Let me start this post by reiterating my view that a Trump Presidency carries various undeniable risks. Specifically, his stated views on civil liberties as well as a recent embrace of Wall Street, leaves much to be desired.
That said, if you want to effectively push back against the real risks Trump presents, it’s important you live in reality. Hysterically comparing him to Hitler, or saying he’s going to put Muslims in concentration camps, is a surefire way to incinerate your credibility and strengthen Trump’s support amongst the public. Trying to steal the office from him via an extremely dangerous and irresponsible coup attempt is equally foolish. These tactics only serve to strengthen Trump.
This is because a majority of Americans simply weren’t really into Trump or Hillary. Many of these people voted for Trump not because they like him or his policies, but because they just wanted to put up a gigantic middle finger in the face of the establishment and the mainstream media. Whether or not Trump is really such a middle finger is highly questionable, but that’s not the point. The point is enough people didn’t buy into the hysterical claims about Trump in the run up to the election, otherwise he wouldn’t have won. The lesson Trump opposition should have learned from Hillary’s loss is that the “just act like insane lunatics” approach to Trump doesn’t work against him. This would’ve been the logical conclusion reached upon genuine reflection and introspection, but this is not what happened.
Indeed, what many so called “liberals” have done in their post-election meltdown is fully embrace exactly what they have always accused the opposition of being — warmongering, racist, hateful, insensitive lunatics. In their clouded hysteria, many of these people are turning into the monsters they claim to be fighting.
For more on this, see recent articles:
Daily Kos Founder Tells Readers – ‘Be Happy for Coal Miners Losing Their Health Insurance’
Video of the Day – The ‘Fake Left’ Has Lost Its Mind
The example I will highlight today comes from Tim Wise. Let me be clear about something before I move forward. I have nothing personally against Tim. In fact, I had never even heard of him before today. A quick look at his bio doesn’t point to anything nefarious or hateful. He appears to be a guy who is genuinely compassionate about fighting racism. Like so many others who are no longer thinking clearly, he appears to have fully descended into the gutter and risks becoming indistinguishable from those he condemns.
First, Tim’s entire career seems to be dedicated to anti-rascist activism. As is seen from his Twitter profile.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of his recent tweets:
…Sorry but only white people romanticize jobs their daddies and granddaddies did and want them passed on 2 their kids. POC know better
— Tim Wise (@timjacobwise) December 13, 2016
W/each new day I know why part of my family left shithole of imperial Russia. 100 years after last rev lets hope 4 another1 #ComeAtMeBroski
— Tim Wise (@timjacobwise) December 15, 2016
Seriously when your contribution to the world is Faberge eggs, autocracy and pogroms, no one should much care what you think.
— Tim Wise (@timjacobwise) December 15, 2016
I have no idea if the above is representative of how this person has conducted himself over the years, but I’ll assume that it isn’t. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume his unhinged hate-mongering is the result of a mental breakdown following Donald Trump’s election. It’s not just him, of course. This mental collapse has clouded the judgement of so many self-proclaimed “liberals,” and resulted in them acting exactly like the monsters they profess to fight.
Beyond that point, the even larger issue is that although the type of commentary above might feel good in the moment, it is incredibly damaging to one’s reputation and does irreparable harm to any real attempt to oppose Trump. Nobody who isn’t already a card-carrying Hillary Clinton cultist or deranged neoconservative is going to read his tweets for the first time and think, “yeah, this guy’s really on to something.” Those are the people he is appealing to, and in the process he gleefully disparages an entire nation (Russia) as well as an entire race (white people).
Which brings me to the most depressing realization about the fake left. If you want to frame your entire political identity as a warrior against demonization and hate, you can’t merely apply this to select groups. Unfortunately, for many of these people, xenophobic commentary about Russia, as well as condescending language about poor white people is fair game. In its haze of anti-Trump anger, the fake left cannot even recognize its own disturbing hypocrisy, and this deranged attitude will be its undoing.
While this post has so far focused on the wrong way to oppose Trump, what’s the right way? For a perfect example, I turn to someone I’ve featured on these pages on numerous occasions, computer security expert Bruce Schneier. Bruce is no fan of Trump, but due to his ability to remain cogent and clearheaded, he is able to thoughtfully and effectively outline the ways in which he plans to resist.
From his post, My Priorities for the Next Four Years:
I spent the last month both coming to terms with this reality, and thinking about the future. Here is my new agenda for the next four years:
One, fight the fights. There will be more government surveillance and more corporate surveillance. I expect legislative and judicial battles along several lines: a renewed call from the FBI for backdoors into encryption, more leeway for government hacking without a warrant, no controls on corporate surveillance, and more secret government demands for that corporate data. I expect other countries to follow our lead. (The UK is already more extreme than us.) And if there’s a major terrorist attack under Trump’s watch, it’ll be open season on our liberties. We may lose a lot of these battles, but we need to lose as few as possible and as little of our existing liberties as possible.
Two, prepare for those fights. Much of the next four years will be reactive, but we can prepare somewhat. The more we can convince corporate America to delete their saved archives of surveillance data and to store only what they need for as long as they need it, the safer we’ll all be. We need to convince Internet giants like Google and Facebook to change their business models away from surveillance capitalism. It’s a hard sell, but maybe we can nibble around the edges. Similarly, we need to keep pushing the truism that privacy and security are not antagonistic, but rather are essential for each other.
Three, lay the groundwork for a better future. No matter how bad the next four years get, I don’t believe that a Trump administration will permanently end privacy, freedom, and liberty in the US. I don’t believe that it portends a radical change in our democracy. (Or if it does, we have bigger problems than a free and secure Internet.) It’s true that some of Trump’s institutional changes might take decades to undo. Even so, I am confident — optimistic even — that the US will eventually come around; and when that time comes, we need good ideas in place for people to come around to. This means proposals for non-surveillance-based Internet business models, research into effective law enforcement that preserves privacy, intelligent limits on how corporations can collect and exploit our data, and so on.
And four, continue to solve the actual problems. The serious security issues around cybercrime, cyber-espionage, cyberwar, the Internet of Things, algorithmic decision making, foreign interference in our elections, and so on aren’t going to disappear for four years while we’re busy fighting the excesses of Trump. We need to continue to work towards a more secure digital future. And to the extent that cybersecurity for our military networks and critical infrastructure allies with cybersecurity for everyone, we’ll probably have an ally in Trump.
Those are my four areas. Under a Clinton administration, my list would have looked much the same. Trump’s election just means the threats will be much greater, and the battles a lot harder to win. It’s more than I can possibly do on my own, and I am therefore substantially increasing my annual philanthropy to support organizations like EPIC, EFF, ACLU, and Access Now in continuing their work in these areas.
My agenda is necessarily focused entirely on my particular areas of concern. The risks of a Trump presidency are far more pernicious, but this is where I have expertise and influence.
Right now, we have a defeated majority. Many are scared, and many are motivated — and few of those are applying their motivation constructively. We need to harness that fear and energy to start fixing our society now, instead of waiting four or even eight years, at which point the problems would be worse and the solutions more extreme. I am choosing to proceed as if this were cowpox, not smallpox: fighting the more benign disease today will be much easier than subjecting ourselves to its more virulent form in the future. It’s going to be hard keeping the intensity up for the next four years, but we need to get to work. Let’s use Trump’s victory as the wake-up call and opportunity that it is.
That is how you fight back and gain allies, not by throwing temper tantrums and resorting to the same sort of xenophobic hatred and racism you claim to despise.
At the end of the day, Hillary Clinton didn’t lose because of Comey, Russia or miscounted votes. Hillary lost because the Democratic Party rigged its own primary and chose the wrong candidate.
As the following cartoon so accurately depicts:
If you enjoyed this post, and want to contribute to genuine, independent media, consider visiting our Support Page.
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
Donate bitcoins: 35DBUbbAQHTqbDaAc5mAaN6BqwA2AxuE7G
Follow me on Twitter.
i see no difference between bruce and tim . as far as mr. trump lets see what happens , as far as i am concerned , one day at a time and enjoy life .
Trump won fair and square playing by their rules, so I cannot understand all this hysteria. The self-appointed righteous are calling for an overthrow of our system? To install whom? An equally flawed candidate?
If there’s peace with Russia, that’s already progress. I see no difference between Obama’s corporate cabinet and Trump’s, so why all the hissy fits?
For most Millenials, we were too young to understand the danger Obama’s administration posed. I was 17 when he got elected the first time and didn’t care about politics, cause I knew even then it was all rigged. The second term I still couldn’t be bothered, I was more interested in reading political theory and philosphy. But now, more of us are waking up and realizing that Trump is the white Obama- empty promises and more corporate control.
So your “right way” to oppose Trump is to espouse a more palatable paranoia? It sounds like Bruce Schneier still expects people to be rounded up into camps. What other interpretation is there of “if there’s a major terrorist attack under Trump’s watch, it’ll be open season on our liberties”? This is just as stupid as Tim Wise, only with a little more brains than to just cry racist.
How about instead of resisting, try engaging with the government? Does anyone call their Congressman anymore? We can convince corporate America to delete their archives, or we can convince our Congressmen to pass laws to make those archives illegal. The smart play is to actively participate in government. Trying to claim you are “the resistance” won’t get you anywhere.
I call my Congressman. And I write him. And I get shit. Form letters. Disinterested receptionists asking for everything but my blood type to leave my message.
New Hampshire seems to be where itś at if you want government that ALL gets voted out every 2 years AND is actually open-doors to the people it represents.
My House Rep in a completely safe district, has been for 20 years. Iḿ sure it´s the same for my State Senator. Likewise, my State Rep. I live in a state completely controlled by Democrats.
Even though the population centers are a college town with flaming radical leftists, the only ¨city¨ also full of flaming radical leftists, and the once-conservative, increasingly moderate state capitol, the state still leans heavily Big Government, whether it votes D or R, judging by the unconstitutional loony-left ballot initiatives that always pass overwhelmingly. 25% of the population is on food stamps.
Sorry Mike but I completely disagree with you here regarding this Bruce guy. He sounds like just another person that has made up their mind and is certain the next 4 years will be a disaster and is playing the fear mongering card. He also plays the popular vote card which bugs me since Clinton only won that because of one state: California. The result there was so skewed and with its size it makes the total figures look misleading.
Trump apparently won 85-90% of all counties so what is more accurate of the majority? Results as a whole across the entire country or just a few big cities in California being full on Liberal brainwashed?
I also don’t know if at the end you’re saying Bernie was the correct guy to have as president or just the best pick for the democrats. Yes, he was the best pick for them in terms of their chance to win but he would have been a brutal president since the guy is basically a socialist. He also has no self worth given the way he shilled for Hillary after it was proven she colluded with the DNC to screw him over. I just don’t understand at all the love Bernie gets from anyone who isn’t a SJW millennial looking to have everything given to them for free…or the crazy climate change freaks who loved Bernie since he seems to be a climate change cult member as well.
*rant on*The world is billions of years old and in that time the climate has gone through MANY periods of change. Humans do not cause the changes in the climate (especially given they have been happening long before humans existed) and humans can’t control the climate.
The hysteria over the climate has been going on at least since the late 19th century (I’ve seen some of the newspaper articles), before the big bad SUVs and other vehicles were there to be blamed. ZH had a good article this week where the guy provided a section from a newspaper article 90+ years ago that was saying the exact same doom and gloom global warming stuff now. Again, over 90 years ago. The sooner people realize that climate change garbage is “fake news” the better, especially when climate scientists have been caught via leaked emails altering and faking data. *rant off*
The best president would have been Ron Paul from 4 years ago. He cared about privacy and liberty, he wasn’t a socialist and he wasn’t a war monger and he also had a grasp of how the economy and markets should function.
That Tim guy is priceless with the implication it was white people wanting to keep crappy jobs that won it for Trump. From exit polls, Trump seemed to have won for family incomes 50k+ (including the supposedly evil 1% club) so it would seem people who actually make money felt he was the better pick. If he feels waiter and bartender min wage jobs (most of the jobs being crated these days under the Obombya admin) are a sign of progressive employment compared to manufacturing jobs that make people money then wow, talk about insane, but what I would expect from these cultists on the left.
I am skeptical of Trump but I will wait to see if my skepticism comes true before declaring it as fact. I also believe Trump has the potential to go down as an amazing president if he plays his cards correctly.
What I found fascinating was, as little media coverage as the DNC rigging the primary got, there was literally NOT a WORD printed ANYWHERE that mentioned the direct parallels between what the RNC did to Ron Paul delegates in 2012. I wasn´t as politically engaged then. I didn´t vote Obama but I didn´t vote Paul. But I only found out what happened to Paul delegates by watching old clips of Ben Swann´s shows.
And it seems to me that, while the great blog Of Two Minds wisely points out that the Deep State is not as monolithic as alt-media often portrays it (as we´re seeing with the FBI and CIA contradicting each other publicly), Paul and Trump seemed to pose a similar threat.
Now, of course, Paul seemed to pose a genuine threat to the neocons, the permanent warfare state…I´d venture doesn´t have a lot of skeletons in his closet…whereas Trump has been indebted to the Rothschilds for 30 years and God knows how much dirt they have on him.
But it occurred to me the other day how Sanders was really a fake candidate all along. Okay, fine, ¨climate change!¨ ¨Wall Street!¨ ¨Native Americans!¨ yada yada yada. And not an effing word about foreign policy the entire campaign unless it was at a debate. He left it to a single…yes…single surrogate: Tulsi Gabbard. Whose foreign policy views run so counter to the DNC neocon Zionist party line, she found herself at Trump Tower talking about working with Assad to defeat ISIS and stop arming Al-Qaeda and IS.
Sanders, if elected, would have been another Obama. No Hope and No Change. Maybe the Cabinet positions would have given spontaneous orgasms to SJWs who think nothing of Obama doubling the debt. But I´d rather cross my fingers that Trump´s picks will be fiscal hawks and dovish on Russia, personally.
Agreed. I would only add what Ijust wrote somewhere else: Identity politics is the Jimmy Jones Kool-Aid of the left. As a progressive liberal who’s spent decades advocating for economic fairness and social equality, I don’t want to come home and see news implying I’m a racist because I’m white. That the main reason I don’t watch The Young Turks anymore. Sick of Anna Kasparena starting her monologues with “Today, a WHITE MAN attacked a…”. Jimmy Dore is the new voice. He’s handling the issues and getting the crowds in.
When the light strikes the leader in a certain way, certainly in the areas of branding, cult of personality, and anti-science attitude, there’s a lot of Josef Stalin to see here. History is a rhyming slang with control of the free individual critical.
Baba Vanga Prophecy says Obama will be LAST EVER President
Tim Wise is just another self-loathing douchebag petty tyrant who projects his true feelings about blacks onto any fellow Caucasians who don’t tow the virtual plantation left wing line.
I’d love to publicly debate the guy in front of a mixed race audience.
About putting Muslims in concentration camps: I think it was in your blog when I read you worry about what FEMA camps were really intended for. So when Republicans worry about potential concentration camps, that’s a legitimate worry, but if Democrats do, it’s hysterical? The potential is there, and if Muslims are going to get deported, well, presumably they have to be put somewhere before they are deported. And if there are delays and difficulties in the deportation, well, it wouldn’t be beyond the realms of imagination if somebody came up with the idea of getting those Muslims to pay for themselves with forced labor. Of course, it would be illegal under international law to convert anyone into a slave merely because they entered the country illegally, or they didn’t leave fast enough on their own, or (God forbid!) merely because they were of the wrong religion.
On the Hamilton electors: If you read the information about them, they aren’t attempting to “steal” the election by any stretch of the imagination. First, they happen to be following the constitution (admittedly, a part of the constitution that by now is routinely ignored, but that’s never stopped libertarians for arguing in favor of following the constitution). But most importantly, even if enough electors changed their minds and didn’t vote like robots, that still wouldn’t change the final outcome. The question would pass to Congress, where it’s certain Trump would get elected. So the point isn’t trying to “steal” the election, but making a point about how unhappy some people are with Trump. It can be argued that this isn’t a particularly good tactic, but at least it should be correctly described. “Steal the election via a coup attempt” is simply false.
As for “unhinged hate-mongering”… I would have agreed with you that the strategy doesn’t work, before this election. Then Trump won, after insulting vast amounts of people. I mean, did anybody think that Trump was onto something when he insulted the whole Latino population? Don’t blame the Democrats for attempting a strategy that seems to be effective, and they never tried seriously before. They were fairly nasty to Trump during the campaign, but you’ll have to agree with me that now they’re upping the ante. It may still not work, but it’s perfectly logical for them to try it.
On point #1, I think you are wrong. I searched my website for FEMA Camps and I found nothing. Please refer me to the blog post in question. Moreover, let’s assume I did write about the topic once or twice, to imply that concentration camps in the U.S. has been a key part of what I do here is completely dishonest. Which is why I can’t even find a single article of the thousands I have published that emphasizes that topic.
That said, I do agree that if there were another major terrorist attack, President Trump could resort to pretty nasty measures. You can be assured that I will resist such measures should they arise. My point is exaggeration and hyperbole at this moment will not serve the opposition well.
As far as the electoral nonsense, I’ll just leave this right here: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/anti-trumpers-electoral-college-orchestrate-coup-article-1.2911955?utm_content=buffer39ebe&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=NYDailyNewsTw
On your final point, we just disagree. I laid out why “liberals” can’t win an argument against Trump by being anti-liberal. Even Tim Wise recognized the foolishness of his tweets and apologized for them. https://twitter.com/timjacobwise
As I said, this strategy is beyond stupid and will fail miserably, but by all means continue to advocate for it. Then welcome to 8 years of Trump.
Specifically when did Trump insult “the whole Latino population “?
Good luck coming up with that.
Moreover, he did better amongst Hispanics than Romney. http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/2016-election-day/trump-did-better-blacks-hispanics-romney-12-exit-polls-n681386
As someone who lived thru 5 hurricanes in Florida, I can tell you that FEMA is barely capable of distributing water after a crisis.
Yes, I’m quite aware of that.
My wife is Colombian. Like me, she’s always disliked Trump immensely. But she also knows that Hillary is a criminal.
So like many people we just didn’t vote.
Likewise, my mom is Chilean and felt the same way.
It tends to be white fake leftists who love to talk on “behalf of Hispanics.”
I’m a Latina who voted for Trump. Not all Latinos are pro illegal immigration, or globalists, or climate change believers.
I am disturbed by Bruce Schneier’s assumption that only liberals care about privacy issues. Conservatives revere privacy as do most Americans. There is no evidence that Trump has advocated for extreme surveillance or oppression. On the contrary, Trump has been very open about any controversial position he has advocated, like the Muslim ban, which I happen to agree with because Islam is inconsistent with western democracy.
As a techie as well, I would like to point out that all the intrusions into privacy, surveillance, and censorship are coming from the techies on the left. The Silicon Valley icons are the ones spying on us, selling our data, and censoring oppressed people in China and Russia, as well as here.
What Western democracy? This is a Republic. But while we’re on the subject, Christianity and Capitalism are against western democracy, so where is the outcry against those bastions of oppression and greed? Oh, right, as long as it’s not you, who cares? There is no way to go down the road of banning people for arbitary reasons without dissolving into a civil war torn 3rd world country or fascist regime.
It seems to me the MSM, must be fostering fascist mentality at all times. Brainwashing works and the supposed liberals are falling for it. Fear based conclusions can be easily hoisted on people that do not have much critical thought , logic or convictions. That is how a hippie , who should KNOW better, starts to believe war is a GOOD idea…. the MSM, spewing fake news about Syria, and a lot of good people BELIEVE. They also believe they should panic about trump too. Orwell was right, 15 minuets of hate, constant fear…. the formula is a strong one. The battle starts within. I am no fan of Trump, but at least now we are OFF script. We need to write a whole new story, but this is a start. Love your writing, by the way.