Trump and Xenophobia
Dec. 8th, 2015 09:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogAs I just wrote in Facebook, where I blocked a friend of a friend who said that "Muslims should never be allowed into this country."
Every other time I've seen a politician compared to Hitler, it's been pretty ridiculous. Godwin's Law exists for a reason. With Trump, some of those comparisons strike a little closer to the target. His popularity honestly frightens me a little; increasingly so as time progresses and he retains that popularity.
Am I overly worried? How likely do you think it is that he'll be elected? If he is, are we actually going to see the kind of racist policies that he's advocating implemented? Could something like the Japense internment camps of World War II happen again with Muslims?
The things I'm seeing expressed by a lot of people in this country really unnerve me. I think it's more and more important that I, and those who feel as I do, are vocal about that discomfort. Racism and xenophobia should not be socially acceptable under any circumstances. Saying otherwise merits a contradictory response to that effect and quite possibly addition to my blocked list.
These comparisons of Trump to other well known xenophobic leaders are funny at the moment. But they're only funny until they're not. I hope we never get to that point. It still seems really unlikely to me that we will. But unexpected and horrible things have happened in this country before.
Every other time I've seen a politician compared to Hitler, it's been pretty ridiculous. Godwin's Law exists for a reason. With Trump, some of those comparisons strike a little closer to the target. His popularity honestly frightens me a little; increasingly so as time progresses and he retains that popularity.
Am I overly worried? How likely do you think it is that he'll be elected? If he is, are we actually going to see the kind of racist policies that he's advocating implemented? Could something like the Japense internment camps of World War II happen again with Muslims?
The things I'm seeing expressed by a lot of people in this country really unnerve me. I think it's more and more important that I, and those who feel as I do, are vocal about that discomfort. Racism and xenophobia should not be socially acceptable under any circumstances. Saying otherwise merits a contradictory response to that effect and quite possibly addition to my blocked list.
These comparisons of Trump to other well known xenophobic leaders are funny at the moment. But they're only funny until they're not. I hope we never get to that point. It still seems really unlikely to me that we will. But unexpected and horrible things have happened in this country before.
