Heed the anger of the rebels among us, Hong Kong

I implore all who have been seized by an attack of schadenfreude, having witnessed what transpired on November 8 in the US, to rein in the gloating. The pleasure of seeing other people’s misfortune will fade very quickly, particularly in this case. The president of the world’s sole superpower can make life hell for people living outside America, too. It’s not just ethnic minorities, Muslims, and gays and lesbians in America who need to watch their backs.

With Trump as US president, let’s sit back and enjoy the show

Hatred and anger make a very dangerous combination. And America is not the only place suffering from that. It would be a grave mistake, especially for other world leaders, not to take this opportunity to look inward. There, on their own soil, they will find the very same angry and hateful people – their fellow citizens. You can’t shut them up or suppress them. If there is one thing humanity can learn from this, it’s this: you can’t even ignore them.

And so began the Great Age of Trump, with an agenda fuelled by social media and hunger for revolt

That is essentially what happened in the land of the free. A huge portion of the people of that vast and diverse country feel neglected and ignored by the political establishment. Whether they rightfully feel so doesn’t matter. They fought back the only way they feel they can: they rejected everything – including reason, basic human decency and respect, progress and enlightenment – seen to be a part or a product of the political elite. It’s change they crave. And, more specifically, they want change in the political focal point.

Electing Donald Trump may not actually help these people find the change – or attention – they crave. But that is not the point. The lesson to take home here is that Trump became the 45th US president not because he “tells it like it is”. He did it by saying what his voters wanted to hear, and by being one of them.

President Trump and the end of the world as we know it

Yes, Trump is guilty of exploiting racial and religious tensions, and he ascended to power by exploiting them. His win – a win endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan, a win made possible by supporters like the woman who proudly made and wore a “Trump can grab my [arrow pointing downwards]” T-shirt after the Billy Bush and Trump recording was made public – is difficult to accept for a lot of people. It is painful because it is a win for “the wall”, and the slur calling Mexicans rapists. It is a win for the plainly wrong belief – despite clear evidence to the contrary – that the current president was somehow not born in the United States. Trump’s win is, in part, a victory for what CNN commentator and attorney Van Jones called “a white-lash against a black president”. And, yes, it is a win for the misogynists.