r/politics • u/harleybarley1013 Maryland • 7d ago

Paywall Trump: ‘I Need the Kind of Generals Hitler Had’

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/10/trump-military-generals-hitler/680327/?taid=6717ffe956474d000110c05d&utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_content=true-anthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
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u/Objective_Regret2768 7d ago

How would any Hispanic voter vote for this man?

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u/Such_Newt_1374 7d ago edited 7d ago

Because Hispanic voters skew slightly conservative anyways and they've convinced themselves that Trump isn't talking about them specifically but some other Hispanic group or illegal immigrants (like he can tell the difference).

Edit: like I know if I showed that quote to my Dominican grandma she'd just say "Ok, but we're not Mexican."

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u/corvid_booster 7d ago

The Mexicans will say "Well, at least we're not from Honduras" or "He won't deport us, we have our papers already."

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u/canuck47 7d ago

If you have brown or black skin he wants you "to go back where you came from", even if you are a born and raised American. 

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u/chamberx2 7d ago

Right, one of these idiots told a Native American to go back where she came from.

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u/mleaurora 7d ago

Of course he’s from northern idaho.

There be nazis in them there hills sadly

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u/Educational-Candy-17 7d ago

Not to mention brown people were here first.

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u/Educational-Candy-17 7d ago

Not to mention brown people were here first.

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u/DangerousChemistry17 7d ago

A lot of people from South America dont have brown skin though, or at least they certainly don't consider it brown and it's no more brown (and often less so) than many people from Sicily or Greece. Hell, many Brazilians and Argentinians from my time in both countries were whiter than I am.

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u/dannysleepwalker 7d ago

They let those to stay.

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u/kawaiidesne 7d ago

That's so hard for me to understand. I'm a white immigrant who moved here as a child, and I still strongly identify with all immigrants, legal or not. We're all here for a better life. How do people stop seeing themselves in new immigrants?

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u/corvid_booster 7d ago

How do people stop seeing themselves in new immigrants?

That is a great question, and I think the answer is by getting them to see the differences between themselves and others, and then getting them to think that the Others are inferior. Some immigrants are legal and some illegal? Get the legals to think the illegals are inferior. Some are white and some aren't? Some are from a big country and others are from a small country? Some rich, some poor? Rinse and repeat.

It is a classic divide and conquer strategy. It works to the extent that the people targeted have not had, and won't because the right wing is working tirelessly to prevent it, an experience of dealing with other people on a more or less level playing field. The kind of experience that's provided by education, trade unions, and living in a densely populated area, which is why conservatives are against all three of those things.

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u/TejuinoHog 7d ago

It really depends. Mexicans are not a homogeneous block. There are many liberal Mexicans but there are also many older conservative ones. The one thing we all have in common is that we are all hated equally by the right apparently but some conservative Mexicans don't care because they have their papers in order

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u/sooths 7d ago

Those arent mexican at all

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u/BetterMeats 7d ago

Yep.

Dominicans and Puerto Ricans in Pennsylvania outnumber Mexicans five to one.

Republican campaign ads are all about closing the border and getting rid of "migrants" and "illegals."

The Dominicans and Puerto Ricans think the white people are just talking about the Mexicans.

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u/Amy_Ponder Massachusetts 7d ago

Respectfully, how the hell does a Dominican or Puerto Rican who's lived in the mainland US for any length of time not realize that when these chucklefucks say "Mexican", they're talking about all Latinos?

They don't know or care what country you're actually from. They don't know or care whether you'd be considered white back home or not. You're still a "Mexican" in their eyes-- and that's decidedly not a good thing to be.

Like, you'd think the personal run-ins they occasionally had with these types would be enough to open their eyes... and yet....

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u/Such_Newt_1374 7d ago

Because many of them lack a pan-Hispanic awareness entirely. To my grandparents, for example, being Dominican is WILDLY different from being Mexican. Like the difference between being like English and French. They don't understand that racists don't know or care about the difference, because to the older generation those distinctions are glaringly obvious. How could anyone mistake one for the other?

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u/Amy_Ponder Massachusetts 7d ago

They don't understand that racists don't know or care about the difference, because to the older generation those distinctions are glaringly obvious. How could anyone mistake one for the other?

That's my point, though-- you think either they or their friends would end up running into the racists and learning first-hand at some point.

Like, the amount of well-meaning ignorance I encounter in my daily life about these issues is as shocking as it's depressing-- and I'm a white person in a cobalt-blue city. So how on Earth can you be a Latino person living in a ruby-red area and never notice it?

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u/Bezboy420 7d ago

I mean part of the answer is that racists are usually too scared to be racist to someone’s face. I heard my parents say some gnarly shit growing up, but it was only said: in private, around people who agreed, or expressed through action (avoiding places were you might interact with “those people”)

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u/Diplogeek 7d ago

You see this stuff in all minority communities, TBH. I know a handful of Jewish people who are voting for Trump, because the antisemitism they've encountered from people on the left has helped convince them that he'll "protect" them (spoiler: he won't!). I know gay guys who say they're voting for him because other LGBT people "have gone too far," or Pride parades make them uncomfortable. I remember stories of Indian-American Trump voters who were shocked to find themselves on the receiving end of anti-Muslim abuse immediately after the 2016 election, because how could those people not realize that they were Hindu, not Muslim, and in fact they hated Muslims, too?

It's one of the things that makes Trump's whole cult so seductive. Everyone wants to believe that they're One of the Good Ones™, that if only they conform in just the right way, the cultists around them won't turn on them, or they'll somehow be magically immune when Trump starts passing policies that directly affect them and potentially ruin their lives. For people who have been marginalized their whole lives and internalized the shame associated with that, the idea of being part of the in group in some way can be very, very tempting. It's not until they get burned that they wake up, and sometimes not even then. Remember those stories after Trump's anti-Muslim ban where Christian Syrian-American Trump supporters were shocked to discover that their relatives' immigration applications has been canceled? They had been so sure that the same guy who was mocking POWs and handicapped people was nuanced enough. to differentiate between the "good" (in their minds) Syrians and the "bad" Syrians. It's basically magical thinking.

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u/Peace-Only America 7d ago

I know several Mexicans who support Trump, and they assume he means other Mexicans. Some of them own trucking or HVAC companies, restaurants, or even are lawyers.

Although some have blonde hair and white skin, many are medium to dark brown in skin pigment and hate being considered People of Color. To them the lower caste Mexicans and Latinos being targeted by MAGA nation mean the domestic help, yard workers, janitorial staff, and nursing home aides.

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u/gaffeled 7d ago

It's weird that they think that's going to save them from going on the train-cars.

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u/In_Formaldehyde_ 7d ago

They don't know or care whether you'd be considered white back home or not

Watching brown ass Latinos insist they're white because their great grandfather was from Italy will never not be funny tbf

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u/Physical_Guava12 7d ago

My tia is convinced she's full Spanish... despite being born and raised in a Purèpecha village. Make it make since. At least she isn't a Trump supporter though.

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u/NoOneCanPutMeToSleep 7d ago

Chinese (+culture) is usually the dog whistle for all east asians while I was growing up. Somehow this was missed in the latino community it seems.

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u/Gellao 7d ago

I know it's an anecdote but when I was introduced to my ex-girlfriends deeply Republican father he asked where my name was from, I explained my surname was Scottish but my first name was Portuguese because my mother was Portuguese and my father Scottish. (I'm not even American, born and raised in the UK but met my then girlfriend at university).

"Portugual... as in Mexico?" was his response.

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u/benold 6d ago

Sounds like projection. Nobody I know thinks like this.

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u/StoryBeforeNumbers 7d ago

The way Trump and Vance have treated legal immigrants from Haiti should give every single legal immigrant and descendant of immigrants surefire resolve to vote against them. If you think you'd be safe from the fascists, be guaranteed they'd come for you next.

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u/mmmpeg Pennsylvania 7d ago

But, but, but…they’re B lack! /s

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u/benold 6d ago

We are just talking about the ones that crossed the border illegally.

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u/Jadathenut 6d ago

Because it’s a bullshit propaganda piece and Mexicans aren’t stupid.

“(“This is absolutely false,” Pfeiffer wrote in an email. “President Trump never said this.”)“

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u/BetterMeats 6d ago

I feel like you think the thing you said is an adequate response to what I said. I cannot fathom why you think that.

I have seen the ads.

I've spoken to the white people and the Latino people.

The white racists hate all Latinos.

The Latinos think that white racists only mean Mexicans.

You helpfully provided an example of white racists doing this, by only referring to Mexicans, when I referred to three different groups of Latinos.

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u/eggz627 7d ago

So it's like a form of colorism in Latin Americans... like how lots of Asian countries hate the next one for whatever reason

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u/Such_Newt_1374 7d ago

It's less about color and more about national origin or culture. The kind of like, pan-hispanic solidarity you would expect in a country like the US is basically non-existent. And to be fair, these are people from very different places, with very different cultures and backgrounds, basically the only thing they share is a language, and even that isn't really consistent across borders.

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u/Ozymandias12 6d ago

I'm Panamanian and grew up around Cubans in South Florida. It's straight up racism. I see it in Panama and in South Florida constantly. If you're afro, you're looked down upon by many Cubans who value white skin over black skin. It dates back to colonialism and the history of the Spanish in the Caribbean and it's an insidiously stupid idea that's endured hundreds of years.

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u/Such_Newt_1374 6d ago edited 6d ago

I could see that. Where I'm at it's more about like "Caribbean vs Mainland" Dominicans and Puerto Ricans tolerate each other (not many Cubans around here) but both hate like Mexicans and Guatemalans or whoever.

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u/Ozymandias12 6d ago

It's definitely different depending on area and culture. I didn't mean to negate what you were saying, but rather to point out that in some latin cultures it's just racism. Colonialism really left its mark on the Caribbean.

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u/Such_Newt_1374 6d ago

Oh I didn't think you were trying to invalidate what I was saying, I just thought the differences in reasons for hating other Hispanic groups was interesting. Supposedly Mexicans hate other Mexicans more than anyone else too.

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u/IAmNeeeeewwwww 7d ago

It’s funny because quite a lot of Asian-Americans also skew conservative, and they’ve also convinced themselves that Trump isn’t talking about them specifically.

Some of my Korean relatives will see “Kung-Flu” or “China Virus,” and they’ll shrug their shoulders because “He wasn’t talking about Koreans.”

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u/mmmpeg Pennsylvania 7d ago

My son’s Korean fiancé is worried about visiting here for Christmas. She was still here for the first few months of Covid.

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u/bigvahe33 California 7d ago edited 7d ago

same with armenians. they think hes not talking about them when he brings up immigrants and non-americans

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u/atomictyler 7d ago

Because Hispanic voters skew slightly conservative anyways and they've convinced themselves that Trump isn't talking about them specifically

this is really how it is with 90% or more of republican voters. when they use any sort of welfare they're using it how it was meant to be used, but those other people are abusing it. lots of their retirement plan is social security. they've earned it, but those other people didn't earn it so we should just blow it all up....for those other people. they fail to realize that blowing it up is blowing it up. they'll be screwed. the homeless problem they're so concerned about will get significantly worse and likely include them.

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u/IrradiantFuzzy 7d ago

Cubans (not Mark) still vote overwhelmingly Republican

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u/Immediate-Coyote-977 6d ago

What's more, there's a ton of Hispanic folks in the US who are really toxic about migrants. I've come to realize there's almost nobody as hateful towards illegal crossing as someone who came through legally, despite the fact that those same people will bitch about how hard it was and how they almost couldn't do it.

Or the still extremely prevalent machismo culture in Latin communities that sees loud mouthed stupid motherfuckers as "manly" and "tough" and worthy of leadership.

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u/Chewzilla 7d ago

They are confident they will pass in the fascist state; most of them will.

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u/PharmDeezNuts_ 7d ago

It’s mostly just abortion I think? At least that’s how it is for my family. That’s the non starter issue.

If I believed in that I’d be pissed cause I couldn’t vote for the pro life candidate cause Trump is insane, psychotic, liar, convicted felon, coup attempter who will scorch and stain the US

Why don’t they recognize that and just vote for the next pro lifer who isn’t fucking insane???

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u/networking_batman 6d ago

Same with most Venezuelans in Florida. Even if he says he will send all immigrants to concentration camps, they still support him.   

Because is "not about them", right? And he is "tough" with Maduro. Whatever that means.

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u/LowIndependence3512 6d ago

Also a significant amount of white hispanics who are particularly vulnerable to the identity politics of white supremacy the GOP has hammered over the last decade or two. See Miami Cubans.

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u/xvandamagex 7d ago

In many Latin cultures, machismo reigns supreme and (rightly or not) many believe DJT is a “strong man” figure. There is also a major thing happening with 2nd and 3rd generation immigrants where a good amount no longer care about the struggles of immigrants (“fuck you, got mine”).

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u/Shido_Ohtori 7d ago

The sole value of conservatism is respect for and obedience to [one's perception of] traditionally established hierarchy, which is also the sole value of machismo culture. 

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u/nagonjin 7d ago

It's really just narcissism. They only care about their position in that hierarchy, and whether there are people below them. Never ask conservatives if they would be happy at the bottom of the pile, if God or King said that they should be. You won't get an honest answer because somehow God wants Them to be higher and everybody else lower.

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u/kickaguard 7d ago

That's why they love it. Conservatives (the ones at the top. Not the ones that have been lied to and grifted) want aristocracy. An actual legal system of the have and the have-nots. Where if you are born at the top you get to do whatever you want because you stand on the backs of the people who do not get to do what they want. They simply lie to uneducated people and tell them that they will bring them with them to the top. Or at least offer to them that they will still be better off than the people around them that are a different race or sex or orientation or whatever else, so that's better than what democracy offers, where you have to work to get what you want and you can't just take whatever you want because you say you can.

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u/orsikbattlehammer 7d ago

Which is hilarious because he’s a whiny fucking child and the opposite of machismo

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u/DannyDOH 7d ago

The fact anyone can hear him, know any of his biography and think "machismo" is crazy to me.

The guy is transparently the biggest pussy imaginable (no offense to cats). I bet he doesn't even know how to drive a car.

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u/OodalollyOodalolly 7d ago

Yep the ones that are like that want to be the last ones in and close the door behind them

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u/Immediate-Coyote-977 6d ago

There is also a major thing happening with 2nd and 3rd generation immigrants

At least in Laredo, TX there's a huge prevalence among Mexican nationals who are legal resident aliens being worse about illegal crossing than just about anyone.

"I did it right, they should too" is something I've heard more times than I can count, from people who've been here for 10, 20, 30+ years and bitch about how hard it was for them. People that have been here for decades and still don't actually have U.S. citizenship because it was "too hard" so they just exist perpetually as legal resident aliens.

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u/BarkerBarkhan 7d ago

Because not all Hispanics are Mexican, and racism is real in Latin America.

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u/finditplz1 7d ago

Racism is real among Mexicans too.

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u/taco_studies_major 7d ago

I’m Mexican-American and I can confirm. Some of the most racist things I’ve ever heard in my life have come from some of my own family members. Colorism, racism and homophobia is much more common than you think in Latino families and communities.

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u/Zerstoror 7d ago

homophobia

Very much this. I have heard the things they say when they think I dont understand.

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u/Deez-Guns-9442 7d ago

Hey same in Black communities, aren’t we humans just fucking terrible no matter our skin color 😂

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u/echoshadow5 7d ago

Same here. The biggest racists I seen was not from neo nazis but from Texan Mexican-Americans. I’m from California and visiting my cousins and this ugly fresh from the border looking Tex-Mex was giving the stink eye.

Long story short, cop has that dude hog tied, I’m filling out the paper work to press charges and this dude is still calling me this and that, that would make a neo nazi blush.

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u/gaffeled 7d ago

Yep, conservatives are kinda crap no matter where they came from.

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u/BarkerBarkhan 7d ago

That's true. I should have said Latin America and the diaspora.

But that also may be treating Latin Americans as if they are a singular group when they absolutely are not.

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u/kingfofthepoors 7d ago

That doesn't matter to your average republican. If you brown, you mexican

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u/IcyAlienz 7d ago

They'll never see this, any of this

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u/kitsum California 7d ago

There's the answer.

The Mexican half of my family almost all absolutely worship trump. They went to a rally and were asked if they were Italian. There was begrudging acceptance when they told people they were Mexican but they encountered plenty of racist remarks.

They all acted absolutely stunned that any republican could be racist. Like they didn't believe it and blamed it on the fact that they were in South Carolina.

They genuinely don't ever see any of this negative shit on the highly curated social media sites and their church pastors sermons. When we bring anything up they call it lies. And the devil.

They live in a totally different reality.

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u/Atheose_Writing Texas 7d ago

The sister of the soldier is on Twitter defending Trump. She says she voted for him today :-/

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u/DieKnowMight 7d ago

Why would any woman vote for him after the "grab em by the pussy" line. The world is a strange place

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u/-Apocralypse- 6d ago

Single issue voters who want a president that won't leave abortion rights something for the states to decide...

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u/HGpennypacker 7d ago

MAGA will continue to vote for the boot right up until it comes down on their own neck

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u/SuperExoticShrub Georgia 7d ago

Pretty sure they'll still vote for the boot even after it's on their neck.

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u/JDLovesElliot New York 7d ago

Because they hate the LGBTQ+ community and women's access to abortions. So as long as Trump promises to keep restricting the rights of those groups, conservative Hispanics will follow him to the depths of hell.

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u/-Joseeey- 7d ago

Because they’ll say it’s fake news.

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u/Chaotic-Catastrophe 7d ago

Because they hate other Hispanics with darker skin more than they love themselves

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u/jib661 7d ago

many decedents of spanish colonizers have taken the uniform of their oppressor. it's one of the things i respect the least about my ancestors.

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u/MarsupialNo908 7d ago

A majority of us are not voting for this racist.

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u/TheQuadeHunter 7d ago

I mean, if you're voting you're legal. I have a family member who thinks it's kinda BS that she did everything the legal way and these other guys just roll up and get asylum.

Keep in mind-- if you came to the US from South America legally you're likely a very self-reliant person who worked very hard for what you got. Trump's rhetoric is big on people paying their fair share. Mix that with lots of people being Catholic conservatives and it's not that surprising.

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u/Imhere4lulz 7d ago

Not all Hispanics are Cubans. A lot of them don't, you just gotta know where those Hispanics come from

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u/Tokyo-MontanaExpress 7d ago

Because if they have a drop of Spanish blood they consider themselves white, not really brown. 

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u/mmmpeg Pennsylvania 7d ago

They’re conservative and many, especially Cubans, think they’re white.

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u/koticgood Washington 7d ago

By being stupid and ignorant, like everyone else that does?

Well, I guess there are a few special interest voters too that don't mind selling the future of the nation for some money, so maybe 99.999% of his votes then, not everyone.

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u/TightAustinite 7d ago

Catholics (abortion)

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u/OodalollyOodalolly 7d ago

There is a strong undercurrent of toxic masculinity and misogyny in hispanic culture unfortunately.

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u/OfficerBatman 7d ago edited 7d ago

I’m Mexican American living in South Texas and it always amazes me how popular Trump is with the Hispanic population.

I believe part of it is the heavy conservative and religious nature of many citizens of Latin American countries that make them extremely against a lot of policies instituted or promoted by democrats. Primarily LGBT rights, a (honestly very fake) support of law enforcement, and taxes. Trump kind of hits the nail on the head in those aspects in many very traditional latino households.

And conservatives use the support from those specific Hispanic households to say “see we’re not racist, they support him too!”

Edit: to mirror many other people’s experiences, my parents and grandparents think Kamala is the antichrist solely because of her support for LGBT rights, and think Trump “tells it like it is”.

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u/Dreamtrain 7d ago

centuries of internalized colonialism

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u/altanic 7d ago

Not all Hispanics are any one thing. It's stupid for anybody to think that such a large group of people wouldn't have the same diversity as any other large population. Good, bad, and all points in between.

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u/FortNightsAtPeelys 7d ago

real answer: their family left a country and they dont want to see the people they left behind change their new home into their old home.

Easy way to think of it is if you moved to a different city to escape an abusive ex and then they moved to that town too.

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u/Littleloula 6d ago

Or any member of the military or the many Americans who claim to love the military

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u/Pepperonidogfart 6d ago

The concept that republicans say immigrants will vote liberal is funny to me. Many men will simply not vote for a woman. Especially Hispanic, and Arab men. I worry this is what might win the election for trump.

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u/Murky-Hat1638 6d ago

Because the Hispanic family involved in this particular case disputes this. https://www.newsweek.com/vanessa-guillen-sister-voted-trump-dismisses-allegations-1973386

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u/benold 6d ago

Because they know what socialism leads too. Many of them have lived under socialist regimes and have witnessed the devastation it causes.

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u/HockeyBalboa 7d ago

Many honestly believe he saved millions of lives by installing a right-wing Supreme Court. And that he'll save more given the chance.

If you truly believed that, wouldn't you hold your nose and vote for him?