No, I understand the debate completely. The steam engine was a fancy new tool. It allowed industries to develop which led to MORE jobs. After people built the railroads they then worked for the railroads. They built new towns. The steam engine led to one of the most massive increases in employment in history.

But why does “different” always have to mean “worse in ways we’re not even grasping yet?” Why does Clinton have to stand for “stuffy old way” instead of totally prepared and qualified? Why did the Bernie supporters insist on wearing blinders for so long? He isn’t a fucking kindly wizard, he’s a politician. A career…

A Black female bartender was told to “go back where she came from,” out of the blue, by a white woman in Starbucks. She was like...”I’m from the Upper West Side of Manhattan [I think that was the area she said]. Where are you from?” The woman said “Minnesota.” The bartender said “Girl, bye,” and walked away. Once she…

I also don’t think we’re really arguing with the alt-right. We can’t let the alt-right escape scrutiny, but the vast majority of people we’re talking about committing these kinds of public harassment incidents are by and large your average American who now feels empowered to say in public the thing they’ve been…

Well tbf, they don’t teach it in schools (broadly speaking). I’m 34, so a cusp millennial. I learned all about Shakespeare, but not how to do my taxes or balance a checkbook, even though I took an econ class. My mom taught me how to balance a checkbook, but we know from sex ed we can’t rely on parents country-wide for…

It’s convenient to single out Trump’s voters for blame, but the reality is complacency elected Trump, and everyone who failed to vote Dem in this election owns the result, and that ain’t just older white folks.

Yes. I would like those statistics so I can say definitively that hate crimes have increased. I have spoken to some progressive people even who say this always happens and we’re just noticing it more now. And I say no, and then I feel like I’m going crazy.

You’re totally right! But apart from one brother, my family aren’t true Trumpers, either. They’re people who refuse to see these crimes as related to the current political climate. They are head in the sand white people—as dangerous as True Trumpers in their own way.

Right? “It ain’t Donald’s policies that tanked the economy, it was those people buying lobster and iphones with my tax dollars!”

Oh dude this isn’t an alt right argument—they think those people are hateful and pathetic. It’s a more dangerous and insidious kind of Trump normalization going on here—not blatant racism so much as a refusal to empathize with or trust the experiences of minorities.

They won’t see it as a fault of the Republican control of the government no matter what. Like in the Bush era, they’ll blame liberal programs for sucking up all the money and leaving none for them despite the hard work of their champions in DC.

Unfortunately articles like this don’t help folks argue with the alt right much though, due to the total lack of context. It would be good to have some statistics around the level of hate crimes/harassment that occur generally as well as what happened after the Obama victories (because sadly I can imagine that the…

I can’t wait to see what happens to these communities when Paul Ryan’s Trojan horse comes to take their social security, disability, and Medicare payments away. That ripping sound you hear is the social fabric and social contract that you assumed was just part of life being torn asunder. That’s what small government…

Yep, I live in Trumpland and can confirm. They will not listen, they do not care, racism existed before and this has nothing to do with Trump, he is going to unite our nation etc etc etc they do NOT give a fuck.

Reporting from Trump country: facts still don’t matter and these reports are not proof that Trump has normalized bigotry in this country or that his election has led to an increase in hate crimes. I know that it looks like there is indisputable truth, but what you are looking at is stuff that happens ALL THE TIME and…

Reddit is not just a mirror. It’s also one medium by which this stupidity and hate is transmitted. Yesterday someone was making fun of Thomas Friedman’s facile graph showing human intellectual or maybe emotional capacity being outstripped by our technology. I think most people thought the most likely manifestation of…

This is Donald Trump’s America.

TBone, thank you. You put words to my thoughts precisely. I have a hard time listening to my echo-chamber intelligentsia friends, wondering why Trump won, not taking the time to understand the reasons behind his win.

And we want to quibble about helping these people? We want to question that they are genuine refugees?

Ummmm, gonna have to go ahead and, ummm, disagree with you here.