Using Strategies to Persuade
And in Storify/Tweet form: Rhetorical Theory for the Dinner Table
From the Southern Poverty Law Center: Responding to Every Day Bigotry
An incomplete list of reasons why supporting Trump was such a bad idea:
- Misogyny: Trump and his supporters don't treat women as full equals. WOMEN ARE EQUAL TO MEN. This is more about just me being equal. This is also about my daughters being equal to your sons.
- Racism: Trump is supported by the KKK and the American Nazi Party. His supporters are violent and awful to people of color and a particular faith. His rhetoric has incited violence and continues to do so even more now.
- Media: Trump bashes the media and threatens reporters. Diminishing the Fourth Estate is absolutely a fascist government step. We're on our way to having a state-run media and no outside watchdog, which is what the news media is tasked with doing as part of our democracy.
- Inexperience/Incompetence: Trump literally doesn't understand how the government works. He's the least competent person for the job, far and away the worse choice of candidate. You may think "change is good," but when the change is this unqualified you've just created a power vacuum and the darkest, slimiest Washington insiders are the ones who will fill the void.
- Rhetoric: Drain the Swamp, America First and Keep Trains Running on Time are all catch phrases from authoritarian regimes (like the Nazis and Mussolini). THIS IS BAD.
- ISIS: They endorsed Trump's candidacy and celebrated when he won. YOU ARE ON THE SIDE OF THE VERY THING YOU ARE AFRAID OF. (The only way I understand this is that they expect to fight and kill more Americans, and a president as thin-skinned and volatile as him will be more likely to make that happen ... not to mention Republicans are hawk-like re: war and more likely to want to send in troops.)
- Ties to Russia. You want a foreign government pulling the strings? You got it...
The one thing authoritarians want you to do is to accept that their conduct is normal, even when it is not. They do not want you to yearn for a freer, less oppressive and less corrupt time, and they do not want you to think it odd when, say, a government agency is purged or a bunch of protesters are arrested and vanish into the prisons without ever seeing trial. They want you to think it is normal when the President is openly selling your interests out to a foreign power, or when he is using the levers of government to materially enrich and empower his family. The presumption of normality during abnormal times is one of the most powerful weapons the authoritarian has, and that is why it is so important to recognize how profoundly abnormal Donald J. Trump will be as president.I refuse! And although I feel awful and expect I'll continue to feel awful as long as we're faced with this reality I don't want to let it slide or get back to my regular emotional state. This is insanity.
Edit to add: I just realized from a Sen. Elizabeth Warren tweet that DT's positions are key for ISIS recruitment (i.e., he plays into their idea of big, bad America and they can radicalize more young men and women to their cause because of his rhetoric).
Registering & tracking Americans based on race or religion is idiotic. Disgusting. Unconstitutional. And it’s a recruiting bonanza for ISIS.— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) November 17, 2016
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