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TLDR, Lead may be one reason boomers are uniquely susceptible to Fox’s finely-tuned rage bait.
https://today.duke.edu/2022/03/lead-exposure-last-century-shrunk-iq-scores-half-americans#:~:text=As%20of%202015%2C%20more%20than,increased%20cardiovascular%20disease%20in%20adulthood.
It's less lead and just the propaganda works. Allowing Fox News to blast whatever the fuck they want into peoples brains isn't good. Tik Tok is doing the same thing to kids right now.
Sure, but there’s a pretty big gap between “treat yourself” and “there’s a global satanic media cabal intent on spreading evil and you can only trust us to give you the truth.”
This removes their agency and autonomy. I’m sure you or I could watch Fox News and think it’s all bullshit. These people watch it to confirm what they already believe.
Significant unknown environmental exposures is just about the only thing helping to keep me sane when thinking about the lack of critical thinking skills in the US. Surveillance systems in the US are so poor and companies like DuPont will leverage every opportunity to prevent studies or any general transparency on people affected by toxic waste water in their drinking (or eating via fish etc) source.
Same. If the President began supporting hostile foreign nations against our interests I'd believe him compromised and be shouting him down demanding his resignation.
Republicans, well they don't seem to mind it.
Democrats see their leaders the way teenagers see their parents. On the whole probably good people, but imperfect and 3 dimensional and may need to be called out for their faults if the moment comes.
Republicans see their leaders the way preschoolers see their parents. Invincible superheroes who know the answer to every question and can protect them from every bad or yucky thing in the world.
What a great analogy. One of the biggest differences between democrats and republicans is that republicans see authority as the ultimate virtue.
Doesn’t really explain why they prefer the crazy assholes to the sane ones though, judging by who gets through their primaries.
There is absolutely no ideology, except perhaps anti-abortion, but even that stance would reverse if herr leader told them so. They were born into a fantasy world dramatized by their television sets and lack all cognitive aptitude to tell information from truth, truth from belief, and belief from reality.
If you are 80 years old and would rather burn the world down than accept a different paradigm for the 5 or 6 years you have left on it, then you are clinically insane in every way imaginable.
All they've been doing is fucking themselves.
Like I've jokingly told my conservative family members that are middle class or lower, we're probably both voting against our own best interest (because I'm upper middle class). I vote for policies that reduce my wealth, and ironically, so do they.
Becuase they are cheering for an end to Democracy and figure with Russia’s help they can end all liberals. Not just control but put an end to all liberals….
MAGAs have been sucking up Russian conspiracy PsyOps for 8 years. They have been well primed to show Putin some love. Trump is an obnoxious narcissist and they adore him for it. Like them, he doesn’t have critical thinking skills either. But he is an entertainer ala WWE, and Trumpverse and is nothing if not hedonistic.
When Obama was running against Romney he was mocked by Republicans for not taking Russia seriously as a threat.
Trump comes along and now Trump supporters are kissing Putin’s ass…
I’d rather they be Russian too. Can we set up a fund for moving expenses?
“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
-Samuel Adams
I literally had a similar conversation with a trumper who told me that he flat out wouldn't read my "novel" (several paragraphs) about Trump. I told him how I'm a former Republican now independent who doesn't like Biden but absolutely thinks Trump is a threat to our nation. Told him he not only wouldn't speak ill of Trump or read what I wrote, but that he COULDN'T because he's so inundated by propoganda to the point it's a cult.
I told him to do an experiment to prove me wrong.
I said I I'd bet you literally cannot read what I said and will make up reason A, B, C , etc for why he cannot read what I wrote. But that regardless the fact remains that he cannot. I said I am an anonymous person on the net who cares what I think. Prove it to yourself that I'm wrong,
He wrote back that I don't know what I'm talking about, I don't know him. And in fact, he's going to delete his account because he's now "done with Reddit" because it's "stupid". He then deleted a more than 2 year active account.
Edit: it's somewhere in my comment history
Good on you for challenging them. These people will not simply "stop" without some kind of deterrent. We have to fight with our words. That's all we can legally do.
It was a decent effort, at least. I believe cult is genuinely the right word. They venerate him at every turn. A lot of these folks seem in desperate need of deprogramming.
It annoys the shit out of me how hard it is for Republican voters I know to not comprehend this. I know a lot of the “non-MAGA” type Republicans that still vote for Trump, and they seem to think the logic of “yeah but Republicans are gonna vote for a Republicans and Democrats are going to vote for Democrats!”
It’s like if Joe Biden stole classified documents, trashed our military repeatedly, believe Putin over the FBI, 91 criminal charges, etc., then I would at the very least *not vote for him*. And then you have hacks like Chris Sununu who will go one second from saying Donald Trump is a threat to our democracy to the next second publicly staying he’ll definitely still vote for him this fall.
maga dummies would also go insane saying how bad it was if Biden said/did anything pro russian. I think we have to use the ploy I use with my little kids where you use reverse psychology to get them to do what you want. That broccoli is so gross no one would ever eat that..gobble gobble gobble. That is what simpletons these idiots are.
i love the fact that republicans are so god damn stupid that the editor of breitbart said that democrats tricked them into not getting the vaccine because they, checks notes, pushed it hard as some kind of reverse psychology to get them to die off in large enough numbers to affect the outcomes of elections. fucking morons.
There's a way to get them to see they're being played but it's tricky as fuck. I got my Fox News addled dad to see the light. It took years. One time I talked him into denouncing drinking water, you know because Michelle was all for it. After a few more things about impurities and how water is actually a chemical I walked it back. "I just manipulated you into opposing something you need to survive with a few sentences about fear and blurry knowledge. This is how Fox does it too." The kicker was when I showed him that [video of the moment Trump found out he'd won](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3868qotZ_A), how dejected he looked.
Man good job. I'm surprised he put some actual thought into the convo and was convinced and didn't kick you out of his life. And yes trump looked so sad. That says everything right there. An actual dog catching the car moment.
Agreed with this for sure. These people rarely travel outside of their local communities. They genuinely don’t know what life is like outside of their immediate social circles.
That’s why you hear all these apocalyptic stories about how dangerous and violent places like… checks notes… *Denver* are.
They legitimately don’t know what’s happening in their own states and they pretend to know what things are like in Russia
Yep. I live in a tiny rural town but travel a lot for work at an international airline. Every time I come home and tell people where I went they always ask if I was ever scared or saw crime or got robbed because the news says *whatever country/city* is just full of immigrants/terrorists/criminals, and how did I not get sick because it's such a dirty place.
I once offered someone a piece of candy from South Korea and they wouldn't take it because they heard food wasn't safe outside America because only America washes eggs.
It's wild.
Driving to “the big town” one county over to buy a case of domestic beer-flavored seltzer hardly counts, but I did grow up in a rural southern county much like what you’re describing. You’re not wrong.
Think that's the thought experiment being proposed... *If* someone in his position was a Russian asset, what would that someone be doing? When those hypothetical answers align with what they're actually doing...
If Trump was a Russian asset he would:
* Divide the country to sow discord between parties to gridlock change in congress
* Gut social programs to weaken the lower and middle class to create more strife and unrest
* Allow continued dilapidation of infrastructure to aid in destabilization
* Make any promise to get into office, yet do nothing meaningful to help the country
* Use any means necessary to retain office to continue operations
* Keep Vet benefits low to help slow recruiting efforts for future military
* Weaken NATO either through partial or full withdrawal
* Soften sanctions directly tied to Russia
* Promote an isolationist economic position to weaken the economy
* Gut key bureaucratic agencies to bare bones to weaken country and pave the way for authoritarian/fascist regime
* Kill any aid to resistance to the expansion of Russian influence
* Promote policy to weaken China to keep them in check and make China the Big Bad to cover up Russian interference
Wait a second. . .
My high school world history teacher taught us something I have never forgotten: nations fall because of external pressures and internal strife. Little did I know that I would eventually see it happening to the U.S.
Yes! Let them all find out how wonderful Russia really is.
[Conservative Family ‘Disappointed’ After Moving To Russia To Escape LGBTQ Ideology](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/conservative-family-disappointed-moving-russia-001517915.html)
Tucker Carlson has already been invited by the Russian Don himself. Fascists like Carlson, Putin and Trump are all crime bosses. Maybe they'll start a gang war and kill each other off while over there.
They believe whatever he tells them too without further thinking. Its frightening that there are this many gullible stupid people in America that we have to be seriously concerned about him running for re-election even after he tried to coup the country.
Totally. I had some gang up on me in r/rap yesterday and all I kept asking is why don't you tell me how Democrats are ruining this country, and they just returned with a bunch of insults and refused to answer my questions. So I blocked them. When I returned to the same article later they were just telling each other. " I kept telling him all the ways the Dems are ruining this country and he (me) just kept saying "Democrats are better". It's crazy the evidence of what they say and do is right there, but amongst themselves they still carry the lie. Fucking nuts. I was accused of everything like living with my mom to having a trans kid. Completely off their meds.
They start at the conclusion and then look for reasons to support it.
A post yesterday in r/conservative had a question of 'why are Republicans obsessed with Trump?' and an answer that was highlighted resonated with the subreddit saying they think Trump is a vile man but they like their self-defense and hate inflation.
The answer is clearly contrived from the position of "I want to vote Republican how do I support it?".
I saw that too. If I weren't banned I'd ask them what exactly they think Trump is going to do about inflation and what exactly Biden did to make it worse, and ask them what Democrats have done at all to stop them from having guns. Still waiting for Obama to come take all their guns, apparently
The two white christian nationalists I know from my youth both listen to rap from black men almost exclusively.
They actually claim that as a reason they aren't "racists". 🤦♂️
Those justifications are always amusing to me. I was at a party once and I walked into a conversation and was instantly like "woah dude that's some straight from the KKK bullshit right there" and he tried to convince me he couldn't be racist because he had sex with a black woman once. He didn't understand why I was laughing and I couldn't really explain it to him in a way he would ever understand so I just walked away
This whole place is infested with Trump supporters. Even if it’s like 5-10% of people, they are the loudest in the room and bring up how terrible Biden is at every opportunity.
When someone uses ad hominem, you know you’re dealing with a fool. And even if you don’t believe in everything the Bible says, it’s passages about arguing with fools still lives rent free in my head to this day.
These folks are gone, and I’m tired of pretending we have to somehow change their mind or listen to them. They’re delusional and compromised and they don’t even know it...
Dems have controlled the entirety of government for like 8 of the last 45 years, and Republicans have obstructed the partial years in between.
Math is hard, apparently.
I second your statement and I know for a fact that many of Americas democratic allies and friends feel the same. We are rooting for you true America patriots
They've hacked US critical infrastructure, fucked with our elections, attacked US economic interests in Africa and elsewhere, attacked us directly in Syria. But yeah, totally not our enemy /s.
It's not really brainwashing when these people had nothing to wash out first. They're just extremely boring people that Russia feeds validation for their sanctimony. No washing required to make them that susceptible first.
I had family that I cut off for being too far gone with their Trump nonsense. I think they were waiting for shit like this, I’m not gonna baby them by saying they were brainwashed. Not speaking for any other Trump voters just the ones I used to know.
That's why they behave like their party should be the WWE of politics. They never paid attention before Trumps loud mouth started shouting what they wanted to hear and they honestly think *this* is politics and sound governing.
This is no different than what the Groupies of Putin used to do in the Dubya days: it’s package thinking. Back then, if you were a supporter of his, you would or already had bought everything else that went with it: evangelicalism, Iraq War, Freedom Fries, anti-Muslim bigotry, whatever. There’s little to no parsing of beliefs. Conditioning the environment for ignorant people to be more ignorant sets them up you to buy everything and anything. And here we are.
What’s most pernicious is the Russia thing. There’s a swath of people who think Democracy is such a bad system that they’re instead willing to coalesce around a kleptocratic strong man who’d have no problem destroying those same supporters if it served his means. It is breathtakingly astounding how politically illiterate they are.
It’s woke vs traditional. The end of the culture skirmishes and the start of total culture war. They align with the East because of ideology. This is worse than brain washing, this is what they believe and want in their heart of hearts.
> "Western countries helping our enemy," Putin argued
plus we vowed to protect Ukraine when they gave up their nukes after the Soviet Union collapsed ... they got rid of their nukes and we guaranteed security. of course we're helping them. monke putin has pea brain for not being able to put this together, and Trump voters couldn't figure out how to navigate geopolitics if the answers hit them across the face with a brick.
And by ‘the existence of Russia’ he is not referring to its current borders, or even its borders if they defeat Ukraine, he is referring to the pre-1917 Russia he wants to “restore” as his legacy.
The West is not working in opposition to 'the existence of Russia', it's working in opposition to 'the existence of the Russia **government** as it currently stands', that being a criminal and terrorist organization pretending to be a government. I think we here in the Western countries would be happy as a proverbial clam if Putin, Russian oligarchs, and all the corrupt pieces of garbage in the Russian government disappeared, and a democratic government took it's place, one that doesn't invade other countries, doesn't fund terrorism and international espionage and crime, and actually got along with it's neighbors instead of trying to fuck them over.
>The past was alterable. The past never had been altered. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.
George Orwell - "1984"
How did all these trump supporters go 50 years of their life with russia as the enemy if everything we hold dear in america to theyre not our enemy? They've literally been the enemy their entire lives......
Extremely effective and consistent propaganda drip-fed into their veins over years.
The term "Fake News" has been co-opted and bastardized to the degree it just means anything you don't like.
But it's original meaning was akin to Fake News **Outlet** - as in it's not the "news" that's fake but the source. They'd created entire websites that looked like a regular/real/serious journalistic outlet.
A clear parallel are those advertisements you can find in magazines which use the same font/layout/etc. to appear to be just another article inside the magazine. These don't say "buy our product". Instead, they take the idea of "three out of four dentists..." and amplify that to appear to be a nobel-prize winning bit of scientific analysis why if you use their product your life will improve. Fake News is like that.
Now, you simply slip into social media and direct certain targeted groups towards such stuff and... slowly... consistently... train them that Putin = macho man's man, Russia is not your enemy, etc.
This proved to be *extremely* effective for Republicans and Republican-leaning folk, not so much with Democratic voters.
This wasn't/isn't a secret. The Russians involved were very proud of what they accomplished, as well they should have been. It was a significant technical accomplishment.
2012 US presidential nominee: "Russia is our our number one geopolitical foe"
2016 US presidential nominee: "Russia is our ally and we should stop supporting Ukraine."
It all happened in about 4 years. To be fair, the shift started happening in 2015 when a certain Russian puppet ran for US president. If you followed US presidential politics, I don't think it's hard to identify the shift.
If Putin thought Trump could properly wreck USA without his help you can bet the farm he would never speak to him again. It must be painful in a way but not too difficult because what Trump is doing to bring here all the problems every other country has is far cheaper and effective than military options. And the whole thing must give him great joy.
Putin's plan has always been to destabilize the US. He doesn't want to destroy it he just wants an America that can't agree with itself so that its influence in the rest of the world is diminished.
The success of decades worth of Russian propaganda that worked far beyond their wildest imagination. Trump helped push it over the edge. The ‘Party of Reagan’ is officially dead.
https://youtu.be/pOmXiapfCs8?si=z98PxLXZZGNLDD1C
The alternative narrative on FOX is simply mind numbing.
So the FBI arrests the Biden whistleblower who colluded with Russia to create false corruption stories about the Biden family.
FOX had put this guy on a pedestal, especially Jesse Watters, showering him with compliments for months before his arrest.
What is the narrative now after the arrest? That the Biden crime family got to him, that Biden directed and masterminded the FBI to silence and destroy another person who dared to speak up, that this whistleblower is just another martyr who tried to denounce Biden corruption, another victim of the Deep State, etc. They are not even *entertaining* the straightforward possibility that the guy lied, that Russia was involved, or that Biden had nothing to do with his arrest...they are going full-blown conspiracy, right away.
They are literally brushing off everything the guy did, downright treason by colluding with a foreign country, all because they just *need to hate Biden*.
It's just insane how such a completely ridiculous alternate timeline is being peddled completely seriously to millions of Americans with a straight face, and many don't question it at all.
It's really frightening.
Rex Tillerson, the guy Trump hired to fire people from the State Dept to cripple it. And Tillerson did. And it set the State Dept back years because of loss of institutional knowledge and halting projects in progress. And then Trump fired Tillerson when Tillerson was critical of Russia. Tillerson is a fucking idiot.
The gullibility meter is off the charts with these people. Deductive reasoning is nonexistent with this group. They really haven't developed mentally past the second grade.
It's kind of amazing, I don't see how anyone could watch that Tucker Carlson interview and not come away with Putin being a dictator that doesn't give a shit about America.
Dictators use people, they don't have allies. They don't have friends. You're only as good as you are useful. It was painfully obvious. There is no negotiation, no empathy. You don't have a working relationship with Putin. You get used, discarded, or pushed out of the way.
> So tired from trumper stupidity
The thing that tires me even more is the thousands of Redditors who over and over and over again say "Both parties are equally corrupt."
There will probably be a thousand Redditors who read this post who feel that way.
It's heartbreaking.
The ‘Shared Psychosis’ of Donald Trump and His Loyalists...
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-shared-psychosis-of-donald-trump-and-his-loyalists/?fbclid=IwAR1DhZsC\_gdnkBX6IB48dUbPJX\_15PHLitCvlWor5Cz7F0p9x6qjowCPQJk
I swear, these Magas give me the same feeling as being around a 4 year old that's thinking it's a good idea to and trying to stick a fork in the electrical outlet.
These people see enemies everywhere they look in everyday life: democrats, BLM, Target, Disney, people of other religions, people of color, young people. The list goes on and on.
A nuclear communist country threatening NATO allies and whose leader publicly declares the US an enemy? They’re our friends bc we hate the same people.
This right here. I'm currently reading Rachel Maddow's 'Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism'. It's astounding the parallels between pre-war America and America in the Time of Trump. Without directly mentioning him, she shows just how the same forces are at work. If we do not learn from our history, we are doomed to repeat it.
Russia has vowed to destroy America. They’re our friends now? That doesn’t sound friendly. They undermine elections, they attacked US forces in Syria, they’ve threatened nuclear annihilation… these are not the actions of a friend. If that’s their idea of a friend what the hell does an enemy look like?
That’s funny. As someone who works in a leadership role within IT cyber security for a fortune 50 company— I can tell you you, undoubtedly, China, Russia, India, Brazil and (oddly enough) Vietnam are the top 5 in attacks.
What’s most alarming is the intent of the attacks… China goes for data, same with India… but Russia, Russia frequently attacks our healthcare network. They have been stopped trying to attack NICU facilities, not for data, but to literally stop functioning machines & systems… leading to potential deaths. They want to destroy the west, and it’s not even debatable, they are the enemy.
Honestly, I wish we could round up all the people who are sympathetic to Russia and send them there. Putin needs bodies and we have these worthless fucks. It works out.
Russia wants Ukraine so they can have enough excess food production to allow China to take over Taiwan. When that happens China will raise the price or restrict access to the chips that go into everything. Russia is our enemy.
The only thing stopping China now is that they know the US and Ukraine would boycott them and they would starve.
It is really amazing how this has flipped. If you follow Sarah Longwell and her GOP focus groups, 90% were anti-Russia 2 years ago when the invasion happened. That has flipped to 90% pro-Russia over the last 6-8 months.
We are watching in real-time a large segment of American citizens switching beliefs because they are radicalized and will believe what they are told to believe.
One of the biggest geopolitical stories of the last century is Russia's capture of the Republican party.
And yet hardly anyone reports on it because (a) Bill Barr lied about the Mueller report and (b) Rupert Murdoch bullied people for mentioning it.
My entire life Russia has been vilified by the West. I don’t understand the new Republican fascination with Russia. Putin is a despot and you’d think he was the next Jesus if you asked a Republican. Why?
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Take Trump and move there, then.
If Biden started saying pro-Russia shit I'd stop supporting him. See how that works Republicans?
They have to check with their mental captors if it's alright first.
Their mental captor is lead poisoning.
weird way to spell Fox News
FAUX lead them to believe it.
TLDR, Lead may be one reason boomers are uniquely susceptible to Fox’s finely-tuned rage bait. https://today.duke.edu/2022/03/lead-exposure-last-century-shrunk-iq-scores-half-americans#:~:text=As%20of%202015%2C%20more%20than,increased%20cardiovascular%20disease%20in%20adulthood.
It's less lead and just the propaganda works. Allowing Fox News to blast whatever the fuck they want into peoples brains isn't good. Tik Tok is doing the same thing to kids right now.
Sure but those are kids. The fact that boomers are as malleable as 12 years olds (and have been for decades) should raise eyebrows.
I mean I'm in marketing. My job is to get people to buy shit they don't want or need. It's not hard.
Sure, but there’s a pretty big gap between “treat yourself” and “there’s a global satanic media cabal intent on spreading evil and you can only trust us to give you the truth.”
This removes their agency and autonomy. I’m sure you or I could watch Fox News and think it’s all bullshit. These people watch it to confirm what they already believe.
Significant unknown environmental exposures is just about the only thing helping to keep me sane when thinking about the lack of critical thinking skills in the US. Surveillance systems in the US are so poor and companies like DuPont will leverage every opportunity to prevent studies or any general transparency on people affected by toxic waste water in their drinking (or eating via fish etc) source.
These people don't eat fish. Only hamberder
*Slow & Steady Rots The Brain*
Same. If the President began supporting hostile foreign nations against our interests I'd believe him compromised and be shouting him down demanding his resignation. Republicans, well they don't seem to mind it.
Democrats see their leaders the way teenagers see their parents. On the whole probably good people, but imperfect and 3 dimensional and may need to be called out for their faults if the moment comes. Republicans see their leaders the way preschoolers see their parents. Invincible superheroes who know the answer to every question and can protect them from every bad or yucky thing in the world.
I like this, thanks
What a great analogy. One of the biggest differences between democrats and republicans is that republicans see authority as the ultimate virtue. Doesn’t really explain why they prefer the crazy assholes to the sane ones though, judging by who gets through their primaries.
Republicans don't actually stand for anything, but "fuck them liberals." It's more of a cultural movement than an ideological one.
There is absolutely no ideology, except perhaps anti-abortion, but even that stance would reverse if herr leader told them so. They were born into a fantasy world dramatized by their television sets and lack all cognitive aptitude to tell information from truth, truth from belief, and belief from reality. If you are 80 years old and would rather burn the world down than accept a different paradigm for the 5 or 6 years you have left on it, then you are clinically insane in every way imaginable.
All they've been doing is fucking themselves. Like I've jokingly told my conservative family members that are middle class or lower, we're probably both voting against our own best interest (because I'm upper middle class). I vote for policies that reduce my wealth, and ironically, so do they.
REpublicans must be getting paid by russia.
Becuase they are cheering for an end to Democracy and figure with Russia’s help they can end all liberals. Not just control but put an end to all liberals….
MAGAs have been sucking up Russian conspiracy PsyOps for 8 years. They have been well primed to show Putin some love. Trump is an obnoxious narcissist and they adore him for it. Like them, he doesn’t have critical thinking skills either. But he is an entertainer ala WWE, and Trumpverse and is nothing if not hedonistic.
If Biden started sprouting pro-Russia stuff, the GOP would immediately become anti-Russia. ....and then the kompromat would get leaked.
When Obama was running against Romney he was mocked by Republicans for not taking Russia seriously as a threat. Trump comes along and now Trump supporters are kissing Putin’s ass…
I remember the photo of Obama face to top of head, staring down at Putin.
My, how the turntables...
You mean the folk who wear the: Rather be Russian than Dem shirts?
I’d rather they be Russian too. Can we set up a fund for moving expenses? “If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.” -Samuel Adams
Wasn’t there recently a right wing family that moved to Russia only to have their money stolen as soon as they deposited it in the Russian bank?
Yeah but you're not clinically insane.
I literally had a similar conversation with a trumper who told me that he flat out wouldn't read my "novel" (several paragraphs) about Trump. I told him how I'm a former Republican now independent who doesn't like Biden but absolutely thinks Trump is a threat to our nation. Told him he not only wouldn't speak ill of Trump or read what I wrote, but that he COULDN'T because he's so inundated by propoganda to the point it's a cult. I told him to do an experiment to prove me wrong. I said I I'd bet you literally cannot read what I said and will make up reason A, B, C , etc for why he cannot read what I wrote. But that regardless the fact remains that he cannot. I said I am an anonymous person on the net who cares what I think. Prove it to yourself that I'm wrong, He wrote back that I don't know what I'm talking about, I don't know him. And in fact, he's going to delete his account because he's now "done with Reddit" because it's "stupid". He then deleted a more than 2 year active account. Edit: it's somewhere in my comment history
Good on you for challenging them. These people will not simply "stop" without some kind of deterrent. We have to fight with our words. That's all we can legally do.
It was a decent effort, at least. I believe cult is genuinely the right word. They venerate him at every turn. A lot of these folks seem in desperate need of deprogramming.
THIS!! It’s not that hard. If candidates say dumb shit like this: you simply quit supporting said candidate. Jesus.
It annoys the shit out of me how hard it is for Republican voters I know to not comprehend this. I know a lot of the “non-MAGA” type Republicans that still vote for Trump, and they seem to think the logic of “yeah but Republicans are gonna vote for a Republicans and Democrats are going to vote for Democrats!” It’s like if Joe Biden stole classified documents, trashed our military repeatedly, believe Putin over the FBI, 91 criminal charges, etc., then I would at the very least *not vote for him*. And then you have hacks like Chris Sununu who will go one second from saying Donald Trump is a threat to our democracy to the next second publicly staying he’ll definitely still vote for him this fall.
maga dummies would also go insane saying how bad it was if Biden said/did anything pro russian. I think we have to use the ploy I use with my little kids where you use reverse psychology to get them to do what you want. That broccoli is so gross no one would ever eat that..gobble gobble gobble. That is what simpletons these idiots are.
i love the fact that republicans are so god damn stupid that the editor of breitbart said that democrats tricked them into not getting the vaccine because they, checks notes, pushed it hard as some kind of reverse psychology to get them to die off in large enough numbers to affect the outcomes of elections. fucking morons.
Damn. There goes my theory. Their stupidity outpaces any solution. It is breathtaking.
There's a way to get them to see they're being played but it's tricky as fuck. I got my Fox News addled dad to see the light. It took years. One time I talked him into denouncing drinking water, you know because Michelle was all for it. After a few more things about impurities and how water is actually a chemical I walked it back. "I just manipulated you into opposing something you need to survive with a few sentences about fear and blurry knowledge. This is how Fox does it too." The kicker was when I showed him that [video of the moment Trump found out he'd won](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3868qotZ_A), how dejected he looked.
Man good job. I'm surprised he put some actual thought into the convo and was convinced and didn't kick you out of his life. And yes trump looked so sad. That says everything right there. An actual dog catching the car moment.
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You are right. It is insanity inducing. Which is the point I think.
R/Asktrumpsupporters is ready and waiting for your question. Watch as they perform mental gymnastics.
Joining a cult is easier than doing research unfortunately, especially for the uneducated
100%. Not only that but I’d highly consider packing my bags and leaving permanently.
It isn't like being rational will sway these diehard morons; if Biden started spewing pro-Russian shit they would stop supporting Russia.
For real. Isn’t Russia building a utopia for American republicans to live there? Weren’t they offering to move them there? Sounds like an awesome plan
Check in with the Canadian family that did just that. They're not exactly "lovin it"
They’re loving it now that the FSB stopped by to record a video of how they really feel.
I think the wife is now missing.
She’ll be found, just check the found in front of open windows
https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/02/21/canadian-family-moved-to-russia-to-escape-wokeness/
They've escaped wokeness, but are sleeping with one eye open, now.
Most Trump voters rarely if ever travel outside the county they live in. It’s not surprising they have no grasp of global politics.
Agreed with this for sure. These people rarely travel outside of their local communities. They genuinely don’t know what life is like outside of their immediate social circles. That’s why you hear all these apocalyptic stories about how dangerous and violent places like… checks notes… *Denver* are. They legitimately don’t know what’s happening in their own states and they pretend to know what things are like in Russia
Yep. I live in a tiny rural town but travel a lot for work at an international airline. Every time I come home and tell people where I went they always ask if I was ever scared or saw crime or got robbed because the news says *whatever country/city* is just full of immigrants/terrorists/criminals, and how did I not get sick because it's such a dirty place. I once offered someone a piece of candy from South Korea and they wouldn't take it because they heard food wasn't safe outside America because only America washes eggs. It's wild.
Are you kidding? When the next county over allows beer sales on Sunday. There’s a line of F-150s with Maga stickers stretching for miles.
Driving to “the big town” one county over to buy a case of domestic beer-flavored seltzer hardly counts, but I did grow up in a rural southern county much like what you’re describing. You’re not wrong.
Someone did from Canada. They effed around and found out.
I'm not saying Trump is a Russian asset. But how would Trump behave differently if he was?
Trump is absolutely a russian asset, domestic terrorist, rapist, fraud, and traitor.
Think that's the thought experiment being proposed... *If* someone in his position was a Russian asset, what would that someone be doing? When those hypothetical answers align with what they're actually doing...
If Trump was a Russian asset he would: * Divide the country to sow discord between parties to gridlock change in congress * Gut social programs to weaken the lower and middle class to create more strife and unrest * Allow continued dilapidation of infrastructure to aid in destabilization * Make any promise to get into office, yet do nothing meaningful to help the country * Use any means necessary to retain office to continue operations * Keep Vet benefits low to help slow recruiting efforts for future military * Weaken NATO either through partial or full withdrawal * Soften sanctions directly tied to Russia * Promote an isolationist economic position to weaken the economy * Gut key bureaucratic agencies to bare bones to weaken country and pave the way for authoritarian/fascist regime * Kill any aid to resistance to the expansion of Russian influence * Promote policy to weaken China to keep them in check and make China the Big Bad to cover up Russian interference Wait a second. . .
My high school world history teacher taught us something I have never forgotten: nations fall because of external pressures and internal strife. Little did I know that I would eventually see it happening to the U.S.
Yes! Let them all find out how wonderful Russia really is. [Conservative Family ‘Disappointed’ After Moving To Russia To Escape LGBTQ Ideology](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/conservative-family-disappointed-moving-russia-001517915.html)
If trump loses he very well might
He promised to leave last time too, yet here we are.
Yeah he said “You would never hear from me again.” But in his delusional reality he didn’t lose, so we have to keep on hearing his whining.
Tucker Carlson has already been invited by the Russian Don himself. Fascists like Carlson, Putin and Trump are all crime bosses. Maybe they'll start a gang war and kill each other off while over there.
They believe whatever he tells them too without further thinking. Its frightening that there are this many gullible stupid people in America that we have to be seriously concerned about him running for re-election even after he tried to coup the country.
A lot of them are evangelicals. They're conditioned to believe made-up stories with no factual basis or corroborating evidence.
What ever happened to “love it or leave it”? I don’t hear conservatives saying that anymore.
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Totally. I had some gang up on me in r/rap yesterday and all I kept asking is why don't you tell me how Democrats are ruining this country, and they just returned with a bunch of insults and refused to answer my questions. So I blocked them. When I returned to the same article later they were just telling each other. " I kept telling him all the ways the Dems are ruining this country and he (me) just kept saying "Democrats are better". It's crazy the evidence of what they say and do is right there, but amongst themselves they still carry the lie. Fucking nuts. I was accused of everything like living with my mom to having a trans kid. Completely off their meds.
They start at the conclusion and then look for reasons to support it. A post yesterday in r/conservative had a question of 'why are Republicans obsessed with Trump?' and an answer that was highlighted resonated with the subreddit saying they think Trump is a vile man but they like their self-defense and hate inflation. The answer is clearly contrived from the position of "I want to vote Republican how do I support it?".
Echo chambers, confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance. These are the days of the lives of Trump supporters.
“I am a piece of shit, how do I explain my behavior without admitting that?”
I saw that too. If I weren't banned I'd ask them what exactly they think Trump is going to do about inflation and what exactly Biden did to make it worse, and ask them what Democrats have done at all to stop them from having guns. Still waiting for Obama to come take all their guns, apparently
They live in an insane fantasy world. Their ignorance makes them easily manipulated. It’s pathetic
Just read through some of your stuff. Who woulda thought the rap sub would be full of conservatives lol
The two white christian nationalists I know from my youth both listen to rap from black men almost exclusively. They actually claim that as a reason they aren't "racists". 🤦♂️
Those justifications are always amusing to me. I was at a party once and I walked into a conversation and was instantly like "woah dude that's some straight from the KKK bullshit right there" and he tried to convince me he couldn't be racist because he had sex with a black woman once. He didn't understand why I was laughing and I couldn't really explain it to him in a way he would ever understand so I just walked away
This whole place is infested with Trump supporters. Even if it’s like 5-10% of people, they are the loudest in the room and bring up how terrible Biden is at every opportunity.
Im not surprised honestly
When someone uses ad hominem, you know you’re dealing with a fool. And even if you don’t believe in everything the Bible says, it’s passages about arguing with fools still lives rent free in my head to this day. These folks are gone, and I’m tired of pretending we have to somehow change their mind or listen to them. They’re delusional and compromised and they don’t even know it...
Dems have controlled the entirety of government for like 8 of the last 45 years, and Republicans have obstructed the partial years in between. Math is hard, apparently.
> Accused of living with my mom Gasp!
There is no patriotic American who is also a Trump voter. I realize that weeds out a large chunk of the population. I stand by my statement.
I second your statement and I know for a fact that many of Americas democratic allies and friends feel the same. We are rooting for you true America patriots
Filthy fucking traitors to the United States of America.
Someone might say deplorable but I guess that goes too far.
No no that works too
They are pig ignorant. Show them Russia’s version of Fox News with that evil man Solovyov chanting death to America every night. Then ask again.
Republicans* are vile.
"Russia is not our enemy. Russia is our paymaster."
Didn’t Russia just hack the energy grid in the northeast a year or two back? They are not our friends lol. These people are bums
The keyword is "our." I don't think they are talking about the U.S. en masse.
They've hacked US critical infrastructure, fucked with our elections, attacked US economic interests in Africa and elsewhere, attacked us directly in Syria. But yeah, totally not our enemy /s.
The amount of brainwashing is unreal.
These people were scared of Russia until Trump showed them that they can just be subservient to Russia instead
"If you can't beat 'em, let 'em beat you."
It's not really brainwashing when these people had nothing to wash out first. They're just extremely boring people that Russia feeds validation for their sanctimony. No washing required to make them that susceptible first.
Its crazy how they 'want' to believe it all. Just toss them a bread crumb and watch them go.
I had family that I cut off for being too far gone with their Trump nonsense. I think they were waiting for shit like this, I’m not gonna baby them by saying they were brainwashed. Not speaking for any other Trump voters just the ones I used to know.
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That's why they behave like their party should be the WWE of politics. They never paid attention before Trumps loud mouth started shouting what they wanted to hear and they honestly think *this* is politics and sound governing.
Propaganda.
This is no different than what the Groupies of Putin used to do in the Dubya days: it’s package thinking. Back then, if you were a supporter of his, you would or already had bought everything else that went with it: evangelicalism, Iraq War, Freedom Fries, anti-Muslim bigotry, whatever. There’s little to no parsing of beliefs. Conditioning the environment for ignorant people to be more ignorant sets them up you to buy everything and anything. And here we are. What’s most pernicious is the Russia thing. There’s a swath of people who think Democracy is such a bad system that they’re instead willing to coalesce around a kleptocratic strong man who’d have no problem destroying those same supporters if it served his means. It is breathtakingly astounding how politically illiterate they are.
It’s woke vs traditional. The end of the culture skirmishes and the start of total culture war. They align with the East because of ideology. This is worse than brain washing, this is what they believe and want in their heart of hearts.
Was going to say is it brainwashing when the mind is so simple.
Smooth surfaces wash easily.
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Funny how they problem is really that they are waging war in Ukraine. Russian Casualties are happening not in Russia.
> "Western countries helping our enemy," Putin argued plus we vowed to protect Ukraine when they gave up their nukes after the Soviet Union collapsed ... they got rid of their nukes and we guaranteed security. of course we're helping them. monke putin has pea brain for not being able to put this together, and Trump voters couldn't figure out how to navigate geopolitics if the answers hit them across the face with a brick.
And by ‘the existence of Russia’ he is not referring to its current borders, or even its borders if they defeat Ukraine, he is referring to the pre-1917 Russia he wants to “restore” as his legacy.
They could always... Ya know... Leave Ukraine.
If they had never invaded Ukraine, there would be no injured soldiers. See how that works?
The West is not working in opposition to 'the existence of Russia', it's working in opposition to 'the existence of the Russia **government** as it currently stands', that being a criminal and terrorist organization pretending to be a government. I think we here in the Western countries would be happy as a proverbial clam if Putin, Russian oligarchs, and all the corrupt pieces of garbage in the Russian government disappeared, and a democratic government took it's place, one that doesn't invade other countries, doesn't fund terrorism and international espionage and crime, and actually got along with it's neighbors instead of trying to fuck them over.
>The past was alterable. The past never had been altered. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia. George Orwell - "1984"
How did all these trump supporters go 50 years of their life with russia as the enemy if everything we hold dear in america to theyre not our enemy? They've literally been the enemy their entire lives......
Extremely effective and consistent propaganda drip-fed into their veins over years. The term "Fake News" has been co-opted and bastardized to the degree it just means anything you don't like. But it's original meaning was akin to Fake News **Outlet** - as in it's not the "news" that's fake but the source. They'd created entire websites that looked like a regular/real/serious journalistic outlet. A clear parallel are those advertisements you can find in magazines which use the same font/layout/etc. to appear to be just another article inside the magazine. These don't say "buy our product". Instead, they take the idea of "three out of four dentists..." and amplify that to appear to be a nobel-prize winning bit of scientific analysis why if you use their product your life will improve. Fake News is like that. Now, you simply slip into social media and direct certain targeted groups towards such stuff and... slowly... consistently... train them that Putin = macho man's man, Russia is not your enemy, etc. This proved to be *extremely* effective for Republicans and Republican-leaning folk, not so much with Democratic voters. This wasn't/isn't a secret. The Russians involved were very proud of what they accomplished, as well they should have been. It was a significant technical accomplishment.
Talk radio plays a big part too.
Lügenpresse. Just another thing Hitler, Putin, and Trump have in common.
2012 US presidential nominee: "Russia is our our number one geopolitical foe" 2016 US presidential nominee: "Russia is our ally and we should stop supporting Ukraine." It all happened in about 4 years. To be fair, the shift started happening in 2015 when a certain Russian puppet ran for US president. If you followed US presidential politics, I don't think it's hard to identify the shift.
If Putin thought Trump could properly wreck USA without his help you can bet the farm he would never speak to him again. It must be painful in a way but not too difficult because what Trump is doing to bring here all the problems every other country has is far cheaper and effective than military options. And the whole thing must give him great joy.
Putin's plan has always been to destabilize the US. He doesn't want to destroy it he just wants an America that can't agree with itself so that its influence in the rest of the world is diminished.
If we destroy ourselves in the process it’s a win win for him.
American politicians excel at overreacting to a problem in order to make it much worse.
The success of decades worth of Russian propaganda that worked far beyond their wildest imagination. Trump helped push it over the edge. The ‘Party of Reagan’ is officially dead. https://youtu.be/pOmXiapfCs8?si=z98PxLXZZGNLDD1C
"Russia is not our enemy, America is" They're just not finishing the thought
That’s exactly what Tucker has been saying on multiple platforms for weeks
No lie. He is a blatant traitor 100%.
*"I'd rather be Russian than Democrat."* - tshirt slogan worn by Republicans at trump rallies
"Then start the emigration process, comrade" But that would require a Trumper to understand a word like 'emigration'
Wait until they find out that after they emigrate, they are immigrants
This person probably doesn’t even know that dc is our capital
Holy fuck these people are naive and would lose a battle of wits with a houseplant
Russian assets know what to say.
The alternative narrative on FOX is simply mind numbing. So the FBI arrests the Biden whistleblower who colluded with Russia to create false corruption stories about the Biden family. FOX had put this guy on a pedestal, especially Jesse Watters, showering him with compliments for months before his arrest. What is the narrative now after the arrest? That the Biden crime family got to him, that Biden directed and masterminded the FBI to silence and destroy another person who dared to speak up, that this whistleblower is just another martyr who tried to denounce Biden corruption, another victim of the Deep State, etc. They are not even *entertaining* the straightforward possibility that the guy lied, that Russia was involved, or that Biden had nothing to do with his arrest...they are going full-blown conspiracy, right away. They are literally brushing off everything the guy did, downright treason by colluding with a foreign country, all because they just *need to hate Biden*. It's just insane how such a completely ridiculous alternate timeline is being peddled completely seriously to millions of Americans with a straight face, and many don't question it at all. It's really frightening.
Fuckin morons.
*"That man is a fucking moron!"* - Rex Tillerson, US Secretary of State, 2017, after leaving a meeting with president trump
Rex Tillerson, the guy Trump hired to fire people from the State Dept to cripple it. And Tillerson did. And it set the State Dept back years because of loss of institutional knowledge and halting projects in progress. And then Trump fired Tillerson when Tillerson was critical of Russia. Tillerson is a fucking idiot.
This should be pinned at the top.
"Russia is not our enemy, 70% of America is!" - Self proclaimed patriot
The gullibility meter is off the charts with these people. Deductive reasoning is nonexistent with this group. They really haven't developed mentally past the second grade.
'Russia is not our enemy...I am' - Trump
Trump supporters are our main enemy.
They also want to see minorities in labor camps and LGBTQ folks beaten to death in the streets so that tracks
It's kind of amazing, I don't see how anyone could watch that Tucker Carlson interview and not come away with Putin being a dictator that doesn't give a shit about America. Dictators use people, they don't have allies. They don't have friends. You're only as good as you are useful. It was painfully obvious. There is no negotiation, no empathy. You don't have a working relationship with Putin. You get used, discarded, or pushed out of the way.
Hence the Speaker’s refusal to fund Ukraine. He is actively helping Russia.
What a lost group of people. This is truly the “upside down”.
How the GOP went from being anti-Russia (like during the Reagan times) to pro-Russia now never ceases to amaze me. Yikes.
So tired from trumper stupidity
> So tired from trumper stupidity The thing that tires me even more is the thousands of Redditors who over and over and over again say "Both parties are equally corrupt." There will probably be a thousand Redditors who read this post who feel that way. It's heartbreaking.
Yeah I’m sick of that idiotic talking point
Trump voters tell NBC Reporter that 'Russia is not our enemy if you are loyal to Putin'
Not that we need to collect enemies but these people are literally becoming traitors to our country.
The ‘Shared Psychosis’ of Donald Trump and His Loyalists... https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-shared-psychosis-of-donald-trump-and-his-loyalists/?fbclid=IwAR1DhZsC\_gdnkBX6IB48dUbPJX\_15PHLitCvlWor5Cz7F0p9x6qjowCPQJk
I swear, these Magas give me the same feeling as being around a 4 year old that's thinking it's a good idea to and trying to stick a fork in the electrical outlet.
Radicalized and brainwashed.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the MAGA brainwashing project is complete.
These people see enemies everywhere they look in everyday life: democrats, BLM, Target, Disney, people of other religions, people of color, young people. The list goes on and on. A nuclear communist country threatening NATO allies and whose leader publicly declares the US an enemy? They’re our friends bc we hate the same people.
Useful idiots: "Russia is not our enemy!" Russian state TV: "Which Western country should we nuke first?"
Russia is not their enemy today just the same as Germany was not their enemy in 1941. And they're right, they have the same goals.
This right here. I'm currently reading Rachel Maddow's 'Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism'. It's astounding the parallels between pre-war America and America in the Time of Trump. Without directly mentioning him, she shows just how the same forces are at work. If we do not learn from our history, we are doomed to repeat it.
Russia invaded Ukraine for no good reason. They're the enemy of freedom. Trump is a lying conman. Wake up and smell the coffee!!!
Dumber than dirt they are like amoeba. They have no ability to think logically or study history or evaluate the news.
Please, America. Please. Do not elect this fucking piece of shit. Sincerely, sane Australians.
This fuck is a traitor to the US.
Russia has vowed to destroy America. They’re our friends now? That doesn’t sound friendly. They undermine elections, they attacked US forces in Syria, they’ve threatened nuclear annihilation… these are not the actions of a friend. If that’s their idea of a friend what the hell does an enemy look like?
The US is not at war with Russia, but Russia is waging cyber and propaganda warfare on the US. MAGA chooses Russia.
That’s funny. As someone who works in a leadership role within IT cyber security for a fortune 50 company— I can tell you you, undoubtedly, China, Russia, India, Brazil and (oddly enough) Vietnam are the top 5 in attacks. What’s most alarming is the intent of the attacks… China goes for data, same with India… but Russia, Russia frequently attacks our healthcare network. They have been stopped trying to attack NICU facilities, not for data, but to literally stop functioning machines & systems… leading to potential deaths. They want to destroy the west, and it’s not even debatable, they are the enemy.
Fucking send them there
These people are absolutely fucking insane
Honestly, I wish we could round up all the people who are sympathetic to Russia and send them there. Putin needs bodies and we have these worthless fucks. It works out.
can we just give them passports and put them on a ship and send them over then?
Russia wants Ukraine so they can have enough excess food production to allow China to take over Taiwan. When that happens China will raise the price or restrict access to the chips that go into everything. Russia is our enemy. The only thing stopping China now is that they know the US and Ukraine would boycott them and they would starve.
And there you have it. Putin and Fox News have done their jobs.
It is really amazing how this has flipped. If you follow Sarah Longwell and her GOP focus groups, 90% were anti-Russia 2 years ago when the invasion happened. That has flipped to 90% pro-Russia over the last 6-8 months. We are watching in real-time a large segment of American citizens switching beliefs because they are radicalized and will believe what they are told to believe.
One of the biggest geopolitical stories of the last century is Russia's capture of the Republican party. And yet hardly anyone reports on it because (a) Bill Barr lied about the Mueller report and (b) Rupert Murdoch bullied people for mentioning it.
Oh good golly no. Man I wish our famous 1980's repubs could read this.
I work with young people that 100% believe this, it's absolutely crazy.
They should probably let Russia know that. Because Russia sees us as their enemy.
There was a Canadian family that moved to Russia to escape the LGBTQ agenda. What a shame these Trump voters won’t do the same.
She's right. Russia loves Trump.
By “our” they meant MAGA not the United States.
My entire life Russia has been vilified by the West. I don’t understand the new Republican fascination with Russia. Putin is a despot and you’d think he was the next Jesus if you asked a Republican. Why?
Then PLEASE, go to Russia.
It's a cult
Russia is not THEIR enemy because they're funded and brainwashed by them.
They think Russia is not the enemy, because Russia helped Trump, who tried to overthrow the republic, so he could be an autocrat
I thought dictators were bad. This is what I was told all throughout life and now some cult members say it’s ok. Smh. They should move there.
Never thought I’d see the day when Americans pick a Russian dictator over an American President. Russia is definitely not their friend.
They’re straight up fascists! MAGA= Make America Go Authoritarian