I Don’t Argue Politics with Kids.

Why my Black ass don’t debate, argue or make any attempt to “try” to inform young Trumpster Fires.

Debating is Fun

I love debate, argument and discussion. This doesn’t just mean participation but also in observation; I love listening. I really enjoy listening to people discuss things by way of logic and reason. I have genuine fun watching people use the Socratic Method, especially when they do it naturally without ever knowing what it is.

I genuinely love being understood, which requires me supporting or defending my point, premise or argument. This registers as loving to teach, explain, mentor, counsel people. While the subject can be anything, my favorite world to visit is the realm of ideas. Politics, are nothing but ideas so I’m not one to shy away from such a discussion, regardless of how taboo it’s supposed to be.

But not that fun…

One thing I determined I’m not doing however, is talking, arguing or debating a young Trump supporter. I decided this a long time ago. I just won’t do it.

The problem with young Trump supporters (roughly 26–28 years of age and below) is that when you really look at it, they genuinely don’t know what normal looks like. For many of them, their baseline is a persistent feed of Fox News and conservative media — when they were teenagers mind you. You know, that time period in human life where you’re really not paying attention, digging deeper than surface level in critical thinking, all while engaging in high-impulse behaviors?

I’m not saying they, these young folk, are a lost cause. I’m just saying that I am not wasting MY time on them.

For those who are 18–21 years old right now in 2020, I damn sure ain’t wasting my time because their teenage years aren’t filled with the conservative radicalization climb in mainstream media, their teen years were born when it already occurred, thus giving them a whole new normal that’s beyond what reality actually should look like. Their political observation on the Bush II and Obama era is technically no different than mine on the Bush 1 and Clinton years. Their relationship with Iraq and Afghanistan — places I’ve worked — is no different than my teenage relationship with the first Gulf War or the Black Hawk Down Mogadishu conflict. Sure, it’s in the background, but they never placed an intellectual finger on it. During the Gulf War my main concern was Mega Man 2. During my time in Afghanistan they were playing Halo on X-Box or something. Hell, their temporal relationship to Vietnam is like my temporal relationship to World War II. To the super-young, fresh out of high school/new-to-college white person, Trumpian media is their baseline. Now imagine if they came from a rural, remote homogeneously white town with hard-line conservative parents. I’m supposed to be granting my intellectual effort with that?

For these types of folk, it’s really a waste of time because they have no idea what normal looks like. How can you argue the incompetence of Trump for example, if they are 100% used to seeing a grown-ass 70 year old man of a whole-ass president making stupid faces, mocking crippled War-on-Terrorism era military vets? Mocking women? Mocking the surviving families of military KIA? Lying about easily provable things like special event crowd sizes?

That’s their normal. One cannot argue that the pathologically narcissist idiotic sociopath is wrong because the position gives that pathologically narcissist idiotic sociopath legitimacy.

The position of presidency validates and legitimizes EVERYTHING that incoherent 70 year old man does. Every idea, or lack of, is validated. Every stupid face. Every tweet. Every firing of an advisor or cabinet member. The racism. The sexism. The international embarrassment and strategic treachery. All of it.

It’s perfectly normal for a sitting President to suggest injecting bleach into the arm vein during a viral pandemic. Because. That. Happened.

The ridiculous isn’t the ridiculous when the ridiculous are in charge. If the ridiculous are also authoritarian — which what they fucking are — they only respect (read: fear) power and from there, it will require power to snap them out of it. I’ve tried. There’s no real substance from these types, especially if they come from an Obama-demonizing, hyper right-wing household.

I’m not saying they, these young folk, are a lost cause. I’m just saying that I am not wasting my time on them.

Unconscious Incompetence

I’ve been an instructor before and one of the first things folk need to understand as students is (1) that you know something that they don’t, and; (2) they want to gain whatever you got they they don’t.

If that person fails to recognize that what they think is normal isn’t the real normal and there’s a way how things are supposed to be, a way how a president supposed to be (used to be called “presidential”), that’s step one lost. We called this, unconscious incompetence. This is the stage when one has no idea they are ignorant in the subject at hand. This stage is what I usually describe as “the person is stupid and is totally oblivious of how stupid”. This is were folk are the most dangerous. These young Trumpians are somewhere between wrong intuition and wrong analysis, and when presented with more accurate, precise, correct and relevant analysis they usually fall back on wrong intuition.

Um, fuck that.

I’m not saying folk who are on the spectrum of competence are better than those who are not. Hell I ain’t better than anyone. What I’m saying is that all knowledge, statements, declarations, opinions and assessments aren’t on equal footing, and people need to recognize that. Everyone doesn’t have the same knowledge or experience base, and that mess matters plenty. On that basis, everyone isn’t on equal footing.

In light of that fact, I’m going to take it upon myself and tell you that maybe you should consider this understanding of competence-gaps regardless of what the subject or situation is. Probably will save from a lot of headaches.

Overall

In discussion/debate there’s usually two functions:

1. To learn something from others, or;

2. To inform something to others.

I’ve learned enough as is, which is the reason why I’m writing this. Trump support is not that complex. Conservatism and authoritarianism isn’t that complex. I’ve been a political conservative before, so I already have a categorically high familiarity of conservative talking points. Most conservatives in discussion or debate actually prefer to waste one’s time with grotesque measures of intellectual dishonesty, because since you’re not a conservative, they don’t respect you at all (read: stop allowing them to disrespect you by wasting your time!).

When it comes to my standards, respect comes first. Respect begins and ends a conversation, discussion or debate. When people make bad faith arguments, engage in intellectual dishonesty and bullshit, it’s a form of disrespect. I realized this long ago, quickly, and I hope more decent people catch on. Stop letting these types disrespect you by shitting in your ear. Stop allowing them to waste your time, because that’s their actual goal; to infuriate you with nonsense and willful ignorance.

What follows a cult of personality, is a cult. I’m far along on the competence spectrum to understand that I am not the guy that will break the effects of a political cult on all young Trump supporters. From this understanding, I do not waste my time with young Trump supporters. That’s someone else’s headache; not mine. As a Black anti-racism/sexism guy, I figure this is the job for white people, not folks like me. The task of anti-racism/sexism work is hard enough. White liberals and white progressives need to engage these types. Not me.