I know a lot of us really enjoy ourselves some hyperbole, and that Twitter discourse does not smoothly align with what happens in real-life. But I quickly developed a sense of having stumbled upon something definitive and decisive about Trump-era liberalism when I saw the following tweet:
It’s difficult to begin to fully describe everything maddening and pathetic about that statement, but since this is a blog post about it, I’m gonna try.
This tweet is like a fully evolved iteration of the feckless “If Hillary Won, We’d Be At Brunch Right Now” signs that have appeared at various marches since 2017. It’s a sort of culmination of the #Resistance™ that began in earnest following the 2016 presidential election, the groundwork having been laid by prominent liberal political and media figures who essentially anointed themselves leaders of a movement to defy the oncoming storm of a Trump Administration. And while it’s an absolute necessity to generate massive resistance to the grotesque nature of Trump’s agenda, the mainstream liberal face of the movement was lacking in substance and value from the very start. To put it most succinctly, they took Trump’s election personally and never expanded the reaction much beyond this feeling of being inconvenienced and generally upset.
Conservative pundit Ben Shapiro, an intellectual fraud inexplicably respected among the online-right, has long had a fondness for “owning the libs” with the catchphrase “facts don’t care about your feelings.” He and many like him just love to label anyone expressing compassion as a bleeding-heart snowflake, too prone to fits of emotion in the face of the muscle-flexing juggernaut that is Logic. But rather than serving as a general axiom for navigating the difficulties of everyday life, conservatives of Shapiro’s ilk just use “facts don’t care about your feelings” as a double-ended bludgeon: to claim that factual reality necessitates conservative policy and that human emotion is a sign of flaws and weakness. It doesn’t much matter what the topic at hand is, conservatives will shoehorn the facts-versus-feelings dynamic in wherever it suits their ideology. Does a relatively small number of mega-wealthy elites exert too much power and drive catastrophic income inequality? Too bad, they earned their position in the world and you’re a pussy for crying about it. Are you concerned about the US government’s violent, cruel, and careless foreign policy? Tough luck, we’re fighting for freedom and civilian casualties are just the cost of doing business in a world of good versus evil. This exercise could drag on considerably, but the key flaw in this Facts & Logic fetishism is that the right often relies on premises that are far from factual, often open for debate, and sometimes even foundationally bullshit. What this approach typically represents is them claiming the Land of Logic in the name of the right and then reverse-engineering their own preset feelings into what they conveniently consider to be the facts that support them.
None of this is to say that facts have no place in a world that should be dominated by feelings. I go to a weekly support group modeled after Recovery International, a self-help mental health organization founded by neuropsychiatrist Dr. Abraham Low in 1937. Among the many tools and guides in the program is the phrase “feelings are not facts.” At first glance this seems uncomfortably similar to Ben Shapiro’s guiding principle. But rather than functioning as a weaponized statement, “feelings are not facts” is intended to calm and empower people who struggle with a variety of mental and emotional struggles. Just because you feel worthless or hopeless or doomed doesn’t make it true. If you avoid social situations for fear of judgment or humiliation, it would help to know it is by no means a fact that everyone is closely watching you and waiting for an opportunity to criticize you. That odd or uncomfortable physical symptom you may be experiencing, or disturbing mental state does not automatically mean you are dying of some awful disease or losing your mind. This is the uplifting perspective on the facts versus feelings dynamic, the use of rational thought to ease tension instead of attempting to deflect all criticism and reframe it as emotional immaturity.
Maybe this all sounds like a “both sides!” detour from the subject, but almost immediately upon reading this tweet I got a sense of a real snag in this user’s facts and feelings priorities. I don’t dismiss the seething hatred this man feels. I cannot begin to recall all the times I’ve caught myself pacing around angrily in my house, ruminating on some new horror the Trump administration has brought into being. I agree that it’s miserable to feel this way, however naturally it may come. But I’m more interested in what informs such feelings and how they are expressed. What is the primary issue? Is it the dark, helpless negativity you feel? Are you the victim here, BrooklynDad? And “when it’s over” will equilibrium be reestablished by your “soul cleanse?” Is the Trump presidency an aberration bookmarked by eras of happy normalcy?
It may seem petty and nit-picky but this brand of faux-liberal, centrist narcissism consistently seems to ignore the primary victims not only of Trump’s policies but of American policy in general. A lot of us are profoundly upset and disturbed by this administration’s actions, from the separation of immigrant families, the imprisonment of children in literal concentration camps, complete disregard for catastrophic climate change, continued reckless use of military terror abroad, racism, sexism, assault on LGTBQ rights, disgraceful tax policies, and the constant, full-throated, pathetic stream of lies. I think some of those could vie for the honor of “WORST thing” of Trump’s presidency. And they qualify for that distinction not because of how they make me, or anyone else, feel, but because they are de facto morally repugnant and cause grave material harm to broad swaths of people. To varying degrees, his ideology and behaviors are bad purely because they drive death, destruction and decay. And even though Feeling Bad is the natural response to such matters, that bad feeling is a side-effect, a reaction.
Ideally, I believe a person’s values will drive their emotional reactions to the reality (facts) they encounter or experience. And the behaviors driven by those emotional reactions are, in my opinion, most revealing of a person’s values. Are you going to go on social media to post emotional screeds about how the president hurts your feelings, or are you going to center the primary victims of his policies when you discuss him? Are you going to engage the moral roots of destructive policy or are you going to find a way to twist it into a cathartic “YAAAS KWEEN” viral tweet to get Likes and Retweets from legions of wine moms and #StillWithHer drones? To put it in the clearest terms, when you criticize and excoriate the Trump (or any powerful figure), are you centering his victims or are you putting yourself on the cross?
I don’t mean to portray Twitter discourse as the crucial foundation of social struggle. I am fully aware that most of us Online People are little more than keyboard jockeys duking it out with varying levels of elevated self-importance. And while there is no substitute for protests, demonstrations, and other forms of direct action, I do believe that the way we communicate and express ourselves in all forums and mediums does carry some importance. I think it’s a safe assumption that aside from voting, for most of us our primary political engagement (in the US, at least) comes in the form of social media participation and consumption. And while that may not seem significant taken at face value, the ideas communicated and absorbed can have a significant influence when spread among enough minds over time. And as those things evolve and disperse, so do the minds of all of us engaged in it, which can create an atmosphere of more significant and substantial resistance, inspire more direct action, and strengthen the resolve of The People to demand the justice and respect we all deserve. So try not to focus on feeling bad for yourself. Take the next step and let yourself be an ally for those directly targeted and harmed. On large enough scale, it can foster the solidarity we need to counter our oppressors in ways they cannot stave off.
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