That may make you feel better but they’re still going to vote against their own interests
Yes there’s no point in trying to change the minds of die hard deplorables. But that also means that a minimum of effort should be spent dealing with their bullshit. A lot of people opposing deplorables keep falling into the same trap over and over and over again where they spend enormous amounts of energy debunking stupid deplorable nonsense like toy badges, and that means that there is no bandwidth left to actually advocate for a better world. Deplorables send sane people chasing their tails all the time and it has a real world impact be centering the “debate” on nonsense. The median voter in America should be furious at Republicans for ruining their country, giving all the money to billionaires and trying to take away their (already meager) health care an income security, etc. etc. etc. But the median voter is consuming a bunch of “Republicans say the sky is purple with yellow polka dots, but here is a scientist to give you boring facts about the color of the sky” nonsense.
It’s not supposed to make me feel better, it’s supposed to make other people hate them and give them more of a motive to vote against Republicans. Ukraine has the Russians, but we have our own orcs at home to worry about.
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I agree with all of this. The question that still remains (for me anyway) is how to get through to that median voter you’re referencing. I’m guessing that the suggestion that I was responding to is directed at deplorables, but it doesn’t feel like a viable strat for changing hearts and minds.
infantilize them, treat them with utter disrespect, that we see them not just as stupid, but sub-adult, that they are beneath us.
Something called Citizens for Sanity, which is a super PAC for the GOP, is running “Democrats are responsible for illegals stabbing people on the Las Vegas strip” commercials here fairly regularly. I can’t find the spot but here’s a website fact checking (lol) the claims.
But maybe this is what needs to be done in reverse? Ads running non-stop in FL about how none of the GOP reps voted for aid? Ads on GOP voting records on gun control and corporate welfare? Forget the candidate and attack the party? Idk. But calling out an orc for being an orc doesn’t seem like the right play.
That ad is running non-stop in the PA market too. And Citizens for Sanity has billboards up that say “Nobody is free until all Pansexuals have free housing”. There’s also a “Fetterman = Open Borders” billboard that might be theirs. I think I posted about these PAC ads flooding the airwaves last week. There is an infinite war chest of funds for right wing propaganda.
Yes Rs spending a shit ton on TV in PA.
“remember when trump called your wife ugly? FUCK YOU!” I <3 NY
https://twitter.com/Eitanthegoalie/status/1584408240082677760
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What is wrong with this dude! What are you doing, buddy?
KKK
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Janessa’s a friend of mine. Her answer is perfect, and of course won’t do anything, but still.
Unfortunately, her nutjob dad lives in our district
https://twitter.com/jgoldbeck/status/1584694427897167872?s=20&t=fp5fSJs4ETjsuXpPbOnJyA
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eh. The only real question worth asking is the last one and they’ll handwave it away or forget about it. The rest will always be “its antifa or blm or the deep state” even to the trusted news question.
I think the first bit is to show that she’s “listening” to him. Obviously it’s crazy talk, but if HE feels like she’s taking him seriously, there’s a miniscule chance he might listen to her…which is better than no chance.
Deprogramming is a years-long process, and it starts with tiny little steps. Microscopic, even.
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That shit just breaks my heart. I’m so lucky my parents are aging hippie socialists, I have no idea how I’d handle shit if they got Fox News-pilled.
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Anytime I get a bit peeved by some dumb thing my parents do, I think to myself, “At least they are not MAGA idiots”, and whatever it is, doesn’t seem so bad at all.
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Same here. I’ve got one cousin who fell down that hole because her husband led her there, but she blocked me on everything and we don’t talk anymore. The rest of my Republican cousins haven’t yet gone that far.
Tough to fathom how someone can arrive at that advanced age - all that life experience - and entertain such absurdity.
Dude must’ve had the most stunting combination of formative influences and little curiosity
I’m grateful that both my parents, in addition to being lefties, have a very skeptical mindset when it comes to stuff on the internet, or in the media, or that random people tell them on the phone. Definitely something to be cultivated as you get older.
Derps: “I WILL NOT LIVE IN FEAR”
Also Derps: “suburban Target is the nexus of human trafficking”
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Yeah, I’ve been lucky. My parents have always been moderate liberals and have even inched more to the left in their senior years. They were auto-Biden voters in the last primary, but that was more because they didn’t think someone like Bernie could win the general.
But they have gone that far, haven’t they? This is the part that I can’t seem to reconcile. The Qanon folks vote Trump, and the cousins vote Trump. The rank-and-file Republicans give oxygen to these idiots. And they do it to the point where the fringe is now the majority, and what was the majority is now the fringe. Instead of the “normal Republicans” ostracizing and muting the wack jobs, it’s the other way around. “I don’t agree with all this “stolen election” stuff, but I like Trump”. That’s like saying “I don’t agree with this whole “kill all the Jews thing” but I like Hitler”. The holocaust is what Hitler was all about and eliminating democracy and becoming a dictator is what Trump is all about. It’s literally all he talks about. It seems to me that people like your cousins have gone over the ledge, whether they think they have or not.
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Yeah, I’ve stopped engaging most of my conservative family about politics, but the one thing I still try to do is undermine the credibility of the sources they trust in a way that doesn’t seem like an attack. I think she did a good job by asking, ok, if this doesn’t happen, will it change you view of whatever source you are trusting for this information? I think that’s the only chance to move the needle on people like that. Calling them racist or whatever doesn’t accomplish anything. It’s like, ok, cool, yeah, that’s scary, how do you know this? I haven’t heard anything about it. Etc.
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