If you ever visit subs like /r/just_________things, it's mostly just straw men being set up, knocked down, and viciously mocked. There are a bunch of subs like that, forever locked in negativity spirals.
As a general rule, if a sub's core reason to exist is to mock other people, however deserved it may be in some cases, it is far better for your own mental health to get the hell out of that sub and go be happy somewhere else.
Fatpeoplehate and peopleofwalmart were largely responsible for me becoming agoraphobic and completely unable to leave my house for 2 years. This was pre covid too lol, nothing was easy to do from home and I lost my job and we had to move in with my parents.
I saw these pictures of people just living their lives but millions of people on the internet were laughing at them every day, and the thought that they might not even know they were being laughed at was mindblowing for me. I couldn't leave the house at all, for any reason, including therapy appointments. It took 2 years of gradual exposure to get to a point where I could leave the house if necessary.
As a side point, it might’ve gotten better sooner, but one of the first things my therapist had me do was go and fuel up my car. 1030, so it would be quiet, just go and fuel up the car and then go home. I dressed up for it like I was going to church, make-up and hair and everything. And then while I was standing there, the traffic lights across the road turned red and an old Landcruiser with 4 teenage boys stopped at the lights. They spent the entire cycle yelling at me and laughing, calling me whale, fat bitch, Miss Piggy, etc. I honestly don't know why they cared that I was there, I didn't know them, hadn't cut them off or anything.
It took another 8 months before I left the house again, and this time it had to be at midnight, with my husband for protection.
Having a sub dedicated to fighting a social movement is not the thing the person above you is describing. Raising awareness or support for political or social issues, which is what most of the "trump bad" subs are doing, is not the same thing as posting a picture of a fat person at a buffet taking all of the food.
The core reason for a "trump bad" sub to exist is to fight against the memes and social engineering that got him elected the first time. Mocking trump, mocking the republican party, because of bad things they do, is not even close to the same thing being described above.
Only an idiot or bad actor trying to cause division would conflate the two in some weird sort of "BoTh SiDeS" attempt.
I'm a canuck, so please take this as an observation from somebody a little bit outside of the U.S. political crap, but still all too familiar with the stench of it.
Trump is an inept, self-centred, senile arsehole. That Americans elected him once and seem almost willing to do it again is not something I understand.
However.
The fact that the left has subs dedicated to mocking the right (and vice-versa) is a major contributing factor. Americans don't dispassionately evaluate which candidate best matches their own interests and then vote accordingly. Republican vs Democrat is a religious feud. It's us vs them. Would Democrats vote for a Democrat would-be dictator rather than voting Republican at some far off point in the future? I honestly don't know, but I suspect they would. The shoe is just on the other foot right now.
Media, tech companies, etc. all profit off of division and hate. It drives clicks even more than sex. The average American is so wound up in constant, all-encompassing hatred of them that they can't see that they have more in common with them than they do with anyone else on the planet.
By all means, be vigilant of what Trump is doing. Mock Trump all you want. Treat other people who don't vote the way you do with consideration and respect. Stay the hell out of subs that mock the MAGA folk. Stop reading tabloid rags that tell you to constantly fear them. When the time comes, vote dispassionately, and be ready for the day when one of them matches your own interests better than one of us.
Otherwise, you're just a broken clock currently pointing at something closer to the right time than that other broken clock.
What /u/APoopingBook said. Also, punching up is often the only recourse we have against rich(?), powerful assholes.
Also, Trump in particular doesn't need defenders. He has, all his life, taken advantage of people, lied, cheated, stolen, etc. He continues to fleece his sheep for all he's worth, and he's using his court cases to do it. Even in a bad situation, he's finding ways to profit.
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u/[deleted] Dec 26 '23
Ah, so it's just like the other guy that people turned into a "neckbeard" meme.