I turned on my computer and began scrolling through the New York Times homepage a few nights ago. As I looked, an article caught my eye: “Trump Received Unsubstantiated Report That Russia Had Damaging Information About Him.” While I try to avoid “unsubstantiated reports,” the topic intrigued me so I decided to take a closer look. I read the article, learning what the reports actually contained, and then researched more into the report. As I scanned the internet, I found countless articles written by CNN, Buzzfeed, MSNBC, all of which reported this same story.
At this point, something hit me. I thought more about what the reports said and what kind of impact it could have on the very fabric of our country. I then thought about how calm I felt. I was not appalled. I was not disgusted. I was not even surprised. Donald J. Trump has turned this sort of nauseating news into a common, everyday occurrence.
I want to be clear, I do not know whether or not these reports hold any truth and are not simply more “fake news,” as Trump claims. Maybe they are. That, however, is not the only thing that matters. What matters is that credible news organizations reported that our president-elect is possibly being blackmailed by an authoritarian, repressive government that stands for everything the United States does not and that I was not startled in the least. I obviously care whether or not these reports are true, but I care equally about the normalization of these should-be bombshell stories.
After over a year of racist, xenophobic, and sexist campaigning, I wasn’t sure if Trump could do anything that surprised me anymore. After mocking a disabled reporter and denying any wrongdoing, I wasn’t sure if Trump could do anything that surprised me anymore. After praising dictators like Vladimir Putin and Saddam Hussein while name-calling anyone who opposed him, I wasn’t sure if Trump could do anything to surprise me anymore. Now, after hearing about this potential damning report connecting the future leader of the free world to Russian prostitutes and blackmail and feeling nothing, I am sure that there is nothing Trump can do to surprise me.
That does not mean I will stop caring about his actions, or stop fighting him and speaking out against his hateful speech. It simply means I will no longer be taken aback by it. This is a problem not only because it shows how extreme the president-elect is, but it’s also a problem because it empowers others to do the things he does. If we are no longer shocked by hatred or violence, that allows those who are hateful and those who are violent to act with less pushback. We need to de-normalize hate-speech. We need to de-normalize oppression. We need to de-normalize Donald Trump.
