After that Access Hollywood tape of Trump bragging that his fame allowed him to get away with sexually assault women on a whim, his supporters and surrogates seized on what they saw as the ultimate rebuttal to Trump’s critics. Borrowing the argument from a meme that had already been circulating on the Internet for some time, they declared that they were “much more bothered by what Hillary has done than by what Trump has said.”
This argument would be a lot more convincing if a) Trump hadn’t been talking about things he claimed to have, you know, done, if b) women weren’t coming forward to tell media that he had in fact done these things to them and if c) Trump’s apologists were actually bothered by Trump’s claims.
While there are no doubt some Trump supporters who are genuinely troubled by Trump’s remarks, many of his most fervent followers think his comments (and presumably the actions he was describing) are hilarious. To many Trump superfans in the Alt-Right, Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. And they have made it into their new favorite Trump meme.
In the latest “Memetic Monday” thread on Internet Nazi tabloid The Daily Stormer, you will find, alongside the standard racist caricatures and Hitler jokes and “Hillary for Prison” memes, a wide assortment of “grab ’em by the pussy” memes created by Daily Stormer readers or borrowed from other sites — some of them slick, some of them amateurish, and none of them funny.
Here are some of them. You will notice that some of the meme-makers have managed to work in some of their other favorite subjects — Hitler, Hillary being jailed, and even (I regret to have to tell you this) kittens. In the interest of keeping this post more-or-less safe for work, I’ve avoided the worst of the batch.
Of course, the “grab ’em by the pussy” memes were not the only jokes about sexual assault in the thread. Because these are neo-Nazi Trump fans, and that’s just how they roll.
Trump 2016: Every Day is a New Low.
EDIT: Added a reference to the women who have come forward to say that Trump had indeed sexually assaulted them.
Cyndi Lauper post on CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/13/opinions/cyndi-lauper-why-im-voting-for-hillary-clinton/index.html
She says something I’ve felt for a long time, the most important single issue in the election is that open Supreme Court Justice position, and other SC positions which may come open during the next President’s term.
@Dreadnought – I already feel much better, thanks to you and Scildfreya, and even just having a place to write this down.
Funny how something so offhanded and thoughtless was able to make me feel like a powerless and/or hysterically out-of-control young woman again. He’ll hide from me most of the day, most likely, since I did get very upset and he hates confrontations. And good riddance!
If only it happened more often….
@dreemr Virtual hugs if you’d like them.
@JennyWren, thank you for voicing exactly what made me so nauseous about that whole “rape police” thing. As if it were a special category of offense for limp-wristed liberals and fragile lady-types, instead of being the horrific violation of self that it is.
@ikanreed,
(not at all disagreeing here, just sort of, I dunno, adding nuance?)
There’s a weird disconnect going on there. Misdirected cognitive dissonance. It’s important for a healthy mind to be able to maintain multiple, self-contradictory modes of thinking at the same time, but it’s also important to apply the right mode of thinking at the right time. They’re applying the distant, relatively emotionless mode when they should be applying the close, compassionate mode. It’s deeply frustrating, and a huge challenge to kick them into close mode. Political engagement doesn’t generally use it, it sticks to far mode.
They care about being good, about standing against rape and fraud and all of the things Trump has been confronted on. But their ability to care deeply has been deactivated. Their concerns are abstract and about ideas, not people. So mentioning the offenses of an individual, especially the festering-orange-rind-Trump, doesn’t penetrate deeply. He’s going to go after the real problems, you see, so the personal problems aren’t important.
It’s incredibly frustrating to watch. These people need to have their close mode activated before they receive this sort of information. Even then, just mentioning Trump or politics is generally enough to kick these people into far mode. Watching that shift in thinking happen is generally enough to make me disengage.
Sorry, enough rambling!
http://pre03.deviantart.net/c9ab/th/pre/f/2012/029/1/0/fluttershy_blush_vector_by_velvetjellybeans-d4o1mti.png
<3 ! I'm not a hugger either, truth be told. I'm pretty fully steeped in that Anglo stoicism that's so incredibly challenging to overcome. Thank you.
It’s funny how easy it is to flip that switch. Anxiety is a sneaky snek, and will sneak up on you when you least expect it. You put your truth in him, as your boss, to not overtax you and to treat you with respect, and he violated that in a real sense. I can understand how that would set off some panic.
He might understand what he’s done on some level – maybe even consciously. That rural Midwestern stoicism makes it hard to admit fault, after all. Hopefully he’ll blunder into your boundaries a little less in the future!
Not being a constitutional scholar (I’m Canadian) I just got around to checking out what the whole #repealthe19th thing is about . I kinda wish I didn’t, that’s revolting.
@ dreemr
Best hopes that your day has recovered or at least that you have found or made some shelter against it.
@ Scildfreja;
You sound like you know a lot more than I about this subject, so lemme bounce this off you; I’ve been saying for a while that Trump’s base appeal is to the people who are (in their parlance) “tired of ‘political correctness’,” and support him because he’s going to make it “ok to be white again, and ok to be demeaning of [name of ‘other’ group] again”
But I can’t for the life of me see that applying to the 42%-ish of electorate who appear to support him! So are the ones who support him but aren’t “Heartiste”, aren’t “Vox Day”, aren’t Milo… are these people disengaging their empathy when the discussion turns to his bigoted rhetoric?
How the f**k does someone do that??? Not “why”, “HOW”?????
@FishyGoat thank you for the hugs and I can spare a few for you as well now, if you want them 🙂
@pitshade thank you and I am feeling much better 🙂
While Vladimir Putin is a fascist strongman, I think that a man who lost family in the siege of Leningrad would probably not appreciate being compared to Hitler specifically, or put into the same category as him.
@rugbyyogi
It is not possible to be a U.S. patriot in a non-jingoistic fashion, nor the UK either. I honestly question if it’s possible at all, for anyone.
@msexceptiontotherule
Goats In Space!
And an inquisitive Chihuahua:
http://i.imgur.com/2nQIMM3.jpg
@Malitia
Really? I admit i’m not intimately familiar with Hungarian politics, but every source I can find describes him as centre right even in the earliest days of his political career.
Nationalism attracts fascists like shit attracts flies, be it ever so pure in its motives. Even in cases where there’s actually a legit foreign oppressor to fight against, it’s urgent to keep on guard against it, lest you turn into what you’re fighting.
@leftwingfox
Slightly OT, but they fuck right the hell off; they might as well call themselves the Hitler Jugend.
(Clarification for those not familiar with the history, the Young Turks were a political faction in the late 19th/early 20th centuries, and the principal architects of the Armenian Genocide. Cenk Uygur, by the way, claims the genocide never happened.)
@Dreemr
*hugs* if desired. I’m sorry you have to deal with that bs.
@Weird (and just about drained) Eddie
I think the Trump voters who aren’t alt-right are made up of the wealthy social conservatives, the religious right and those who vote GOP no matter what.
I still can’t believe anyone supports him, though. 🙁
@Dali
Hiya, I’m Axe!
Real issues = issues that effect white cishet men
Non-real issues = issues that don’t typically effect white cishet men
Hope that clears up the question about which issues are real.
@ Dalillama;
I’ve wondered that about that name. “The Young Turks” web site, is pretty progressive, at least the several vids I’ve seen.
Wikipedia’s page on him says Cenk Uygur “changed his views”, now says he doesn’t know enough to comment on Armenian Genocide (hey, a couple hours on Google will educate him FAST). He’s got to know where that name came from, though, and genocide denial aside, it was still a VERY right-leaning, pro-nationalist group.
@Dalillama
Well, the party he belonged to at least was (mostly) liberal at first and he toed the party line. The party (FIDESZ) broke into two in the the early 90s over the shift towards the center/right though and the more liberal people left (most to SZDSZ, which was the “big” local liberal party until some years ago)… Mr. Orbán wasn’t among them.
I’m not old enough to remember this though… ^^; I became politically active under the first Orbán government (1998-2002) with the deep conviction that I don’t want to see this clown anywhere near power ever again. Apparently I was the minority. :/
@Scildfreja
No, they aren’t. They’re just emotionally invested in very, very different things than you are. They are emotionally invested in punishing muslims, and queers, and immigrants, and black people, and indeed women. That is why they are emotionally invested in Trump.
Clearly they do not, or they would not act as they do. They define themselves as ‘good’, certainly, but their idea of good and mine are sufficiently divergent as to be entirely different concepts.
No, they need to stop being vile people, and stop wanting the things I mentioned above.
@Weird Eddie
You have a really rosy view of white america, then.
No. They agree wholeheartedly with the bigoted rhetoric, because they are bigots.
Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.
@Axe
And you’re a wonderful fellow whom I adore, but U.S. nationalism is deeply problematic on a fundamental level.
We don’t have a special liberal rape police who are out to defend our perfumed effete urban liberal sensibilities, Rush. Rape is actually illegal. It’s the regular police who are gonna come knockin’ on your door.
“Oooh, I might have killed someone. What are you going to do, send the MURDER POLICE after me?”
@Eddie
Cenk’s ‘progressive’ and the Turks were ‘very right leaning’. It all makes loads more sense with the scare quotes 🙂
Sticking genocide on ‘the other team’ doesn’t help, and neither does assuming only the best about ‘your team’. There are no ‘teams’. People are just people, and their self identification only goes so far. Plenty of #Gaters are in favor of universal healthcare, ya know? No expectations is my motto ?
@Dali
Thank you, mutual, and deeply indeed. I just think I thread that needle pretty well. Or maybe I don’t. Maybe it’s never gonna be good enough. I ain’t gonna quit trying tho
My country is easily all time near the top in fuckery. Never missed an All Star Game, ya know? Still, the potential is there for goodness. Nationalism, for me, is cheering loudly everytime that good comes thru and raging even louder at the bad. Even both simultaneously. As you might imagine, this campaign makes the cheers few and far between…
But, like, if Canada feels like invading, I’m not super keen to object. Don’t force me to learn French, and we’ll be fine /s, mostly ?
Regarding the non-alt right and support for Trump: In addition to privilege blindness and other factors, consider that a lot are motivated by obstinate partisanship. Trump got the nomination for GOP candidate and therefore BY GAWD they are going to support him. It bypasses any critical thinking or empathy they may otherwise have. In hindsight they may have different opinions, my conservative coworkers have low opinions if Dubya but talk rosily about the Clinton presidency but neither was the case when it actually mattered.
@WWTH
But what if it’s the cishet white men’s wives who are sexually assaulted? Surely that affects them! /s
@dreemr
I’m sorry you had to deal with that. I just had to explain to my boss why Hillary wanting to raise taxes is not at all the same as Trump wanting to infringe on my rights and how it’s a terrible argument to say that Trump isn’t going to do anything that would jeopardize Roe v. Wade because he lies so he’s not going to hold himself to his campaign promises. (I did mention Pense and his miscarriage funeral plan, which my boss says he knows nothing about so he declined to comment on.) At least I had help from another teammate who was also arguing for my side and another who just laughed every time my boss said something ridiculous.
@Axe
Well, yes and no. There are ‘teams’ in the sense that there are different political parties and movements who have their own sets of goals and ideals, and membership that at least loosely agrees with same. And any party or movement that contains people who support genocide doesn’t contain me.
What I’m getting at is that it can’t be, because there’s no needle to thread. When you take away the imperialism, the colonialism, and the bigotry, there’s nothing left.
Well this goes back to that discussion of ‘the right thing to do’ from the other thread; people define a nation as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ depending on how they feel about the culture, or the actions of the government, or whatever. But nations aren’t people; they aren’t ‘good’ or ‘bad’, so much as ‘functional’ or ‘dysfunctional’, and even those are somewhat subjective. I take it as a given, for instance, that a prosperous, peaceful, and safe society is a good thing, and this informs my politics. The likes of Andrew Anglin do not; they hold that struggle and strife are social goods, and society should be organized to encourage them. I’m kind of rambling now.
For me, when my government or its agents misbehave, I am angry for the same reason I am angry when agents of a foreign government do so; partially because I have personal moral objections to such behaviour from anyone, and partially because they are failing at their purpose. When the government does things right, that’s what they’re there for; it is, in principle, the whole reason we tolerate these assholes in the first place. As far as society, separate from government, American political culture is frankly shit, and I have nothing good to say about it. American culture in general has some decent aspects (mostly nicked from African-American culture if we’re to be honest), but onece again, ‘we’re not all assholes all the time’ isn’t exactly something to cheer for on my view, anymore than, say, not sexually harassing people is something one should be praised for, rather than a minimum standard of behaviour.
Tits and a pussy. That’s all it takes. In other words, all men’s Achilles heels break down to their desire for tits and pussy. Women also bring trillions in forced wealth and power transfer from men to women through Affirmative Action, Title IX, Affirmative Consent, VAWA, the majority of funding for health-education-welfare diverted from men to women, alimony, asset division, child support (alimony++) and in some cases multi-million dollar civil suit payouts following false accusations.
This forced wealth transfer from men to women has been going on for decades. Not only does it force wealth and power from men to women, but it also removes men’s ability to compete with women through the many female-only quota systems, like Title IX and Affirmative Action.
Say what you want about women, but they’re far more shrewd than men. Men simply build and maintain the infrastructure and keep women elevated above men. Men are stupid, gynocentric, self-defeating pussy bandits – which is why women throw rocks at them.
Women (and their enablers) also bring, for the past few centuries, an all male front line combat fighting force and male-only conscription. Millions of men have laid down their lives to hand women not only all wealth and power through the aforementioned laws and policies – but the sacrifice of their one-and-only lives in battle – in defense of women. Oh – the irony.
Back in the day – women were fine taking care of the kids, cooking and looking after the cleaning, because jobs in those days didn’t have modern conveniences like automation, air conditioning, good pay, safe working conditions, worker’s rights, a bit of prestige and all of the leisure associated with having a degree and a safe, adequately paid working environment. In short – back in the day – jobs sucked and were not only physically crushing but also soul crushing. Men created/invented a positive work environment and women simply demanded ownership – because oppression and patriarchy – while at the same time severely distorting history and painting all men as rapists and domestic abusers. With Affirmative Consent, men’s rights to presumption of innocence and due process go out the window – with civil suit payouts following false accusations of rape/assault and following the wrath of a woman scorned. Get convicted of DV or assault against a woman these days – whether real or contrived – and your life is over. No one will hire you – so you might as well eat lead.
Woman are survivors and know the social shaming of men and the promotion of gynocentrism not only produces the many aforementioned forced wealth and power transfer opportunities – but also produces socially compliant, unaware men. In short – men are stupid and deserve all thrown rocks.
@Dalillama: My apologies; I was unaware of the background there. That video was the first hit in my Google search which contained the audio segment in question.
Dreemr – Also sending out good wishes (not being much of a hugger, either).
OoglyBoggles – your quotes reminded me of a clip I’ve seen several times of a woman Trump supporter holding a sign that I swear looks like it says “Bill Clinton is a Papist” even though I know it likely reads “Rapist” instead. I’ve seen the same clip several times and it still looks for all the world like it says Papist!