Isolation Diary: Do you remember when I posted about my online encounter with a person who thought differently than I do about our current situation here in the USA? Not covid, Trump. She stopped sending me her blog posts but tonight I checked in on her posts. And responded to one. Quite a long paragraph. Making my position clear and urging her to give a think. And doing so brings up feelings. I have not had a face to face discussion with a Trump supporter. I am isolated not only because of covid but because of the people I know and associate with. I think I am getting good information but I suppose those who only watch Fox News think the same. I just want to shake them. Shake them! (I hope that a big deal is made about Trump’s fake news about his nomination competitors back in 2016) The feelings……I am sad because of the fracture. If, perchance, I had a face to face discussion with this person, what would happen? I would certainly lose my cool (do I have any?) and become emphatic. I would try to listen. I would begin to tremble inside, I know this. It is unpleasant. (Although in certain circumstances it could be a good thing.) I would perhaps encounter an alien mindset.
Pauline P.
Most of the Trump supporters I know don’t watch the news often or pay much attention to politics. They ignore the hourly scandals and easily dismiss any evidence that would lead to cognitive dissonance. They often support (mostly abstractly) the military and law enforcement and still think Republican=small government. Which makes sense. The local commercials here in Oklahoma say that it’s an Oklahoma value to “treasure law enforcement” while “parts of the country is going up in flames” (this is said in a way that insinuates that the wild fires are caused by flag burning and riots. Not hyperbolically either). There is a constant drum beat that liberals are going to take away guns (despite this never happening) and in many commercials they talk about the dangers of “radicals, liberals, progressives, and socialists” which are apparently all one in the same and all antithetical to traditional values. People are terrified that rioters are coming to their homes, and that toddlers are being kidnapped by the thousands and that liberals are going to steal their small businesses and their guns. What I’ve basically been told is that they’ll accept Trump’s “flaws” (read his entire personality) if it means they can keep their status quo in check from these (largely fictitious and greatly exaggerated) evils. They’re a group of people who say they don’t want to live in fear but are afraid of EVERYTHING.Ruth Silveira
Yeah. Thanks for the insight into Oklahoma, at least some part of it. In my opinion, the best answer to this is to overwhelming defeat Trump, and nothing terrible happens. They get their status quo with a few positive bumps in health care. Small businesses, which are struggling now, survive. Life goes on. It’s ok. What was the fuss?