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

[Ethel mermania]

just the other half

[Greed and Death]

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

Because people want to blame and punch someone in the face like Richard Spencer. My facebook feed currently is filled with people who decry violence one moment but celebrate Richard Spencer getting punched in the face the next.

[Bearstin]

Not all Trump supporters are bigots. I am totally for Womens and LGBT rights, and so is Trump for the most part. He said he isn't going to fight the Supreme Courts decision on gay marriage.

What I'd like to ask the left side is why before November, they were telling Trump supporters to not go crazy when he wasn't elected, but then set cars on fire and smash windows in local businesses after Trump is elected. Very hypocritical and a disgrace to protesting. Violent protests will have the opposite result of what you wish. It makes everyone more angry and won't accomplish anything

[Wisgothistan]

Because a portion of a half is really loud, drowning out the more sensible portions.

[The Conez Imperium]

Not all Trump supporters are bigots. I am totally for Womens and LGBT rights, and so is Trump for the most part. He said he isn't going to fight the Supreme Courts decision on gay marriage.

What I'd like to ask the left side is why before November, they were telling Trump supporters to not go crazy when he wasn't elected, but then set cars on fire and smash windows in local businesses after Trump is elected. Very hypocritical and a disgrace to protesting. Violent protests will have the opposite result of what you wish. It makes everyone more angry and won't accomplish anything

I find this post interesting. Have you not realised the problem when you outlined the problem with generalising all Trump supporters?

Just as you decry generalising, you too assume the comprehensive left side.

[Shofercia]

I am actually offended because half of a country of people are branded as extremist, not just by the other half, but the rest of the world. Why is this considered fair?

If we really are extremists, racism, misogyny, or other characteristics of "hate" might as well be tolerated speech. Just because we may have radically different attitudes on topics doesn't mean we are evil. If half of US is made of extremists, then how are we so dominant?

It's not fair, but non-Americans watch:

CNN
MSNBC
Fox News

[The Black Forrest]

Not all Trump supporters are bigots. I am totally for Womens and LGBT rights, and so is Trump for the most part. He said he isn't going to fight the Supreme Courts decision on gay marriage.

What I'd like to ask the left side is why before November, they were telling Trump supporters to not go crazy when he wasn't elected, but then set cars on fire and smash windows in local businesses after Trump is elected. Very hypocritical and a disgrace to protesting. Violent protests will have the opposite result of what you wish. It makes everyone more angry and won't accomplish anything

Welllllllll? You kind of violated your own argument. Re-read it.....

[The Black Forrest]

just the other half

Which side are you on?

[The Foxes Swamp]

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.

would you take a bet on that?

[USS Monitor]

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

would you take a bet on that?

That's "you" plural meaning the populace as a whole, but yes.

[The Foxes Swamp]

would you take a bet on that?

That's "you" plural meaning the populace as a whole, but yes.

thats never gonna happen

[USS Monitor]

That's "you" plural meaning the populace as a whole, but yes.

thats never gonna happen

Well, that's why you have American pop culture, then, because people choose to watch it.

[Great Minarchistan]

Trump got 62M votes = 1/5 of population

From those 20%, we could guess 2% are alt-right (most Trump voters are either Republican Party affiliated or conservatives as a whole).

6 million Alt-right people noise = 50% of US population. Math fits well.

Jokes aside, US is branded as a racist country because extremists' noise is big, and media helps the whole thing spreading news about it. On a "worst" case scenario, 20 to 30% of American population is racist, whats still far from being half.

I still quote and follow USS Monitor's advise: "Toughen up and don't expect world to be your personal safe space"

[The Foxes Swamp]

thats never gonna happen

Well, that's why you have American pop culture, then, because people choose to watch it.

maybe/maybe not

[Ethel mermania]

just the other half

Which side are you on?

As far as the thread is concerned, it doesn't matter.

[Republic of the Cristo]

Because the alt-right (which I assume is the "half" you're referring to) have brought the political debate down to new lows with their vulgarity and hate speech. The highest public office of the nation is now -- thanks to said half of the population -- held by a man who's proud to proclaim that he spends his free time grabbing women by the pussy.

He is not alt-right, and the overwhelming majority of the people who voted him in are not alt-right - and most alt-right art not racists ( but yes, extremist )

[USS Monitor]

Because the alt-right (which I assume is the "half" you're referring to) have brought the political debate down to new lows with their vulgarity and hate speech. The highest public office of the nation is now -- thanks to said half of the population -- held by a man who's proud to proclaim that he spends his free time grabbing women by the pussy.

He is not alt-right, and the overwhelming majority of the people who voted him in are not alt-right - and most alt-right art not racists ( but yes, extremist )

How are those "alternative facts" treating you?

[Republic of the Cristo]

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.

Do not use Trevor Noah - or any comedian in general - as a source of evidence.

[Republic of the Cristo]

He is not alt-right, and the overwhelming majority of the people who voted him in are not alt-right - and most alt-right art not racists ( but yes, extremist )

How are those "alternative facts" treating you?

how does that relate to this topic?

Edit: Though I would say that Kelly needs to get fired now.

[USS Monitor]

How are those "alternative facts" treating you?

how does that relate to this topic?

Edit: Though I would say that Kelly needs to get fired now.

Denying that most alt-rightists are racist is pretty out of touch with reality.

[Lautrec-]

Not all Trump supporters are bigots. I am totally for Womens and LGBT rights, and so is Trump for the most part. He said he isn't going to fight the Supreme Courts decision on gay marriage.

Trump may not be against LGBT and women but what about the other 99% of the party? Most of them are hardline Christians who want to reverse all the progress that you achieved in the previous decade and reform society to be unfair against LGBT and women. Do you really think that all these people won't try to change anything?

[Karamiko]

Not all Trump supporters are bigots. I am totally for Womens and LGBT rights, and so is Trump for the most part. He said he isn't going to fight the Supreme Courts decision on gay marriage.

What I'd like to ask the left side is why before November, they were telling Trump supporters to not go crazy when he wasn't elected, but then set cars on fire and smash windows in local businesses after Trump is elected. Very hypocritical and a disgrace to protesting. Violent protests will have the opposite result of what you wish. It makes everyone more angry and won't accomplish anything

That was only a few of us. I've gone to two large left-wing protests since Trump was elected (and one smaller one) and there was absolutely no violence. We can't keep judging the other side by the least common denominator. I've heard stories of Trump supporters who were quite frankly evil, but I realize that almost all of them are good people. I don't judge Trump supporters by the worst among them, and you shouldn't do the same to us.

[Risottia]

I am actually offended because half of a country of people are branded as extremist, not just by the other half, but the rest of the world. Why is this considered fair?

It's not fair, I agree. After all, just 19.395% of the US population voted for the main extremist candidate. Less than those who voted for the main moderate one. Branding "less than one fifth" of the population as extremist woud be a fairer assessment, if we couple it with the statement "less than one fifth of the population, and less votes than another candidate, were enough to elect the new administration".

If we really are extremists, racism, misogyny, or other characteristics of "hate" might as well be tolerated speech.

Considering how " *ethnicity X here* should be exterminated" or "you are a damn *slur X here* and I want to beat the shit out of you" falls under the protected speech definition in the US (iirc), well...

Just because we may have radically different attitudes on topics doesn't mean we are evil. If half of US is made of extremists, then how are we so dominant?

Because dominance has to do with history, economy, geography, and military power. Being "extremist" or "moderate" has no influence on it.

[Risottia]

It's not fair, but non-Americans watch:

CNN
MSNBC
Fox News

Erm, nope. BBC World, France24, Euronews when I want my fix of international opinions. I find the US TV style to be a bit too much distant from actual information.
Then again it might be just me.

[Frank Zipper]

It's not fair, but non-Americans watch:

CNN
MSNBC
Fox News

Erm, nope. BBC World, France24, Euronews when I want my fix of international opinions. I find the US TV style to be a bit too much distant from actual information.
Then again it might be just me.

I've just started watching Euronews. I am quite impressed by it, especially the breadth of the coverage.