I just want to reply that this

Although I try to remember there's reasons they became that way, I still am not foolish enough to think they're easily redeemable.

and this

That's all I wanted to point out - the fact there are still humans behind those masks with a wide variety of backgrounds. This is something that people too easily drop as a factor when making judgements about others.

both hit home for me. I was born into the white religious conservative world. And when I was younger, more naive, and of course much angrier, some of the hollow rhetoric on the right seemed to make sense.

So when looking at some of these awful people out there, it can be a very “there but for the grace of god go I” situation for me. And their humanity deserves that benefit of the doubt.

However, the very unfortunate reality is that every villain has a sad story. I mean, imagine being raised by a monster like Frederick Christ Trump Sr.

So yeah I try to remember that my ignorant conservative relatives didn’t exactly get shown all the truths in the universe and still chose bigotry over community. They have a warped view of the world for various reasons.

But on the other side of that coin, the sad ubiquity of heartbreaking stories can’t keep people from fighting back when appropriate.