There are many strong insidious forces that helped give rise to Trumpism and the throngs of passionate acolytes he has that are often referred to us as Trumpians or Trumpsters. The overreach of extreme political correctness is one key, underrated factor.
The “apology culture” that accompanies it, spawned by political correctness taken to scarily extremist levels inevitably inspired a backlash.
While Donald J. Trump is perhaps the worst person possible to represent this backlash, and the manner in which he does so is utterly repulsive at best, grossly unconstitutional and horribly immoral at worst, he did successfully feel this pulse in America.
Most of America slept on extreme political correctness running amok, and dismissed apology culture as some passing 2014 fad, but now all of us are paying dearly for it. Now we’re living in dark times, with a white supremacist advisor, an absolute Neo-Nazi named Steve Bannon, calling the shots for the President.
#StopPresidentBannon
How did we get here? How is the absolute worst possible citizen running the country, guided by a man who’s genuinely driven by bigotry and hatred?
I’ve asked dozens of Trumpsters over the past year what they see in him and a very consistent answer emerges:
“He tells it like it is”
“He’s a straight shooter,”
“Not a Washington insider/career politician.”
“Talks like people at the bar, BBQ etc.”
PolitiFact, who have been fact-checking Trump’s statements since 2011, when he briefly considered a White House bid, tell us this:
We’ve fact-checked Trump more than 300 times, finding 70 percent of his claims Mostly False, False or Pants on Fire.
About 15 percent of his statements are Half True, while 15 percent rated Mostly True and True.
Thus a man who blatantly lies nearly 3/4 of the time he speaks is somehow giving us the straight dope?
He’s “kicking reality” to us? Keeping it 100?
WTF!? What kind of reality is this?
There are two main reasons that Trumpians think he’s speaking his mind and being all business despite evidence and facts proving otherwise. First, he’s blunt and candid all the time, and quite often coarse and boorish.
To talk without thinking is to shoot without aiming, but that phrase means nothing to those American voters who believe Trump always speaks truth to power.
The second and more important reason centers around the apology culture.
Very few public figures have spoken out against the direction of the p.c. movement these past few years. However, it’s very real and it contributed to enough Rust Belt Americans voting for Trump the electoral college winner.
South Park has devoted an entire season or two to it, and they’ve been pretty much spot on with all their attacks on the apology culture.
Comedians like Bill Maher have bemoaning the prioritizing P.C. above all else trend for years, as it’s become more difficult to tell jokes on college campuses.
Many people would find the absurdity of political correctness extremism and apology culture to be only a minor annoyance, not something to prioritize in the voting booth.
However, the other side does, and here’s why:
-Trigger Warnings
This is a disclaimer that appears at the beginning of articles telling the reader they might be subjected to ideas they don’t agree with or might find uncomfortable. WTF?
That’s exactly what LEARNING is! You’re a dumbass if you assume your side is right because it’s your side without looking over at the other side to see why it’s wrong.
-Safe Spaces
It’s an apology culture place where you’re free of criticism, and other unpleasant social interactions. Everyone gets a trophy or a ribbon and no one comes in last place.
Dude, the world just does not work that. You have to be told you suck sometimes.
Social Darwinism is like wasabi, you need to have a little bit, but way too much will completely destroy you. Life is a competition, and sometimes you lose and sometimes people don’t like you. If you have a social media account of any sort, you’re a public figure now.
As a public figure you will get criticized; better learn to deal with it.
Kudos to the University of Chicago Dean, John Ellison, for his letter to incoming freshmen this summer denouncing trigger warnings and safe spaces. The U of C is where the very nuclear weapon was devised, and Ellison went nuclear on extreme political correctness and apology culture, at a time when very few seem willing to do so.
-SJW, Social Justice Warriors
There’s a huge difference between those who actually do fight for social justice and those who pretend to in order to advance their own careers. It’s a fine line and sometimes it takes time and effort to truly out the SJWs, but we must, as they’re a very very very low form of life. I can think of a few local sports media personalities who built their entire careers on this.
How can you tell an opportunistic self-interested SJW from an actual reasonable person striving for legitimate social justice? The clearest signal is this:
SJWs almost declare “Person XYZ IS A racist/homophobe/Anti-Semite/Islamophobe etc.” while the reasonable progressive will say “Person XYZ SOUNDS LIKE/COMES off as a racist/homophobe/Anti-Semite/Islamophobe etc.”
Serious charges against a public figure require serious thought and analysis beforehand.
-Microaggressions
One of those recently made up and totally useless words, like a sleep number. The fact that it even has micro right there in its name tells you how little we should be worrying about these things. Especially now that we have very real MACRO problems!
The rise of Steve Bannon, the Alt-Right and the white nationalist movement is something we all need to be very concerned about and it’s something we all need to come together and immediately put an end to.
-Check Your (White Male) Privilege
Not sure how or why anyone ever thought this phrase would or even could ever accomplish anything remotely close to productive.
-Manufactured Outraged, and the Demanding an Apology Culture
“We did an Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt episode and the internet was in a whirlwind, calling it ‘racist’, but my new goal is not to explain jokes,” she says in the interview.
“I feel like we put so much effort into writing and crafting everything, they need to speak for themselves. There’s a real culture of demanding apologies, and I’m opting out of that.”
It’s a bored person who looks for controversy, and manufactures outrage because they need to do something to try and give their lives and work more meaning. It’s only a person who’s living comfortably that has the luxury of being bored enough to do this.
You know who doesn’t do these things, people who have to worry about making ends meet and other real problems.
Hence they resent the SJWs and voted against them. While we wasted time on fake problems or manufactured outrage, now we have some serious, awful, dark obstacles to overcome- white supremacists are running our government.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, Bold and the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication, appears regularly as a guest on CGTN America, WGN CLTV News and KOZN 1620 The Zone.
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