The Slate advice columnist  Carvell Wallace published a letter from a woman who was distraught because her niece wears a "Make America Great Again" hat to parties.

Dear Care and Feeding,

What do you say to your 18-year-old niece wearing a Make America Great Again hat at a family party?  Respect her autonomy as an adult to peacefully display her political views?  Counsel her privately that her choice to wear the hat makes you and other people uncomfortable?  Ask her why she's wearing the hat?

 – Make My Niece Great Again?

Oh, no – the niece is wearing a MAGA hat!  I'm confused!

1. I thought young people hated Trump.

2. I thought women especially hated Trump.  How does this fact play into that narrative?  The answer: not at all!

But don't worry – help is here!  Here's part of the response:

Dear MMNGA,

It is my personal belief that if fewer people thought Donald Trump was good, the world would probably be better off.

And it is my personal belief that if fewer people were leftists, not probably, but 100% for certain, the world would be better off.

But it's also my belief that I can't – nor should I – feel responsible for changing the mind of every such person I encounter.  As a black person, that strikes me as absurd.

As a white person, the idea that there is a "black" point of view strikes me as absurd.

I didn't create the mess of this country's wild history with race and violence, so why should I be consigned to be running around trying to fix it for people?

Hey, Carvell, I'll bet you have created this mess, by voting Democrat over and over and over.  Compared to other countries, America is a model of freedom and upward mobility and success for all people.  People who incite racial hatred and, yes, violence are the ones who have created the toxic culture that is now called a "mess."

However, I am assuming that you are a white person (call it a lucky guess) ...

Carvell has white-dar, like radar for white people.

... so the situation is different for you.  And in this case, you have a unique opportunity. You love and trust someone who currently supports Donald Trump, which means that you have an existing relationship with that person outside of politics.  This means that you can talk with your niece without her having to doubt that you love her, and loving your niece has an extra value here.  Not only are you motivated by an objection to bad forces in the world, but you also have the chance to be motivated by a desire to keep someone you love from being a part of bad forces in the world.

Carvell sounds as if he were advising someone against joining al-Qaeda.

I do believe that love is one of the most powerful forces of change.  It does not mean that loving your enemy will keep them [sic] from killing you (people really love getting that message twisted). 

Does this mean that Carvell doesn't advocate understanding for radical Islamists?

But it does mean that we are generally more courageous, clear, and therefore effective when motivated by love than we are when motivated by hate or fear.

Carvell is not motivated by hate or fear when he tells us there's something wrong with being a Trump-supporter, right?

You may hate seeing your niece in this hat.  You may fear what her wearing this hat means about her, or what it means she may think of you.  But what you must prioritize above those things is love. ... With that in mind, not only can you talk with her, you must talk with her.

In other words, the niece is morally tainted by wearing the MAGA hat.  In Carvell's mind, the niece is actually doing the opposite of virtue-signaling.  The niece is villain-signaling.  Carvell says it's not about the hat; it's about the ugly belief system underneath the hat that enables a woman to choose to support Donald Trump.

Carvell claims to believe in love and understanding but cannot understand how good people support Donald Trump.  He writes a message of hatred against Trump-supporters couched in words of love and affection.  For increasingly Orwellian liberals, that's doubleplusgood.

Ed Straker is the senior writer at Newsmachete.com.

Image: James McNellis via Flickr.