General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I know this is going to be unpopular but I am friends with and I understand many Trump supporters [View all]KTM
(1,823 posts)Most of them were born into it. The right has been brainwashing them, and their families, and entire communities for 30 years. We have had a systematic, country-wide effort to dumb down the populace, to discourage critical thought. We have major media and political leaders twisting the truth in search of power, preaching hate to the downtrodden and selling themselves as salvation. Nowhere else on earth are so many so willing to embrace ignorance. You say they are willfully stupid, but for the most part these days that is the American way.
So, you have a bunch of people in a cult, who have been taught that "outsiders" spread lies, that anyone who preaches against their faith is part of The Enemy hell-bent on their destruction. They believe you are evil, that you always lie, and that your intent will be hurtful to themselves and their families.
So what do you propose ? Hope they all drink the kool-aid and spare us ? Wait for the inevitable civil war? If they believe you are evil, and you can only see them the same way, then we will always be at war.
The ONLY way to break them out is to pull back the curtain, show them the Wizard, and deprogram them. We dont have to betray our beliefs. We just have to be willing to allow people who dont yet share them the chance to grow.
Otherwise its always going to be varying degrees of this. We see the Middle East, the Shias and the Kurds fighting for a thousand years, and we consider them backwards. If all we do is hate our neighbors, that will be one day be us.