This is not a politic … oh fuck it, this is absolutely a political post.

It’s a political post because a supporter of Donald Trump — the Republican Party’s candidate for president (that’s important to say out loud. This is not a fringe party. This is about half of the country) — wore the shirt you see above.

Which is, let’s just say it, deplorable.

When you wear a shirt like this and espouse these sentiments, you’re attacking my family. You're attacking my friends. You're attacking my students. You're attacking all of the people I care about the most in my life.

And that’s not OK. That can’t be, to use the parlance of this election, normalized. This can’t be allowed to become the way things are.

It’s easy to criticize the media. It’s easy to find fault with the coverage of this year’s election, no matter what side you’re on. It’s easy to say that the country is seemingly losing faith in its institutions, including the press, and it’s facile to opine that we’re living in a “post-truth” society, whatever that means.

It’s also easy to say that this attitude is nothing new, that people have always hated the press, have always had these kinds of opinions, that in fact the press isn’t doing its job unless some people hate it.

But there’s a difference between those esoteric, ephemeral ideas and that man’s shirt.

It’s the difference between being hidden and being out in the open. And I find nothing comforting about attitudes like this being out in the open. I find no comfort in the fact that a segment of the population feels comfortable in espousing these ideas, in wearing those shirts openly in public.

(And yes, this extends to all the vitriol and hate against all of the “other” groups that has come out in this campaign. But this is a media blog, so I’m focusing on that).

This can’t be OK. This can’t be what’s normal and accepted. This can’t be who we are.

And there’s only one candidate who believes it is.

Vote tomorrow. Please.