By Emily Cutler | Politics | September 23, 2016 |
By Emily Cutler | Politics | September 23, 2016 |
I’m going to let everyone in on a little secret: living in an echo chamber is the best. Nothing has ever convinced me that living in a deep blue state, associating only with liberals, and generously employing the “Block” button on Facebook is a good thing more than the current election. Which isn’t to say that I’m uninformed about each party’s respective campaigns, just that I’m refusing to listen to one side.
Because what one side is saying is total bullshit. Not just knowingly untrue bullshit, but racist bullshit and sexist bullshit. What Trump, his campaign, and his supporters are saying is devoid of any substantial informative, well-reasoned, convincing arguments. And there’s literally no reason to listen to anything he has to say other than to feel enraged/disgusted/superior (which I’m not knocking by itself, but I’ll explain that more later).
Which brings us to Tomi Lahren. Here’s The Daily Show covering her (in)famous final thoughts.
There’s no reason to listen to her unless you find her brand of impassioned xenophobia amusing. If you watch her YouTube segments, and laugh about how poorly constructed her arguments are, how deeply ignorant her positions are, or how wildly out of touch with reality she seems to be, cool. You keep doing you. If, however, you think that somehow sitting through a five minute hate-fest is enlightening you on the other side’s position, you’re fooling yourself.
To be clear, I’m not arguing that we should be completely ignorant of who Lahren is or what she’s saying. Nor am I saying that watching her videos has no intrinsic value. My argument is with the idea that refusing to listen to all of the backward, regressive bullshit that comes out of people’s mouths means I’m doing damage to the country. Being informed on the GOP platform is one thing. But actually sitting through her five minute spiel isn’t done in the name of education, bipartisanship, or understanding of the other side. It’s done to press the anger button a few times because being righteously angry feels fucking amazing.
So yes, I actively refuse to listen to some people speak their minds on their specific political position. Because they’re full of shit, and I’m too old and tired to get riled up about it anymore. If you’re ever interested in a good laugh though …