Behaviors, Consequences, and Alignment

By supporting Trump a person supports:

  • Racist ideas and policies
  • Sexist ideas and policies
  • Xenophobic ideas and policies
  • Anti-science ideas and policies
  • Anti-environment ideas and policies
  • Massive amounts of outright lying (20K+ false and misleading statements in 3.5 years)
  • Massive amounts of incompetence
  • Treasonous collusion
  • Direct election interference
  • Tweeting instead of leading
  • Tons of utter bullshit that could easily populate a list 100x longer

Even if someone would otherwise be a 10 out of 10 as a human being, supporting Trump is an instant -20 added to that, meaning that the person is deep into negative territory no matter what other redeeming qualities they may have. Such a person may appear to be kind, caring, compassionate, intelligent, and possessing lots of great qualities, but this one enormous mistake in judgment is more than enough to outweigh the good.

The reasons for supporting Trump are irrelevant because it’s the behavior that invites the negative consequences and associations. It doesn’t matter what explanations or justifications are offered up. Incredible depths of ignorance, like mistaking Fox News for actual reporting, may be one cause, but the behavior alone is sufficient to fuel horrendous results, including loss of life and environmental destruction.

As Stephen Covey wrote, “When you pick up one end of the stick, you pick up the other.” When you do the behavior, you get the results of that behavior. It doesn’t matter why you picked up the stick, only that you did.

Supporting Trump invites social consequences as well, including the instant death of any friendship possibilities with many people, including me. The social consequences are added to the pile of results stemming from that behavior. This is all part of the stick too.

On the flip side, correcting that behavior reopens many doors and invites different results. And there too, the reasons for the change don’t matter. Fix the behavior patterns, and many of the social consequences can be corrected almost immediately.

When you pick up the stick, you get the whole stick. There’s no use complaining that the stick isn’t what you hoped for.

If you pick up the stick of Trump support, you invite significant consequences, including personal, social, and environmental ones. Just for starters, you invite many intelligent people to see you as a racist; there’s no getting around that because that label is part of the stick you picked up. By supporting Trump you’re supporting overtly racist ideas and racist policies, so you’re inviting some social consequences by doing so, including being labeled a racist.

If you don’t like those consequences, you can put down that stick and try a different one. There’s no mandate to pick up a stick if you don’t like what it includes.

This isn’t about finding the perfect stick since perhaps there isn’t one. But do consider the full range of consequences you’re picking up and whether you can live with those or not.

I’ve picked up many sticks where I found that I could live with the consequences because the sticks were very good overall. Others that I picked up, I set back down again, tossed away, or set ablaze because they weren’t for me.

If you currently support Trump, how do you feel about the whole stick, including the environmental damage, racial injustice, and social hatred you’re inviting? How do you feel about being a -10 in my book? You cool with that?

There are a lot of sticks out there – way more than two. If you find one that’s problematic for you, put it down and seek another. Lots of people are dropping (or burning) the Trump stick these days because it’s become obvious to them that the stick is overloaded with negative downsides, and watching things continue to get worse isn’t what people really want.

Supporting Trump damages your relationship with me and with many other people. There’s no getting around that – it’s part of the package. If you want to repair that relationship, you can. Just drop that excrement-covered stick, and pick up a different stick that doesn’t have such nasty consequences. It doesn’t matter why you do it, only that you do it.