So I’ve been doing something new and exciting—for me anyway. I’ve started buying some Twitter ads for this blog (it’s going well, thanks for asking). As you can imagine, exposing my tweets to a large number of strangers has done some . . . interesting things to my mentions. Random rude people just come with the territory, but there’s one particular type of comment that I’ve been getting that has gotten my attention:
Lots of people think I’m a Trump supporter.
Obviously, the people making these comments have spent no time on my site. Even a quick glance will show a half dozen posts criticizing Trump.
Which means the comments were prompted solely by the tweet. And what does the tweet say? Absolutely nothing about Trump, or even politics. After thinking about it, I’ve concluded that people assume I’m a Trump supporter because my tweet was not explicitly anti-evangelical.
And that’s got me worried.
I know. It’s a few angry cranks on Twitter. Twitter cranks get angry about literally everything for literally no reason. But I think it might be a harbinger of things to come.
The terms “evangelical” and “Trump supporter” seem to be becoming increasingly synonymous. Considering the spectacle some evangelicals have made, it’s easy to see why. Rumor has it that 81% of evangelicals voted for Trump (though I wrote a blog post about why that number may be misleading). Evangelicals just went to a political rally where Trump told them they may lose everything if they don’t help him. Heck, Eric Metaxas is writing a series of Trump books for kids called “Donald the Caveman.”
With all that, it’s easy to see why casual observers would make a connection.
What does this mean going forward? I . . . don’t know. (Sorry if that breaks some kind of blog rule). But for those of us who already struggle with their evangelical identity, it’s yet another wrinkle to consider.
On the bright side, I’ll have plenty to blog on for a long time.
*Laughs nervously*
*Looks wistfully out at the stars*
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Photo by Found in an Attic