Ways to irritate Trump supporters?

The BBQ Pit
41

Then you tell me. What can we tell them to get them voting democrat again? Policy apparently didn’t matter; the democrats were the ones who had actual proposals to help these people. What did matter? How do you reach the kind of person who sees Donald Trump and thinks, “Yep, gonna vote for that!”

Nah. It indicates that I’m fed up with this shit. I’m fed up with the demands for sympathy for the people who voted for Donald Trump. I’m fed up with trying to explain to apologists that Trumpism is more akin to Creationism than any rationally held belief. I was sick and tired of it before the election, and now it’s just become utterly unsufferable.

Oh? I’m sorry, is there a good reason to vote for Trump I keep missing? Every time I hear this excuse, I ask the same question: what justifiable reason can you think of to vote for Trump? And I rarely, if ever, get anything resembling a decent answer. Trump constantly and consistently showed himself to be completely and utterly unsuited and unprepared for the job. So what’s the excuse this time, huh?

42

Plenty of the younger ones do. It allows them to gain male attention while still maintaining their virginity pledges. Before anyone speculates, I’ve got brothers and nephews from which I overhear this stuff and occasionally catch them in act.

43

I encounter them quite often and even have a few friends among them. Teaching adults to think is a long and difficult process. It requires subtle suggestions. It requires a lot of patience. However, the alternative is shooting such people and I value my freedom too much. But each mind you educate is one less zombified for them. Like the Dope says, we are fighting stupidity, but it’s taking a lot longer than we thought.

44

Excellent questions and this is what gives me hope that liberals are actually more likely to try to understand the other side. You don’t have to agree with the overall concepts, but understanding where they are coming from gives you a great deal of power in guiding your next plan of action. I’ll try to lay some things out in my next post

45

It’s working, OP!

46

Just act like Hillary won, or refer to her as the “true” President in calm, neutral, matter-of-fact tones. Maintain this calm affect despite any and all attempts by a Trump supporter to correct or mock you. Just smile and nod and carry on as before. Treat any reference to “President Trump” as you would the nonsensical babbling of infants.

Start referring to Clinton and her husband as Clinton45 and Clinton42. If anyone asks, just say you’re doing so to avoid ambiguity, as with Bush41 and Bush43.

47

These are all just my opinions, they mean nothing beyond that, but maybe they could be used as a data point and insight.
First. Recognize that this is a diverse group. Lumping them all together as a single group is just like lumping one race or religious group as uniformly the same (I don’t have a similar word that ‘racism’ fits).

Second, they didn’t vote for Trump. They voted against Hillary. Why? she doesn’t represent them, they didn’t see any reason to vote for her and they saw plenty of reason to vote against her. This doesn’t mean that ‘any old republican’ candidate would have won against Hillary. I think a traditional candidate like Romney or Bush, etc could have lost. It is because they are ‘traditional’ and not viewed as much different than Hillary. If the Republicans fielded a traditional candidate it would have been just more of the same and no real change. Everyone talks about ‘throwing the bums in washington’ out and changing things up. Even liberals talk about this, In this case it happened. In one sense it doesn’t matter to them that Trump was in it, because they voted against Hillary. In another sense it does matter it was Trump, because any other ‘normal’ republican is the same as any normal democrat.

Third, it was a done deal that Hillary would win…at least thats what we’ve been told for 8 years. People don’t like to be told they have no choice. You tell someone they have to do something for 8 years and they begin to resent it. They voted for Trump because they resented being told Hillary was going to be president because she was Hillary and deserved it.

Fourth, (related to 3) Hubris on the part of the media and democrats. She is going to win so we will sit back and be proud of ourselves for watching history being made. THis hubris was a thorn in the side of anyone who didn’t want to vote for Hillary. I’ll note here that perhaps the real reason Hillary lost was due to this Hubris that she would automatically win, reduced the motivation for people who wanted her to win to actually make to vote. (but this post is about why people vote for trump, not why they didn’t vote for hillary). Note that Wisconsin was going to go for Hillary. Its got Madison and Milwaukee; of course its will be in Hillary’s tally. She never showed up in the state, not once, very few Hillary for president signs. Trump showed up often. Bam! Hillary lost the state. She didn’t care about Wisconsin enough to show up.
Related to this is that people who don’t live on the coasts are tired of being ignored and viewed as not important. They are bombarded everyday about what happens in New York or Los Angeles. I’ve said it before…the media needs to set up shop in Joplin, Missouri

Fifth, there is a real despise for Obama. Right or wrong, for whatever reason (and it generally IS NOT RACIALLY MOTIVATED, as much as you might want it to be) they were fed up with big city Obama and his executive directives forcing his policies. Hillary was viewed as another 4-8 years of Obama.
Sixth, is traditional republican talking points. Pro-gun, anti-abortion, save our jobs, keep taxes low. Trump made those points. Also, it doesn’t matter if he actually believes these, its the perception. Hillary most definitely falls on the other side of these issues. It doesn’t really matter if Trump does or not, they just know that Hillary doesn’t agree with them on the issues.

Thats about all I can put together for now. If I get an opportunity, I’ll try to post what I think Democrats should do next.

48

your mouth must be incredibly dry, what with all of the spittle you’ve been spraying over all of your screens.

49

I liked you better as Charlie Wayne.

50

That’s one step above “u mad bro?”

51

Trump supporters don’t just have different opinions. They’re stupid assholes who are making life worse for everyone.

I like oatmeal cookies, is a normal opinion.

I like fascist ignoramuses and hurting poor people, is an opinion you deserve to get annoyed for.

52

You do realize, of course, that your response fits perfectly for conservatives trying to talk with liberals, don’t you? You didn’t? Be educated, then.

The only change would be to swap out Limbaugh and swap some liberal braying jackass like Rosie O’Donnell or Whoopie Goldberg or Michael Moore.

53

I have only name recognition for this media personality named Limbaugh that a certain low-cost participant puppy poster keeps throwing around. Never saw or listened to anything that media personality might have broadcast. In context, I assume it is a far-right conservative. I imagine I probably might agree with about half what they say, on any given day.

This is another something the liberals are not getting, related to your point #1: People like me will vote for what we view as the best option, or the least bad option. I will admit my political views are definitely on the conservative side. But I’m not a member of any of the special interest conservative groups that keep getting bandied about. Racist? Hardly - my wife is Panamanian. White Supremacist? I hate those fuckers, and I do align with any hate group with them on their target list - just make me a supporter, not active in any way. Religious? Not by any stretch, sect, cult, dioceses or otherwise.

So when somebody lumps an entire U.S. voting block under “the mind of a Trump supporter” I have to wonder just how strong the crazy can be in some people. Imagine their surprise to find out there are alot of people like me out there who cannot be pigeonholed and influenced by stupid campaign bullshit.

54

I agree there are a range of Trump voters, as there would have to be with any group that large. However, what they all have in common is a willingness to vote for a completely unqualified and ignorant person to hold our nation’s highest office (and not one has given a convincing reason why that was a good idea). So, yes, some are religious, some are racist, some are manipulated by right wing media. Some are probably stupid, and some–I assume–are good people.

55

You live in a fantasy world, and because you refuse to better yourself, you vote for people that hurt both you, and the people around you.

Maybe stop being gullible?

56

I’ll not speak to the ignorant part, that being strictly an opinion of yours. However I can say it is possible to do well in a job you are not technically qualified for. I’ve done it myself. More than once.

Sure it’s a big risk. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. He’ll have all the help he needs. And then some.

57

Somewhere in youTube is an interview with the late Christopher Hitchens which I’ll try to summarize fairly. I believe he was talking about the views of one of his personal heroes, George Orwell, and why (the interviewer asked) Orwell spent much of his time writing about the perils of totalitarian socialism and not totalitarian fascism. It was Hitchens’ take (as best I can summarize and recall) the Orwell though the response to fascism was pretty straightforward - you shoot them. The response to bullies and thugs doesn’t require a great deal of analysis or introspection - you simply kill them like you would kill locusts or rats. The fascist philosophies are simplistic, even simple-minded, and there’s little effort required to recognize them as such and as little point in trying to rationalize some deep philosophical reason to oppose and end them.

Opposing socialism gone mad, though, does require applying a bit of thought, because there a certain intellectual appeal to distributing wealth where it is most needed, and it can slide into dictatorship through a series of steps that individually seem more plausible.

I’m sure I’m mischaracterizing Hitchens’ view or Orwell to some extent, possibly a *large *extent. In any case, I see little point in trying to meet Trump supporters on some intellectual common ground unless they are clearly trying to do the same. If they’re not, fuck 'em… they let Trump and the Republicans play to their emotions, we may as well do the same to annoy them for our amusement.

58

Except we can’t just shoot all of them unless we want Civil War II. You can either work the long con to destroy them (which their own stupidity might do anyway) or work beside them and try to educate them with some possible hope for a better future.

59

Don’t do it! Billy, don’t be a hero!

60

The answer to your consternation, dear BPC, is not that these people are immune to facts and reason. And it’s not that they are, as you so love to proclaim, stupid. It’s that they have a completely different value system, and they care as little about the facts and ideas you are concerned about as you care about the things they value and are concerned about.

I have outlined many times on this board the many ways liberalism has damaged life in this country, the many, many deaths and wasted lives that have resulted from it, and these complaints are invariably hand-waved away or mocked and given no credence whatsoever by those here of a liberal mindset whose very way of thinking created these problems in the first place. People like me can ‘communicate’ all sorts of ‘facts’ to demonstrate this damage, and the role of liberalism in causing it, and we encounter the exact same response from you that you’re complaining about seeing in us.

And so it’s come down pretty much to a genuine culture war where the country is more or less evenly divided and each side is inoculated against the other…and, may the best man win, I guess.

But cheer up! You guys have increasingly had things going your way for the last fifty years. Now enough people on the other side have gotten so fed up with it that they voted into office a guy who is seemingly the only one on a national level who is willing to confront political correctness and take on all this b.s., call it what it is, and work to undo some of it. Surely your innate liberal sense of fair play and equality prevents you from thinking you should have things your way all the time. Right? :wink: