The No-Love Movement: Why It's Impossible to Love Donald Trump and the Rest of Humanity Simultaneously

I spend way too much time exploring the Facebook history of Trump super-fans. I’m motivated partially by morbid curiosity. But I also get a lot of blog posts out of these trips down the Alt-RIght rabbit hole. 

This morning, for example, I came across the account of a typical Trump super-fan complaining that people judged him, and judged him harshly, when he went out in public wearing his Make America Great Again when, in actuality, he loves everybody, and would never, in a million years, even think about discriminating against someone of the basis of their clothing or political beliefs. 

It’s the left, this man argued, who were spreading hate and division by attacking the president and treating MAGA hats and other ostentatious displays of feverish, scarily uncritical adoration for the president as icons of hate and intolerance instead of symbols of patriotism and love for country. 

In this paradigm, it’s the Left who are intolerant and bigoted. It’s yet another way the right attempts to turn the Left’s supposed tolerance and open-mindedness against it. The deeply disingenuous thinking seems to be, “If the Left are so damn tolerant and open-minded, then why won’t they tolerate my open displays of bigotry and hate? Pretty close-minded of them to think they know something about me and how I see the world just because I’m a Proud Boy.” 

Here’s the thing. A Make America Great Again hat says a whole lot more than “I voted for the Republican presidential candidate in 2016.” It says that, of course, but it also says that you support a White Nationalist politician who has made a point of demonizing immigrants, women of color and Muslims. 

When you wear a Make America Great Again you’re saying “Hell yeah!” to every part of Trump and his bizarre cult. You’re saying “Hell yeah!” To “Grab em by the pussy.” You’re saying “Hell yeah!” to Birtherism. You’re saying “Hell yeah!” to the President telling women of color that they need to “Go back” to the countries they came from if they have a problem with Trump’s USA.

You’re saying “Hell yeah!” To Trump making fun of a disabled reporter and the many years John McCain spent getting tortured. You’re giving your enthusiastic consent to Trump angrily demanding that the Central Park 5 be murdered by the state for their imaginary crimes even after being exonerated in every conceivable way, including getting a huge payout from the government for their needless years of suffering and confinement. 

If those are your political beliefs, then hell yeah I’m judging you for them. I have no respect for Fascists or their apologists. I have no love for people who dream of genocide and race wars. 

The Make America Great Again hat is consequently a symbol of hate and division, bigotry and ugliness. It stands for something ugly and grotesque and deeply unAmerican. Also, when the MAGA set wears their favorite hat out in public they’re not doing so to convey their love for America. They’re doing it to “own the libs.” They’re doing it so that “Snowflakes” will feel “triggered” and need to go crawl back to their “safe spaces.” 

It’s a deliberate, willful provocation, about pissing off the other side, not love. 

Besides, you can’t love all the people all the time. You cannot, for example, love both Anne Frank and Adolf Hitler because Hitler’s life’s work involved ensuring that children, innocent children like Frank, never get a chance to grow up because of their religious beliefs. 

Similarly, you can’t love Donald Trump and the children being ripped out of their parents’ arms at the border. You can’t love somebody whose entire aesthetic and worldview is predicated on scapegoating and hate-mongering. To publicly profess your love and support for Donald Trump is to implicitly express your contempt, hatred and fear towards the people he has demonized as the cause of our nation’s problems instead of looking inward at his own diseased soul and horrifying inability to experience empathy or compassion. 

So lose me with that “I love everyone” bullshit, Trump supporters. If you loved everyone you wouldn’t be agitating for a man whose appeal is one hundred percent wrapped up in fear, paranoia and hatred in the first place.

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