Thread/

Anyone who knows me knows I speak openly about my history with abuse and ptsd,because, well, fuck the stigma. I’ve related a lot of my personal experiences with my abuser to Trump’s behavior, both his words and actions.

1/18

I’ve been wanting to broach a particular aspect of the consequences of Trump’s abuse of the American people, but it may not sit well with a lot of you because, and rightly so, you are angry. You are angry with Trump’s diehard supporters.

2/18

I’m angry w/ them too, for several reasons, mostly how they’ve fallen for his anti-democracy, anti-science, racist, xenophobic, homophobic, misogynistic & ableist propaganda, because to fall for that type of propaganda you have to harbor at least some of those bigoted views

3/18

The divide between pro-Trump & anti-Trump has never been greater than it is in the present day. It feels like it could ignite into something truly catastrophic and tragic at almost any time. So, with that in mind, I wanted to tell you a little story about my abuser.

4/18

At first meeting he was charming. He said all the right things that I wanted to hear. I felt seen. Valued. Prior to meeting him I was just coming to terms with a rape that happened when I was 15. I was 31. It started with panic attacks, which sent me to the ER...

5/18

.... who sent me to a psychiatrist, who sent me to a therapist. Needless to say I was mentally pretty fucking raw over something I had buried in my memories, but which had clearly affected my entire adult life at that point. I was extremely vulnerable.

6/18

I now know that my abuser could sense my vulnerability and he swooped right in. He clearly had experience at this because he didn’t make a wrong move until five years into it. He saw my weakness and exploited it to his advantage.

7/18

So the next step, after luring me in with his charm and promises for a great love and life together, was the isolation. He knew that my friends and my family did not know much about what I was struggling with and he played that card. They didn’t really love me....

8/18

.... they didn’t really care about me. Only he truly cared about easing my pain and bringing me happiness. Every chance he could he would exploit any stressful family interaction or any slight I felt from my friends. Soon he was doing the same with my career and how they ..

9/18

... we’re only exploiting me for their gain. I was a teacher and so I often felt used and exploited by the administration and government bureaucracy. He even eventually got me to stop seeing my psychiatrist & therapist. I was completely isolated at that point, which took..

10/18

... about a year. And when he knew I had no family, no friends, no therapist, no career, literally no support anywhere except for him, that’s when he got violent. For personal reason I’m not going to go into those details. My point in telling you about how I fell...

11/18

... into such an abusive relationship is that my abuser was also a sadist and a psychopath and a narcissist. The parallels I see about how I was manipulated into that relationship and how Trump has successfully cut off about 30% of Americans, a lot of them once...

12/18

... our friends and family, I can’t ignore it. Now, I’m going to say something here that will piss off a lot of people, but I know how it feels to be the victim & to be blamed for being the victim. I’m not saying that all Trump supporters are victims, I’m not saying that..

13/18

... that they’ve done nothing wrong, I’m not even saying they were once good people, because I just don’t know that. What I am saying is that Trump is an abuser, has been his whole life, and he is an expert ...

14/18

.... manipulator. I can’t tell you how often I see my abuser in Trump’s words and actions. As a victim, the shame I felt has been the fucking hardest part of my road to recovery, and so I’m just asking you to keep in mind b/c Trump will turn on his supporters...

15/18

... as soon as he no longer needs them to stay in power. That day isn’t far away, and there is going to be a period of time when, as his supporters figure it out, that they may be looking for help and support to figure out what exactly happened to their lives.

16/18

I just ask that when that day comes that you try to remember that most of us are, to some degree, Trump’s victim. It’s going to be tricky as fuck dealing with all the emotions and grief we all will have as a result of his abuse...

17/18

... but I’m asking that we try to keep the majority of the blame where it belongs, and that is with Trump and his cronies. I will not blame one individual who voted for him for the entirety of his crimes. That’s not right.

18/18

PS. When I’m taking about Trump supporters in this context, I’m not talking about American Nazis, most of whom organized well before 2016 & have hitched onto Trump to further their Nazi goals. They all need to fuck off & die. I’m referring to the average Fox “news” viewer.