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by wilg 1788 days ago
Was typing out a response but it's hard to walk through the first principles of critical thinking to explain why you're having trouble understanding this, so I don't have a point-by-point response.

Regarding the last point, you are right people are ignoring those statements because they are typically overshadowed by his other actions, statements, and beliefs, and by how difficult it can be to get him to make them. People with racist and bigoted beliefs typically know they are socially unacceptable, so they almost alway say they are not racist or bigoted. I was particularly struck by this documentary wherein a KKK leader denies being racist: https://video.vice.com/de_ch/video/hate-thy-neighbour-americ... (haven't seen it since it came out so I'm paraphrasing). So anyway, people look to his actions and the surrounding context (like when he kept pushing a racist conspiracy theory about Barack Obama being born in Kenya for years and years), which is why Donald Trump is typically considered to be racist.

1 comments

Let me get this straight. You believe saying Obama is from Kenya is a conspiracy theory, but think accusing Trump of planning a coup is just fearful thinking?

You pretty clearly are just choosing what to call a conspiracy theory based on politics. There is no sense in continuing this conversation since you have shown you do not have a consistent definition of conspiracy theory.

It depends on the actual evidence about what is going on!

Also, accusing him of planning a coup is different than fearing he will attempt one. There were valid reasons to be concerned about that.

You're doing the exact same thing you're accusing me of, which is choosing what to call a conspiracy theory based on politics! You think it's ridiculous that he would plan a coup, so it is convenient for you to call it a conspiracy theory to try to make your argument work.