51 Comments

Only white men can exhibit rage in the US without being condemned. I disagree with your comparison to a rage-filled Democratic base. Rage is violent and uncontrollable anger. I've seen anger, but I have not really seen rage among the Democrats. Words are important and I think you may have been trying for "balance" or a "both-sides" approach but, in doing that, you seem to be normalizing rage. E. Jean Carroll hasn't exhibited rage, Hillary Clinton hasn't exhibited rage, no one on the left has killed doctors who performed abortions or destroyed clinics where abortions are being performed, all the women coming forward to discuss the health problems and issues related to bans on abortions are not exhibiting rage, Democrats are not stringing up wire and barriers to kill people trying to immigrate into the US, they didn't use violence to storm the US Capital, and they aren't threatening a Civil War. Women and POC are not allowed to exhibit rage in public, and even their anger can't be too demonstrative.

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Agree with your first point about rage being something only white men are really allowed to display.

Now, when I use the term "rage" to describe the anger on the left at the Dobbs decision, I'm not drawing an equivalence here. Please don't confuse this with bothsidesism. I think there is real anger, and I would say rage, righteous rage at what Trump did and at the loss of the right to bodily autonomy. The point is that Trump's brand of rage is largely performative, is about appealing to fear, and is not a winning strategy in the long run. The rage on the left is very real, is about a fight for a fundamental right, and IS driving election wins. But I could have made that distinction clearer.

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I'd agree with you about "rage" on the left if you don't connect rage with violence. Trump's rage is performative but he incites violence in others.

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I see where you're coming from here. Certainly did not mean to draw that equivalency. You're right, a lot of his rhetoric driven by his rage, whether real or manufactured, does drive real world violence, which can absolutely not be said for the left. 💯

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This explains what I was thinking: There's *real* rage on the left, hopefully channeled into voting, vs. the fake bullshit rage on the right. I can tell you I'm pretty mad, but I'm certainly not going to go around hurting people.

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I agree with you about the difference between righteous rage and performative rage. If someone actually abused my kid, I'd feel rage, righteously. If someone claims that his teacher is "grooming" him, I'd feel the stupidity of the claim, though the claimer might work up to rage over it.

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I agree! Can you imagine if KBJ had expressed rage during her confirmation hearing?

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Exactly!

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They were so rude and demeaning in their questioning of her, without cause, just hate and spite emanating from every pore. She was grace personified.

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I feel rage. I’m directing my rage into action. I’m doing everything I can to send the GQP into oblivion.

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Hear, hear!!

Democrats and independents, all those not stupid enough to support Trump, are angry, disgusted, fed up. But blindly tagging them with the “rage” of Republicans is indeed shoddy bothsiderism journalism.

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No, it's not the rage of Republicans, that's the point, it's a legitimate anger that is driving real election wins. The right is not used to seeing such passion from the left and so must resort all the more to their performative and manufactured rage. Agree, not the same thing at all.

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Democrats are also exhausted with hearing about Trump. He inserts himself in everywhere. His ego knows no bounds. We just want to think about our current president and what is going on, something Trump has not allowed us to do this entire term. Biden has the true claim to experience and wisdom. He has been almost 12 years in the White House co-governing and governing our country. Trump has neither experience, since he did not govern the country, he used it as an opportunity to make money for himself. He also is not wise in governance, other than how to create an authoritarian state. I just cannot stand to hear anything about Trump he is just bad news.

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Why aren't women RAGING against this man?

Have you seen Trump on the streets where abused people are living in squalor, while he lives in opulence?

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Because RAGE isn't productive. It doesn't get anything done and it makes the rager look spoiled, entitled, and undisciplined. On the other hand, anger and grief can be very productive. Look at the women who testified about the harm the state of Texas was doing to them with its abortion laws. Screaming at Texan legislators, calling them scumbags or worse in tweets, won't do anything for their cause except to encourage the (mostly male) politicians to say things that imply that women are too emotional and implicitly invoke all the 50s stereotypes they want to go back to to make America great again.

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Just because one is 'raging' it does not mean violence. Rage is REAL anger.

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Patricia, I agree w/you. Mike Johnson is promoting the false allegations that “no one has seen the fire & brimstone in all of history that comes from the violent radical democrats”. And today how democrats are violent towards ginni and clarence thomas. And “my heart goes out to Ginni”. One of our own claiming that we are raging 😡 plays into false allegation for maga republicans. As usual it’s their projection.

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What is "my heart goes out to Ginni?"

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Thank you for pointing out the “balance" or a "both-sides" approach. This has been called out in the mainstream media for ages. This column is old, distorted, and very stale news. It’s this nonsense and very unprofessional approach that will lead us to a dictatorship that we are working so hard to avoid.

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As the vast majority of American’s know, Trump is a liar, a fraud and a con. He is also a terrible businessperson. Below, I’ve placed a list of his failed businesses and his businesses that declared bankruptcy.

Trump’s two moneymaking “successes"? (a) The ridiculously absurd “Apprentice”, where viewers were led to believe that Trump was a successful businessperson, and (b) his real estate condominium projects, which generated billions in cash from two primary sources sponsored by Vladimir Putin – Russian Oligarchs laundering dirty money, Russian Mafia laundering dirty money. If it weren’t for that dirty money, Trump would be in the poorhouse.

Trump’s failed businesses:

1. Trump Steaks

2. GoTrump
3. Trump Airlines

4. Trump Vodka
5. Trump Mortgage

6. Trump: The Game

7. Trump Magazine
8. Trump University
9. Trump Ice
10. The New Jersey Generals

11. Tour de Trump

12. Trump Network

13. Trumped

Truth (Lies) Social

Trump companies that sought bankruptcy protection:

1. Trump Taj Mahal
2. Trump’s Castle
3. Trump Plaza Casinos
4. Trump Plaza Hotel
5. Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts

6. Trump Entertainment Resorts

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Correct. The notion that anyone thought he was a good businessman is bonkers to me. But unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans do not know hes a liar. It's shocking the bubble many on the right live in every day. And we also have an uphill climb among low information voters. I keep hearing about people who think Joe Biden overturned Roe v Wade because it happened during his presidency. Can you imagine? Talk about the need for civics education.

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He Touches It Dies . . a k a The Most Dangerous Man In The World . . .

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He's a loser.

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The thing that collapses me about "they aren't considering my Brand when valuing my properties" is that, unless you also sell the "brand" and require the buyer to keep it going, the value of the "brand" evaporates.

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It would have been more appropriate and accurate to title the book, “The Art of The Con” than “The Art of The Deal”!

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We express our inner rage with our ballots. These are our weapons. Use them. Vote

Blue 2024.

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They only care about immigration and the border because they’ve been told nightly to care about immigration and the border. Let’s talk Dreamers, shall we? Let’s talk about holding corporations responsible for illegal hiring? There is lots to fix in our immigration system but they really don’t want that - they just want the chance to perform because their folks only love a performance.

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Interesting explanation. Makes sense since Fox Noise insists on manufacturing daily outrage amongst their cultish watchers. The willfully ignorant sheep that make up the Maggot base have been trained to believe (and get outraged, and regurgitate) anything spewed by the scum that Fox Noise puts on the air (and the bloviating orange overlord . . ).

Happily, these fanatics are just a noisy minority, and hopefully the rest (or at least most) of the voting public is still reachable and will reject these performative, lie-filled rage rants . . .

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Faux News...😏

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I see the us-versus-them perception of the right to be simpleminded, a refusal to use any kind of reason, logic, or truth in evaluating situations. Trump is as reactionary as his base, perceiving in his puerile brain that he gets the responses he wants when he says or does certain things, without any regard for or understanding of consequences.

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Not To Rub It . .

Hey, Donald, she said you were Nothing . .

a hollow man full of Alt Reality stuffing .

A comic snorting Rhinocerus ..hilariously Preposterous . .

Told to Sit Still playground bully huffing and puffing . .

In Or Anything . . # but, Hey Donald . . .

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I'm on the edge of rage every time I see Trump's picture. I think when you - and anyone else does, it makes him feel good. So please don't feature his face anymore. Words are more than enough to paint his as the fool he is.

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Kathleen, agree. I hate looking at him. For a while, I used an app in Google that transformed any photo of him into kittens! Such a great idea. Much more digestible. 😹

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We all have 'rage' against the machine.

Why is it that Trumps rage trumps people who really should be enraged?

Trump is not living on the street/he has healthcare. He has beautiful places to live?

How is it that he NEVER visits the people he is supposedly fighting for?

WHO is Trump?

He is a man who was born rich with a farther that abused him. His rage is nothing abnormal.

All abused people have rage.

Meanwhile Trump lives a luxury lifestyle unlike people on the street. He understands this and will continue to extort those abused (like him) to fight.

IF you are an abused person 'think?' Why is he fighting for us?

THINK

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I agree with the insight that “conservatives” (or Maga or rage-filled jerks) see in terms of black and white and are not able to see nuance or ambiguity. That is the fundamental difference between liberals and conservatives and it speaks to a wider intelligence that can see “both/and.” I also think it was Paul Krugman (correct me if I’m wrong) who wrote about the person attracted to authority figures vs the nurturing figure. It explained a lot to me what our nation was going through when so many could believe in an totally ridiculous authority figure in 2016. I needed to make sense of it as it was so very unbelievable... still is!

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Fatboy stepped on his dick this time ,he has so angered the largest group of eligible voters namely “women “ he’ll have to work over time to replace their numbers!I don’t mean to sound sexist but,if you mess with a tigress 🐅 she’ll make a tiger look tame in comparison! So Beware Shitler! The ladies ain’t gonna take any more of your ,”grabbing pussy bullshit this time around!I really wouldn’t want to be in your shoes 🐷 Porky ,and not because they’ve full of shit from the leaking diaper ,but,because you took away a right they fought for and deserved to have ! Meow 😻 shithead! See ya in the funny papers you moron!

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I wonder when we will sufficiently grow up to take emotion out of politics and go the courtroom route by relying on the facts. That would be the day.

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"Low tolerance for nuance." That's one way of putting it, LOL.

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I saw an interesting article about the breakdown by education of voters at the Iowa Caucus & New Hampshire primary; people with college degrees predominantly voted against Trump. Education & critical thinking versus reactionary emotionalism... & at the end of the day what does it really matter? The president is just first among equals, supposed to lead the Congress to compromise & consensus- ultimately a president gets no traction because he's one person with a maximum shelf life of eight years versus over 500 people with no term limits. The founding fathers would be horrified to find that as we approach America's semiquincentennial, we have effectively created an elected aristocracy. Compared to that a loud narcissist is just a sideshow and footnote.

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Simon? I got this donation request today: Seems important.

I just got this email:

DLCC Logo

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