#to be clear I think felons not being able to vote is actually a bad thing

[thebestusernamepossible]

Now that Trump is official a convicted felon, is he still the republican candidate??? Like SURLEY he can’t run?? Like felons can’t even VOTE in most places

[erikahenningsen]

i could be wrong and u could be uninterested in this take but i spend time referring to trumps criminal record because many of the people who choose to overlook it (those on the right) are also the people who usually maintain staunch belief in the broken law enforcement and justice systems. like im calling him a felon not just to name call but to remind people he’s been found guilty by a system that many of them believe in at the same time as they believe in him. idk if that’s anything just thought i’d mention it

This got long so putting it under a cut.

I hear you but my point is not that you can never talk about Trump's felony convictions. It's that you don't have to call him a felon in order to do it. This is not under any circumstances a defense of Trump or out of concern for his feelings. If I were to call him a felon he would literally never know. But there are people in my life who have (barely) survived incarceration would be deeply hurt if I were to turn around and start using pejorative language like that. There's a post with thousands of notes on this site that says something like "if a felon can be presidents then all felons should be able to vote." I think that post was made in good faith, and I agree with what it's trying to say, but it's a bit of an oxymoron because they're doing exactly what they're advocating against: defining a person by their criminal record. The majority of people who are incarcerated/criminal legal system involvement are not like Trump. They are people who are poor, or disabled, or queer, or Black or Brown and living in a system that is rigged against them. Most of them also did commit the acts they were convicted of, and should be held accountable. And they all deserve to be viewed as human beings as deserving of dignity and respect as you or me. All of these things can be true at the same time.

I don't direct this to you specifically because I don't think this is what you're saying, but "progressives" are very quick to exclude people with criminal records from their armchair advocacy and dismiss their pain and struggle just because they perceive these people as having done something "bad." And as someone trying to undo (or at least mitigate) the harm of the criminal legal system, it's really frustrating. People love to pick and choose who "deserves" sympathy not out of concern for those who are suffering but in order to follow trends (see: black squares on instagram). Offline, with people actually engaged in advocacy work, I rarely hear people use this language. And it's incredibly clear with the response I've gotten to one untagged post (again, not referring to you) that it's more about being self-righteous than actually trying to engage in a constructive dialogue.

You can find articles from The Marshall Project's Language Project here on this subject if you're interested in reading further.

(And again, just to make it super clear, this message does not upset or offend me. I don't mind having this conversation with people who aren't dumping nonsensical murder fantasies in my inbox.)