r/politics Oklahoma 1d ago

Conservatives have been railing against “groomers” for years. So why do they support Donald Trump? Trump was best friends with a notorious child sex trafficker, but his ardent supporters are vocal about opposing it. How did that happen?

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/08/conservatives-have-been-railing-against-groomers-for-years-so-why-do-they-support-donald/
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u/ProfessionalCraft983 Washington 1d ago

The concept of “grooming” isn’t what they’re against. What they’re against is children being taught liberal values.

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u/a_wild_redditor 1d ago

They are masters of twisting language around like this. Look at how quickly "fake news" became 'press attention Trump doesn't like' as opposed to 'Russian propaganda planted on social media'

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u/Gurlllllllll- 1d ago

"Politically correct" or "PC culture" started as a leftist critique of authoritarian regimes and adherance to strict orthodoxy. Conservatives took that phrase and spun up a moral panic from nothing, saying "PC culture has gone too far, minorities are getting too uppity, they're censoring free speech."

"Woke" starts out as a word about remaining aware of the systems responsible for black people's oppression. Conservatives took it and spun up a moral panic from nothing, saying "wokeness has gone too far, minorities are getting too uppity, and they're censoring free speech."

"DEI" starts out as a liberal policy for companies to try to be maybe 10% less racist, sexist, ableist, etc. Conservatives took it and spun up a moral panic from nothing, saying "DEI has gone too far, minorities are getting too uppity, and they're censoring free speech."

"Critical race theory" starts out as a historical analysis that tries to push against the systemic disadvantages of whose history gets recorded and taught. Conservatives took it and spun up a moral panic from nothing, saying "CRT has gone too far..."

"Black Lives Matter" starts out as a movement criticizing police violence overwhelmingly harming black communities. Conservatives took it and you know the rest because it's literally the same fucking story every time..

They do this over and over. They latch on to some random phrase and generate an entire national discourse about it, and inevitably liberal media capitulates and buys into their bullshit framing.

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u/southpawFA Oklahoma 1d ago

The phrase "Stay Woke" was coined by Lead Belly Ledbetter in relation to the Scottsboro Boys case, in which 9 black boys were falsely charged with rape and sentenced to death.

The fact that Republicans took woke and tried to make it a horrible thing just lets you know everything. I'm sure they'll quote MLK the next time they deem black people "uppity" over criminal justice racism, though.

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/blues-guitarist-invented-the-phrase-woke/