# A Friend Turns MAGA **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [June 14, 2025, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-friend-turns-maga/1019643 "2025-06-14T22:06:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-friend-turns-maga/1019643/21 "2025-06-15T02:29:44Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > She messaged me, appalled, said that I was showing my “true colors”. Shades of yellow? Maybe brownish? Just a guess. 😜 ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-friend-turns-maga/1019643/22 "2025-06-15T04:59:59Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > What I do not understand is this is not a new thing among many people and yet, no one has a good answer. These MAGA-types seem weirdly committed to this monster and I have seen nothing yet that convinces them they are on the wrong side of things. What it really boils down to is that we live in completely different worlds and we can’t even agree on basic facts. My MAGA mother has been pro choice her entire life, but places 100% of the blame for the overturn of Roe v. Wade on the Democrats, she believes the January 6th protests were peaceful and Ashli Babbitt was murdered, she believes Russia went to war with Ukraine because the United States had biological weapons labs there and we promised NATO would never expand. It’s tough to understand people who look at the world through such distorted lens. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-friend-turns-maga/1019643/23 "2025-06-15T05:13:33Z")
I live in a deep red state, in probably the reddest part of the state. Everyone, except my immediate family are Republican, possibly. I say they are til I know differently. I don’t discuss or engage in political discourse with any one. Especially a stranger. An acquaintance wouldn’t bring it up. I’m sure. Friends I have, well, I don’t ask. I leave it be. Just not worth it. I’d be fighting on multiple fronts. I’m not a fighter. I’m a live and let live kinda person. I won’t bother you and you won’t bother me. Best let sleeping dogs lie. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-friend-turns-maga/1019643/24 "2025-06-15T06:08:04Z")
I’m sorry you are going through this Doc. It’s so hard to watch. Try not to take away their dignity, because the more you do, the harder it is for them to ever leave the cult. Leave them room to admit their mistake without being humiliated. In a couple of cases, I was able to make small breakthroughs by sending [this video from the Reagan/Bush debates.](https://youtu.be/YsmgPp_nlok) In both cases though, they did eventually succumb. Still, I understand your need to try. The best thing you can do is ask questions. Ask about what the believe that made them become Republicans in the first place. Ask a lot of questions and really get them talking. Let them feel heard before you make any counter arguments, and never interrupt. Then just gently ask about the contradictions. “You say you joined the GOP because you believe in State’s Rights. How did you feel when President Trump tried to wrest the California National Guard from Governor Newsome?” That sort of thing. Remember being forced to confront one’s cognitive dissonance has been proven to produce a mental pain similar to a stabbing. So slide the knife in gently. Good luck! ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-friend-turns-maga/1019643/25 "2025-06-15T06:28:50Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > So slide the knife in gently. But deeply, [![](https://media.tenor.com/GwqDUbW_GyoAAAAe/predator-mac.png) ](https://media.tenor.com/GwqDUbW_GyoAAAAe/predator-mac.png) ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-friend-turns-maga/1019643/26 "2025-06-15T06:32:32Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > They cling to him with near religious fervor. It’s weird. And (mostly) these are not otherwise dumb people. It’s not weird at all. Belief in Trump is literally a cult. It’s not cult-like. It is _literally_ a cult, with Trump at the center. Intelligence has nothing to do with it. Smart people can fall into cults too. It short-circuits rational thinking. Cult deprogramming is difficult and arduous and requires specialist training. You cannot remove someone from a cult by reason, by offering rational argument. Walk away. They are lost, just as if they’d been sucked into Scientology or the Unification Church. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-friend-turns-maga/1019643/27 "2025-06-15T07:01:30Z")
Even here in distant SA, I’ve lost one longtime friend because his pro-Trump rant at dinner brought some previously-well-hidden racist attitudes to the surface. Said friend is a Philosophy PhD. It did nothing to innoculate him. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-friend-turns-maga/1019643/28 "2025-06-15T07:04:22Z")
@DocCathode Just a question - are your friends also big supporters of Israel? ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-friend-turns-maga/1019643/29 "2025-06-15T07:38:23Z")
Sadly, you saw the last election as a choice between rescuing kittens from trees and torturing them to death with blowtorches. Your friends saw it, instead, as a choice between the party of good-hearted fecklessness and the party of unprincipled pragmatism, and they saw the latter as a legitimate choice. You get to be disappointed, but not surprised. Your outrage might be better directed at the Democratic party’s poor leadership. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-friend-turns-maga/1019643/30 "2025-06-15T11:05:11Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > I don’t get it. PM me if you learn the secret! I think they are secretly bigots and racists. So secret that they don’t even realize they are bigots and racists. Trump trips their trigger, because they recognize a fellow traveler. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-friend-turns-maga/1019643/31 "2025-06-15T11:08:01Z")
Yes. Stephanie is Jewish. While I can’t remember all the details of her position, she is definitely pro Israel. Bob was born and raised in some variety of Christianity. He has largely abandoned it. He is also pro Israel. > [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > Your outrage might be better directed at the Democratic party’s poor leadership. I don’t see how. As I said to Bob and Stephanie before the election, at worst Harris is a politician you disagree with. Trump is an evil man who ran on a platform of bigotry and impossible economic promises. I warned that if Trump got a second term, it could well mean the end of democracy in this country. For most of my life, which candidate and which party were the moral choice was largely a matter of opinion. Then, Trump happened. As somebody else said on the Dope, your choices were fascism and not fascism. Bob agreed with me. He said he could not in good conscience vote for Harris. He never told me why. Now that all the horrors I predicted are coming to pass, Bob is denying that they are happening or that there is anything to worry about. Was Harris a perfect candidate? No, of course not. Are the Democrats perfect? No, of course not. Was this a normal election with normal consequences? No, of course not. Again, the choices were fascism and not fascism. When those are the only choices, anybody who doesn’t vote to prevent fascism is entirely responsible for the consequences of their choice. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-friend-turns-maga/1019643/32 "2025-06-15T12:06:53Z")
There’s the party that wants to deport Latinos, and there’s the party that wants to dox you and get you fired for misgendering a nonbinary teenager. So maybe it’s more like fascism and Jacobinism. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-friend-turns-maga/1019643/33 "2025-06-15T12:10:21Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > there’s the party that wants to dox you and get you fired for misgendering a nonbinary teenager. Your perception of what the Democratic party advocates for is laughable. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-friend-turns-maga/1019643/34 "2025-06-15T12:10:41Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > There’s the party that wants to deport Latinos, and there’s the party that wants to dox you and get you fired for misgendering a nonbinary teenager. So maybe it’s more like fascism and Jacobinism. Maybe this is just something stupid people believe? People like you, for example. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-friend-turns-maga/1019643/35 "2025-06-15T12:20:24Z")
Then maybe they bought into the propaganda that Harris was anti-Israel, and that’s what they didn’t want to discuss with you. ---
**Author:** ![mozchron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-friend-turns-maga/1019643/36 "2025-06-15T12:21:48Z")
Nobody turns MAGA. They’ve been MAGA the entire time (in philosophy at least until the term was coined). They’ve just realized they can be open about it now instead of hiding under their rocks. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-friend-turns-maga/1019643/37 "2025-06-15T12:22:02Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > there’s the party that wants to dox you and get you fired for misgendering a nonbinary teenager Oh go fuck yourself. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-friend-turns-maga/1019643/38 "2025-06-15T12:22:16Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Maybe this is just something stupid people believe? People like you, for example. [Here](https://apnews.com/article/virginia-teacher-fired-transgender-student-pronouns-8fce2e788ecb5db6f2ea6250ea0d5adf) is the story. You know, in case you think I’m making it up. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-friend-turns-maga/1019643/39 "2025-06-15T12:26:02Z")
Not anywhere near fuckin’ comparable. Don’t want a labor lawsuit? Just stop misgendering the very first time you’re called on it. Stupidly easy. How does someone just stop being Latino or LGBT? ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-friend-turns-maga/1019643/40 "2025-06-15T12:28:19Z")
What about the party that wants to dox you and get you fired for your sincere religious belief that Black people are not human, what about that oppression? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-friend-turns-maga/1019643.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-friend-turns-maga/1019643.md?page=3)