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An industry of vulgar political merchandise

An industry of vulgar political merchandise

Trump’s base cried foul following Biden’s “garbage” remarks against MAGA.  Yet MAGA has an entire industry of vulgar and insulting merchandise against non-MAGA.

 

Is there a double standard?

 

Absolutely there is a double standard when it comes to this.  For years I’ve been seeing exceedingly insulting merchandise, insults, comments, epithets, and other gratuitous disparagements against non-MAGA folks.  I (like so many others) have been subject of countless insults by people commenting uninvited to social media conversations.  Yet the same crowd is very “sensitive” whenever the shoe is on the other foot.

This new “controversy” or “Biden gaffe” comes after the outrage of MAGA comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at Madison Square Garden, when Hinchcliffe called (among many other insulting and racist remarks by this and many other MAGA speakers that day) the island of Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”  When President Biden responded to these comments the sound bite that became viral is when he said something along the lines that the only garbage that he sees is Trump’s followers.

Let me be clear, I agree that Biden’s choice of words could have been better.  But then again, he is no longer running, and Trump’s entire campaign and presidency was predicated in “not being politically correct” – and vociferously go after any target of opportunity, whether this person was a politician or a private citizen.

Therefore, although I don’t agree with Biden’s choice of words (and stated so on the White House official social media addressing @POTUS), I cannot help but to qualify this MAGA outrage as disingenuous at best, or highly hypocritical and cynical at worst.

If you’re MAGA and have attended rallies, or hang out on groups comprised of MAGA folks, you are likely bound to see examples like the vulgar merchandise depicted in the image below.  Tons of very vulgar and insulting rhetoric.  Hence, please spare us all the outrage about the “garbage comment” – unless you take offense or responsibility for calling out all these (and more examples).  I’m adding a few links so you can see that they exist.  And perhaps some MAGA folks reading this own or know somebody who owns something similar to these items.

As I said an entire industry about this exists.  I do not endorse any of these, but I am showing you that if these vendors created websites or online shopping spaces, and ship it to your home, and produce so many options in the first place it's because there are buyers.  And yes, all buyers are MAGA-aligned.  Nobody else on the planet would spend a dime on these items.

Disparaging against Joe Biden on Etsy

Disparaging against Joe Biden on Amazon

Disparaging against Liberals on Amazon

Note: I do not endorse any of the above links, and they are provided as illustrative samples for this article.  There are literally hundreds of examples of similar links if you care to look for them.

 

 

An industry predicated on insults

 

I’ve heard it from blue collar to white collar folks PROUDLY spew words like - quote “libtard,” “fuck your feelings,” Trump that bitch,” “grab them by the pussy,” “Joe and the hoe,” decals showing a cartoon figure urinating on Kamala’s name, or any other targeted non-MAGA they seem to despise.  I’ve seen memes that are exceedingly misogynistic against AOC or Nancy Pelosi, and pretty much every other person on their target list.

Yes, I said it before and it is worth repeating, there is an entire industry of MAGA merchandise that is specifically targeting a segment who buys vulgar merchandise insulting non-MAGA, and particularly calling not only political figures, but any non-Trump supporter all kinds of insults.  Again, who buys this stuff?  Only MAGA folks, there is nobody else on the planet who would buy a “Fuck Joe Biden” hoodie for 40.95 bucks on Amazon  – or even wear that stuff for free, unless they are MAGA.

Trump dressing as a garbage man wanna-be and his acolytes prominently labeling a garbage truck with the Trump brand as a “burn to the libs” is not really the flex they think it is.  From a geopolitical strategic point, they just showed they have the same level of maturity as a pre-teen school bully-wanna be.  The difference is that kids today are not anywhere that petty, and they would understand that this “burn” stunt they tried to pull is actually a self-insult.

Whatever the case, this is not normal behavior, and it is beneath the office of the presidency… or any office for that matter.  Do you think that a retail store employee would be tolerated if they pulled a sophomoric stunt like that?  No, they would fire the person because it is a bad image for the company.  Much like people who were caught on video saying or doing something stupid are generally fired from their jobs.  The difference is that Trump is applying for the highest job on the land.

I mentioned in yesterday’s article and on my social media that I will be voting for a person who acts like an adult.  If Trump being close to 80 lacks the maturity a 12-year-old in America has, then I don’t know what to tell you.  He is unfit.  A 12-year-old engaging in name calling, insults, and other tantrums would encounter discipline and accountability.  Which is fair and expected, because we don’t want to condone behavior that is contrary to becoming an upstanding person.  So why would we condoned that on a grown-elderly man seeking the presidency?

I realize that some folks as they age will become a bit more erratic and lose some cognitive capabilities.  That is part of being human, we all have a period when we are (hopefully) very sharp and ready to take on the world.  But any living creature at some point will miss that edge, that’s just a fact of life.  Trump claims he is better than ever before, but he also refuses to release his medical records.  Even if he was good in 2016, a lot can change in a few years.

Hell, a lot can change in a second.  A perfectly healthy person can be killed, paralyzed, or at the very least get chronically injured in less than a second if they have a bad car accident.  Trump has been under a lot of pressure with his many legal problems, and his rallies, and all these other strenuous things that are all by the way self-inflicted.  It is not unreasonable to realize he is exhausted, and he won’t be sharp any longer.  But that also begs the question… the campaign is the EASY part; the job of the presidency is exponentially more taxing – if done right.

Trump’s presidential term was mostly missing in action.  He held rallies, and other events… but the truth is that he spent 307 days playing golf during his term.  That’s shy of a quarter of his presidency.  And his daily routine was mostly of “executive time” which is code word for “not working” – and his first meeting would be typically at around 11am.  So no, he did not do anywhere as much work as other US presidents have done during their time in office. This is a report from the BBC, so you don’t think it has a political bias.  Just one of many examples, feel free to search for more.

We also know that Trump was wide awake when he was supposed to be resting – because of the time stamps on his midnight to 3-4am Twitter storms.  On that note, just wondering… why was Trump awake during Moscow awaken time zones?  For example, midnight in DC is about 7am in Moscow… food for thought.  But the more you look the more you find askew when it comes to Trump.

Personally, I cannot reconciliate his antics, therefore I much rather lean on a candidate who is talking about policy, and talking about solutions, and unifying America – but does not resort to childish nicknames, or insults, or bizarre stunts such as getting a garbage truck.  All that is unnecessary for the office, it is not a “nice to have” – pragmatically, that shows a huge vulnerability, because anybody going out of their ways to insult or pull those type of stunts shows a lack of maturity that would already be pathetic for a person ¼ his age.

If you think Trump has good policies, listen to his remarks – he says, “Kamala has the same policies” and should send her a MAGA hat.  So, out of his own mouth, he is stating that Kamala is stealing his “good policies” – so by voting for Kamala, logically, you get good “MAGA” policies– sans the childish nicknames or insults.  And she is a lot younger and articulated than Trump is.  She does not need to go on a “weave” to have people decipher what the hell her actual message is.  Listen to her speeches, they are concise.

There is a way to disagree without stunts and insults.  Debates are good, disagreements are welcomed, different points of view are useful, there is wisdom across all corners of America.  Calling Kamala a “low IQ” person, is not only uncalled for, but it does also sound like projection.  It is what a half-witted school bully would say when they don’t have an actual comeback.  I, like millions of others, don’t want Trump’s volatile personality leading our country and the world.  It is easy to be petulant, it is a lot harder to be poised and professional.

 

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Professionalism and Maturity

 

I’ll end this article as I started it.  I do wish Biden had a different choice of words referring to MAGA, but at the end of the day Biden is leaving soon.  Trump insulted all non-MAGA and even some of his fleeting-MAGA folks as a President from the POTUS account, from his personal account, from the Presidential podium, rallies, press conferences, etc.  Was that better than Biden calling his followers “garbage?”  Absolutely no, and with that precedent, really the only reasonable thing Trump could do without sounding like a hypocrite would be to say nothing – instead of renting a garbage truck as a desperate stunt to impress his fleeting base.  Most people are laughing at Trump for that stunt, not celebrating him.

But to reiterate, I - like many others have been viciously insulted violently by MAGA since before the 2016 election, and these insults have just gotten a lot more aggressive since then.  Others have received death threats by MAGA followers for daring disagreeing with Trump on any issue.  I myself had to call out some MAGA followers who were getting very close to issue a death threat to me, and they backed down when I confronted them.  But remember, this aggressive behavior that has become common place by MAGA is not only abnormal, it is extremely dangerous and divisive.

Yet, they have been roaming free with impunity under their perception of their “first amendment right” to speak their mind.  But they fail to understand that their right ends where another person’s right begins.  MAGA in fact accuses Biden of being an authoritarian, yet they feel emboldened to tweet, or send messages to the White House issuing vicious insults to Biden on social media… where a post lives forever, and it has your IP address!  Don’t take my word for it, go to the White House social media accounts, and read the comments.

Yet the Secret Service is not showing at these MAGA social-media-keyboard-warriors’ doors to confront them after they viciously insulted Biden every hour of every day.  If you’re in an authoritarian country and insult the top executive on their official social media, you won’t be able to blink before severe punitive action is enacted upon you by their regime.  That is not happening in America.  Also, in those regimes wearing and buying merchandise that is insulting to the incumbent would put you in jail (best case scenario) or would make you disappear.  Yes, that happens in other countries.

Understand that giving the middle finger to Biden and any non-MAGA person and insulting them is actually very pathetic.  Sure, buy with your money whatever you want, but it is really sad and pathetic to see a grown man or woman walking around with a childish piece of merch that is insulting.  And paying money for that… for example, I see people draped in Trump’s merch head to toe – including insulting and vulgar merch – spending probably more than 100 bucks on that stuff and complain that they don’t have disposable income.

In any civilized environment around the world, what is normal and expected is for people to be professional and mature.  It's easy too, you don’t insult others, you don’t act like an ill-mannered toddler, and if you have a disagreement, you don’t throw a tantrum.  With Trump normalizing his tantrums, his screamy voice, and his insults – it might seem it is ok – because it has been so common since before 2016.  It is not, it's pathetic.  There is a word to describe a petulant person who whines a lot… it is called a wimp.  I will rather vote for a person who acts like a functional adult, how about you?  HLC

 

 

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