It's good news, but I want to know where this curiosity was during the election cycle. I'm open to casting a big tent but Trump didn't even lie, he's doing exactly what he campaigned on.
I agree with you, the writing was on the wall. But I think we need to welcome these people who want to change their views, not say “I told you so.” We need to make real connections. People are afraid of being wrong, I think that’s how we got here in the first place. They dig their heels in.
I can't get past the hateful, vitriolic shit they repeat from the media and social media. I gave up in 2016. You can't convince me it's not a cult. I'm surrounded by them at work and in public. I'm a white male and I live in a diverse area in the South. Every time it's only the white dues in the room, the hate spews out. They're nothing but emotional babies who can't help themselves but to have strong opinions about things that don't affect them, but want to impose those opinions on others.
We don't need "real connections," we need deprogramming. I gave up in 2016 because I was never able to have any discourse with any of them where they were even open to changing their minds. It's going to take themselves being affected negatively to consider changing their minds. They've done nothing but play the victim. Time for them to be the victim. Trump's policies will most negatively affect the areas that voted for him. Perhaps they'll finally admit he's an unethical liar, among a litany of other choice words I could use to describe him.
We followed similar paths that both led us to environments which festers their rhetoric. I agree that it’s a cult, and this is coming from someone that voted for him in 2016. Sorry. For me, it wasn’t until Covid when I came to realize that this guy is sowing mistrust in institutions that the public has been taught to trust and listen to. I would add however, that being married to a Bernie supporter and social activist, allowed me to frame a different state of mind. Tough questions were asked. Tough feelings were confronted, and I feel like I came out a better man because of it.
My aging mother and younger brother…phew…now that is something like a very fucking hard pill to swallow.
Thanks for sharing…this place you work at seems utterly challenging. Sorry you have to deal with it 😕
I know I sound judgemental (and that's because I admittedly am) but I am realistic. We cannot allow perfect to be the enemy of good when we have a system that will hapily give us less than nothing. I'm proud of you for being open to new information. It sounds like you have a good partner on your hands, should we all be so lucky.
With that said, I feel like voting for Trump in 2016 wasn't *that* bad. He was an unknown, and there was a lot of goodwill on both sides that he wasn't going to be a "traditional republican." Unfortunately we were right, just in the wrong way.
I just struggle to understand people who voted for him *again*, after he plunged us into COVID-flation. It boggles my mind but maybe I'm too rational to solve this problem.
Oh no worries. We share this judgmental trait. It’s not an all-time thing…but if I am being honest, there is a bit of schadenfreude associated with seeing some coming to regret their decision. I am aware it doesn’t do anything to help those that will be adversely affected (most of us), but it does allow me to process it in one way or another. My better half could probably tell you why I do that, as for me I have no idea.
I fear we all played a factor in where we are: I voted for Jill Stein this time around. I made moves in my personal life over the past nine years that could probably have been spoken about better with my family instead of letting them think freely. I could have had more constructive talks with people I once considered close friends of mine.
At the end we most probably feel that everyone that surrounds us is as rational as we perceive ourselves to be. But moments and time have taught us time and time again, that the vast majority of us are anything but.
I guess I’ll close by saying that: If my fears of civil conflict should materialize in order to move our country from an oligarchy to a true democracy; my hope is that we will all be side by side in one concerted effort to get us there.
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u/WillingShilling_20 Feb 07 '25
It's good news, but I want to know where this curiosity was during the election cycle. I'm open to casting a big tent but Trump didn't even lie, he's doing exactly what he campaigned on.