I think the answer is no, and I’ll tell you why. Donald Trump’s election to the highest office of the land is a symptom of the behavior people are exhibiting lately, not the cause. This is not to mention that the actual words that the guy uses get twisted beyond all recognition, by supposedly reputable media outlets, to the point that people don’t even know what he was even trying to say, let alone what he actually says. I’m often hard pressed to see exact quotes in critical articles, just references to his “hate speech” that I usually have a hard time finding evidence for.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m no fan of Donald Trump, or the way he chooses to communicate. I do think there are plenty of examples of speech that he uses that should be considered alarming, and in some circumstances, qualify as downright hateful (but maybe not towards minority groups as he is often characterized). But this is sort of beside the point. Let’s set aside for a moment the credibility factor of media outlets pushing this narrative, and assume that there are a couple of examples of solid and balanced journalism being reported.
My main argument comes from the concept of personal responsibility. There’s plenty of hatred in this country, and all over the world. You only need to scan the news headlines for about 5 seconds to find examples of real hatred-filled acts perpetrated by extremists of various colors and leanings. So what about the notion of who is responsible for doing these things? Well, I say the people doing the things. Occam’s Razor, the simplest explanation is usually the correct one.
Saying that a figure like Donald Trump causes hatred in the hearts of people is to remove personal responsibility from most people. Rather than knock a public figure down a few pegs, attributing the thoughts and feelings of his followers to him is vaulting him into exalted territory. It’s saying that people in general are inept and incapable of their own thoughts, and that a few supernatural exceptions like the president are here to pour thoughts into these empty vessels. No.
Donald Trump is just some guy. He’s not the most articulate, but he’s relatively bright. He sometimes makes flubs that are inaccurate or partially accurate, but like most bright people, the language he does use is often carefully chosen. There are nuances to what he’s saying. Agree or disagree with what the guy says, fine, but failing to address what he’s actually saying is just plain dishonest. We don’t need to read into it. It’s impossible to know what someone is really thinking, so we usually just have to take what they say at face value. And this also means that we need to take his followers at face value. It means accepting that they’re capable of understanding the nuance of his language. It means respecting humanity in general and realizing that even people with below average IQs are capable of understanding their native language (not to say Trump followers are below average mind you). I think they may be misinformed in many cases, but I don’t think that just because they like some politician means they want to put certain people into concentration camps, commit mass killings and burn their dead bodies in ovens. This is just simply ridiculous fantasy-land-thinking.
Now for the rare people that do want to do these bad things; I blame those rare individuals. Most people are good hearted. I think you’d even be hard pressed to find convicted felons who would want to commit genocide, let alone people in the general population. Let’s all grow up and deal with what we’re actually up against. There’s plenty to dislike about reality without inventing bogeymen behind every blade of grass.
The guy wants to close the borders, not just to brown people, but economically speaking as well. He wants to escalate wars in certain places and expand the military. He wants to expand certain destined-to-fail social welfare programs (or simply co-opt some with his own name). He wants to expand and strengthen the war on drugs and the police state. He regularly pisses off the leaders of our foreign allies and damages diplomatic relations. Let’s please focus on these real things, instead of blaming Trump for every stupid thing that stupid people do.
Image Attribution: User heblo on pixabay, found here https://pixabay.com/en/donald-trump-trump-donald-usa-2005343/