I don’t get how this guy still has support when his whole base was for releasing the files and he said he would. Now he’s going to pardon his accomplice?
I don’t get how this guy still has support when his whole base was for releasing the files and he said he would. Now he’s going to pardon his accomplice?
Cultists don’t have opinions of their own. They just live in an endless “now” where their leader is always right.
How can anyone listen to Trump for five seconds and not think of a sleazy, used car salesman? It’s like seeing through an obvious magic trick while everyone around you is going “whoa!” and thinking, “wtf is wrong with you guys?”
I’m going to keep trotting this phrase out: some of y’all never been in a cult and it shows.
Listen to the stories from people who left Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses (where I was), and various evangelical groups. Some of whom were extremely devout before. Doubts do creep in. It might take several years to work out (and the US does not have several years to solve its fascism problem), but it does happen.
Genetically Modified Skeptic, Telltale Atheist, and JW Thoughts are all examples on YouTube.
This is partly why I mostly just ask pointed questions of those in the Republican cult.
That is a very good tactic. The Socratic Method has a history of making you come off like an asshole, but it’s effective for this sort of thing. It forces trolls to do the work themselves, and they don’t like that feeling.
I think it’s all in the delivery, if I’m going to be honest. Also, it’s different strokes for different folks, I guess. There is a certain individual that watches someone like Ben Shapiro do his Gish Gallop, and they think he’s really making great points. Those kinds of people are probably not going to be reached by asking them questions; they think rapid-fire bullshit is super smart.
I’ve found that in my life, anyway, it’s usually been someone that dropped in a question that gave me pause not only in the moment, but also had me reflecting hours, weeks, months later that had the most impact.
An example of what I’m talking about - I was over at a relative’s house, and just trying to work out the TV and the remote, and just surfing around, with the sound down, trying to find something for kids to possibly watch. I don’t watch too much cable or very much linear television. Anyway, I flipped to CNN and the family’s resident Fauxboy, who up until then, although it was not his house either, had offered no suggestions on the figuring-out-the-remote-front, walked over and stood behind the couch I was sitting in, leaned in, and said, “oh, CNN!!! We’re going to get some real fake news now!”
I didn’t overreact - I don’t have a past of arguing with this guy and he doesn’t really know my politics per se. I’m sure the guy assumes I’m a “liberal” because I went to university and graduated. I just innocently asked him - “and what is wrong with CNN?” and just waited for an answer. Like I was asking what’s wrong with Coke or Pepsi. I’m not going to be able to get the entire context of what I think about MSNBC or CNN and how I don’t think they are really “liberal” in any left/right sense that people such as him believe they are. Nor do I care to; I am not going to be able to convince this guy of anything. And I certainly have zero brand loyalty to corporate news outlets, so it’s quite easy to not overreact to such claims.
But also, since I’m just asking something open-ended like that, with no team affiliation being broadcast, deep down, he knows he has no real hand-holds here. So he also has no assumed context which he thinks I’ll assume the framing of, meaning, “CNN/MSBNC liberal”.
It took all the wind out of his sails. He wanted either an argument or an atta-boy, and got…a question. Someone asked them to explain what they mean, without assuming any shortcut path to argumentation (and thus, “owning the libs” by getting a rise out of one) or validation. Maybe it was just viewed as a buzzkill by him, but…if people start asking more questions like that instead of immediately dropping into a fighting stance, I think it might reach some people.