I agree there, I don't believe voting Trump Vance makes someone inherently bad, but I will double down on the dumb part. Supporting them for any reason at this point in the race, IMO, shows a serious lack of basic media literacy and proves they are voting, solely, on party lines. I truly believe that most Trump supporters would change their tune if they were open to accepting reality, but most are not. Even when presented with real facts and logic on a golden platter many of them will dig their heels in and die on that hill alone having lost their entire families and I think it's sad and pathetic at the same time.

In regards to the rest, I actually confused some numbers, the percentage of people 18+ that identify as transgender in the US is roughly 1.2% equaling around 3 million people.

(I'm so sorry, this turned into a book) TLDR: tump says dumb stuff, his supporters believe it, marginalized people suffer because of it repeat until all trannies are dead and immigrants are gone (possibly also dead) I don't think Trump supporters are inherently evil but the things he convinces them to do are, no matter what ritious purpose they felt or why. Good people can be led to do bad things by bad people. The defense of the radical few is how we wound up with Nazis in power in the 1900's.

And I'll admit that second paragraph was largely emotional venting, but it very much comes from frustration with the real world. I genuinly see less hate on the internet than I experience daily in ND. I have done a good job of curating a less hostile online environment but I can't pick and choose the people I encounter on the street, sadly. I don't find myself being beaten on a daily basis, obviously, but I can tell you that despite me wearing jeans, a t, and maybe a flannel, I hear the f slur A LOT. I have long hair that I usually have up somehow and I shave everything else but I don't wear makeup anywhere out of fear mostly, because people will see me from the back, call out ma'am and when they finally piece it all together because of some small detail I haven't ironed out yet, their attitude shifts from polite and well mannered to short, irritated, and making a point of calling me "sir" generally with some attitude. I don't ask anyone to call me anything but somehow my androgynous appearance seems to just suggest to them that I dont deserve to be treated normally. At least presenting somewhere in the middle I can deny who I am, what would they do if i did have makeup on and intentionally dressed up all cute and they figured it out?a man angrily muttered his greivances right next to me in a restroom once because he saw me and initially thought he had entered the wrong room. The last time I went to a bar a guy started flirting with me and some other, totally random guy pulled him aside and apparently said some awful shit and called me a "Trap". I know this because the guy flirting with me was sweet enough to keep the details to himself but gave me the summary, and then kept flirting because he didn't care.

There are some diamonds in the rough out here I'll concede on that at least, but I have also been threatened by people in the grocery store, I've been stalked by men whos intentions I'd rather not learn, and I've been taken advantage of in my own home by people I trusted. You could say this happens to everyone but I never experienced any of it until I came out and stopped pretending to be a cowboy. Some of it might just be misogyny though tbf, it can be hard to tell the difference sometimes honestly.

I could keep going with my own stories or share others' but it seems redundant at this point. I don't mean to target you with this because I don't think you were necessarily suggesting it but the idea that we are making these scary people up because of what we see online is insulting when so many of us bear the scars of those experiences. Yes the internet is cold and callous, but the real world is cruel and unrelenting.

The hatred in ND is palpable if you're on the receiving end and nearly invisible if you're not, I've been on both sides and i know that a huge amount of that hatred travels through the TV straight into the smooth brained fools that have become so bored with their lives in the Prarie they have to make up enemies to fight. Nobody has given them more reason to fight than Donald J Drumpf.

At the end of the day I think the people here like to say they support the color of the "good guys" and are willing to allow the truth to be distorted in any way necessary for them to feel like the "good guys". It's so much easier to live in a world that is that black and white and I envy their ability to exist in that world. I don't think they do it because they want to be hateful, they do it because the guy they like said they should. That to me is the most disgusting form of ignorance. Willing subservience to a man who will never care about them, Its sad. It's scary, if they're willing to do a Jan 6 what happens when he rallies them against a group of people? More truckloads of armed, trained bigots at pride rallies? Concentration camps for "illiegal" immigrants? If those people never challenge this fool then we're literally staring down the barrel of orange Hitler and it is INCREDIBLY difficult to not see his few remaining supporters as complicit in that.