She says a lot more but my eye rolling made me stop reading after the first five sentences
https://xcancel.com/ImBreckWorsham/status/1986436503988297774#m
She says a lot more but my eye rolling made me stop reading after the first five sentences
https://xcancel.com/ImBreckWorsham/status/1986436503988297774#m
I frequently chat with my neighbor who is a Q-class Trumper. Over the past year, I’ve been able to observe the leopards licking his face as if I were filming a nature documentary in 4k. We actually get along great. I like having a window into whatever inane, batshit information he consumes, and he really enjoys my company, as I don’t outwardly judge him, and I listen. Naturally, he’s on disability and dependent upon the state. As such, he’s running low on funds and needs to move in a couple months.
We had elections this past week in my state. I told him that I voted, and he offered up some excuses as to why he can’t make it to the polls. We tend not to directly discuss politics, because I told him a long time back that I’m still salty about Bernie. Deep down, he knows that we don’t align, but he doesn’t want to rock the boat. I give his pets treats. I give him treats. He occasionally mentions various religion-based conspiracies and alludes to looming conflict and the criminality of the left, but he’s become more mum on this front. I think, the gears may be turning in his head.
I don’t have any grand insights with which to conclude my anecdote. I give the guy a 30-70 chance of rediscovering reality. But, by being nice to the dude, I do think his chances are much better than they would be had I ignored him the past few years.
But your story just continues to show that nobody with such strong opinions seem to care until it directly effects them. In your case, it sounds like they are right on the border of realizing this. It just sucks that this is what it takes for them to even consider this.
It’s tragic, yes. But, don’t underestimate the effects of propaganda, repeat exposures that dwarf my face time with the guy. He doesn’t have my range of experience. He’s just a lonely, 50-something man that’s had more negative than positive experiences in life. He has tunnel vision.
In my mind, he’s responsible for his choices and frame-of-mind. But that’s not going to stop me from sharing my perspective without confronting or proselytizing. Insecurity is a mother fucker.
Talking to him and being a good person can do more than you realize.
I was raised white Christian nationalist, although we didn’t call it that and I wouldn’t have realized that’s what I was. I was taught all the conservative bullshit, both politically and socially. Thankfully there was always a part of me that was like “something isn’t right here” and I kept my mouth shut and was never the bully going around mouthing off to gay kids or minorities, but I definitely thought things like “being gay is a choice” and “poor people should just work harder” and “abortion is something welfare queens do” but also “welfare queens have lots of babies for more money”.
Being around people like you who were nonjudgmental and just talked about their point of view and occasionally gently challenged my beliefs without being confrontational opened my worldview and helped give me the courage to listen to the voice in my head that was saying something felt wrong with the belief system I was raised in. I’d always been taught things like liberals were stupid and lacked critical thinking skills and acted solely on emotions and I was young and kept in a bubble and was dumb enough to believe it until I started meeting people who proved otherwise. That was enough to start the cracks forming that eventually shattered the entire wall of lies. I’m now a raging socialist and I don’t care how people live their lives as long as they aren’t harming anyone else. I don’t think I would have ended up that way if I wasn’t someone who is willing to think for myself and who isn’t afraid to be the “black sheep”, because leaving that mindset lost me my family, but I definitely wouldn’t have ever been able to start down the path I’m on if I was never exposed to people like you who started showing me the lies in the first place.
Kudos man. Happy to hear that. It’s tough to assemble a cogent world view when the people closest to you muddy the waters by tugging emotional hooks. I’ve been there.
100%. Honestly more than anything were suffering a large scale collapse of community. First, the highway system and cars came in and carved up large-scale communities. Everyone riding around in their own personal pods, not having to interact with anyone else.
Then the internet comes in, allowing anyone and everyone to find material that conforms and confirms their biases. Forget about going out and touching grass. Has anyone spent any actual time in an average day brushing elbows with hundreds of strangers and holding casual conversations. Nothing stops stupid behaviors faster than being judged by the community around you.
Not that you need me to tell you this, but you’re a good person.
Yeah. I’ve been considering that it’s a bit like the difference between empirical and theoretical physicist.
The theoretical physicist uses models of how the world works to make predictions about the outcome of experiments. The empirical physicist has to do experiments to believe it. It’s kinda the same for people in politics.
Some people can predict what outcome certain policies are going to have. Others have to figure it out experimentally.
People who are below average intelligence take a lot longer time process new information and tend to hang onto myths much longer than smart people. Smart people can adapt to new information whereas these folks just can’t. They are susceptible to being gaslit because they can’t think critically. Personally, I don’t think people below a certain intelligence level should be permitted to vote.
I’m going to disagree with you a bit here. I’ve seen first hand when intelligent people use all their additional cognitive ability to create rationalizations and pseudo-logical interpretations of questionable facts to avoid challenging their own assumptions. It takes a good dose of humility/integrity to admit that you were wrong and be willing to change course. That’s not a feature of intelligence, at least not in the realm where it is typically measured.
What’s the best way to teach a kid to not play with fire?
Let them touch it. Hopefully they will only do it once
You may not realize it but you’re humanizing “the left” for him. Its probably keeping him somewhat grounded.
Heh, oh I do realize that. I’d not say I’m being strategic, but I am being intentional. One of the reasons I chose to live where I currently do is to expose myself to that subset of the population. I don’t have a car, and one of the (internalized) benefits is creating opportunity to chat with a broad spectrum of people. I hope this doesn’t sound like I’m tooting my own horn, but I consider myself to be a student of perspective. Many years ago, after university, I joined the Peace Corps. I have direct experience building relationships with folks whose beliefs blind them. I just find it tragic that we seem to be careening toward conflict when it’s all so eminently avoidable. So, I try to spread a little grassroots goodwill.
I’d add, I wish that we in America had some form of compulsory or strongly-encouraged foreign service not related to war.
First of all, i don’t think you’re tooting your own horn, you juuust stated you don’t have a car! So its unlikely you happen to have a horn lying about…
Intentional is a good description, but from what i read i want to add sincerity. Thats important, especially in a world of grift and propaganda.