the mean wrote:At some point here, don't you want to ask yourself why you are always looking for other reasons?
Whenever doing so ceases to be an intellectually honest stance, I suppose.
I can't really tell what this conversation is about, anymore. If I trace it back to my original question, it was asking if there is an indisputable, beyond-a-reasonable-doubt bit of evidence that Trump is racist. As evident as the audio recording(s) of him on women. There really isn't, beyond him saying a judge couldn't be objective because he is Mexican. Ok.
The reason I asked is because I don't trust the hard left's take on things. If someone says something horrible that has nothing to do with racism or sexism... it can't just be horrible on it's own merit. It has to have a million lines drawn and connected with all kinds of assumptions on intentions so that we can somehow connect the term racist/sexist/homophobic, for some reason I just can't see the point to. I see this happen over, and over, and over. This method kicks into high gear whenever a republican is elected to office. This board (you particularly) is a pretty good representation of the hard left. Since I can't have a two way conversation with huffington post, I figured I'd ask you guys what the deal is. I figured you'd know as much as anyone on that side of things.
So, what you see as my struggling to find alternate reasons for Trump's actions, I see as simply *not* jumping to reasons that fit a narrative. I don't *need* Trump to be a white supremacist to hate him. He very well may be. But all of the conversations and articles I've read that treat the subject as settled are, unless there's something else out there, jumping the gun. Because they need to. Again, I don't.
Incidentally, I think Trump probably is racist on some level. I'd wager he holds a lot of stereotypes to be true, if pressed. That's just kind of a guess on my part, due to his seemingly average intelligence (at best) and temperament. Of course, a lot of people deal with that within themselves, and can consciously check those impulses and not *be* racist in any way that really matters (it might be the best case we can hope for with a majority of the wold population). The broad conversation of racism is extremely complicated. Simply calling someone a racist is pretty meaningless, imo. As that could mean a myriad number of things from someone told an offensive joke, to someone is actively hoping to deport all black people back to Africa. To lump that all in to one pot is a serious mistake. But I digress...
You are the one that brought up the term White Supremacist. That suggests (correct me if I'm wrong) that Trump has an actively, purposeful agenda to promote the white race above other races. Hence, he would be letting the Sheriff off the hook because he's a 'bro for the cause', and this is his reward. This is just completely far-fetched to me. I find it much more plausible that the guy sucked Trump's cock, publically, for a good, long time. And, as Trump does, he rewards people that suck his cock. It serves his ego, which is his number one motivation. And if that means he's got to do something really stupid like pardon a guy that is going to give his detractors fodder for the rest of his presidential life, so be it. And if the guy profiles Mexicans, who cares? I think his conscience can take or leave something like that when it suits him, no problem. At least he didn't have to look 'weak' by going back on something he promised again. There are political reasons in motion to, of course. All ones that suit Trump. White supremacy brotherhood need not be part of the equation by any reasonable stretch.
Now, that's me making a fair amount of assumptions on Trumps inner thoughts and reasoning. But less so than if I were to say that he pardoned this guy because he's a fellow white supremacist. There is plenty of smoking gun, non-negotiable evidence of Trump being an egotistical, impulsive narcissist. I am just choosing to go with that line of thought because I feel there's more direct evidence for it. That's all.
So yeah, I think Trump might have some racist thoughts. Only because I assume a lot of people in his intellectual peer group, do. Because he's also unscrupulous, instead of checking these base thoughts, they might allow him to do something like gloss over someone's clearly racist misdeeds when it suits his ego to do so (again, conjecture on my part. I'd hardly call it a settled case as many people do). But do I think he's actively pushing a racist agenda as suggested by much of the hard left media? Nah. Not at all. It's about as ridiculous as saying GW had a slow response to katrina victims because he wanted to wipe out a bunch of black people. Why can't we just be bummed that the dude was slow and incompetent? Why do we have to claim he's also a genocidal psychopath without any real proof? It makes the whole claim silly as fuck. It's a bad habit of the hard left, imo. Incidentally, I still consider myself liberal. But I can't side with a lot of what the new breed, hard left is pushing with these types of moves. It's like all of the sudden Crass style angry, anarcho commie politics suddenly have become in vogue with sort of normal people. Fuck that shit.