F**king Mondays: Responding to a Trump Voter, Elon Hates Free Speech, and Jan. 6th Remembered

Donald Trump supporters attack the US Capitol. Image via Reuters.

Welcome to another edition of “F**king Mondays”! In the roundup today:

Responding to a Trump voter

A reader who voted for Donald Trump left an interesting comment on my piece about the need for liberals to have difficult conversations:

Mr. Cohen, I follow you because although I’m a member of the “disgusting” right, I want to know what the left thinks. Therein lies the problem. As soon as I say I’m on the right, where does your thinking go about my views? But, I follow you because you’re a good writer. Most of the time, I disagree with you, but guess what? I’m still reading. I absolutely cringe when I hear the way Trump talks. However, he surrounded himself with some really talented people that have a myriad of beliefs, many of which, are not in lock step with him, so I voted for him. Do I believe that he’s the savior of us all? No, but I hope his administration will address some of the issues that the Biden administration chose to ignore, not at their peril, but at the peril of regular Americans. Look, I’m a 73 year old female baby boomer (BB). We don’t have a lot of voice anymore, but we are still engaged. I’m a practicing Catholic, but I’ll use your word: many practicing Catholics have nuanced views on abortion. Although I hear all the time that BB’s are not tech savvy and we get all our news from cable, that is not where I turn for my news. I use the same outlets that younger people do. I believe that whatever somebody over the age of 18 wants to call him/ herself, is fine. But, I’m adamantly opposed to any altering gender affirming care for minors. I could continue through my laundry list of beliefs, but my point to all of this is that we on the right are already nuanced. We already recognize that we don’t all think the same, and that’s healthy for the republic. Heck, I often don’t agree with my son of a coal miner husband, who is a retired military general/engineer who holds two master's degrees. How’s that for nuance? And that is why Trump one. The right stole the big tent from the left, right under their noses. Best wishes to you. I appreciate your forum.

First of all, I’m happy that this reader felt comfortable enough to speak out on The Banter. The comments section on any website is a perilous place, even in the most open-minded, neutral publications. I also appreciate the respectful tone and willingness to engage.

I have noticed that the Republican party is now more of a “big tent” than it used to be, but I wouldn’t say it is anywhere near the Democratic party — at least in terms of racial identity. The GOP would never elect a black woman or a gay man to run for office, and Trump voters are still overwhelmingly white. For reference:

Trump certainly gained with minority voters, but it wasn’t as big a shift as the media has portrayed it to be. That being said, the 2024 MAGA movement is certainly more ideologically diverse than it used to, and I think at least some of that has to do with the ideological conformity on the left. Identity politics is truly stultifying and it has driven many people I know way from the Democratic party.

The issue I have is that while it might have seemed like a good idea to hold one’s nose and vote for Trump, the reality will set in once he starts governing. Trump may have some talented people around him (although I don’t know who they are), but none of that matters. Trump is a narcissistic sociopath with dictatorial ambitions. He is entirely driven by egoic impulses and has a long track record of destroying everything he touches. His next administration will be far more destructive and chaotic than the first one, and Americans will pay a heavy price for their recklessness.

My guess is that the reader likely disavowed Trump after Jan. 6th. My guess is that she then fell prey to almost four years of relentless right- wing propaganda that minimized Trump’s traitorous behavior and rehabilitated his image in time for 2024. Memories are short and our brains are wired to forget terrible things that happened, so to a degree I understand it.

The reality is that Trump fucked up every aspect of his presidency. He committed crime after crime after crime, killed hundreds of thousands of Americans through sheer ineptitude during the pandemic, and almost took out his entire administration in a Covid super spreader event. Kamala Harris might have been a bit too woke and not particularly inspiring, but she is sane, competent, and attached to consensus reality. If there is another pandemic or serious disaster in the next four years, I don’t think America will survive under Trump. But hey, at least billionaires will get their tax cuts and gender pronouns will be a thing of the past.

Mr. ‘Free Speech’ is Censoring Free Speech

This from The New Republic:

Last week, Musk began stripping the verifications from far-right accounts run by people who challenged his support for H-1B visas, after he and his co–DOGE czar Vivek Ramaswamy went to war arguing that Asian workers were far better than American ones. Obviously, the pro-white American far right didn’t take too kindly to that messaging.

Among those who received disciplinary actions were Laura Loomer, the far-right activist and self-described “proud Islamophobe” whom Donald Trump ferried around during his presidential campaign, and neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes, whom Musk had invited back onto the platform just over six months ago.

By taking away their verifications and knocking them out of X Pro, it seems that Musk has rendered several large accounts unable to receive ad revenue from X. Verification makes an account more visible too, so he has curbed their potential audiences.

Musk also suspended some smaller accounts, according to Mediaite. He defended his decision Wednesday via his favorite medium: replies on X.

“People getting demonetized for their inexcusable behavior then complaining about free speech is hilarious to me,” wrote Nicole Behnam, a journalist. “You can say whatever you want. You just can’t get paid for it. Hope this helps.”

“Exactly,” replied Musk. “The first amendment is protection for ‘free speech’, not ‘paid speech’ ffs.”

To be clear, the Twitter Files nonsense was about just this — Twitter taking down tweets that violated their terms of service and suspending/suppressing the reach of specific accounts. For what it is worth, I agree with Musk that X is under no obligation to share revenue with anyone, or help promote speech that violates its TOS. X is a private platform and users sign up agreeing to a set of specific rules.

The reality is that X is for free speech as long as it is not critical of Elon Musk or anything he believes in. That’s why I no longer use the platform and urge everyone on it to get off it as fast as possible.

Never Forget

Today is the four year anniversary of Jan. 6th, the day when Donald Trump incited a mob to storm the Capitol and overthrow the US government. Trump had given a speech on the Ellipse on earlier that day urging his supporters to march on the Capitol while Congress was certifying the results of the 2020 election. He used the word “fight” more than 20 times, telling his supporters falsely that the Democrats had stolen the election.

"We fight like hell,” he told them. “And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore."

A mob of heavily armed supporters then marched on the Capitol, broke into US Capitol Building, spread feces on the walls, threatened to hang Mike Pence, assaulted police officers, and tried to kill other members of Congress. During the assault that resulted in the deaths of at least seven people, Trump sat watching TV in the White House and refused to send help. When informed that Mike Pence was in serious physical danger and had to be rushed to a secure location, Trump replied “so what?".

Four years later, VP Kamala Harris has the honor of presiding over Congress as they certify the results of the 2024 election she lost to Donald Trump.

While more than half the country seems to have forgotten or forgiven Trump for his traitorous assault on American democracy, it is important that you don’t. Never forget, and more importantly never normalize this dangerous tyrant.

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