At times in this life it can be a challenge to figure out who the bad people are, but sometimes they help you.
Sometimes they do the work for you.
Sometimes with their every vulgar, bitter word from their mouth, they testify to their personal malignancy and they make it easy to identify them.
Generally speaking, there are things that good people do and things good people don’t do.
Good people don’t refer to entire countries as “shitholes”—most notably countries that have given birth to our very humanity; ones that for hundreds of years have been colonized and poached and mined of their riches by powerful white men; countries whose people have been enslaved and sold and forced to come and build your country.
Good people by any measurement we might use—simply don’t say such things.
Of course good people also don’t say they could grab women by the genitalia, either.
They don’t defend racists and nazis and call them “fine people,” days after murdering a young girl and terrorizing an American city.
They don’t brag about their penis size during debates, or suggest protestors at campaign rallies should be roughed up, or crack jokes about captured war heroes, or make fun of the physically disabled.
They don’t.
Good people don’t tweet anti-Muslim rhetoric in the moments immediately following a bombing in order to bolster a position.
They don’t leave American territories filled with brown-skinned people without power for months upon months, after publicly ridiculing their public servants and questioning their people’s resolve.
They don’t pull children from the arms of their parents and place them in cages and detention centers.
They don’t erase protections for the water and the air, for the elderly, the terminally ill, the LGBTQ.
They don’t take away healthcare from the sick and the poor without an alternative.
They don’t gouge the working poor and shelter the wealthy.
They don’t abuse their unrivaled platform to Twitter-bait world leaders and to taunt private citizens.
Good people don’t prey upon the vulnerable, they don’t leverage their power to bully dissenters, and they don’t campaign for sexual predators.
But the former President is not a good human being, and there’s simply no way around this truth.
He is the ugliest personification of the Ugly American, which is why, as long as he is here and as long as he has a chance to represent this nation, we will be a fractured mess and a global embarrassment. He will be the ever-lowering bar of our legacy in the world.
And what is painfully obvious in these moments, isn’t simply that the person alleging to lead this country is a terrible human being—it is that anyone left still defending him, applauding him, justifying him, amening him, probably is too.
At this point, the only reason left to support a man like this is that he reflects your hateful heart; he shares your contempt of people of color, your hostility toward outsiders, your toxic misogyny, your ignorant bigotry, your feeling of supremacy.
A white sitting President calling countries filled with people of color shitholes, is so far beyond the pale, so beneath decency, and so blatantly racist that it shouldn’t merit conversation. It should be universally condemned. Humanity should be in agreement in abhorring it.
And yet today (like so many other seemingly rock bottom days in the past two years) they will be out there: white people claiming to be good people and Christian people, who will make excuses for him or debate his motives or diminish the damage.
They will dig their heels in to explain away or to defend, what at the end of the day is simply a bad human being saying the things that bad human beings say because their hearts harbor very bad things.
No, good people don’t call countries filled with beautiful, creative, loving men and women shitholes—or do most of the horrible things he does.
And good people don’t defend people who do.
You’re going to have to make a choice here.
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Everyone does bad things at some time in their life. No one is “good” all the time. NO ONE! So if we were never to defend bad people, then we would have to remain quiet about everyone. And if someone who does bad things is accused of doing something that he did not do, then it is perfectly correct to defend then. This does not mean that you condone all the bad things that the person has done. It simply attests to the truth.
Rubbish. This is intellectually lazy nonsense. Every bit as lazy as those who support Trump, no matter what!
But the author of this article is far worse than just intellectually lazy …. he is pushing the Leftist agenda that seeks to dehumanize all conservatives….. look at his all or nothing rhetoric ….. quickly going from “all who support Trump are PROBABLY bad people” to “All who support Trump ARE evil!!”
This narrow minded, prejudicial hatred would shoehorn a person like me, who opposes Trump on many issues, but recognizes his accomplishments on many more, into the proverbial gulag of “EVIL PEOPLE”
I applaud what Trump has accomplished so far in the Koreas….. no other president has even come close to effecting such positive action in that area of the world!! It might still turn sour, as we can’t control the actions or rhetoric of either North or South Korea, but this is, undeniably, a move in the right direction.
I STAND and applaud Trump for bringing an end to that illegal, unconstitutional war in Syria, and bringing those soldiers home…. hopefully he continues on this path and brings the rest of our troops home, and brings an end to all bombing and drone strike programs (something I am deeply opposed to).
I STAND and applaud Trump for NOT going to war with Iran, as many of his advisors urged (except for Rand Paul…. the one voice of peace in a room full of warmongering wolves).
I STAND and applaud Trump for what he has done to improve healthcare for our veterans…..
I STAND and applaud Trump for focusing on diplomacy, not violence, or war, in dealing with several of the more dangerous, volatile, heads of state.
Do these things not register?? Would you call these things “evil?” Would you say a person who supports these moves by Trump is “Evil?”
That is what this author demands of his reader, as he mixes truths, and partial truths, with outright lies (Trump NEVER called any neo-Nazis or white supremacists, or the like “Good people,” or ANYTHING positive …… neither did he mock a disabled reporter) …. I researched these accusations, and I find it difficult to believe the writer of this article did not …… He is simply lying, in order to push the dehumanization of conservatives.
Think for a minute, reader …. think! Do you REALLY believe I am evil? The writer of this article wants you to believe I am …. Your other conservative or Republican friends, family members, and acquaintances ….. do you really believe they are “Evil?”
Don’t feed this prejudicial, hateful, dehumanizing propaganda …. think for yourself …. and understand that most supporters of Trump support him on some issues, and oppose him on others, the way normal people do.
Please prove the “children in cages” myth .
Thank you, Mr. Pavlovitz. Once again, you have produced a masterful essay of profound wisdom. Never stop writing. Never stop telling the indisputable truth. Mr. Trump is backed by a group of “the religious right” who have been totally deceived into thinking he will help them in the name of a God whom they themselves are reluctant to heed. Their own fear of strangers, of exposure, of being wrong and of losing their status compels them to hide behind bad people who falsely promise to protect them and their status quo. Someone who professes to be a Christian would not follow a man who defies virtually everything Christ taught. They are turned around, poor souls. Love and truth may not help them all; but our love and truth helps us protect ourselves from being turned around with them. I’m hoping that love and truth can help some of them. Eventually, people who speak truth, such as yourself, will generate so much cognitive dissonance that some of the people will stop and learn to turn. Keep writing and writing and writing!
It must be hell to be a white niggard with a tiny dick and penis envy to boot.
I am in favor of holding the Secret Service guilty of treason for keeping him alive, not just the presidumb.