My Thoughts on Comments

     The commenters expressed many fears, but one thing I thought was interesting was that the word "fear" didn't occur even once in any of the comments. Surrogate words like "bully" and "weapons" were included instead. None of them wanted to come across as weak, and since fear is often equated with weakness, you get a whole lot of bravado and tough talk to conceal that fact. 

     An underlying fear I observed could be characterized as the feeling of being pushed aside and losing certain privileges because of new elements appearing in society. More specifically, it is the fear of change. Latinos are second only to Asians as the fastest growing group immigrating to the U.S. (according to a Pew Research Center article dated December 16, 2014), and many of the comments   reveal a great deal of resentment about this. 

   In fact, I feel that the fear of change is the dominant fear among the commenters. One person mentioned dog-fighting in relation to Mexico and Mexican people, which to me shows the fear of another culture, perceived as violent and coarse, displacing the culture many Americans are used to. This person was so wrapped up in this fear that she failed to mention Michael Vick or how common dog-fighting is in the U.S. Furthermore, the mention of ISIS in relation to Americans uncovers a fear of personal safety.

     A reference to a sacrifice of a personal fortune in order to "make America great again" speaks to not only the fear of change, but the fear of being inferior and inept, thus looking to a larger-than-life public figure to assure the return to the more familiar social fabric of the past.

     Fear of loss is another fear I saw a lot of here. Losing a job is always difficult, but in America, it is very common to think of one's work or career as a personal identity. Fearing an abstract idea, such as masses of immigrants taking over all the available work, can very easily transfer itself to a fear of one's place in the world being lost. Losing a job can also mean the personal losses of money, possessions, self-respect, and status among one's peers.

     A less pronounced fear I detected is the fear of ridicule. One commenter mentioned that she thought the presidential race was becoming a mockery because of recent events. Prejudice is another form of ridicule; one commenter sought to change the perception of Latino immigrants by explaining the struggle of her mother and of her ultimate success.

     The values and beliefs reflected by the comments were manifested by expressions of both admiration and disdain toward Mr. Trump. The racial lines among the people commenting were made clear by the way they reacted to his claims. Each person obviously favors and values more their own ethnicity. What emerges in the comments supports this; some people want a stop to the immigration of anyone from another culture, and some want to reform and improve it for their benefit. All of them share a sincere belief of their own correctness and in the incorrectness of anything that conflicts with them, demonstrating a cultural bias. 

     One commenter values aggression and a show of strength, believing that the people of Mexico should revolt, but don't have the weapons or the organizational know-how and ability. Another commenter complained about political correctness and valued Mr. Trump's "not backing down", evidence of valuing free speech even if it is divisive or offensive.

    The one commenter I thought seemed the most reasonable was a product of illegal immigration. There were facts about this person's family and its experiences with immigration. Evidence of hard work and love for family were presented. It was rather defensive in tone, and a couple of half-insults found their way in, but on the whole this message was based on experiences, and not opinions. 

     Most of the other commenters sounded unreasonable to me in that they used hyperbole, ad hominem attacks, and twice baked talking-points for the bulk of their arguments. They projected their own internal feelings into their comments, resulting in dubiously-based opinions being presented as facts. Poor grammar and weak writing skills are not usually the hallmarks of trustworthiness; the fact that the most vitriolic words and phrases were used by the commenters who had both further supports this opinion.

    EDIT:
I learned that we tend to perceive credibility, at least in part, as a function of a good education. This bias, for better or for worse, at least lets us weed out some of the hundreds of comments we see every time we spend time reading articles on the internet.
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