Should it be an eye for an eye or turn the other cheek?

I agree with you wholeheartedly, I never let my toddler talk about people like that, why should it be OK for a grown person to do it? A response in kind is not out of line here. We are not addressing the entire world when we diss him.
And please, the people who say “respect the office” make me wanna puke. If he doesn’t respect the office, why would I???

@chyna: “So my question is, why should anyone be respectful to trump when he is the most disrespectful man I have ever heard speak?”

Of course not. But I have to cringe at any reference to “orange”, “cheeto”, or “drumpf”, etc. There is so much to criticize him for – policy, etc. The whole “orange” thing is pretty weak.

Did someone actually suggest you respect or be respectful to Trump? I must have missed that.

Like @hmmmm said, there is a lot more to discuss than Trumps hair and bad tan.

Of course I find it ridiculous when I hear a demand for “respect for the president”, especially coming from the same people who spent Obama’s presidency trying to prove he was a Kenyan Muslim unfit for office. But it’s more about your character than Trump’s. In other words, if someone is disrespectful, that doesn’t mean you need to be disrespectful back. One can take the high road and not stoop to the level of the other person.

“An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.”

The problem with all of the insults is that they don’t get us anywhere. Calling Trump names doesn’t persuade people to change their minds. In fact, it almost always does the opposite. It causes people to dig in their heels and succumb to their most tribal attitudes. It encourages people to retreat into echo chambers, which in turn helps ensure that they will remain staunch in their views. And it inclines onlookers to just say “a pox on both your houses.”

So in the end, it’s not really about what Trump deserves. Even if he deserves every single insult that has ever been thrown his way, it’s still counterproductive to indulge in them. If you want to convince anyone of anything, you’ll never succeed if you start in a way that activates their mental barriers.

I also agree with @hmmmmmm and @Demosthenes. If you have a strong policy case against Trump, the insults only serve to undermine that. And it doesn’t make sense to say “being disrespectful is bad, so I’ll be disrespectful to the disrespectful person.”

Oh, @Demosthenes, that is just a bit sanctimonious, to suggest that we curb our bile towards the person who is directly responsible for undermining the efforts of people trying to save countless lives, and thus ruining so many (and killing some). Your high horse is a true sign of privilege. I am angry and will lash out on behalf of my friend’s 23 year old grandson who just had a stroke, thanks to Covid, because his unemployment ran out and he went back to work and was exposed. And on behalf of my other friend who has lost three family members, same circumstance. Or, frankly, me, because I am so susceptible that I would go down very hard, and if I didn’t die would be permanently damaged. Or Dr Fauci who gets death threats. Or the governor of Michigan and her family who is just trying to protect the citizens of her state and is in mortal danger because the petulant child in the White House has stirred up his moronic followers against her.

Depends on what your goals are, and whom you are talking to.
If you are running for office, or are trying to convince other people of your position, then of course it is advantagous to “take the high road” and “be the reasonable one”.
But if the one you are talking to has proven repeatedly to be ‘beratungsresistent’, why bother?
There are other problems with that approach, too.
Staying respectful when the other side throws around insults every other second, you are seen as elitist, weak, or an elitist weakling. It can also be seen as a tacit approval of their behaviour.
If you directly address the other side’s behaviour, you are painted as a whiner, as ‘PC’, or as trying to “distract from the issues”.

@ragingloli I agree with you. Either way, you lose by either engaging small minds or you lose by indulging the negativity.

Maybe it was a silly suggestion, to attempt to elevate conversational quality here. Even on a site that appears to be 90% liberal, we still can’t do better than the current President, I guess.

All one has to do is honestly objectively describe Trump and his actions, to say terrible things about him.

To not say things about Trump’s horribleness as POTUS is to omit the endless glaring terrible truths.

And yet, yes this does get used as fuel for counter-reactions by those who somehow feel aligned with him. I don’t think that’s worth editing the truth though.

I’d say however that it is best practice to try to stick to true objective observations, and to focus on the most important ones, rather than the orange skin or lesser flaws. There’s no need to exaggerate or dwell on minor things, when he never quits doing awful things…

The amazingly depressing thing to me, is how many people there are who seem aligned with racism, police brutality, xenophobia, environmental destruction, misogyny, corporate giveaways, idiocy, corruption, etc…

I am guilty of calling the Tweeter in Chief, orange because, in general, I try not to use exact spelling to reduce the odds of search spiders finding the quote. He and his supporters have teams of trolls spreading disinformation as well as looking for places his name pops up.

Actually “orange” is a less offensive than calling somone Sleepy J or Pocahontis.
I could do a whole lot worse and still be within bounds of decorum. Recently I’ve seen “Typhoid Donny” circulating. Hilarious.

As far as Trump and his name calling goes, ignorance of it is the answer.

Name calling is not appropriate nor should it be “returned”.

Most of the names are attached to specific incidents that precipitated the name calling, but the names and events that precipitated them should be dropped and the business of policy issues, or the uncovering of actual crimes, should be focused upon.

I cannot agree with the premise of “turning the other cheek”—however—as the names mentioned above were reactions to specific offenses and insults, not just Trump hurling random insults at random people. Trump was the one who had the option of turning the other cheek and chose instead to return the insult with an unflattering label or nickname.

@Yellowdog I agree. My husband and I were discussing that tonight. My suggestion was to tape something on his mirror he had to look at every morning that says “I am the President and will act accordingly.” haha!

I think “Asshole” is sufficient.

Ah hell. I forgot. “They go low, we go HI!”

If you want to go higher, call him “Assmouth”. ;-p

I don’t care what anyone says. Labeling Trump as Don the con is very descriptive.

I just saw a couple of signs in the familiar blue with white stars, saying: Bye Don!

Now that’s funny right there I don’t care who you are. That there is funny.

LOL!!

Love Larry the Cable Guy!

I see trump is STILL talking about “crooked Hillary “ in his speech last night in NC on 10/21/20. He needs to get over her. I’ve also noticed he is throwing in cuss words that I’ve never noticed him using before.
I think he’s getting nervous about winning.