Image courtesy pxfuel
Three days before the US 2020 Federal Election, I joined a pro-Trump facebook group called “I Stand With President Trump.” It had 10.8K members. To be clear, I’m absolutely not pro-Trump. In fact, I despise him. However, I wanted to comb through this group to see if I could find a Trump supporter who fully supports human rights. If they do, what makes them think that Trump can help? Or, maybe, with my own biases in tow, I was just wondering if someone could truly prove me wrong — if someone or something could alter my beliefs.
I hoped that this group would be at least a little more professional and respectful than the many Republican-infiltrated comment sections I’ve seen on TikTok or YouTube. They were not.
The group had five rules:
1. No bullying or hate speech allowed period!
2. Respect Everyone’s Privacy
3. No False News.
4. No racial slurs allowed
5. YOU DO NOT STAND WITH TRUMP
The last rule was misleading. Apparently, I was supposed to stand with Trump, but all it said in the fine print was, “You have been called out as a troll. Get a life!” If I recall correctly, I even stated that this was for my own personal research — I never said I was a Trump supporter, and I never said I wasn’t.
Diving in, the first noteworthy post I happened upon was advertising face masks with Trump 2020 or the likes on them. I thought about Trump’s history with COVID-19 and his claims about science, masks, and other preventative measures. I began to laugh.
Then, a new member, Austin, shared his first post asking why people are voting for Trump. I was immediately intrigued, as I have the same question. Aside from their political upbringings and apparent bigotry, why do people like Trump?
Examining comments was difficult as there were so many non-republicans like myself attempting to infiltrate the group, commenting that Trump sucks. It was also difficult to identify which comments were sarcastic and which weren’t. For example, Josh wrote that he voted for Trump “Because he’s taken down pedophiles!” This is ironic, as apparent non-supporter Matt noted in his reply. Matt even provided evidence that Trump was friends with Jeffrey Epstein, who has been exposed as a pedophile more widely after his death and the release of various Epstein documentaries.
It should also be noted that Austin’s post was met with a lot of skepticism and outrage from right-wing members; many of the commenters questioned why he even asked, as Trump is clearly the way to go.
From what I have seen, most of these people vote for Trump because they are pro-life, against socialism, against COVID lockdowns, or just want to keep their guns, citing the second amendment. There were also a handful of people who stated freedom of religion as a reason, all while claiming that Trump is a saviour from their Christian God — even though no one in modern times seems to be infringing on their rights to practice Christianity in America. One user, David, actually cited “record unemployment for most minorities” as a reason to vote red. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I went to a Catholic school and I don’t think celebrating the hardship of thy neighbour is approved by the big guy.
Something I learned more about through this group is the careful language that they use. I realized this after watching a video by Ben Palmer (@palmertrolls) on TikTok, in which he points out the lengths Republicans will go to so that they don’t have to say the phrase “Black Lives Matter” when admonishing the BLM movement; in this case, the acronym was used strategically within the context of language and upholding the right’s image. From what I’ve gathered, using the term “second amendment” rather than simply ‘gun laws’ might be a similar scenario. In simple terms, using the term second amendment makes the claim seem more justified than using the term gun laws would.
By referring to ‘the right to bear arms’ in this way, it made the group sound more educated, like they knew what they were voting for. People of the right-wing often refer to people in the opposition as “special snowflakes,” implying that the left is too fragile and offended for the real world. But what about the 4th and 5th amendments—the ones that are supposed to protect citizens from unlawful arrest?
In this group, you can see videos of the BLM movement showcasing unlawful arrests of black and POC citizens. Still, the right-wing always seems to look for how the alleged offender might be resisting, as if that’s a reason for police to shoot them. It doesn’t matter how much the ‘offender’ knows about their rights, or if they plead the 4th or the 5th—they will likely encounter injustice, whether this is discrimination, police brutality, or straight-up murder. Point is, if these (mostly white) Republicans were in the same shoes, they would probably be talking more about the lack of enforcement in the 4th and 5th and less about the 2nd.
Now, I tried very hard to keep an open mind and refrain from commenting in this group—I didn’t want to get banned before my research was complete. However, after seeing a transphobic post, I couldn’t help it. The post was a picture of a black man. Yes, it is important that the subject was a black man; I wonder if they’ve used this to point out that they’re not racist, in the way that people who use racial slurs yet are friends with black people use this as a defence. Anyways, the man was using a urinal beside someone with long hair. His eyes were bulging, and the caption read, “The moment you realize you probably shouldn’t have voted democrat.”
This is funny to them because there’s a (presumably) trans person in the background of the photo. I don’t find this aspect funny at all, but I do find the irony quite hilarious. Out of 36 comments, only one other person was able to find the flaw in this makeshift argument. The thing is, most democrats want trans people to use the bathrooms that match their identities; the trans-woman in the photo is in the men’s bathroom because of Trump. So really, there is a typo in the caption: Democrat should be replaced with Republican, making their whole argument invalid. I was both surprised and glad to see that some members were calling out the post for transphobia, but whether they were right or left I’m not sure. However, some identifiable Trump supporters did make callouts for perversion, stating that the real issue was the person who took the picture in the bathroom.
Still, one user, Kayla, somehow managed to make the argument religious: “There is no such thing as transgender, God made a man and a woman. There are but two genders on this earth. This person is ill and needs to see a relationship with Jesus Christ.”
First of all, no one in the thread even said that there were more than two genders. Second, there are—not just genders, but sexes. I fought my desire to keyboard smash and tear this bigot to shreds, and instead took a calm and educational approach. Gender identity seems to be a difficult concept for Republicans, so I started by turning their ‘biology’ bullshit against them. I said, “God also made intersex people. Biologically, gender isn’t just male or female, XX or XY.” This is factual and cannot be argued; intersex people exist, and so do X, Y, XXX, XXY, and XYY, to name a few examples. I didn’t back this up because it’s literally 9th grade science— Kayla can look it up herself, as she’s quite capable of typing. Almost a month later, I check back. She still doesn’t get it.
The internet can be cruel and disgusting—this we know. However, these posts have worried, enlightened, and pleased me at different stages. In a way, it’s funny that many of these Republicans couldn’t see the flaws in their own arguments, even when handed to them. On the other hand, this is not a laughing matter because their votes counted towards a presidency that would’ve likely harmed many US citizens. I still think them arguing amongst themselves is funny, though. Shame on me for laughing, but I guess dark humour is just how I and countless others cope with the idea that many minorities might have their rights taken away and there’s not much we can do about it. For some of us, it’s all we have the strength to do; we’re tired of fighting for our rights. Our laughter is only a broken window in a building of struggles.
Less than a month after I joined this group, my facebook account was banned.
I am glad that I did not fall victim to conversion. Not all of these Trump supporters are conceptually against human rights, but I’m not giving out gold medals for doing less than the bare minimum. I’ve seen that some of them are against transphobia, racism, and homophobia, but of course, their votes say otherwise. Therefore, what I have yet to see is a strong argument as to why these people, all things considered, still worship the awful orange man-child.
Tianna Vertigan is a queer writer who was born on New Year’s Day of 2001 and raised in Port Alberni. She is passionate about human and animal rights, and once appeared on the news to show off her family dog’s world record litter of Yorkshire Terriers. Tianna currently lives in Nanaimo with her enormous cat, Dorothy, where she is working towards a bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing at Vancouver Island University.