# My friend has gone over the edge into Trumpdom **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 22, 2019, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-has-gone-over-the-edge-into-trumpdom/842123 "2019-10-22T07:11:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2019, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-has-gone-over-the-edge-into-trumpdom/842123/121 "2019-10-23T22:15:46Z")
You’re just cute as a bug. \ ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2019, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-has-gone-over-the-edge-into-trumpdom/842123/122 "2019-10-23T22:47:37Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > Bummer about your friend but I feel like we’re just glossing over the most important part of this post. I wish to hear more. [Cookie Diet](https://health.usnews.com/best-diet/cookie-diet) Note that at 60 calories for each cookie and 9 cookies and one sensible meal daily this diet provides 1000-1200 calories daily so it would be expected for you to lose weight. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-has-gone-over-the-edge-into-trumpdom/842123/123 "2019-10-24T02:22:28Z")
This thread makes me wonder: how many _new_ hardcore Trump supporters are being created these days, and how? I’d have thought that most would have gone all in a long time ago, if the news media they consume are pro-Trump to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-has-gone-over-the-edge-into-trumpdom/842123/124 "2019-10-24T02:23:50Z")
OP, your friend is the enemy. Treat him as such: enemy of the country, enemy of civil society, enemy of yours. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-has-gone-over-the-edge-into-trumpdom/842123/125 "2019-10-24T02:27:28Z")
Psychobunny, I haven’t read the entire thread, but your “friend” sounds like the kind of person who keeps Amway, etc. in business. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-has-gone-over-the-edge-into-trumpdom/842123/126 "2019-10-24T02:29:13Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > I’d say you’re wrong. Yeah, if you’ve never heard of [QAnon](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/QAnon), you really aren’t in a position to appreciate just how pants-on-head crazy the OP’s friend has become. Remember that story about Hillary Clinton operating a child sex ring out of a pizza restaurant, that led to a guy showing up there with a gun? That’s one of the more rational conspiracy theories to spin out of QAnon. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-has-gone-over-the-edge-into-trumpdom/842123/127 "2019-10-24T05:48:01Z")
That guy who makes the videos on Alt-right tactics just released a video on this: how a normie with just slightly unusual views or nerdy interests can become radicalized by the alt right. It’s pretty informative of how you can wind up so far down the rabbit hole. He talks about it like a redpill onion, where you go in layers, thinking that each layer is as deep as it goes, and how each one makes it so hard to look back and see that you might be mistaken. I'd known some of the ideas there, but it made things a lot more clear. ---
**Author:** ![Brayne\_Ded](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Brayne\_Ded](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brayne_Ded)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-has-gone-over-the-edge-into-trumpdom/842123/128 "2019-10-24T08:27:44Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > Trumpism isn’t about brains or intellect. It’s about grievance and a sense of personal failure. That’s the common thread Trumpists have running through them. It’s that they identify with Trump himself: A man given every advantage, yet inside, he believes he is an utter failure in life. And Trump gives them an out: “It’s not your fault. It’s fill-in-the-blank’s fault.” The ultimate Whataboutism. Trump’s go-to strategy: “I’m not the puppet!! _You’re_ the puppet!!” > > Trump is someone who has given his followers the false explanation they’ve yearned for, that every failure they have suffered is because something was done _to_ them. They never have to examine their own personal contribution to whatever dynamic brought them to their failure. Trumpism is insecurity and failure writ large. Sadly, many people within our society feel this way, regardless of their social status, education or personal wealth. Sure, there are some pure sociopaths among them who care only for what Trump has done for their bottom line, but I believe the majority fall into the Cult of Perpetual Grievance bucket. > > Your (sort of) friend is looking for quick, easy solutions to her life’s concerns. Trump has given her the easiest one of all: Blame someone – anyone – else, in every instance. Juts feeling a tad uneasy at the thought that history might be repeating itself, in another galaxy and in another era, but the above describes a situation that has just a few similarities with 1930s Germany. ---
**Author:** ![Brayne\_Ded](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Brayne\_Ded](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brayne_Ded)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-has-gone-over-the-edge-into-trumpdom/842123/129 "2019-10-24T08:35:32Z")
> [@Annoyed](#): > > Let me see if I understand you correctly: > > Liberals (the most mouthy, degenerate, annoying group of people humanity has ever known) who can never, ever, keep their mouthes shut (and pride themselves for being such) and who openly annoy, pester, harass, and slander people who they consider right-wingers or wrong-thinkers, are NOW all of a sudden gonna sit back all blown away in amazement when they get it back in kind? > > You fools are so detached from reality its frankly amazing. I just love the occasional reasoned, balanced statement. Like the above. “Nurse, please reattach the lithium drip. Quickly!” ---
**Author:** ![Brayne\_Ded](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Brayne\_Ded](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brayne_Ded)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-has-gone-over-the-edge-into-trumpdom/842123/130 "2019-10-24T08:42:53Z")
> [@Annoyed](#): > > Were you in Kentucky somewhere burning bibles and throwing dildos at people or something? They must be putting something in the bourbon. But howcum nary a word of these goings-on has leaked out? I always thought Kentucky was just bluegrass and racehorses. Maybe I should reschedule my next vacation and join in the fun? ---
**Author:** ![yendis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ed8c4c/32.png) [@yendis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yendis)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-has-gone-over-the-edge-into-trumpdom/842123/131 "2019-10-24T08:48:51Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > This thread makes me wonder: how many _new_ hardcore Trump supporters are being created these days, and how? I’d have thought that most would have gone all in a long time ago, if the news media they consume are pro-Trump to begin with. Potentially [6849](https://www.braintrauma.org/faq)\* new Trumpists per day. \*2500 000 / 365 ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-has-gone-over-the-edge-into-trumpdom/842123/132 "2019-10-24T11:16:18Z")
> [@Brayne\_Ded](#): > > Juts feeling a tad uneasy at the thought that history might be repeating itself, in another galaxy and in another era, but the above describes a situation that has just a few similarities with 1930s Germany. I may have [mentoined that not too long ago](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=21933437&postcount=42550). ---
**Author:** ![survinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@survinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/survinga)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-has-gone-over-the-edge-into-trumpdom/842123/133 "2019-10-24T11:24:59Z")
I have family, friends, and acquaintances who are Trump voters. My parents voted for Trump. It’s not something I like. But in this part of the country, Trump is popular with alot of people, so I have to deal with it. I just tend to not talk to certain people about politics. We talk sports, we talk about our house and things that need to be fixed, about hobbies, about our children and their school…I just steer the conversation away from politics. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-has-gone-over-the-edge-into-trumpdom/842123/134 "2019-10-24T11:44:39Z")
> [@Annoyed](#): > > My personal fave currently is liberal parents using hormonal blockers on their pre-pubescent children because their children might be trans. Gotta stop that puberty, dont ya know! Its science! > > Or, hey, lets let fully formed adult biological males take hormones to ‘become women’ and let them compete against actual biological females. Its science! They’re actually women too! There’s nothing unscientific about either of those positions. Different people may have different opinions on what the **social** definitions of gender should be, and what kind of persons should be considered to “qualify” for those definitions, and why, and what role medical treatment should play in accommodating those qualifications. But having an opinion about how society should define and acknowledge social categories of gender doesn’t mean you’re denying science. Now if you believed, say, that eating ripe kumquats could magically transform a transgender woman’s genes from XY to XX and realign past reality so that she wasn’t born with a penis, **that** would count as denying science. But AFAIK no transgender-rights activists are suggesting any such ridiculous irrationality. So you still haven’t come up with any examples of beliefs on “the left” that are anywhere near as ridiculously irrational as, say, right-wingers’ credulity about QAnon conspiracy theories. ---
**Author:** ![HarleyQuinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/94ad74/32.png) [@HarleyQuinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HarleyQuinn)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-has-gone-over-the-edge-into-trumpdom/842123/135 "2019-10-25T14:50:00Z")
> [@Annoyed](#): > > Jesus christ OP you are so fucking dumb and hysterical. > > “ThE RuSsIaN TrOlLs!!!” > > I would imagine this lady you speak of can read in you the distain that oozes from your pores and probably is trying to piss you off & wind you up. > > And you would be better served to keep your mouth shut about what people choose to do, for example telling her that she should have brought a reusable straw. > And whatever you say about her, you have definitely been manipulated by fake news, political hysterics, hyperbole, and bullshit. > > In essence, you are the mirror image of her, only of the stupid-ass lefty variety. I couldn’t agree with you more. The more I read, the more sorry I felt for him. I have friends and family all over the political spectrum. I respect their rights to free speech. No matter how vehemently I may disagree with what they say, I will always stand up for their RIGHT to say it. And I must say, I miss the days when people acknowledged that they could coexist. It’s like, _Okay… You may disagree with me, but why does that have to mean we can’t be friends (or at least friendly)?_ Remember back when people use to MARRY their polar opposite?! (She’s a liberal progressive democrat, he’s a conservative republican)… I actually knew couples like that. (The opposite ideology in the other couple, but still…) It was POSSIBLE. Could you imagine if a liberal girl tried to bring her conservative boyfriend out to dinner to meet her friends today?! Well, it just wouldn’t happen. The “friends” would boycott the dinner and disown the girl. Unless and until she vowed to strictly tow the party line. There is no room for dissent. There is no room for diversity. There is no room for open minds. What a sad state the media has made our country. “Liberals” shouldn’t be called “Liberals” anymore. They are anything but liberal. An actual Liberal is someone who is tolerant and/or willing to accept behaviors or opinions different from one’s own view… Promoting freedom of thought and behavior. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-has-gone-over-the-edge-into-trumpdom/842123/136 "2019-10-25T22:01:57Z")
Ah, the old “liberals are only liberal if they’re okay with burning crosses on black people’s lawns” canard. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-has-gone-over-the-edge-into-trumpdom/842123/137 "2019-10-25T22:32:13Z")
Don’t worry, only one person actually believes that. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-has-gone-over-the-edge-into-trumpdom/842123/138 "2019-10-25T23:02:22Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Don’t worry, only one person actually believes that. I’m not sure ANYONE believes it, but there are certainly an entire army of racist and bigoted pieces of shit who are willing to say it in an attempt to flummox frustated honest people and divert the discussion away from how being racist bigots is indeed bad. We’re just fortunate that we have relatively few around this board who haven’t yet realized that everybody here recognizes that sort of shit as a giant flag saying “I’m a racist bigot!” ---
**Author:** ![Annoyed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f04885/32.png) [@Annoyed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annoyed)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-has-gone-over-the-edge-into-trumpdom/842123/139 "2019-10-25T23:21:32Z")
Does anyone in this forum ever get tired of calling people racist bigots? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-has-gone-over-the-edge-into-trumpdom/842123/140 "2019-10-25T23:26:10Z")
> [@HarleyQuinn](#): > > I couldn’t agree with you more. The more I read, the more sorry I felt for him. I have friends and family all over the political spectrum. I respect their rights to free speech. No matter how vehemently I may disagree with what they say, I will always stand up for their RIGHT to say it. And I must say, I miss the days when people acknowledged that they could coexist. It’s like, _Okay… You may disagree with me, but why does that have to mean we can’t be friends (or at least friendly)?_ Remember back when people use to MARRY their polar opposite?! (She’s a liberal progressive democrat, he’s a conservative republican)… I actually knew couples like that. (The opposite ideology in the other couple, but still…) It was POSSIBLE. Could you imagine if a liberal girl tried to bring her conservative boyfriend out to dinner to meet her friends today?! Well, it just wouldn’t happen. The “friends” would boycott the dinner and disown the girl. Unless and until she vowed to strictly tow the party line. There is no room for dissent. There is no room for diversity. There is no room for open minds. What a sad state the media has made our country. No, I don’t remember this country ever being like that. I remember American conservatives spending the last twenty years doing everything in their power to make strip me of my civil rights, of arguing that [people like me deserve to have their children taken away](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/sharon-bottom-mattes-child-custody-lgbt-rights-virginia-a8783296.html), or [protecting the rights of bigots to throw me out of my home and fire me from my job](https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/trump-opposes-federal-lgbtq-nondiscrimination-bill-citing-poison-pills-n1005551), [of calling me a pedophile and comparing me to dog-fuckers](http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2013/03/ben-carson-gay-marriage-apology-nambla-santorum.html). I remember conservatives trying to [ban any sort of media that presented people like me in a positive light](https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/more-half-banned-books-challenged-lgbtq-content-n992221). I remember conservatives [boycotting Disneyland for not barring openly gay people from entering the park.](https://www.theferventmama.com/boycott-disney/) So, yeah, this golden era of tolerance and live-and-let-live you remember? I can’t talk about any other group’s experiences, but it’s never existed in this country for queer people. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-has-gone-over-the-edge-into-trumpdom/842123.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-has-gone-over-the-edge-into-trumpdom/842123.md?page=8)