frankly one of the funniest parts of the izzycourse is when people craft these really elaborate nonsensical reaches to explain how izzy is supposed to be a 21st century homophobe who we’re supposed to just think of as an anachronism like the crocs because they know that “izzy is homophobic” doesn’t make ANY sense in the context of the time period or the show itself and how it’s actually really deep and complicated and a nuanced takedown of lowkey/discreet closeted kind of homophobic gay grindr hookup culture or something but then like the idea that izzy as a working class person would hate stede bc stede is a lazy wealthy landowner pathetic excuse of a pirate which is like one of the major conflicts and running jokes within the story and something that made his character too unlikable to enjoy with basically any other actor except for rhys is a laughable reach and woobifying izzy or something.

Observations on Republicans

I rarely speak out loud about politics, unless I have something I can confidently contribute- which it rarely, because politics is a mess and I’m shit at arguments.

Here, however, I’m just going to note some things I have noticed. Not arguments, not facts, just things I have perceived in the world. These being the TYPES of Republicans and why they seem to have voted for Trump.

I’m going to start with the type I feel like I can empathize with.

THE CORNERED These are the farmers, the coal miners, the small-towners whose industries have gone bust. The people government ignores or actively shits on because they seem to have no financial value. These people whose livelihoods and identities are crumbling under the wheel of poverty. These people who are looked-down-their-noses at by the educated liberal crowd that deride their cultural values and forsake them while in power.

It really is no wonder how they got here politically. Liberal Democrats abandoned them, shunned them, and these cornered people have no voice, no money, no power in government to help themselves. They had no choice but to put hope in the first snake-oil salesman who looked their way and promised them their lives back. Many of them even voice regret in hindsight. Who can blame them really? It was the worst choice made for the right reason.

THE TEAM These folks I only came to understand through the lens of sports. If you view Republicans and Democrats as sports teams and the voters as the fanbases for each, you can easily understand where this is going. These people are the diehards. The every game fans. The memorabilia owners. And they treat every time the Democrats achieve something as an abomination. Doesn’t matter how good it is for the world. (Obamacare). They perceive every time a democrat is elected as a loss for their team, and everything their team achieves as a victory- no matter how maligned (revoking of gay rights, etc). It is a part of their identity. Their team can do no wrong. Ever. And when they do, these fans will bend over backwards to justify it. And usually blame the opposing team for making it happen. (But Obama really caused the problem).

There is no talking with these people. They are irrational and fanatical and will not budge. It is usually taught to them at a young age by diehard family members who were taught the same thing. In fact, I’ve frequently heard the phrase “Everyone in my family is republican, and I am too. That’s how it is.”

THE CONSERVATIVE This group of folks is well-known, and comes in a pretty wide range. They tend to want some aspect of life to remain the same over time, be it moral structure, gender roles, religious influence, racial relations, what have you. They hunker down with this sacred aspect of life and refuse to budge. It is their mountain and they will defend it. In some arenas, this is great. In some it is monstrous.

Conservatives make open enemies of Liberals who trounce all over their ways with reckless abandon and then tell them they are stuffy, wrong, and to shut up. Conservatives are fans of tradition, good or bad, and preserve it as heritage, as identity. They are slow to warm up to new things, which is fine, as caution has its value, but it also impedes on real progress. Their goal is homeostasis. Creating worlds where they are in comfortable in power and society functions as they want it to. Usually in the form of whites having all the power, women staying in the home without reproductive rights, gay people being exiled or arrested, gender staying on a strict binary, and everyone being a god-fearing proud patriot of the greatest nation on Earth. Liberal Democrats loathe this backwards, inhumane design of life and oppose it, so the Republican party is where conservatives end up.

THE CHAOTIC EVIL Oh boy. So, we know these people. These people are legitimate assholes. The living embodiments of Youtube comment sections. They yell vulgarities such as ‘BETA CUCK’ at people to assert power over people who don’t value violence, aggression, the military, firearms, hunting, objectifying women, etc. These are the people mired in hyper toxic masculinity, don’t care about making the world better place, but instead want to make the world more like... Sparta, I guess? Grand Theft Auto? Basically, fuckboy paradise.

These people think democrats are pansies. Commies. Faggots. You name it. Feminazi is a word they popularized. They advocate FOR rape, on the basis that men are stronger than women. They think guns are necessary for life. They want to vote for a party that gets them what they want; Easier access and dominion over women and their bodies- such as making abortion illegal without a man’s consent, or the outlaw of birth control; Overt racial priority over minorities; fast-track to wealth for existing; and easier freer access to weapons to ensure no one fucks with their control.

THE LAWFUL EVIL These are your wealthy, election-rigging, big-business wielding, capitalism pundits. Corporate fat-cats ripped straight out of the twenties trust-busting newspaper comics, driving profit margins higher and higher by weedling workers’ benefits lower and lower. These are the people who argued FOR black slavery because it was excellent for American business. These are the people who use sweatshops, foreign and domestic (in the form of prisons), for cheap labour. These are the ones what can afford to give their employees healthcare and living wages and just don’t because it will cut a little bit into their massive profit margins.

They get politicians into their pockets to do their bidding, warping policy over time to suit them, slowly screwing the common man out of the rights they fought so hard for in the 20′s and 30′s. Both parties suffer this kind of ‘voter’, but Republicans seem to be worse off. Where democrats see this bullshit and actively try to curtail it, republicans seem to have a harder time. As in the Chaotic Evil, Lawful Evil also wants wealth and control and oppressive tradition, and since that seems to be a primary objective for the Republican party that is where big-businesses tend to force their hands.

THE MEH These are the people who avoid politics. And at first glance, you can understand why. Even ten minutes of news and *I* want to explode. But these people are almost the worst. Frequently, when they do cough up their political views and opinions things seem murky. I saw a perfect example of this on the news back in the election days. A young man was pretty sure Trump was the best candidate because he was successful businessman and very wealthy. The interviewer explained that Trump’s products were made overseas, Trump had filed bankruptcy several times, was in a lawsuit over Trump University, and all of this horrific evidence to the man’s opinion. And the man still said he would vote for Trump. And then left, as if nothing had changed.

I still struggle to wrap my brain around this archetype. He didn’t seem hostile toward Hillary or Sanders. He had no ‘team’ affiliation. He had no agenda. No strong opinion. No background knowledge or regard for evidence. Just that he had seemed to have picked one and decided it was good. Done.

If I think of anymore I will add them later.