Opinion of Santander

[Santander]

Was neutral on the guy from the start, now total and complete HP.

Thank you for at least saying so openly.

[Santander]

Absolutely vile HP. Backing Trump was tolerable, but the breaking point was when he starting dissing my homeland.

Canada or the UK? Those are the countries I spent my pre-adult life in, and I have nothing but love for them.

Of course you'd think I'm an HP though. I wouldn't expect anything otherwise.

[Santander]

Honestly, I don't mind being underwater in my Atlas "approval rating". If I only posted truths universally acknowledged, I would not be saying anything worth posting.

[Santander]

Got around to changing my vote to HP after yesterday and today's sorry events.

What were the posts that triggered this?

Among other things, he defended apartheid.

I defended the dictionary definition of Apartheid, not the implementation or any of the actions conducted under the banner of Apartheid. Segregation, separate but equal, second-class citizens, etc. are all wrong.

[Santander]

Dictionary definition of Apartheid (as per dictionary.com):

1. (in the Republic of South Africa) a rigid former policy of segregating and economically and politically oppressing the nonwhite population.

2. any system or practice that separates people according to color, ethnicity, caste, etc.

That is a very casual definition of Apartheid. Apartheid in its original form meant "separateness", meaning dividing South Africa into separate nation-states largely based on ethnic lines. The Boers, Zulus, etc. would all have their own countries that they could call home, with sovereignty and international recognition for all. Unfortunately, this idea was quickly perverted by whites who wanted all the land for themselves, while marginalizing blacks to guest worker status, and from there it became the morally indefensible system that came to be known as Apartheid. Even de Klerk, the man who dismantled Apartheid, defends the original idea of sovereign nation-states.

I simply believe that we are too black-and-white when we talk about many political and historical figures. Human beings are complicated, and we should view them as a whole and not allow individual faults to overshadow all of their other characteristics.

[Santander]

That's not a very good argument, since being mocked by AAD is a badge of honor to me.