I think, too, that those on the right who have undone their "not knowing" are actually embracing the dark elements. The attitude of conservatives for so long has been, as you've said, that the US is noble, good, altruistic. But under Trump, the need to pretend that we're good is slipping away, and instead it's being replaced with "Who ca…
I think, too, that those on the right who have undone their "not knowing" are actually embracing the dark elements. The attitude of conservatives for so long has been, as you've said, that the US is noble, good, altruistic. But under Trump, the need to pretend that we're good is slipping away, and instead it's being replaced with "Who cares if slavery was bad? It was 200 years ago, get over it." And it's amazing the ways in which the same right-winger will, on different days of the week, bounce between the ideas that "A Republican president freed the slaves," "Slavery wasn't that bad," and "The Confederacy was good and we need to keep these statues" without breaking a sweat.
I think, too, that those on the right who have undone their "not knowing" are actually embracing the dark elements. The attitude of conservatives for so long has been, as you've said, that the US is noble, good, altruistic. But under Trump, the need to pretend that we're good is slipping away, and instead it's being replaced with "Who cares if slavery was bad? It was 200 years ago, get over it." And it's amazing the ways in which the same right-winger will, on different days of the week, bounce between the ideas that "A Republican president freed the slaves," "Slavery wasn't that bad," and "The Confederacy was good and we need to keep these statues" without breaking a sweat.
Rightwinger: "Taxes are worse than slavery! But actual slavery? No so bad.
"Trump defends Putin: 'You think our country's so innocent?'" Even cynicism is weaponized now. https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/04/politics/donald-trump-vladimir-putin/index.html