I'm not gonna claim to know why it's okay to kick a fellow zoner to the curb like this, but here we are.

Look, I get that virtually noone here likes Trump. I also get that he keeps coming up, since it's an election year. And I do get how Zoners find it difficult to accept someone who they feel turns a blind eye to their "idol's" actions. But for the love of Christ Almighty, that doesn't mean hounding your compatriots, and kicking them to the curb - especially when they're bringing out an olive branch!

Lemme itemize the issues here:
1. Rob's reasons for supporting Trump then, and possibly now, are his own. I'm not going to claim to fully understand them, and neither should you lot. If I had to venture a guess personally, I'd say it's because Rob's a Republican, and Trump was the Republican pick. He toed the party line, same as most Democrats, and now he's stuck toeing the line to a president he described earlier in this thread as "a daily embarrasment", and holding his position both in the hopes of making something salvageable of this whole mess, and because the blue corner is calling for blood. If the GOP picked another candidate, I honestly think Rob would embrace that in a heartbeat. While the “cradle-ripping” comment is poor in taste, this should be less of a cause for hatred, and more of a cause for reason. Hear him out (and I do mean hear, as in “listen”, NOT as in “place under kangaroo court inquisition”), and find out why he feels that way. You don't fight hatred with hatred, after all.

2. Trump is not the only President with issues. Obama ramped up drone strikes, government surveillance, and broke and/or severely compromised on more than half of his campaign promises, Bush's sole redeeming quality of his presidency is that Trump makes him look good by comparison, Clinton was a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/clinton-i-wouldn-t-have-done-anything-differently-lewinsky-affair-n879721"; title="Clinton "I wouldn't have done anything differently"" rel="nofollow">adulterous sexual predator... the list goes on and on. Honestly, barring Carter, I can't think of a single decent president in the last 50-70 years. Both sides of the aisle are rotten to the core, in my opinion; having pots and kettles calling each other black doesn't make the other side any cleaner. Ironically, the Trump-hate train has the blue side of the zone more fixated on Trump than any conservative I've personally met.

3. This is supposed to be the Habitable Zone; i.e. being “capable of being inhabited or dwelt in“. The Zone is supposed to be a sociable meeting place where people from all walks of life can gather and chat, hopefully about space. When half of the population begins a crusade against the other half, calling them in Hank's words “knuckle-dragging trailer trash”, “traitors... not worthy of respect”, and in RL's words “the enemy of decent human beings”, “the barbarian at the gates”, “having the blood of over 100,000 Americans on his hands”, “deserves no sympathy”, and a classy choice, “deserves to burn”. All of that is just from this one thread, directed towards one person. ONE.

Who the fuck talks like that!?!?

Would you lot willingly march up to anyone in person, and spout the same things to their face? Would you do it to a friend, a family member, or a stranger? I'm willing to bet good money your answer's a hard “NO”.

There's a extremely simple Golden Rule to the internet: Remember the Human. The person on the other side of the pipes isn't some monolithic, campily-evil force. They're another human being like you, with their own thoughts, joys and concerns that you do not know. Thanks to this never ending cycle of vilification, we likely never will. You've all made your blanket opinions on the red corner quite clear over, and over and over, to the point where people like RobVG won't want to open up, because people aren't looking for explanations or enlightenment on points of view, because as he said, “This place has drifted away from that”. Noone wants to open up to people who want only fire and blood.

It's okay to disagree. It's okay to have differing points of view. Work together to understand each other, and to work with each other, not to find cause to call the other man “enemy”, and tear them down. Podrock was right about this belonging on flame - as a matter of fact, it feels like most posts on the zone belong there nowadays. Like Pod said, “what the actual fuck!?”*

*If you want me to censor “fuck”, then fuckin' forget it.