A small business owner who voted for Donald Trump recently posted a video on TikTok, pleading for help as crushing tariffs on China threatened to bankrupt his operation, which imports alloy wheels. His call for support, however, drew little sympathy from some fellow Americans.
“Votes have consequences,” he was told, with many comments from Twitter/X users relishing the notion that another MAGA voter was suffering because of their political choice. The backlash prompted a second video from the man, in which he dropped several F-bombs while criticizing the apparent heartlessness of those celebrating his hardship.
I know y’all disagree with me but I think the schadenfraude that the left is what caused the MAGA branch of the right to begin with and we’re only making it worse.
I suspect we could sway a lot of voters by having real conversations about it rather than making fun of them.
people tried doing it the reasonable way. it didn’t work.
so what’s left?
also, what that guy said about in-groups — that’s valid. I’ll do everything I can to have reasonable conversations with people in person, especially those that I know, but online with random people? mock the fuck out of them.
Don’t care. Fuck them all.
Typically the only way to change someone’s mind is in-group pressure. I’m not this guy’s in group. Nothing I say to him is going to make a difference. I’m not in a position to spend weeks or months working my way into his friend group so I can convince him to be a better, smarter, person.
The time for conversation is past. These people have supported and continue to support MAGA, and even put MAGA back in power. They wanted to hurt others, and they got caught in the crossfire. They worked really hard for this, they EARNED it, and they DESERVE the rewards.
And worse, if you asked this guy if he had the choice between Trump and Harris in 2028, he’d STILL vote for Trump, saying “You can’t seriously expect me to vote for her, can you?”
Fuck him, he got what he voted for multiple times.
Respectability politics won’t save you.
I suspect democrats will listen to anyone before progressives.
I don’t have schadenfreude about any of this. That is not the correct word. I get no joy or laughter from any of this shit.
I tried having conversations. I gave people I know copies of P2025 and the only response I got was. " What about the children?" They do not want to talk or listen to reason.
Conversations IRL, sure. But online space isn’t for that. One could easily make 1000 bot accounts “just asking questions” and create the false impression to bystanders that “both sides are the same”. That rherotic needs to be shutdown quickly or it becomes a nazi bar.
IRL, its where you can have genuine conversations because there’s that human connection of being face to face. Bernie did that, he went to a maga stronghold and managed to convert some magats. They said that “he seemed like a nice guy” and “different how TV portrays him”, so I think online space is gonna have that same disconnect, because of the lack of face to face connection.
No, it was the racism. I’ve tried having “real conversations” with these types. You just get shouted at by people who watch Fox News 24/7. A 5 minute conversation once in a while will not out weight hours and hours of being told it’s the “illegals” and homeless that are causing all the problems and the Democrats don’t do anything about it. This has been my experience going back to 9/11. They don’t want to hear from you and they will infantilize you for disagreeing with them.
I’m also not exaggerating about the 24/7 thing. My mother leaves Fox News on for the dog to watch when she’s not home. She then has some rightwing rag taking to her in her BT hearing aids when she’s not in the house.
Also, I’m not “making fun of them”. Nothing about this is fun. I’m just angry and depressed all the time. I’ve been watching this country slide down this path for over 20 years and been dismissed every time.
in general, this is the better sentiment; however, the issue still remains that extremists can’t be reasoned with. once they cross a certain threshold, they lack the willpower to truly have a conversation. they only want to have their way. it becomes a feedback loop. they force those around them to adopt the same cynicism. it isn’t healthy, but still, they can’t be reasoned with. it’s not for wont of people having tried for years now.
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Too many Dems are still believing the Michelle Obama Doctrine: “When they go low, we go high.”
The Dem leadership, and many Dems as well, are OBSESSED with being polite to MAGA. They think that somehow showing kindness to people who literally want to murder vast democratic swathes is going to persuade them to be civilized, despite years of evidence to the contrary.
They’re using the most vicious propaganda, and the Dems have people who are constantly chiding the rest of us when ever we say anything provocative. When I found out that the ICE Killer’s wife was an immigrant, I mentioned that if he’s going to clean out immigrants with lethal force, maybe he should start at home, and deport his wife and whatever anchor baby kids they have. And while we’re at it, deport Melania, and Trump’s four anchor babies.
I don’t really believe that, obviously, I’m totally against the Trump Immigration Policies, but I got jumped on about perpetrating their crimes, etc. Nonsense. It was sarcasm and irony.
We won’t conquer MAGA with kindness, they are vicious hyenas. We can imprison the worst of them, but the rest we are just going to have to chase off into the dark, and deal with them when they poke their ugly little heads back up. The trick is we actually have to DEAL WITH THEM, and not ignore them, the way polite Dems did when they started getting nasty back in 1994.
Fuck universalism and the high road rhetoric bullshit. That’s how these fuckers got handed the bag on the first god damned place. These people are hateful trash and not a one of them has any chance of learning nor growing or they’d have gotten there by this fucking point. At best they respond to the consequences of their actions, but only in regards to themselves and not for anyone else’s sake, I don’t give any of them credit for learning or growing.
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So the right gets to be as evil and demonic as they want but we have to be nice to them or else
My bad, I was actually responding to the wrong thread, I agree with you.
Can I blame them for me being a leftist, then? Why do they hold no blame for their own fucking thoughts and actions? Are they no more responsible for themselves and their actions than a god damned toddler? Fuck all of that. You’re wrong.
My bad, I got confused on who I was responding too, I actually agree with you.
My bad, sorry for the flak.
Yep, no worries, it was understandable 😂
Talking to Magats does not mean pivoting towards the right. Its about having a real conversation about the issues, face to face.
Example: Bernie visits deep trump country, manages to convince some trumpers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP8Oxe6OxJc
It means you’re already treating them better than the left.
Sure. Good luck with that.
I get what you’re saying, but we started with warnings, “hey, this horrible person is fucking horrible” and they still voted for trump to “own the libs”. At this point he is accelerating the downfall, what else are we to do? “We told you he was going to be horrible for everything, you voted for someone who actively wants to remove my existence, he was horrible for everything the first time around, but that’s ok, now that its affecting you personally everything is ok?”