Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Trumpshit: A Definition

Trumpshit: A Definition

A person is a piece of Trumpshit if they are a Trump supporter who aggressively spreads fake news in various media and especially on the internet in the course of attacking and criticizing other people.  Of course, there are some individuals who have been Trumpshit for quite a long time, well before Trump appeared to run for president, with Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity obvious examples.

I note that this very derogatory term may apply to people who are in many ways in their private lives estimable and admirable. They may love their families and be nice personally to those around them, as well as contributing positively to their communities through various civic activities, including official, religious, or informal.  Some of them may be simply ignorant suckers who have been led astray by the broader purveyors of fake news, but like those who are overly religiously enthusiastic think that they must "spread the good news" of the fake news they have come to believe to others, even people they do not know. 

The recent phenomenon of people who are friends of friends of friends on Facebook commenting on sites they are at best peripherally connected to has led to more of this as somebody nobody knows on a particular FB site will suddenly turn up denouncing people there in unpleasant terms while spewing all kinds of pro-Trump fake news.  This has gotten worse recently, and seems to be gaining as the Trumpshit are unhappy that he lost the popular vote and are trying to get those who did not vote for their hero to "get over it" and behave differently from how Republicans behaved after Obama won in 2008, although he won the popular vote solidly.  Even Putin has gotten into this game, another prime example of Trumpshit on a global level.

Oh, and as for those pieces of Trumpshit who are highly religious and doing this stuff, especially if you actually do know that you are spreading lies, you have a worse problem than others.  You are putting your immortal soul in danger.  So, being called "Trumpshit" is the least of your problems.  Really.

In the meantime, happy new year, everybody, and I shall be in Chicago for the ASSA/AEA meetings, so hope to see some of you there where we can commiserate and all that.

Barkley Rosser

2 comments:

Impartial Spectator said...

Oh, and sorry that I won't see you in Chicago. Partying in Paris ...

rosserjb@jmu.edu said...

Gosh, IS, somebody has to do it, I guess. Tant pis, :-).b