I had a discussion with someone today

[KitSileya]

87. Intent ("what is in his heart") is irrelevant

If someone steps on your foot, it doesn't matter whether they intended to hurt you or not, they are hurting you, and if they start arguing about how they didn't mean to hurt you, all the while keeping their boot on your foot, instead of immediately removing their foo and apologizing for the hurt they caused you, they are a bad person. Period. So you know that the person you were arguing with is a bad person, because they refuse to acknowledge the hurt of the actions, but would rather discuss the intent behind them, even when it is a pattern, and not a one-time mistake. The Jerk-in-Chief is stepping on so many feet, grinding his boots down on their toes, and he would rather discuss is he really intended to hurt them?

This is not something new, because this is par for the course in discussions with people of privilege. The person you were talking to is a man - check. Was he white? Another check. He has an Ivy League education - so middle class or higher. Check. People of privilege - cis straight white men, mainly - have never been too concerned with facts, and their education hasn't been meant to teach them to discern them, but rather they have been taught a curriculum that reinforces their 'superiority' over subaltern groups. Something is indeed seriously wrong, but that is not something new. What is new is that minorities are fighting back, and people with privilege are showing that they are indeed willing to burn the house down rather than share it. They are willing to kill indiscriminately if it reinstates their privileges and positions. Those with privilege are always willing to kill those who threaten our privilege - that is why white men and women voted for Trump.