To my family who chose Trump over me: Was it worth it? (CNN article)

[DFW]

39. "They seem to enjoy inflicting cruelty"

This seems to be a more common denominator than is commonly pointed out. From justifying children in cages to a cop emptying his gun into the back of a man seated in a car, some people seem to get satisfaction out of cruelty (physical and mental) being inflicted, whether by strangers they will never meet on other strangers, or by themselves on family members. It's disturbing to imagine that so many of us harbor an innate sadism that makes us glow with contentment when others that have done us no wrong are humiliated or abused. And yet, that is the impression I get. I agree that the media play a huge role in this. In the South, where I'm from, some churches fill the same function.

Here in Germany, in 1945, there were few groups of people more quickly cured of worshiping Hitler than those who were forced to tour the concentration camps immediately after liberation, when the barely living and the stacked piles of corpses were there for them to see and smell, and no longer possible to deny. Cruelty is easy to inflict from a distance or over a computer screen. If you have never shot an unarmed black person in the back, it's easy to fly a Confederate battle flag. If you have have never seen up close, and heard a confused child in a cage cry, it's easy to fly a Trump banner from your porch. If you've never watched a family member slowly choke to death on lung fluid through a glass window, it's easy to turn on Fox and proclaim that the statistics and the danger from the Covid-19 virus are wildly exaggerated.

I pity those--apparently not few--that have to deal with family members with this mentality. I know these people are out there. Seventy million people voting for Trump weren't conjured out of thin air. I just can't get inside their heads, and am one of the fortunate who have no family members who are of this persuasion, so I have never been forced to make an "either or" choice. It must be gut-wrenching.