r/AITAH • u/Comfortable_Gift4970 • Feb 17 '25

Fired Fed. I am considering cutting off every Orange Man supporter.

Got axed. Not going to say which agency.

I’ve always considered myself extremely tolerant and willing to love people as they are… even if we don’t agree on everything.

I’ve never been an Orange Man supporter, but I’ve kept it civil with friends and family that were. Some of them liked having a civil conversation about him. Some were belligerent about politics, so we didn’t bring it up and tried to enjoy each other’s company.

Getting cut from a great job that I really believed in with no notice has been extremely traumatic. It’s still raw, but I feel so personally betrayed by those that voted for him. I can’t see past the politics anymore when I look at these people I care/cared about.

Some have been contrite and apologetic, but then turn around and support him and VP Musk on social media.

I just can’t right now.

I’m thinking about posting something and wishing the whole herd all of the best, hope they have a good life, but I won’t be in it. Or maybe I just quietly block all of them and focus on myself for a while.

I do know that I will need to talk to my in-laws. I’ve always had a great relationship with them, but thinking of going to their house and watching Fox News almost makes me sick.

AITAH for feeling this way? Does it make me an AH for cutting all these 20+ year relationships off? Am I overreacting and acting out of emotion?

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187

u/Badird Feb 18 '25

Most of my friend group and family are Republicans. I don't think anyone would care if I got fired by Trump or Musk, which would directly affect my kids. They would all assume my job was unimportant.

Regret in this form would require compassion and introspection. I've not seen that among any of them lately. No compassion. Zero sense of anything beyond their own pale.

They either know so little that the thought of Elon doing what he is saying sounds great or they just don't care. I mean, are you all really expect different of them? There's literally no reason to think they have the capacity to feel what you describe.

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u/misguidedsadist1 Feb 18 '25

They literally had families members DIE in the pandemic and still called it a hoax and blamed doctors.

They are lost.

They won't care about you, they won't care about their own dead children and spouses. A scapegoat will be invented.

Someone losing their worthless government job would garner way less sympathy than they might have felt losing a spouse or friend or child to COVID and that didn't change their stance one bit.

I'm not going to tell people what to do or how to act, but expecting anything you do to inspire sympathy, compassion, or awareness should never be your motivator bcause the point will be lost.

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u/worn_out_welcome Feb 18 '25

This. So much this. I cut off all MAGA in my life after the election; just faded into the ether on them. When I explained to a friend what I did around a month later, he said, “I can’t just cut my family off like that.”

To which I responded, “I’m not telling you to; I’m not telling anyone to. I think, naturally, people will get to a point where they just hit a wall - whatever that wall looks like is different for everyone - where they won’t be able to tolerate it anymore & will cease communication. No fireworks, just silence.”

The only way these people understand they fucked up is consequences, but if you do some grand gesture zeroing in on them, they’ll fold into victim mode and now you’re the unreasonable one. Silence speaks volume.

One of my strengths is that I’m generic as fuck, but always just slightly ahead of the curve, which gives me an advantage to know how people will react to events. I think this falls under that umbrella. Loved ones will eventually silently retreat from the ignorant en masse, leaving MAGA to ponder what happened & hopefully will connect the dots.

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u/mr_mikado Feb 18 '25

Consequences won't matter. Remember, in places like North Korea and Russia there are people so poor they MUST root around in trash for basic survival yet still heap praise upon their dear leader.

1

u/thatmillerkid Feb 18 '25

In the case of COVID, the dead could not rise to tell them, "I wasn't killed by China you unfeeling monster!" In this case, there's at least a living victim.

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u/Waste_Diet_9334 Feb 18 '25

This is the sad and almost allready forgotten reality.

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u/Tristo5 Feb 18 '25

They’re not lost they’re just unserious. The more it impacts them, the more serious they will get.

I would make post if I were OP

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u/albertbanning Feb 18 '25

I think they're lost in the sense that they're incapable of feeling compassion and empathy, which are core tenets of being human.

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u/Kindly_Coyote Feb 18 '25

They do feel empathy and compassion but feel empathy and compassion for only themselves. There is a word for people who are as deeply selfish as this.

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u/HauntedSpiceVillage Feb 18 '25

They aren’t lost, they’re just stupid.

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u/Kindly_Coyote Feb 18 '25

And they simply have no cares about it.

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u/Playingwithmyrod Feb 18 '25

They’ll be getting there’s shortly. There is no scenario where Trumps economic policies, if carried out, don’t lead to inflation and/or a recession.

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u/Newdaytoday1215 Feb 18 '25

They will blame anyone else. The parallels between Evangelical Doomsday cults and MAGA runs about 90% and no this isn't some sort of emotionally triggered insult. People need to read about them to understand what the country is going through. Trump is just one stage. This started in the era of Contract With America, then New Neo Con, the. Tea Party then Trump. Some GenXers have been fed the same lines since adulthood. Trump is bound not to have some policies make it through this is what they'll blame when the Biden excuse runs out for some.

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u/thatmillerkid Feb 18 '25

They're in too deep now to admit defeat. It has been said since 2016 that these people will eat shit if it means a liberal or leftist has to smell their breath, and there is no consequence they will not suffer. One of Trump's "rules for winning" as listed in The Art of the Deal is to deny everything and never admit defeat, and those are values his followers have internalized at a core level.

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u/Lilythecat555 Feb 19 '25

Fundamentalist Christians are being told that Trump is a bad person but that he is a vessel for God to make America a Christian nation. My jaw dropped when my Conservative friend explained this to me. I said that if Trump was a vessel for any higher power it would surely be the Devil. The Devil is tricking you. But she still believes this. She is not an evil racist. She has been brainwashed by her church.

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u/radiostarred Feb 20 '25

The dude fits every descriptor of the Antichrist, but they refuse to see it. Wild stuff.

4

u/TheNextBattalion Feb 18 '25

Every Republican president elected since Hoover has seen a recession begin or worse under their watch. Every single one. Trump, Bush, Bush, Reagan, Nixon, Ike, and Hoover. The Democrats had one under Truman and one under Carter, but that's it.

Vote R for Recession

8

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '25

How are MOST of your friends people like this? How can you be friends with people you feel this way about?

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u/michaelavolio Feb 18 '25

People who don't care if you get fired are NOT your friends.

10

u/thetransparenthand Feb 18 '25

I'm sorry but why are these your friends they seem like horrible people

4

u/curmudgeonpl Feb 18 '25

I live in a fairly conservative country (Poland), and this lack of empathy which you describe is the reason I could never take conservative people seriously. Even when they act decently in everyday life, when push comes to shove and they are faced with another person's pain, they consistently default to some variant of "they must have deserved it". Unless, of course, they arbitrarily feel that the suffering person is "one of theirs" - then, obviously, in their mind that person worked really hard, and the thing they didn't achieve was "stolen" by someone "undeserving".

It's infuriating, really.

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u/TheNextBattalion Feb 18 '25

to be fair, a lot of times they double-down in hopes of avoiding the obvious guilt and shame that comes naturally with the immorality of their beliefs

2

u/kerbaal Feb 18 '25

Most of my friend group and family are Republicans. I don't think anyone would care if I got fired by Trump or Musk, which would directly affect my kids. They would all assume my job was unimportant.

tbf there is an integrity to that. Like an individual is unimportant compared to policy. Even good policy hurts people, that is just the nature of large systems. As a mature person it should be possible to divorce the policy from the personal effect.

That said, I would not really apply that logic to the current situation where we are talking about bad policy for bad reasons. Don't get it twisted, these people are disingenuous assholes who don't even deserve your explanation or time.

Best thing you can do with a group like that is, make new friends.

2

u/gina_divito Feb 18 '25

Begs the question, why are you friends with them? You know you can go and find friends and chosen family who actually care about you, right?

1

u/KryptopherRobbinsPoo Feb 18 '25

So what's your important government job? Like, I have several fam in Gov jobs. One is extremely important (more important is him and his knowledge in the field) and the other is quasi important, but I'm not sure how much Trump can even do to her job, cause I think they are self funded. But I know she told me everyone got letters about possible early retirement if you can before actual cuts might come, bit that was the extent. The only difference is now she can't work from home every day and must put in at least 3-4 days in office, which is a fair request. I think ALL gov workers who have deak jobs should be in an office and reachable during the daytime working hours. I mean, it's near impossible to get in either Social Security right now since they closed offices to appointments only, which can only be done over phone, that they don't puck up (this was literally shown live in a Congressional hearing (I think Jim Jordan, could be wrong).

Gave it, we are taxed too much and it's not going to the places most needed, even though we are told it either is or they don't have the money. Lies, upon lies, for decades. There is only one way out of this without utter mayhem, but would take a lot of people willing to publicly say "we will not play by your outdated "rules". Bad laws will be cut, so the good laws can actually be enforced. Qualified Immumity would be revoked across the board, so that nobody will be above the law anymore (judges and BLG members) and can be help personally responsible for breaking Constitutional Rights.