“What was he convicted of?” someone asked.
“He had tattoos on his body,” she replied triumphantly.
“Hey, smartass!” shouted a woman in her sixties, jumping to her feet. “You want to see my tattoo?”
“Lady,” the Trump supporter said. “You don’t know what a tattoo is.”
“Yes I do, I’ve got one!” the woman shouted, tapping her chest.
The Trump supporter dismissed her with a wave of one hand. “I’ve had enough of you Democrats,” she said.
i found some of the quotes interesting with regards to the pieces that people in different areas pick up on, what they care about and what they think is happening. Like the farmer guy who is being harmed by the tariffs but thinks Trump must be “asking for a lot to hopefully get half”
i don’t think these people are stupid, just propagandized and situated in cultural echochambers just like libs are (all of us are). They (we) all have blind spots and denial. how do we reach them? if it’s possible at all, the only way is through genuine authentic connection with people who may very well hold ideas we find abhorrent.
i had a really interesting experience this weekend. i stopped at a Diner in Queens on my way home from the airport and overheard a conversation about Trump and the tariffs between two older gentlemen. I think they were both white but one might not have been idk. It was clear they frequent this place and are neighborly acquaintances. The one guy came over and started out saying “you know l don’t like to talk about politics” (honestly i doubt that lol)
it was not clear to me the whole time which “side” either of them were on. when the first guy got up to leave, i caught eyes with the one still sitting and he started to apologize for the subject matter and i said i appreciated their conversation bc i feel like the biggest problem in this country is we don’t talk to each other and that’s why everything is so out of whack.
they both appreciated that and we briefly talked about how “They” want us divided etc. I said i thought we all had a lot more in common than we would think, and they both agreed.
After the first guy left, i continued to chat with the seated man who was a 75yo Jewish man who grew up in that neighborhood and taught political science for his career. He identified as a centrist, taking things from Republicans and Democrats, and gets his news from a variety of sources mostly mainstream tv but also newspapers and magazines- he was reading the economist and said it was a conservative magazine but they don’t agree with trump on the tarriffs.
we had a really amazing conversation because i was very polite and phrased my disagreements carefully, he was not agitated at all by anything i said, he was calm and confident in his knowledge.
he had some seriously wrong information.
whenever i tried to push back on something he said, i would generally say that i can never tell what to trust anymore but that the information I’ve seen said xyz. i acknowledged living in an echo chamber because i can’t read or listen to republican news, and i was vulnerable about how upset i am all the time and we transitioned out of politics talk and into hobbies and maintaining mental health.
honestly, i can’t stop thinking about the experience and want to go back there and talk with him more. it was a hugely positive experience for me and I would love to have more of those. Perhaps he was a rare bird able to talk without getting upset, that’s why i was able to remain emotionally regulated (i did almost start to cry lmao just acknowledging how upset I am generally, I’m just a hair trigger these days)
He voted Republican chiefly on the issue of abortion…
WTAF. Why are there so many idiots like this? You don’t like abortion, don’t fucking have one. And if you are male…it’s not your concern.
A person I used to consider a friend told me that Donald Trump was sent by God to end abortion. When I brought up several bible verses that directly condemn what Donald Trump has done he told me they were out of context.
No longer speak to him.
Ah, the old “out of context” crutch that so many Babble-bangers like to fall back on. Hilarious.
The same people that will ignore dietary law of the religion they co-opted will quote from the same book to support their opinion on Teh Ghey.
This is the only area I DO get. I don’t agree with it, but I can understand where they’re coming from. If you believe a fetus is a person, it makes total sense to vote against murder. And we aren’t going to win anyone over by framing it as just an issue for women. If it’s even possible to change someone’s mind on the topic it would be through education, not telling them that their opinion on murder doesn’t matter.
It just makes zero sense to be a single-issue voter like this, though. And I don’t really think most of them give two fucks about the fetus; for many of them it’s about control.
For many of them it’s about being accepted by the community. They dont question their beliefs because that’d put them in the out group.
Agreed. I grew up in an extremely rural area and if someone moved there from “the city” (any city, really) they were sus. Even being one county over was viewed with a raised eyebrow.
But even if someone was born and raised there, visited a large city with their family, and then later said something positive about that city, they were given serious side-eye. Though I moved there at a very young age, I was not born and raised there and didn’t have extended family in the area. Therefore, myself and my family, because we tended to travel more, and were not “from there”, were definitely viewed with suspicion by the locals. Another strike against me - I was definitely bound for college and my parents valued reading, learning and education. All very out-groupy things with a lot of the locals.
I’m trying to fathom this being an actual conversation and not some horribly, awfully scripted sitcom. How the hell is it this bad good lord.
“Lady,” the Trump supporter said. “You don’t know what a tattoo is.” ^ That line baffles me
For people like this, Tattoos are only tattoos if they’re on a less than white skin. On a white skin it’s a stulish body decoration, on any other skin type it’s a gang tattoo
The conservative mindset is kind of like a reversed No True Scotsman sometimes. In an inherently hierarchical world where you are OBVIOUSLY at the A, #1, top, “Made in the image of white Jesus” tier, it is a serious insult to question the realness of another. Getting “othered” when you’re one of the Real Americans, one of the Chosen Ones, is a tragedy!
I don’t know what you’re talking about. What does that have to do with a guy who assumes women don’t know what tattoos are?
It’s the exclusionary language. It sticks out to me because it’s something I had to wring out of my brain after a conservative upbringing. My comment was probably an overreaction, lol, but you gave me that little target to pounce on.
“You don’t know what a tattoo is” sounds to me like it’s in line with “you don’t know what a REAL tattoo is” or “you wouldn’t know a decent tattoo if it bit you on the ass.”
It’s just basic immature gatekeeping and “me good, you bad.” So it varies from actual exclusion to generic offhand insult.
I can hear all the variations of it in my head from over the years. You don’t like the same thing as me, or you disagree with me on some unrelated thing, therefore you don’t know a damn thing about tattoos, cars, trucks, guns, fishing, hunting, sports, women, computers, games, and whatever else.
grabs popcorn
Next time one your friends insists that Trump voters are regretful, or somebody mentions Trump’s poll numbers, show them this.
Someone needs to bring these people a holocaust surviver to show them their tattoo and explain why fascism should never rise again
Wasn’t there just a video of some “alpha” guy trying to school a holocaust survivor the other day?
Im not surprised but god
I’m afraid it would just give them new ideas.
Someone needs to bring these people to cecot, and do a little swaparoo with the current residents.
Going to the midwest sounds like going to the zoo.
It’s fucking insane here. I live in a city where people’s opinions seem relatively reality-based, but if you get out into the rural areas, the effects of brain drain and media balkanization are on full display.
I don’t suggest actually doing this, but you would be absolutely fucking shocked by the overwhelming ignorance of the general population if you were to, say, stop at a bar in rural Iowa.
Live here, it is.
Lived in Iowa for a few years, nothing but idiots.
Americans need to stop thinking joke about state is exclusive to state.
Instead of Alabama = incest, say America = incest
Instead of Iowians are idiots, say Americans are idiots
Instead of Florida man is crazy, say American men are crazy
Americans accept personal responsibility?
exceptional thought.
I appreciate this is a joke but I don’t know what definition of personal responsibility requires me to own the actions of people 2000+ miles away from me lol. London is slightly closer to Moscow than San Francisco is to Northwood, IA.
I know some very smart people from Iowa. They left.
So many heads up so many asses.
I hope they rip each other apart trying to justify their own ignorance and his madness.
Unfortunately their disproportionately overvalued federal representation and votes due to the electoral college they are dragging the rest of us down with them
I don’t feel bad for anyone that voted for trump. Nothing he is doing is a surprise. So far it has been everything he said he wanted to do. Fucking morons got exactly what they voted for.
I want them to see the error of their ways. No forgiveness without change, but there is no change without the possibility of forgiveness.
This might be both one of the funniest and saddest things I’ve read since the last time I read about Trump in the news.
I’m sick of you democrats and your *checks notes* due process under the law.
I’m sick of you democrats
The utterance of someone so desperately grasping at straws because she can’t make an actual argument about the things she’s parroting from the TV so she relies on logical fallacies to shut down the argument completely.
And tattoos, didn’t forget the tattoos.
And not any tattoos. On his body, of all places!
Imagine believing that the best days of the US are ahead of you…
I’m sure improvements will be made, but the United States is dying, thanks in large part due to the cancer that’s rightwing propaganda networks
If I ever get diagnosed with a terminal disease. I know what I’m doing before I go out.
Honestly, I don’t want the United states to be a thing anymore. It is time for the nation to break up, so that people can choose what sort of government they want to live in. In my case, I would like something modeled after European socialism. I am sick of Fascist America dragging down my state with its evil and stupidity.
European Socialism? Come on, we are supposed to be better than “socialism is when health care”.
I know what you want to say, but last time I checked, every EU country had millionaires and beggars, a market economy, most companies were in the hand of private citizens or shareholders, and guaranteed private property (with the usual legal exceptions).
Don’t be like the populists. Words have meanings and meanings matter. It is social market economy at most.
The problem with that plan is that you get an outwardly fascist neighbor with no guardrails at all. Yes it will burn itself out eventually but before that it’s going to be just as much of a problem as when it was states.
Better to fight an enemy that is outside, rather than a foe within. We also don’t have sturdy guardrails - just ask federal employees, and the American citizens who have been trafficked to Honduras.
But the foes would always be within. This isn’t just red vs blue, it’s rural vs urban. Oregon goes Blue every time, but you drive 30 minutes out of the city and it’s Trump Central.
Good luck with that. Honestly.
That about sums it up. There are no obviously good options for the situation, so we are all left to gamble on a guess and a prayer that things work out.
Uncapping the House would go a long way towards rebalancing.
Not sure what you mean by European socialism, but you do NOT want the socialism that was attempted in eastern European countries.
my brother in christ, all western european countries are socialist welfare states with a capitalistic market. Media wants you to believe that, what we have is communism, but socialism is so far off Marxism / Communism, as Turbo-capitalism is off of socialism. Beat the red scare and don’t carry on their dumb talking points. Socialism is the way to go
