Please leave your impulses, biases and or accusations about who is or isn't a shill at the door of this thread and please read all of it before responding. It's nuanced.

"God-Emperor Trump" can do no wrong in the eyes of many of his most devoted supporters. Even when he does something completely contradictory to what they voted (or say they voted him) in for. Citing bullshit like 4D Chess.

This thread, I hope, will serve as a warning to those of us who are united against Trump to not do the same to deify our idols/heroes/politicians whether they be Noah, Colbert, Oliver or Hillary, Bernie and or Gary fucking Johnson.

I feel it is relatively safe to assume, you've all seen the talk surrounding Colbert's recent cock holster joke. Just to be clear before going any further: I don't want to talk about the joke or explain any issues anyone had with it or why it was or wasn't homophobic. There are numerous other threads for that.

What I DO want to talk about is one thing that I saw come up in defense of Colbert a lot. People kept furiously defending him by bringing up his past actions, and while it does have a level of merit to him as an ally, it doesn't change what he did, regardless of whether or not you think it was right/wrong/acceptable.

Repeat after me:

• Good people are capable of doing bad things.

• Good People are capable of doing bad things.

• Good People are capable of doing bad things.

It is easy to forget that good people are capable of doing bad things because honestly any single person with a base level of decency looks like a motherfucking goddamn Saint in comparison to the League of Absolute Evil that Trump's Party is.

It would be wise to avoid making the same mistake of T/D and hailing anyone beyond successful but *fallible human being/ally.

---

Another tangent I want to talk about is caution around T/D's faux-outrage. While it is plenty true that T/D jumped the hell right onto the #FireColbert gig, that doesn't mean there wasn't legitimate criticism to be had (FYI: Crit can be legit even if you don't agree with it). I feel like people have lost sight of why groups like T/D or /pol/ try to imitate the language of the left in the first place. Ultimately to discredit them from within, and honestly I think that happened here. I saw plenty of legit LGBT folk get pushed aside because of the muddied waters.

I know it is tough. I know dealing with T/D online and IRL (If you are so lucky/s) can be a huge drain. I know people are just fucking tired of it all but those united against trump should be more discerning in their judgment about somethings, otherwise you might actually have ended up telling someone their existence wasn't valid or that they don't sound like a real person by calling them a trump/putin bot/shill.

I saw many people, whose accounts weren't new and had a storied history of participating in LGBT spaces getting shoo'ed (shill'ed?) away in the past 48-72 hours here as nothing more than an alt. It shouldn't even be that hard to be all that discerning considering that most Trumpsters go straight to #FireColbert while many of those with legitimate grievances have an issue with what colbert has done, not with who colbert is. Not to mention they tend to understand if Colbert gets fired, he just end up in another similarly cushy gig just like the last time it happened with the colbert report/suey park.

Even if you do end up in a conversation with a trumpster about it, ultimately, "so what?". If they bring up legitimate points, lets address them (once again, crit can be legit even if you don't agree with it). You'll do more harm pushing them away, possibly putting someone (non-trumpster) at risk, then you will by being duped into having a lowkey argument with an actual trumpster (exceptions of course if you just aren't capable because it is mentally exhausting sometimes).

In summary: * Avoid Idol Worship * Good people are capable of doing bad things * Try to give the benefit of the doubt, not because trumpsters deserve, but because you could do more harm to someone who isn't a trumpster

(Again, not looking to talk about the colbert joke itself, just some of the surrounding issues with it).