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[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

It's not garbage at all. If there's a silver lining to Trump, it's the recognition our political system has collapsed.

But for Trump, we were facing a clash of dynasties: Jeb v. Hillary. How fucking stale was that? What grand new ideas were emerging from that race? Two candidates with similar platforms both invested in punting and pretending everything's great.

Apparently, everything was not great.

This country is cancered. And it was cancered long before Trump's emergence, which is a symptom, not a cause. Let me repeat that, so it can sink in: Trump is a symptom, not a cause. If you hear anyone calling him a cause of the problems in America, stop listening to that person. Leave the conversation. Hell, leave the room. Your IQ can only drop from exposure to that person's views.

I look at Trump as discovery of a stage 2 cancer in our politics, in our society, in our American "culture." You can cure stage 2 cancer most of the time. Stage 3 and 4? Not so curable.

Will Trump do damage? Undoubtably. But of value eclipsing that damage is this: The national compulsion to ask, "How could he happen?" (We're having a lot of conversations about ugly shit we avoided discussing before Trump. A lot of stuff we'd have have avoided in a Jeb or Hillary administration.)

The dimmest wits on this board, and everywhere else, will answer "Why and how Trump?" with "Russia!" Or they'll avoid it entirely, claiming Trump is the disease. Or they'll carp at third party voters, thinking themselves the wise pragmatists in the room.

The smart response to Trump is to ask the tough questions. What caused his emergence? How can we address what caused his emergence? How can we remove the xenophobia, racism, and delusion behind it? (I do not think we can credibly address the economic fears behind it.) And how have we possibly enabled it through social and traditional media, cultural polarization and information "siloing"?

I do not think 90% of what I've written on this topic is garbage. Not in the least. Occasionally, you have read my mind. Here, you couldn't be more inaccurate.

Agree that asking tough questions is not a bad thing, but I'm more impressed with good answers.