Ok, so I’m assembling a list of the worst things Donald Trump has said and done, at any point in his long and illustrious career. I’ve got dozens of examples already, but I don’t want to miss any good ones.
If you’d like to help out, please post any you can think of in the comments. These can be vague — “didn’t he once say something along the lines of x?” — to specific, with links to sources, if you’ve got them.
Thanks!
@Joekster
There’s a lot of that going around in Christianity.
You have my sympathy.
@Violet Beauregarde
Bummer. I’m sorry about that.
OTOH, I kinda get a kick out of the fact that her real name, assuming that she would ever go by a nickname, is Andi Hardie. Andy Hardy is a character in a long-running movie series. Mickey Rooney played Andy Hardie, and Judy Garland played opposite him in some of the films.
The all-American character Andy Hardy — optimistic and willing to listen to reason, with a sense of humor about himself — is pretty much the opposite of Andrea Hardie, a doom & gloom Canadian who is proud of being completely unreasonable and has no sense of humor about herself.
Yeah, I went there: Andrea Hardie is Canadian (and thus cannot vote for Trump).
https://www.amazon.com/Andy-Hardy-Collection-1/dp/B0066E6QGG
He actually got busted for housing discrimination in the 90s. According to the WaPo article on the case, “Trump employees had secretly marked the applications of minorities with codes, such as “No. 9” and “C” for “colored,” according to government interview accounts filed in federal court.” TBH, I don’t know why Hillary isn’t pasting that quote all over the universe.
But I think the Trumpiest thing (though not the worst by any means) is that he lied repeatedly about having been asked to appear on Last Week Tonight. He lied so confidently about it that John Oliver actually believed him and had to check to be sure he hadn’t accidentally invited him.
@Kat: That…that is hilarious! Andy Hardy’s evil twin!
Just a quick aside to maybe clarify something–apologies in advance, @Virgin Mary, if I am misunderstanding what you originally meant here:
Calvinism is a theological camp within (Protestant) Christianity, but not a separate religion from it. Calvinism’s central tenets do not have anything to do with wealth–and if followed by the book, Calvinism actually tends to be averse to the idea that people can deserve God’s favor (whether or not God’s “favor” is seen as being connected to money).
Proponents of the so-called “Prosperity Gospel” (the idea that you can earn/claim/believe your way into wealth through God’s favor) can be Calvinists or non-Calvinists. Many Calvinists are staunchly opposed to the prosperity gospel, and others adhere to it.
So tl;dr:
Calvinists = subset of Christians
Prosperity gospel ≠ Calvinism
Only some Calvinists = prosperity gospel-ers
Just for the sake of clarity for anyone reading.
P.S. I’m saying this as a non-Calvinist Christian who a) teaches a theology class, and b) is really skeeved out by the whole “prosperity gospel” thing, finding it to be grossly unbiblical (as well as grossly, er, gross).
Littlelurker, that was amazing. Bravo. Bravo. Thank you for that, it really made my morning.
Speaking as a feminist man, my heart is absolutely broken that Hardie wouldn’t date me. Whatever shall I do?
EDIT: What Kootiepatra said. I grew up attending the United Reformed Church, who are Calvinists. Were we Christian? Yes. Did we believe in the prosperity gospel? No.
From a South African perspective, the prosperity gospel is strongly coded Black, and is not something that a white church would ever consider preaching. Is it the same in America?
@EJ
Now you get to experience the same sense of relief that we women feel when MGTOWs say they won’t try to date us. 😀
Edited to respond to your edit:
From what I know of the American church scene (I’ve had an interest in it for a while) the biggest preachers of the prosperity gospel tend to be white men.
@EJ (TOO) – Here in the U.S., the prosperity gospel has adherents in both Black and white churches, but the majority (though not 100%) of the biggest prosperity gospel leaders I can think of off the top of my head are white.
I can’t give anything better than anecdotes re: the demographic breakdown, but it seems like it’s not mainly tied to one race. It seems that poorer folks (skewing more heavily POC, thanks to racial inequality) view it as a potential escape from poverty, and richer folks (skewing more heavily white, also thanks to racial inequality) view it as a comfortable explanation for why they are so well off and how they can justify living in luxury.
@sunnysombrera:
@Kootiepatra:
That’s very interesting, thank you. The way that racial coding differs from one country to another fascinates me, especially on things which we all have in common like religion.
Here’s another awesome example of Trump’s horrible attitudes and behaviour. I thought of this last night along with the other piece from Chris Hayes, but then my memory stalled and I couldn’t recall it. Trump has been seriously disrespectful and denigrating to Native American Indians and their descendants who don’t look sufficiently Native Indian for his liking and get ‘special rights’.
Read: http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/add-native-americans-team-trumps-list
Watch: http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/trump-in-1993-they-don-t-look-indian-716425283908
Almost every item on her list boils down to being repulsed by the idea of having a conversation with a member of the opposite sex, or really doing anything more than letting him hump you for a couple of minutes when he’s in the mood. Those feminist men want to talk! And hang out! And do goofy fun things! How does that even work with a man?
Prosperity Gospel cuts across racial lines in the US. You’ll find people of all ethnicities taken in by it, but it is almost always adhered to by up-and-coming suburban folks who have enough money to say “See? I’m highly favored by God because look at my healthy bank account.”
It’s classic confirmation bias: you want to believe you’re great because you’ve ‘made it’ sho you seek out a church that tells you that, tickles your ears, and pilfers your pockets. Show me a PG church whose pastor doesn’t have a private jet blight with “tithe” money and I’ll show you someone who isn’t doing PG right.
I’m sorry to any of those who I have maybe offended, my observations were not supposed to be an attack on the Christian faith, merely those who wish to use the label ‘christian’ to defend their obnoxious greed and bigotry. Many Christians work tirelessly to help the poor and sick, and are genuinely carrying out Jesus’s work on earth without prejudice. However, the people who use their religion to promote hatred, averice and intolerance need to be pointed out, in case any well meaning and sincere Christian is deceived by their reprehensible teachings.
Of course Calvinism sees itself as Christian, but it is a gospel of greed and capitalism. I think people need to educate themselves to this fact.
There is a good article here which explains it.
http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v18n3/berlet_calvinism.html
Jesus said it was easier for a camel to go though the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Some Calvinists even try to distort this by saying that the ‘eye of the needle’ was a name given to a narrow city gate. This is historically false. Jesus meant an actual sewing needle. By this he meant it was impossible.
Christians should distance themselves from doctrines which put emphasis on material wealth and luxury as a expression of God’s favour, and develop spiritual wealth, happiness and kindness to their fellow humans, whatever race, gender, sexual orientation or religion they are. There is such a thing as leading by example.
Judging the poor and sick as being in that condition due to their own moral failings is bigotry in the highest, and an affront to the Jesus they claim to follow.
@kootiepatra
I see the appeal of prosperity preachers like TD Jakes and Creflo Dollar to poor and disaffected black people in a similar way to the obsession in rap and hip hop music with ‘bling’. They percieve wealth and prosperity as a white privilege which they wish to claim for themselves. I think it goes back to the pre abolition days, black peoples wanting to claim the same status symbols as their white oppressors.
At the risk of appearing parochial, this comment made me ‘Hmmm’ a bit….
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/donald-trump-has-refused-to-rule-out-dropping-a-nuclear-weapon-on-britain_uk_56fcd9cce4b0c5bd919ab4de
Virgin Mary, I like you and I think you’re a valuable member of the commentariat here, but could we not have this sort of thing, please?
There are horrible members of every sect, and there are churches of every sect which have been taken over by those horrible members and used as vehicles for scams and oppression; but this does not mean that we can generalise about everyone in those sects.
In the mind of a greedy person, Calvinism can be about greed, yes. In the mind of a nationalist it would be about nationalism, and in the mind of a mystic it would be about mysticism. The same people would take the same attitudes towards any other sect of Christianity, or any other religion.
Maybe not the worst thing Trump ever did, but as someone who’s spent some years in Aberdeen (Scotland) I can tell you most people there have a list of their own regarding his golf courses etc. I believe there are lawsuits and accusations of bribery relating to our (generally considered incompetent to corrupt) council. He has built golf courses, or tried to, on ground that should be (is?) a protected nature reserve, essentially privatising our coastline; he has said all kinds of ridiculous things about improving lives and how Aberdeen supports him, when he has ruined lives and is uniquely loathed by most city residents. I think with a quick Google you should turn up some stuff, and there have been public consultations online which should be easy enough to find (you may have to search for the Aberdeen City/Aberdeenshire Councils website consultations) that are often full of angry residents with some interesting facts and figures.
She didn’t say “Calvinists,” she said “Calvinism.” And Calvinism, as a philosophy, has a very ugly notion at its core: That some people, the “elect,” are just better and more God-beloved than others, and nothing we can do will change that. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature, and pointing out that flaw within its ideology is entirely legitimate.
As far as Trump goes, can we hold him accountable for raising at least one kid who thinks it’s acceptable to go kill endangered species and take trophy pictures of it? Every time I think of that elephant tail photo I want to release the hounds.
@Virgin Mary
Just a slight thing, which absolutely doesn’t make any of your points less valid, but :
These guys are to hip-hop what televangelists are to religion. Their thing is bling is really the same as any other dipshit who flaunts their wealth, it’s just coded differently according to the specific culture.
On the other hand, hip-hop has always been carried by amazing musicians who are as far from that as can possibly be. Here’s a current favorite of mine – I won’t risk translating her lyrics from french to english but if someone feels up to it, go ahead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNDlBiZ-lXw
(yeah, totally defending my ‘sub’culture, sorry 🙂 )
You’ve got the old Playboy interview where he praises the Chinese for how they handled Tiananmen Square, right?
Well, the whole Haiti thing was pretty ugly. And then there was this…
@Virgin Mary:
I absolutely agree. But my point was simply that Calvinists do not believe by dint of their Calvinism that God’s favor leads to material wealth and luxury. In fact, the Calvinist teachers I’m most familiar with recoil pretty hard at the prosperity gospel stuff. I’ve got plenty of beef with Calvinism as a doctrinal stance, but prosperity gospel is not endemic to it. People of all kinds of denominations and theological persuasions buy into the wealth/luxury stuff, Calvinists included; and people of all kinds of denominations and theological persuasions reject it, Calvinists included. Not all Calvinists are prosperity gospel-ers, and not all prosperity gospel-ers are Calvinists.
@Michael P
The “Total depravity” point of Calvinism *should* undermine the idea that anyone is “better” or “more God-beloved”, and so Calvinists who are serious about understanding that doctrine would take exception to your statement. However, I do agree that the overall way Calvinism frames “election” is problematic, which is why I don’t adhere to it. I have no doubt that plenty of individuals latch onto the idea as a way to feel superior to others, even though the theological system doesn’t technically support that–but the theology itself is not sufficient to explain their attitude.
@both – I’m not offended on behalf of Christianity (or even on behalf of Calvinists), but I do think it’s important for the sake of engaging with the ideas here or elsewhere to be clear on what it actually inherently teaches. It’s a big tent, so you’ll find a lot of variation within it, and lots of people don’t fit into the “prosperity gospel/I’m the special-est” category.
To be sure, you’ll find plenty of wealthy privileged uncompassionate jerkfaces in Calvinism, just like you will in other branches of Christianity, just like you will in other religious or nonreligious groups. But the teaching itself doesn’t demand that one has to be a wealthy privileged uncompassionate jerkface.
Did anyone actually take a look at the link I posted?
http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v18n3/berlet_calvinism.html
The book ‘God’s Own Country’ by Steven Bates, an English journalist and writer for the Guardian is a good starter as well.
@Kootie
Droppin the knowledge *interspersed clap emoji*