Dealing with your Trump supporter friends

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
61

I have brother who welcomed Trump as a ‘breath of fresh air’ and admires him for the policies he is pursuing in the US. He keeps up with the latest conspiracy theories on InfoWars and QAnon and thinks Trump is defending the world from the evil Muslims and murderous Mexicans.

I also have a friend who thinks Trump a complete genius in the way he is unafraid to tackle the big issues of US politics disparaging the evil pizza eating, child murdering Clintons and the fake president Obama. He believes in the Deep State and 9/11 was a fake.

I have worries about the sanity of both of them. They follow closely and seem to be obsessed with the culture wars the prevail in the US. This is a bit odd because both are British and living in the UK.

The rise of Trump and his simplistic populism with all the bigotry and prejudice and racism that goes with it has inspired many followers around the world. Often men who have deep seated insecurities and think their misfortunes and lack of opportunity are the result of the conspiracy of a global network Deepstate actors who pull all the stings and manipulate the media to brainwash the ignorant ‘sheeple’. They feel empowered that there is someone who is clearly a success and beating the system and seems to hold the same values.

Listening to all this gets a bit too much at times. I talk to my sister in law about my brother and she worries about his mental health. His sons get embarrassed, they are quite level headed and they also worry about him. They tell me his friends begin to edge away when he goes off on one of his tirades.

My friend is an intelligent man, but he had a breakdown a few years ago and I think he is still a little unwell. He also will get so excited about conspiracies that he will begin shouting and accuse me of being a supporter of the Deep State. I suppose I should be flattered that he thinks me so well connected. But that is when I start edging away. He lives in a very liberal, very diverse part of London, he is not racist and does not think the world is run by a race of extra terrestrial lizards, so maybe there is hope for him yet.

Trump is a magnet for the paranoid and the delusional. Here is someone who is going to tear down the ‘system’ and drain the swamp so that the honest little guy who has been cheated, can once more thrive. There are many people who will buy that and think this man represents them.

In the UK we have the intractable Brexit issue that dominates our politics and this draws most of the fire from this anti-establishment trend. Luckily Brexit is so difficult and perplexing an issue that its implications are beyond the grasp of the little guy with a beef against authority. They look at the political wrangling as the parties fight internally and they find them difficult to follow. When the politicians are clearly consumed by their own disunity and intrigues such that they are unable to function, well the little guy can take some satisfaction that voting for Brexit certainly put a spanner in the works of the political machine.

I sometimes ask my Trump admiring brother why he concerns himself with all these American political issues and I think it is because of all the social media debates and videos. The US culture wars seem so much more vivid, he loves the goading and provocation of ‘snowflake’ liberals the lambasting of the fake news press. His interest in UK politics seems to be limited to following the continuing adventures of Tommy Robinson, an anti-Islamic Alt-Right activist/video ‘journalist’ on the thuggish fringe of British politics and his efforts to stay out of jail. So maybe Trump is a distraction.

Trump has influence beyond the US and his dubious pronouncements are about as inspiring to adults as Gangster Rap is to teenagers.

I hope that political sanity will be restored before these guys start arguing with lamp posts.:frowning:

62

I am surrounded by Trump supporters. Family, friends, co-workers. I used to pride myself on being able to argue politics with anybody and not get upset and not be insulting. Not anymore. I find myself getting angrier, faster and being much more blunt with people. I just avoid the topic as much as possible.

63

So you can be friends with anyone, regardless of their morality?

64

That’s because you Trump supporters have a monopoly on facts, and there’s none left for the rest of us! :smiley:

65

not a monopoly, just a dispute.

66

I’m not self-righteous enough to assume that people who disagree with me must be immoral.

67

Some of my family may support Trump; the more vocal ones have cut me off for not praising his Name and more immediately, refusing to vilify transgender children. That Aunt was the most virulent Trumpster imaginable, and she cut me off entirely when I refused to support treating anyone transgender as an animal.

The ones I am still in contact with that may be supportive of his Orangeness don’t inject it into everyday conversation, and we just don’t talk about it.

68

Huh. A lot of Trump supporters are exactly that self righteous, and have said to my actual face that because I don’t agree, I just be immoral and “trash.”

69

I just don’t engage any acquaintances (right or left) who appear utterly “locked in” into preconceived notions and cannot be budged. It leads to nothing but headbanging. Just…“okayyyy…” and move on.

70

your anger is a friend trying to tell you something. the problem is that most people (nearly all of them) dont listen, and take anger too literally.

politics are very polarised these days. theres only one way to get anywhere, and thats convert everyone to your side. if thats where you get your satisfaction from, rather than understanding people and their positions, and helping them to understand yours, youre going to be very unhappy.

my attraction to the right is that theyre the only people arguing against thought policing everything, and my only attraction to the left is their lies about being against war. where is the anti-war party?

until there is much greater election reform-- constitutional amendment-level change, this is all a charade anyway. so if we are doing charades, im leaning towards the side where thought itself is not expected to be uniform. i liked sanders more than trump. guess who screwed that up? be angry at hillary. no, really. i know youll think im trolling, but she sabotaged your party with her trump-like selfishness. they have way too much in common. there was no “real” choice. well, just one. i didnt think he had a chance, he got a lot farther than i expected.

71

Being angry doesn’t make you right.

Sure, there are people who support Trump because they’re angry. But there are also people who oppose Trump and they’re angry too. If anger proves Trump is right then anger also proves Trump is wrong.

What people need to do is go beyond being angry. Once they get angry about something, they need to learn what’s going on. Otherwise they’re just being led around.

72

Perhaps you could suggest to this Aunt the appropriateness of the wonderful P.G. Wodehouse description of a roomful of Aunts: “Aunt calling to Aunt, like mastodons bellowing across the primeval swamps”. She does sound like a primeval swamp-dweller. :slight_smile:

Credible fact-checking sources have documented at least 8000 lies since Trump’s inauguration, sometimes hundreds per day. He basically lies every time he opens his mouth. To him a “fact” is anything he says that furthers his own interests, and he literally just makes them up. If your attraction to the right is based on fabricated delusions instead of reality then there is no hope of rational discussion.

73

imo thats just as stupid as when dems say the same thing about not supporting their party.

agreed.

more or less what i was getting at, but you probably said it better.

74

There are plenty of examples right here in this thread of liberals who think similarly of their political opponents. Is this a time we might agree that both sides have some members that do it?

75

I have a few family members who are Trump supporters. We do not interact as much and politics is strictly off limits.

76

So, you can be friends with a supporter of the Taliban?

77

Depends on the nature of the disagreement.

78

It’s remarkable the kind of insight y’all seem to have about people you don’t know, can’t talk to, and have no contact with.

Regards,
Shodan

79

I work with a company filled with them. I am civil with them, but with all the xenophobic hatred and misinformation I encounter almost every day, I see no reason to pretend to be friends with them after hours.

80

It’s almost as if I judge them on their support for the corrupt leader of a violent, white nationalist movement.