That all seems spot on, but especially the part about Trump supporters and racism. I am surrounded by them. My friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers are about 80% pro-Trump. They have huge blind spots in terms of seeing the kind of person Trump is and seeing his true goals (both glaringly obvious!), and seeing their own racism. They are a lot like Jim Crow supporters who thought that creating "their own" schools, bathrooms and lunch counters was a satisfactory end to racism. My own father says things like: "I'm not a racist, but there are too many black people on TV these days". Limiting peoples' rights to vote or deciding that we can't talk about gay people in school is active discrimination, but they don't even see it as passive discrimination. Their right to pretend gay people don't exist is more critical, in their minds, than the rights of gay people to be treated as, you know, people!Ecurb wrote: ↑February 27th, 2022, 7:37 pmIN the last 50 years the main European ground wars were in the former Yugoslavia. I don't remember this much of an American media response (although, of course, we did end up bombing Serbia).
Another observation: Trump and his supporters see Russia as the last "truly European" country. OUr allies in Western Europe have all become multi-racial and multi-cultural nations. Racisim fuels Trumpite's respect for Putin and Russia.
Also, the media response is justified in that Russia is a world power and a threat. We didn't really need to fear Serbia, Croatia, or Bosnia. They weren't capable of threatening the major Western powers. Is Russia? They lack the economic power these days, but their military still packs a punch.
Sadly. I think you can describe most of them accurately as "useful idiots". For example, they are worried that increasing the minimum wage will cost them, but protective of tax cuts for the wealthy that they are convinced will lead to the creation of good jobs (even as real wages continue to fall for all but the top wage earners!). Since Reagan, wealth has been funneled to the top at ever increasing rates, yet these folks are convinced that only their oppressors can save them from the socialist boogieman.