Why Trump Is Still Calling Sen. Warren 'Pocahontas'

I simply don’t like to see conservatives responding in exactly the same way as leftist Cultural Marxists. If I don’t want to be a hypocrite, I have to call out over-exaggerated, emotional distortions and attempts at speech codes when I see them on the left or right. You are attacking Trump by distorting what he’s doing and advocating for silly speech policing apparently because Pocahontas was a Christian (as if this playful attack on Warren’s lies has anything to do with the historical Pocahontas anyway), while the leftists do the same thing because she was Indian. Both of these overreactions are wrong and, I believe, dangerous attitudes towards free and open speech, even if you have different motives.

You seem to be extra sentivite about my calling out the similarity of your posts to leftist reactions, while I was hoping you’d recognize what you are doing and why it is not ideal, so I’ll just wish you a good day now. I certainly hope the explanation is that you are young and were trained to react like this in your schooling. You can pretend now that you are simply attempting to set the record straight about Pocahontas’s life and times, but your earlier posts were clearly about Trump and the Elizabeth Warren controversy. I’m sorry but I don’t think truth-telling and standing for my principles without hypocrisy is “cowardice.” I would encourage you to honestly self-reflect on the opinions you express and think of their larger repercussions.

1) You accused Trump of “trashing a Christian” (Pocahontas) with no proof or even explanation that he did anything of the sort, even unintentionally. I would certainly imagine those who are not hyper-literal and lacking in humor can easily see that he was effectively and good-humoredly attacking Elizabeth Warren by making fun of her lies of Indian heritage. Any recognizable Indian name would do for the joke, but there are no other Indian women as famous as an Indian as Pocahontas. His comment had nothing whatsoever to do with the life and times of Pocahontas, and he was not attacking nor trashing her, rather obviously.

The idea that you floated that Trump (apparently pretty ignorantly) didn’t even know what sort of terrible thing he’s perpetuating is even more insulting and condescending toward the president. Of course, he knows what’s he’s doing and good for him! You might have a point if he were giving a history lecture or even discussed anything at all about the historical Pocahontas’s life, but he’s not and he didn’t.

2) To the left, Pocahontas is an Indian icon. Most of them don’t even know she was a Christian, nor would most care because of her racial background—race trumps all for the modern Cultural Marxist. Read some of their academic articles, and you’ll see that explicitly stated.

3 & 4) I did not call you a liberal a single time. I pointed out that you were reacting to Trump’s language in the same way as the left (just with different motives). I was hoping that you did this inadvertently and without self-reflection. I don’t really care if people police Trump’s language because of religious reasons and to defend personal sacred cows or because Pocahontas was Indian and a woman, since the end result is the same: stifling of free speech and normalizing of overwrought, unjustified reactions to speech the listener doesn’t like.

And could you please stop with calling me a “jerk” and threatening to physically fight me. Talk about being intolerant of other’s opinions and belligerently reacting to any criticism. And no, I wasn’t even judging you; just calling out your opinions, which I think are as threatening when coming from the right or left. At least your over-reaction to me explains your over-reaction to Trump’s speech and more humorously the Disney movie (as if almost every historical figure portrayed in culture doesn’t have the facts of their lives distorted—at least they made her a lovable heroine!). Have a good evening.

You are 100% correct. I apologize for insulting your sensibilities and defaming President Trump.

My opinion is still my opinion and I will still hold it, but I will promise not to share my opinion in anyway here since some of you have time to attack people for their opinions.

And I still do not think President Trump has an idea who Pocahontas really was, as very few people really do. You admitted yourself that most people do not know her back story.

You kept using the phrase “political correctness” against me, than comparing that to leftist positions, than adding that I was young and should grow out of my PC. Sounds like liberal to me.

I apologize for calling you a jerk, but the young remark really got my goat.

I didn’t say anything about fighting. I have met with quite a few people face to face and meeting people always has a more beneficial effect for understanding.

Now that you have shamed me into admitting my sin, and virtue-signaled your unparalleled stance for conservatism, please leave me alone.

You are very much misreading me, and I wish I had been able to make myself clearer. I have no desire to stop you from sharing your opinions (I truly hope you don’t!). I believe strongly in defending free speech wherever attacks against it are coming from. Maybe the fault’s mine that I didn’t make it clear enough what I was looking for in my posts? I kept hoping that instead of unexplained statements insisting that you weren’t being politically correct, you might clarify how what appears to be political correctness based on protecting a religious group (in this case a Christian figure) from what you claim is bad, attacking speech is in any substantive way different from the left’s political correctness to “protect” other religious groups and their figures (Muslims especially) or racial groups from what they claim is bad, attacking speech.

But oh well. Instead of actually explaining why I shouldn’t see this as political correctness, you preferred to focus on off-topic complaints about me for having the temerity to criticize your opinions. I hoped that either you’d provide an explanation that would put your comments in a different light, which would cause me to modify my opinion, or if there was no different light, you’d recognize the sort of people you’re siding with and genuinely modify your opinion (not because I thought you were liberal, but precisely because I thought you were conservative). I’m disappointed neither of these happened, but yes, let’s finish with this conversation if you wish. You’re more interested in discussing us than the actual topic anyway, and you seem to think Free Republic should be a safe space, where no one’s opinions are questioned or criticized. But, I hope—and I mean this totally sincerely—that you don’t let fear of criticism and (even heated) debate push you away from posting your opinions. Free and open discussion is the freedom that all other freedoms are based on.

I also want to thank you for apologizing for calling me a jerk and for explaining that your “meet me anywhere and see” was more an invitation than a threat. I too regret laughing at and ridiculing what I thought (maybe unfairly, who knows?) was an unjustified, silly accusation about Trump’s speech that in no way reflected what he actual did. But, I knew you meant it seriously and didn’t need to be so dismissive, flippant, and off-putting.

I should have explained my heart-felt objections more clearly and seriously then, because I caused you to think I was only trying to get a “rise” or “virtue signal,” whereas these are issues that I actually think are profoundly important. Your posts sincerely (I wasn’t criticizing just to criticize) reminded me of other familiar reactions to un-PC speech—just replacing “Native American,” “black,” or “Muslim” with “Christian” but otherwise pretty much the same. Your posts also made a history-based argument that only made sense if Trump is absurdly literally saying Warren and the historical Pocahontas are just alike (the only way his comment might actually be construed as attacking, or at least insulting, Pocahontas as far as I can tell—I see you’re still unwilling to explain this from your perspective), when the joke works only because everyone knows Warren is not at all like Pocahontas. She is left looking ridiculous in contrast with the prominent Indian woman she could never be like, regardless of her pretending. The press is always putting hyperliteral interpretations on what Trump says, even when they make no sense with the clear meaning he was conveying, so I was already fed up with that long before this thread started. And, yes, it reminded me of how the PC left often screams that minority historical figures are being maligned and misused, even when they’re not. Even worse as far as repercussions go, the argument that people should not humorously mention a good person’s name from history, even when the joke’s in no way on them, could apply to many thousands upon thousands of historical figures—and what a chilling effect on speech applying that sort of rule across the board would have.

I wish I had posted these clearer, more detailed explanatory arguments then (and I would hope you don’t think I shouldn’t be allowed to express these sort of substantive, on-topic views that merely go against yours). Really I knew the response I wrote instead with the “LOL” and smartiness is the sort likely to result in just getting the other poster angry. I would have preferred a more substantive discussion of the actual topic on this thread, but what I wrote then wasn’t conducive to that and pushed the conversation in the wrong direction. That was my fault. So really, I don’t blame you for getting mad at me over my tone. No hard feelings I hope. Everyone gets push-back on their opinions, especially when controversial; there’s no reason you should take it personally. Cheers.

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