Spite

I read an article recently about 'spite voters'. I think it has a lot of truth to it, although I don't think that people are really motivated by how shitty their lives are compared to the lives they see on TV and the movies... I think they're spiteful because they have been forced to live in a world where they are required to behave in a civil manner in public and at work, and it pisses them off.

One shirt I've seen Trump voters wearing a lot - 'Trump 2016 Fuck Your Feelings' This is the battle cry of a shrieking child who is furious and resentful that they can't just spew bile all over everyone they come into contact with that they don't like, for whatever reasons -- that they have to conceal the hate that is their only fuel, because if they do not, if they express that hate the way they want to, they will face real and significant sanctions -- lawsuits that they will lose. Write ups and terminations at their jobs.

It's not that they don't get to live the life they see depicted on network TV that enrages them, though -- it's that they don't get to live the life that their parents and grandparents lived. Where fags stayed in the closet, and minorities didn't dare get uppity in public, women knew their place (I know, the one with the 'Fuck Your Feelings' shirt is a woman, but it constantly surprises me, the number of women, especially really homely ones, who yearn for a world where strong men objectivize them) and non Christians shut up and didn't bother anyone. Where they could tell fag jokes, Jew jokes, Polack jokes, dirty jokes, where they could make fun of the guy running the corner deli's accent and jeer at anyone they saw in public in a turban or a hijab, and it wouldn't cost them anything... where people would still show respect for them, not in spite of their bigotry, but because of it.

Where they were the majority, and the minority had better keep the fuck out of the road when they were out driving.

They are full of hate and spite, but it comes from the fact that they feel they have been denied the opportunity to live in a world where they were comfortable and privileged simply for being born white, American, straight, and Christian (the last two might only be a facade, but that was a price they were willing to pay)... an opportunity that was their birthright.

Because their grandparents Built This. Because their ancestors conquered this continent. Because they are descended from Winners, and should not have to live in a world where Losers can make them do or not do anything at all.

The price all reasonable people pay for civilization -- compromise, tolerance, compassion for strangers -- is a price they are unwilling to pay, and furious they're being forced to pay it anyway.

That's where the spite comes from. That's what Donald Trump pandered to.