CommentsBELL VIEW-What is a troll? I’ve been accused of being one myself – although I never thought I fit the profile. In fact, it took me forever to admit trolls even existed. “Don’t feed the trolls,” I am often cautioned when I engage with people who disagree with me. I didn’t believe trolls were real because I was brought up in a tradition of vigorous debate. My grandfather was a lawyer and dinners at his table often erupted into shouting matches. I loved it. I couldn’t understand why anyone would have wanted dinner to be anything other than a raucous debate over the most difficult issues of the time.
For years, I believed I could convince people who disagreed with me of at least certain basic facts. But those days are long gone. When I was on a neighborhood council, I ran into people who were against everything. I also ran into people who never saw a development they didn’t love. For either side of this debate, the future of the neighborhood was a zero-sum game that could only be moved through the brute force of disagreement.
Now we are in the midst of our first (and I truly fear, not last) entirely troll-based presidency. Donald Trump is the ultimate troll, and his supporters can’t get enough. Finally, say the trolls, someone in politics is speaking my language. The language of “I’m right and everyone else hates America.”
I’m often torn over who bothers me more: Donald Trump or his supporters. Now I know. It’s his supporters. Trump is weak, sick, empty. And most of the Trump supporters I still have contact with (and, yes, I have contact with them) are honestly just stupid. I could be kind and say they were confused or uneducated or blinded by hate – all of which would be true. But dumb as a box of hair comes to mind as well. Sure, 30 million Americans can’t tell you who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb – but what about the others?
A majority of white college graduates supported Trump for president. Think about that for a minute. A majority of white people with a college degree voted for Donald Trump for president. More and more I’ve been noticing people of color in this country quietly laughing at those of us in the white community who are just plain flabbergasted by the extent of the malice and ignorance of white America.
One aspect of privilege is the quiet comfort of oblivion. I’ve been shocked at the extent of racism and white supremacy in my community since I was a teenager. But White America feels as if it has jumped the shark for good. “Poor, innocent white man,” my friends who have been dealing with racism every minute of their lives seem to be saying. Now you can see the shrieking batshit insanity of America in all its glory twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
I can’t say I want my innocence back. That’s not allowed. Like Alex in A Clockwork Orange I need to face the screen of this debacle with my eyelids wedged open and scream into the void. I wish I could pretend it wasn’t happening, but it is, and it’s not going away.
(David Bell is a writer, attorney, former president of the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council and writes for CityWatch.) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
-cw
