Donald Trump (time and again I asked my friend to clarify where he stands on the issue on Trump’s travel ban), and the “racist” picture I posted was one of a black man being lynched, which was to prove a point that ISIS is to Islam as the KKK is to Christianity.
It’s this odd “President Trump is such a badass” mentality that I didn’t understand until recently. Most of these comments were forms of cyber bullying, and I realized that was the allure – at least for the guys in this comment section – of Donald Trump: he’s a bully, and they like that.
This isn’t to say that everyone who voted for Trump is or was a bully, but I see a correlation between the ways Trump carries himself and how he is applauded for it.
Bullies champion the belittling of other people, they demonize the other, but most of all; bullies act out because they are afraid.
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Photo credits: David Everett Strickler on Unsplash