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Another Trump term

Readers of this newsletter will remember when I said I knew what it felt like to be that dead rabbit a few weeks ago. Turns out I was wrong. This feels much, much worse.

An all too familiar sense of dread has returned since Wednesday morning, a feeling I so desperately wanted to leave in 2020. Yet here we are, again, and this time it will be worse. That same day I had to console my older son, who with tears in his eyes, said he was scared for his friends who identify as trans. What could I tell him? Yes, you should be, and you need to be there at their side to help them and protect them if needed. They have none other than the President of the United States coming for them, inspiring goon squads of bigots and cowards who somehow fear a population that amounts to less than one percent of Americans.

One of the laziest takes after the election is that Democrats played identity politics and ignored their base’s concerns. Meanwhile Republicans are literally targeting minorities, punching down as far as possible and using violent rhetoric to make certain groups the other. It’s not identity politics to call racists racist, to call homophobes homophobes and misogynists misogynist. It’s the duty of good people in a society to keep the mob from its pitchforks and  torches. That will be a full-time position in Trump’s America.

I definitely didn’t want to have to write this editorial, and I’m struggling to know what to address. It doesn’t seem to matter at the moment, if after many months of that loathsome man spouting lies and hate the majority of this country wanted him to lead. There are hard truths here that I believe are buried beneath much of the left’s shock at what just happened. They include the fact that this country hates women. And that promises of violence toward vulnerable groups have as much power now in Harrisburg as they did in 1930 in Hamburg.

Young men are central to these aspirations to violence. They feel aggrieved in this country, apparently, that Democrats aren’t taking their 20-something white male concerns seriously. According to NBC exit polling, “in 2020, President Joe Biden beat Trump by 11 percentage points among young men; this year, Trump beat Kamala Harris by 2 points. Among young women, Biden’s 35-point lead over Trump in 2020 shrunk to a 24-point lead for Harris. Among young white men without college degrees, Trump beat Harris, 56% to 40%.” 

Joe Rogan, it appears, holds more sway than Taylor Swift. Does that surprise you? The white man is the apex predator of American life, let’s be clear. For this group, which I belong to, to moan that no one on the left is speaking to them requires such a profound lack of empathy and cultural awareness that it’s almost impossible to measure. White men are the bellwether of our society, the aspiration, and possess a degree of latitude and forgiveness that minority groups can only dream of. Yet they still turn to a bully.

What these white men don’t know, or are ignoring, is the responsibility that comes with their position of power. And that is to protect those who are more vulnerable, who are fighting for their rights or to be seen as equals. It’s to make sure others who are coming up the ladder have access to everything this country offers, to all the things as a white man that I have at my disposal. This pie is not finite, this is not a zero-sum gain, we can all grow more prosperous together. There needn’t be a loser.

It’s a simple equation, though it requires an ability to see the world through another’s eyes – from a woman to a black man to a trans 16-year-old. I’m raising two sons to have that vision, and it hurts me knowing how little respect this concept is being given by today’s young men.

Crypto is full of those young men, the “crypto bro” that any woman in the industry can describe to you in excruciating detail. So many of them are celebrating Trump’s win as it’s been good for digital assets. Again, not a surprise if you were paying attention, yet it still hurts and makes the space feel even less honorable than before, which is really saying something.

It’s going to be a long four years, and people will die because of the American majority’s decision to put Trump back in the White House. Yet the fight won’t stop, and the good people in this country need to commit to ensuring the worst impulses of the MAGA mob are stopped. – Matthew Leising, editor in chief, Decential Media

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