These Tennessee protesters shouted down a counter-protester in the most charmingly Southern way possible


A group of protesters demonstrating against President Trump's then-forthcoming speech in Nashville, Tennessee, on Wednesday dealt with a pro-Trump counter-protester in their midst with classic Southern hospitality. As the man wearing a "Make America Great Again" cap began shouting into the crowd, they responded with a hearty chant of "Bless your heart!"
For those unfamiliar with the subtle and varied nuances of "bless your heart," it is a "tremendously flexible phrase" whose meaning can range from sincere sympathy to cutting dismissal. In this case, its usage as "a passive-aggressive way to call you an idiot" is probably about on the mark.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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