Karlyn Borysenko of New Hampshire walks away
A number of people sent me links to this article by Karlyn Borysenko entitled “After Attending a Trump Rally, I Realized Democrats Are Not Ready For 2020,” and subtitled “I’ve been a Democrat for 20 years. But this experience made me realize how out-of-touch my party is with the country at large.” And yes, of course it interests me greatly.
But Boryendko has not changed parties or political sides – not yet, anyway. She’s abandoned slavish devotion to one side, however; the Democrats.
Her act of walking away was sparked by her observation of extreme intolerance of any pro-Trump views in the online knitting community, of all things (I covered that story previously, here). But secondly (and I believe even more importantly), she decided to question some assumptions she’d had for a long time, and to actually research for herself whether or not they were true:
You see, I was one of those Democrats who considered anyone who voted for Trump a racist. I thought they were horrible (yes, even deplorable) and worked very hard to eliminate their voices from my spaces by unfriending or blocking people who spoke about their support of him, however minor their comments. I watched a lot of MSNBC, was convinced that everything he had done was horrible, that he hated anyone who wasn’t a straight white man, and that he had no redeeming qualities.
But when I witnessed the amount of hate coming from the left in this small, niche knitting community, I started to question everything. I started making a proactive effort to break my echo chamber by listening to voices I thought I would disagree with. I wanted to understand their perspective, believing it would confirm that they were filled with hate for anyone who wasn’t like them.
To me, that’s the important part of Borysenko’s story. And it’s what makes her somewhat unusual, although it’s a trait shared by most changers. I would call it the willingness to doubt one’s own assumptions and to challenge them with reality rather than shy away from such challenges. And then the next step is to accept the evidence the effort uncovers, and not rationalize it away.
I hail Borysenko, and wish her the best. This may be the beginning of a long long journey for her, a difficult but rewarding one.
She is beginning to recognize how Freudian “projection” works. Unconsciously recognizing that their own side is full of hate and racism, and not wanting to acknowledge that fact consciously, groups will “project” that hate and racism onto the other side, claiming that it is in fact the other side **not them** who are the haters and racists. (Therapists see this sort of mental dynamic all the time in neurotic patients, with the neurotics’ own unacceptable bad traits unconsciously “projected” — that is, attributed to — other people or groups.) Once you start to recognize the bad traits on your own side consciously, you can evaluate reality — whatever it happens to be — more accurately.
By the way, you can acknowledge that Freud was among the first to recognize and classify certain mental failings common to many of his neurotic patients without buying into all — or even a large part of — classical Freudian theory.
She shouldn’t walk away from the democrats. She should run.
Borysenko will be drummed out of the democrat party, count on it.
I have very close and dear friends who think everything on Fox News is made up and everything from the NYT and Washington Post is the truth, the actual, factual information and every time Trump has been close to being brought down by the facts the next day puzzles them. Trump according to some media is always one tiny step away from the cliff of disaster and yet, it never happens.
This once again is going to be a very interesting year.
For a laugh, read some of the comments on the article, they really prove her point, some are encouraging but many are just dripping with hatred in a how dare you tone.
On the left they are all Saint Greta now: HOW DARE YOU. Idiots one and all. They are not my fellow Americans simply because they hate America and wish me dead.
I saw her on the You Tube channel ‘Unsafe spaces’ she has been on this journey for a while now. I think her Ukrainian Husband (Hence the last name) is already a Trump supporter, hoping she’ll join him soon
Towards the end of her article Borysenko says:
There are extremes in both parties that I am uncomfortable with, but I also fundamentally believe that most people on both sides are good, decent human beings who want the best for the country and have dramatic disagreements on how to get there. But until we start seeing each other as human beings, there will be no bridging the divide. I refuse to be a part of the divisiveness any longer. I refuse to hate people I don’t know simply because they choose to vote for someone else. If we’re going to heal the country, we have to start taking steps toward one another rather than away.
https://gen.medium.com/ive-been-a-democrat-for-20-years-here-s-what-i-experienced-at-trump-s-rally-in-new-hampshire-c69ddaaf6d07
That’s the part that gets me — seeing 50-100% of Americans on the other side as evil brainwashed scum. Democrats have a definite lead on that but our side does it too. Some even post here.
“Trump according to some media is always one tiny step away from the cliff of disaster and yet, it never happens.” – OldTexan
Zeno’s paradox in action.
http://platonicrealms.com/encyclopedia/Zenos-Paradox-of-the-Tortoise-and-Achilles
Michelle Malkin pointed out that Ravelry’s bigotry started a decade ago.
http://michellemalkin.com/2019/06/26/anti-trump-crafters-a-decade-long-unraveling/
Holly Scheer at Federalist posted a plausible reason last year.
https://thefederalist.com/2019/09/03/ravelry-war-on-conservative-knitters/
The tweet is still active, and is cited by Wikipedia also.
Wikipedia: “Spouses Cassidy (nee Casey[3]) and Jessica Forbes founded Ravelry in May 2007. Their idea was to create a web presence for all fiber artists.”
That depends on what the meaning of “all” is, doesn’t it?
Sad, but their site, their rules.
It looks like Ms. Borysenko is tracking better with Ms. Scheer, and not letting her fears close her mind to how the conservatives she has met are actually acting.
Another liberal (his choice of label) discovers that, although conservatives are wrong about practically everything, they are actually mostly pretty nice people.
https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/02/13/a-liberal-in-trump-land/
There’s going to continue to be a movement of “nice folks” from the Dems to the Reps — until after the Reps get enough power, and will, to stop tax-subsidies to colleges that discriminate against Reps.
I’m glad for her to change, and it’s good that she did her own research. Notice what Trump has been saying? “Read the transcripts”.
The transcripts do NOT show what the Dems claim they show. Do they? Those who claim Trump was wrong, should be asked if they read the transcripts. If not, they have been brainwashed.
And have chosen to accept being brainwashed, by their inaction of not reading the transcripts.
Oh, I also found that, while many Libertarians were nice, many were not trustworthy, and more Christians were, more often.
Another exodus from Democrat to Republican is in the works, motivated solely by personal interest – none of these people were concerned about their preferred politicians ruining other peoples’ lives and livelihoods.
They won’t connect the gag-the-gig legislation to the other stupid things that Democrats vote for, unless they are as open-minded as Karlyn seems to be.
https://www.city-journal.org/california-gig-worker-law-revolt
Reminds me of the old Soviet joke, back when the Bolsheviks were trying to stir up support without guns.
At a rally, Nikolai and Ivan are enthusiastically supporting the speaker’s proposals to take land away from the aristocracy and give it to the people.
“Yes, Comrade, yes!” they shouted.
The speaker promised they would take all the cows from the kulaks, and divide them among the people.
“Yes, Comrade, yes!” they shouted.
The speaker then vowed to take all the pigs from the rich farmers and divide them.
“Yes, Comrade, yes!” Nikolai shouted.
Noticing that his friend had remained silent, he asked why.
“Well,” said Ivan, “I have a pig.”
Liberals seem to think their always right when their not and get all frustrated when their proven wrong Yes Democrats are sore losers