In 1980, white people accounted for about 80 percent of the U.S. population.
In 2024, white people account for about 58 percent of the U.S. population.
Trump appeals to white people gripped by demographic hysteria. Especially older white people who grew up when white people represented a much larger share of the population. They fear becoming a minority.
While the Census Bureau says there are still 195 million white people in America and that they are still the majority, the white population actually declined slightly in 2023, and experts believe that they will become a minority sometime between 2040 and 2050.
Every component of the Trump-Republican agenda flows from these demographic fears.
The Trump phenomenon and the surge of right-wing extremism in America was never about economic anxiety, as too many political reporters claimed during the 2016 presidential campaign.
First off, it’s certainly possible that everyone in their family absolutely does love their interracial kids, but it’s also very possible they don’t; that is a dynamic I’d need to see to know. Behind closed doors, people change.
Yeah, I’m done, you’re blocked. You don’t get to tell me about my own family.
EDIT (for anyone else that actually wants to engage in good faith): Furthermore, yearning for the effects of a time period doesn’t mean you’re in favor of the effects that caused that time period. Someone saying “I miss when gas was cheap” doesn’t mean “they miss exploiting and bullying people internationally to get the cheapest possible oil” … they just want their cheap gas (and that’s assuming what you miss is even directly related to the other thing, you can, e.g., miss how there used to be more drive-ins in the 60s while acknowledging it’s great that we got rid of leaded gas).
Trump’s a conman, he won’t give them what they feel they’ve lost back; but they believe he will. This doesn’t equate to middle America being filled with racist. You can’t write off an entire time period as exclusively being good for some people because it was bad for others. People can (as an example) like things about the 50s and 60s without liking Jim Crow.
Furthermore, yearning for the effects of a time period doesn’t mean you’re in favor of the effects that caused that time period. Someone saying “I miss when gas was cheap” doesn’t mean “they miss exploiting and bullying people internationally to get the cheapest possible oil” … they just want their cheap gas
The lie here is that you can engage with Republican rhetoric and only see this message. If you watch any Trump speech, he says racist things. The argument that you only care about the gas and house prices still inherently means that you’re choosing to ignore the racist stuff, even if you disagree with it personally.
edit:
You don’t get to tell me about my own family.
You don’t get to turn your family into an argument, but then also decide it’s unassailable. They’re not your “instant win” button against racism in the GOP.
Suggestion: don’t use your family when discussing politics.
There are also, as they say, five levels of “truth” to any person:
Public: the persona they project outwards
Private: what they say when “no one is listening”
Intimate: what they only let their closest family know
Secret: what they don’t tell anyone
Subjacent: what they don’t even realize about themselves
You may or may not know their secret thoughts, and you usually need to spend a lot of time with them (years, decades) to learn about why they hold them.
And following my initial suggestion, I won’t tell you how I confirmed this to be true.
I know you mean well, but it’s fine to discuss your family at a level you feel comfortable. Your family is part of your experience in the world and that is fundamentally a part of your political perspective.
It’s not my problem that some people on the Internet want to insist they’re the expert on everything, even people, people they’ve never met.
When it comes to people, we should all try and keep an open mind about what perspectives might exist. These narratives that people are so divided, that Republicans are racist, greedy, and narcissistic, and that Democrats are handout seeking, weak, and naive … they need to be challenged (and first hand testimony is important but often seriously lacking).
If we’re just going to deny another person’s experiences are real anytime they don’t align with our world view … what’s the point of even being on a forum?
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Yeah, I’m done, you’re blocked. You don’t get to tell me about my own family.
EDIT (for anyone else that actually wants to engage in good faith): Furthermore, yearning for the effects of a time period doesn’t mean you’re in favor of the effects that caused that time period. Someone saying “I miss when gas was cheap” doesn’t mean “they miss exploiting and bullying people internationally to get the cheapest possible oil” … they just want their cheap gas (and that’s assuming what you miss is even directly related to the other thing, you can, e.g., miss how there used to be more drive-ins in the 60s while acknowledging it’s great that we got rid of leaded gas).
Trump’s a conman, he won’t give them what they feel they’ve lost back; but they believe he will. This doesn’t equate to middle America being filled with racist. You can’t write off an entire time period as exclusively being good for some people because it was bad for others. People can (as an example) like things about the 50s and 60s without liking Jim Crow.
The lie here is that you can engage with Republican rhetoric and only see this message. If you watch any Trump speech, he says racist things. The argument that you only care about the gas and house prices still inherently means that you’re choosing to ignore the racist stuff, even if you disagree with it personally.
edit:
You don’t get to turn your family into an argument, but then also decide it’s unassailable. They’re not your “instant win” button against racism in the GOP.
Suggestion: don’t use your family when discussing politics.
There are also, as they say, five levels of “truth” to any person:
You may or may not know their secret thoughts, and you usually need to spend a lot of time with them (years, decades) to learn about why they hold them.
And following my initial suggestion, I won’t tell you how I confirmed this to be true.
I know you mean well, but it’s fine to discuss your family at a level you feel comfortable. Your family is part of your experience in the world and that is fundamentally a part of your political perspective.
It’s not my problem that some people on the Internet want to insist they’re the expert on everything, even people, people they’ve never met.
When it comes to people, we should all try and keep an open mind about what perspectives might exist. These narratives that people are so divided, that Republicans are racist, greedy, and narcissistic, and that Democrats are handout seeking, weak, and naive … they need to be challenged (and first hand testimony is important but often seriously lacking).
If we’re just going to deny another person’s experiences are real anytime they don’t align with our world view … what’s the point of even being on a forum?