Stopppppppppp. Just Stop.

[Content Note: Bigotry; privilege; rape culture.]

The New York Times' Nicholas Kristof is 'splaining at us again: "Trump Voters Are Not the Enemy."

Tolerance is a liberal value; name-calling isn't. This raises knotty questions about tolerating intolerance, but is it really necessary to start with a blanket judgment writing off 46 percent of voters?

...Go ahead and denounce Trump's lies and bigotry. Stand firm against his disastrous policies. But please don't practice his trick of "otherizing" people into stick-figure caricatures, slurring vast groups as hopeless bigots. We're all complicated, and stereotypes are not helpful — including when they're of Trump supporters.

Deep breath.

Kristof is a wealthy, U.S.-born, non-Muslim, straight, white, cis man. The first way he is likely to be directly impacted by Trump's agenda is getting a tax break.

During the election, my next-door neighbors had a Trump sign in their front yard. When the news broke that Trump had openly admitted sexually assaulting women, that sign stayed up. Every time I walked out my front door, I was reminded that my neighbors were okay with a man doing to women something that was one of the worst things that has ever happened to me.

I was also reminded that they were okay with taking away my bodily autonomy. With harming marginalized people because of who they/we are. With supporting law enforcement policies that will get Black and brown and disabled people killed. With open hostility toward immigrants, about which I'm not supposed to care since my immigrant husband is, per their definitions, "one of the good ones."

I'm not "stereotyping" them. I'm judging them based on a choice they made and proudly advertised right on their front fucking lawn.

Where is the compromise with people who believe the things they do? We don't have a difference of opinion on the best way to achieve similar goals. We fundamentally disagree on who counts and who doesn't.

Not viewing them as my enemies is a luxury I simply don't have.

And it's because they view me as their enemy, and always have, even when I didn't regard them in kind.