It's the fact they chose, as a frontman for this body of positions, a person who's not only blatantly incompetent -- but who may very well get large numbers of us killed (for example, by unnecessarily provoking a confrontation with North Korea) and/or potentially cause extreme, irreparable damage in a whole bunch of other ways -- that's the part I don't get. Or that they can't see this basic disconnect (between the sentiment of their positions; and the reality of the end result of the course of action they advocate in response to this sentiment). When it should be blindingly obvious.
EDIT: Failed to notice that this thread represents the very essence of a "pure politics" discussion, and hence is strongly against site guidelines. Nonetheless your analysis was very succinct and thoughtful.
Trump is hated now but it's easy to forget what a fundamental difference this was. There were large swaths of voters who would have voted D if literally any other person with a pulse was on the ticket. For the most part, In fact, those people did do just that when they voted for Obama TWICE in the last two elections:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/2016-electi...
I think the narrative that the electorate embraced Trump belies the fact that just as much, if not more, of the dynamic was that the electorate, unsurprisingly, rejected Hillary specifically (who by the way, as is known now, cheated the candidate who probably deserved to be on the ticket.)
> - They were concerned about the decline of religion, and worry that this will lead to more radical extremists (with the radical extremists converting people who feel disenfranchised and purposeless)
I'm curious about how they envision remediation of the decline of religion without shoving it down people's throat.
> They hate the idea of getting in trouble for using the wrong pronouns for people
Relatively rarely happens. Does tend to happen if you repeat it consistently and show no attempt at learning - at that point, it's subtle bullying and disrespect.
> having to use non-traditional pronouns at all
Most enby people I know are at least not actively uncomfortable with people using binary pronouns, although I'll continue to point out that singular they has been correct grammar for longer than anyone has been alive. They might decide to pursue activism towards greater awareness, and some of that is likely to be student activism - they're also likely to create and participate in social spaces where they're respected. It's generally not a problem in workplaces, since enby people are almost universally terrified of being out about their gender at work.
> They were very upset about stories of people being suspended from elementary school after using the wrong pronoun
Doesn't appear to have actually happened. Some kid got sent to the Principal's office once, and I assume got talked to and sent back to class, since no news source says anything else. I can't figure out the actual details on what happened to cause the kid to be sent to the office, since every news story on the subject seems to have a different set of facts, strongly suggesting that at least some of those facts were partially made up. I suspect some teacher was on edge about potential bullying - which definitely happens - didn't realise the kid didn't already know, and the issue probably got resolved without any lasting harm to anyone.
> They were upset about a professor getting in trouble for wanting to only use male and female pronouns based on biological gender
Now that we're talking about adults in an educational setting where people are intended to interact professionally with each other, a failure to respect the adults you interact with - and the people who part-fund your job, at that - is likely to get you fired, yes. The only way you can twist this to be a bad thing is if you thoroughly believe that people with nonbinary genders are not worth respecting.
> They feel like they cannot express their views without being attacked
How do they think many of us feel, and have felt for decades? We spend ridiculous amounts of energy trying to calm their fears, anyway - I spend much of my social time explaining to people in real life why their (usually unintentionally) misguided ideas about trans people are based on incorrect facts.
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I don't know how to solve these problems. Most of it is continued education, but how are we going to educate people when there's systems in place - often religious and political - specifically intending to keep people in the dark about reality?
Your reality.
Most obviously without anecdotal reports on what people believe, pollsters would not know what questions to ask.
Disclaimer : I am on neither side .
- They hate the idea of getting in trouble for using the wrong pronouns for people. A few strongly disliked, and most somewhat disliked, having to use non-traditional pronouns at all.
- They were very upset about stories of people being suspended from elementary school after using the wrong pronoun
- They were upset about a professor getting in trouble for wanting to only use male and female pronouns based on biological gender
- "Don't force it down my throat and I won't force it down yours"
- They feel like they cannot express their views without being attacked. In response, they now express their views much more aggressively and will attack others (sadly).
- They hate hate hate many things that they associate with social justice warriors, e.g. political correctness, "safe spaces," etc.
- They like Trump's outwardly strong stance on terrorism
- They were concerned about the decline of religion, and worry that this will lead to more radical extremists (with the radical extremists converting people who feel disenfranchised and purposeless)
- They support gay marriage but were upset at a story of a store keeper who got in trouble for refusing to serve a gay couple
- They (as former legal immigrants) hate the idea of illegal immigrants skipping the queue
- Extreme distrust of the mainstream media
- Extreme distrust and disliking of Hillary Clinton
- Strong distrust and disliking of Obama (will update if I recall their stated reasoning)
- Generally seemed pretty anti-politicians
I'm not intending to invite a discussion as to whether their opinions are right or wrong. I'm just posting these here because I think that for anyone on HN working in politics, it may be important to know why your opponents dislike (their image of) you.
See also: http://blog.samaltman.com/what-i-heard-from-trump-supporters
And on changing opinions:
https://psmag.com/news/why-even-your-best-arguments-never-wo...
https://twitter.com/csallen/status/914926162379460609
https://ozanvarol.com/how-to-change-a-mind-yours-or-someone-...