Why do people think half of Americans are extremist/racist?

[The Liberated Territories]

What? How being anti government necessitate racism???

I'm not sure.

But the topic is "Why do people think half of Americans are extremist/racist?"

And you said, "I wouldn't have it any other way."

The former I was referring too, lol. Although I am half assed to care what foreigners think of American domestic affairs, tbh. Virtually crappy things can be said of anyone.

[Thermodolia]

No, not half. Only about 30 percent of people voted, not that it mattered since the Donald lost the popular vote.

And I dare say that some of the people who voted for him are not racist. I would say they are misguided, because they believe the lies he spun about this being about making America great, believe somehow that his loading the cabinet with his billionire buddies who want to gut healthcare, education, and fuck the environment with a broomhandle for their own profit is going to improve the country, believe that he's not a racist despite him blaming all the ills of the country on Mexicans, Chinese, and Muslims, refuse to believe he's a misogynist asshole who grabs women by the pussy and brags about it EVEN WHEN HE BRAGS ABOUT IT, Ignore that he publicly mocked a disabled reporter with a 'spaz attack' because that's somehow acceptable, pretend they don't see he is financially in bed with the Russians, excuse that he encouraged them to hack his opponent's computer systems and see nothing wrong with the fact that while it's known they influenced the election and that the FBI chief KNEW IT AND DID NOTHING except sink his opponent's campaign, excuse him giving the Bellamy salute repeatedly while being supported by David Duke and the KKK, excuse that he knowingly lied about putting Ms. Clinton in jail then went back on in immediately after winning because he knew that no crime was committed.... and pretend he's supposedly put his kids in charge of his empire, so as to not have a conflict of interest, then tried to put them into positions in his cabinet and get them very high level government clearance because that's not a conflict of interest at all. That he's declared himself at war with the media and won't talk to any reporters at all from some news agencies? And they ignore how he's delayed all the lawsuits for fraud and illegal hiring practices against him so that he can hide behind the presidency?

No, some of his supporters, who are not NEARLY half the country, aren't racist. They're not even half of the pitiful number of eligible voters who got off their asses on election day. They may be just ignorant, whether willfully so or honestly so. That their candidate of choice is a complete shitbag who is in bed with a foreign power and was more than willing to accept the support of racist fucksticks should be giving them a whole lot to think about.

But I'm betting that the buyer's remorse will start setting in when he starts shafting his supporters, because understand this: the ONLY person the Donald gives a shit about is the Donald, and how he can profit from this. Ask the folks whose homes were repossessed by the banks for resale how they feel about him putting a Treasury Secretary in who foreclosed on 37,000 homes in the housing crash, a labor secretary who wants to eliminate jobs and minimum wage in favor of robots in his fast food chain, a Commerce secretary who owned the Sago Coal mine where workers died in an explosion and the mine was closed (hm, are you really bringing back jobs for coal miners?), a head of the EPA who wants to screw the environment (global warming? What's that? Drill baby drill!), a Health and Human Services guy who wants to privatize Medicare (meaning, his billionaire buddies get richer and the elderly/disabled get less medical care), a Housing and Urban Development pick with no experience and who opposes Fair Housing laws, and an educational secretary with no experience, no knowledge of the difference between proficiency and growth, who wants guns in schools, who wants to ignore the laws about educating disabled students, and who wants to dismantle the public schools to funnel federal funds into religious schools.

So, associate with this pack of ignorant, lying, racist, robber-baron charlatans, and then wonder why the majority of people who did NOT vote for this believe those who did, support him?

Why, how unreasonable to think that one supports what one voted for and proclaimed so proudly! And how awful and terrible it is for those who did not to point out how problematic that support is! So please, go on about how offended you are that people associate the folks who proudly proclaim they voted for all this with what they voted for.

A lot of people also voted for Trump and against Clinton.

[Thermodolia]

Politicians represent the people. Said politicians are extremists. Therefore it's logical to assume that the people who elected them are extremist.

You guys elected a government filled with racists, Christian fundamentalists (Evangelicals) and misogynists who want to bring your society back to the middle ages, take away rights from women and persecute muslims and atheists. These people are going to destroy whatever is left from your public educations and healthcare, reduce taxes for the rich, let your country be ravaged by climate change and bring back religious law to all societal aspects.

If you are not extremist, you are, at the very least ignorant and your actions will have a negative impact all across the globe.

It's not our fault our parties gave us garbage nominees.

And no, Hillary wasn't much better.

I'll be the first to say that Hillary was shit. If Biden would have been the nominee we would be looking at the Biden presidency right now.

[Rio Cana]

Maybe because of this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCRixtMUAfY

[Herargon]

Politician X says something racist/extremist
People voted for politician X
In order to vote for politician X these people share the same values as politician X
Therefore the people who voted for politician X must also be racists/extremists

I don't share this view because it's a very rigid way of looking at things and one of the premises is easy to dismiss. Sometimes people will vote for someone they don't share the values of if they believe this person is a lesser evil than the alternative choice.

However if they do choose the lesser evil option they are in effect still pushing the ideals of politician X on the population. As such they are still linked to politician X's decisions while this person is in power.

In the case of Trump i'm willing to be a bit more lenient due to various circumstances which lead to misleading/false information about both politicians being aired.
And given how the US politics generally punish those who vote for a third party people may be funneled into voting for a politician they dislike.

Where are we getting the "half of americans" bit from anyway?

OP probably meant half the voters in the election. Although even then it's less than half of the voters.

[citation needed]

That almost exclusively tends to be the case because of the voting system of the US; First past the post. A terrible election system in my view...

[Salus Maior]

It's not our fault our parties gave us garbage nominees.

And no, Hillary wasn't much better.

I'll be the first to say that Hillary was shit. If Biden would have been the nominee we would be looking at the Biden presidency right now.

Should've been Bernie, really.

[USS Monitor]

1 you guys voted Trump as your president (yeah it's your system you're all responsible)

People who did not vote for him are not responsible.

[Mavorpen]

Why are people more concerned about their views/beliefs being called out as racist than self-reflecting and addressing racism?

[USS Monitor]

Why are people more concerned about their views/beliefs being called out as racist than self-reflecting and addressing racism?

Because people grow up having it hammered into their heads that being racist is the most evil thing ever, and racists are terrible people. When you have a witch-hunt, people are going to be preoccupied with making sure nobody thinks they're a witch.

[The Islands of Versilia]

Honestly, most of us non-americans don't give the slightest shit about you Americans and you really should reciprocate.
Does it really matter what people in the rest of the world think of you, anyway, as long as you don't know them?

You foreign people do seem to like our pop culture, while simultaneously telling us we have no culture.

Because you're the ones forcing it on us with your global hegemony and habit of keeping our own stations, companies and people as lapdogs, and feed us your stupid 'Hero is American' shit.

[Republic of Canador]

For the same reason that many Americans during the Cold War saw the average person living in the Soviet Union as a godless Communist. It wasn't until the iron curtain fell, and Americans and Russians, Ukrainians, etc... came into contact with each other that people realized that they were just normal people.

Stereotypes can cloud judgment of a nation's people.

[Republic of Canador]

You foreign people do seem to like our pop culture, while simultaneously telling us we have no culture.

Because you're the ones forcing it on us with your global hegemony and habit of keeping our own stations, companies and people as lapdogs, and feed us your stupid 'Hero is American' shit.

American culture isn't being forced onto anybody. It's being accepted as global pop culture for the same reason people in the US are obsessed with pop culture. It gives people a passion.

[Dahon]

For the same reason that many Americans during the Cold War saw the average person living in the Soviet Union as a godless Communist. It wasn't until the iron curtain fell, and Americans and Russians, Ukrainians, etc... came into contact with each other that people realized that they were just normal people.

In this case, normal people voted in a fucking douche (I'm being polite here) into the end of time.

[USS Monitor]

You foreign people do seem to like our pop culture, while simultaneously telling us we have no culture.

Because you're the ones forcing it on us with your global hegemony and habit of keeping our own stations, companies and people as lapdogs, and feed us your stupid 'Hero is American' shit.

If you stopped watching it, they'd stop showing it.

[Nearly Finland]

You can't just say the rest of the world thinks half of Americans are extremist. That's just, well, false, a little bit over-generalising. Things just don't seem as clear from one point of view as they do from the next. "I don't think the world is sold, we're just doing what we're told."

[Conserative Morality]

Because half of voting Americans are either racists or don't care enough to oppose racists.

[Conserative Morality]

Why are people more concerned about their views/beliefs being called out as racist than self-reflecting and addressing racism?

Because racism is widely recognized as bad, but people want to disparage minorities without being 'bad'.

[Bogdanov Vishniac]

Compared to the rest of the Western world, American politics is pretty extreme. Doubly so for the American right.

[The Derpy Democratic Republic Of Herp]

Short answer: Alt right.

Long answer: Some but not all Donald Trump's more extreme supporters have been spotted doing/ saying crazy racist things.

In an environment where Trump says things like "muslim registry" and wanting to deport american citizens, the alt right has unified under him.

Including such "model citizens" as white supremacists,People who write " "Turn to JESUS or burn in hell [...] WAKE UP SINNERS U CANT SAVE YOURSELF U WILL DIE AN [data expunged], NOW YOUR SOUL IS GOING SOMEWHERE." on the internet who then go and kill people at a Planned Parenthood, and good ol neo nazis.

[The Conez Imperium]

Because half of voting Americans are either racists or don't care enough to oppose racists.

I don't think the world exactly thinks that exactly half of Americans are racist. More like that they are "enabling racists".

Having a president, whose senior advisor is a white-supremacist isn't a positive sign.

[Outer Sparta]

Define "half of Americans."

[Katganistan]

No, not half. Only about 30 percent of people voted, not that it mattered since the Donald lost the popular vote.

And I dare say that some of the people who voted for him are not racist. I would say they are misguided, because they believe the lies he spun about this being about making America great, believe somehow that his loading the cabinet with his billionire buddies who want to gut healthcare, education, and fuck the environment with a broomhandle for their own profit is going to improve the country, believe that he's not a racist despite him blaming all the ills of the country on Mexicans, Chinese, and Muslims, refuse to believe he's a misogynist asshole who grabs women by the pussy and brags about it EVEN WHEN HE BRAGS ABOUT IT, Ignore that he publicly mocked a disabled reporter with a 'spaz attack' because that's somehow acceptable, pretend they don't see he is financially in bed with the Russians, excuse that he encouraged them to hack his opponent's computer systems and see nothing wrong with the fact that while it's known they influenced the election and that the FBI chief KNEW IT AND DID NOTHING except sink his opponent's campaign, excuse him giving the Bellamy salute repeatedly while being supported by David Duke and the KKK, excuse that he knowingly lied about putting Ms. Clinton in jail then went back on in immediately after winning because he knew that no crime was committed.... and pretend he's supposedly put his kids in charge of his empire, so as to not have a conflict of interest, then tried to put them into positions in his cabinet and get them very high level government clearance because that's not a conflict of interest at all. That he's declared himself at war with the media and won't talk to any reporters at all from some news agencies? And they ignore how he's delayed all the lawsuits for fraud and illegal hiring practices against him so that he can hide behind the presidency?

No, some of his supporters, who are not NEARLY half the country, aren't racist. They're not even half of the pitiful number of eligible voters who got off their asses on election day. They may be just ignorant, whether willfully so or honestly so. That their candidate of choice is a complete shitbag who is in bed with a foreign power and was more than willing to accept the support of racist fucksticks should be giving them a whole lot to think about.

But I'm betting that the buyer's remorse will start setting in when he starts shafting his supporters, because understand this: the ONLY person the Donald gives a shit about is the Donald, and how he can profit from this. Ask the folks whose homes were repossessed by the banks for resale how they feel about him putting a Treasury Secretary in who foreclosed on 37,000 homes in the housing crash, a labor secretary who wants to eliminate jobs and minimum wage in favor of robots in his fast food chain, a Commerce secretary who owned the Sago Coal mine where workers died in an explosion and the mine was closed (hm, are you really bringing back jobs for coal miners?), a head of the EPA who wants to screw the environment (global warming? What's that? Drill baby drill!), a Health and Human Services guy who wants to privatize Medicare (meaning, his billionaire buddies get richer and the elderly/disabled get less medical care), a Housing and Urban Development pick with no experience and who opposes Fair Housing laws, and an educational secretary with no experience, no knowledge of the difference between proficiency and growth, who wants guns in schools, who wants to ignore the laws about educating disabled students, and who wants to dismantle the public schools to funnel federal funds into religious schools.

So, associate with this pack of ignorant, lying, racist, robber-baron charlatans, and then wonder why the majority of people who did NOT vote for this believe those who did, support him?

Why, how unreasonable to think that one supports what one voted for and proclaimed so proudly! And how awful and terrible it is for those who did not to point out how problematic that support is! So please, go on about how offended you are that people associate the folks who proudly proclaim they voted for all this with what they voted for.

A lot of people also voted for Trump and against Clinton.

A lot MORE people voted for Clinton.

[Cetacea]

1 you guys voted Trump as your president (yeah it's your system you're all responsible)

People who did not vote for him are not responsible.

they may not be blameworthy, by now he's legitimately the POTUS then every US citizen is responsible for keeping their system in check.

Thats the thing I'm hoping to see come out of the Trumps presidency anf the Womens March - People actually taking the power offered and becoming active in their communities. Working together to ensure that the extremist don't gain free license to live out their fantasies.

community can be effective when it is mobilised but it also has to be consistent...

[Katganistan]

Why are people more concerned about their views/beliefs being called out as racist than self-reflecting and addressing racism?

Because it's better to abdicate responsibility and squeal that it's unfair than to address the fact that people are calling them out for their actions.

[Katganistan]

The point is MUCH LESS than half voted for him because 1) only 30% of those eligible to vote bothered and 2) he LOST the popular vote.