As a leftist, I dislike this sentiment. We should not normalize isolating folks on the far right.
Of course, do what you want with your friend groups. Kick someone out if you don’t like hanging with them. But if you can swing it, there are a lot of cases where it can be really good thing to expose conservative folks to leftist worldviews in a friendly setting.
I feel including conservative folks has a much more direct and convincing theory of change than excluding them does.
(Again, it is cool if you don’t want to do that.)
I agree with the sentiment and have practiced this for years – it was pounded into me during my education-- but have not found any balance in it. The evils stay evil and I feel like they thrive on my making room for them. Its very odd that some otherwise sane and caring people can have these parts of their personalities that are completely distinct from the rest of how they think, and it doesn’t make any sense to me personally. Usually the biggest hurdle is around Israel support. So we stay friends, but I think they are evil shits and they think I’m a peacenik moron who is naive out of touch with the real world (I think).
I’m not certain, but I think at its core is racism and lack of respect for others, while wishing them well at the same time. So they want to tell themselves they are good people, but hate on certain ethnic groups. Kind of a “I’m going to shoot you in the head but I feel bad about it” sort of thing. Ironically they dont know a single thing about islam, and universally dont know any muslims.
They tend to be middle class too-- truly middle, and well above average intelligence, mostly with career success. They dont worry about money, really ever. Victims of propoganda? I still dont know.
Kind of a “I’m going to shoot you in the head but I feel bad about it” sort of thing.
Not sure if you were making a reference, but one of Israel’s most distinctive propaganda tactics is literally called Shooting And Crying. Basically, get your former IDF soldiers to act all sad about the atrocities they had to commit, so the public focus stays on sympathy instead of the war crimes and genocides they committed. Nobody feels good about kicking a crying person while they’re down, so it’s a way to shunt blame and avoid being held accountable for your own actions.
Basically, divert the blame onto the shadowy and faceless “they”. They ordered me to do bad things. They put me in situations where I was forced to make impossible choices. They forced me to struggle to survive. They are the reason I had to do all of those awful things. Because “they” is a faceless amorphous entity that can’t be held accountable and can’t defend itself against allegations. Meaning “they” is easy to shift blame onto as long as I remain a sympathetic victim in the public’s mind. If I keep crying, I never actually have to apologize for my war crimes, because they should be the ones apologizing instead.
Wasnt aware of that. Horrifying but right on brand for them.
I’ve been doing a little bit of this with someone I work with. The thing that really got her attention was me pointing out I can’t make a gallon of gas by myself, buy I can make a kilowatt of electricity with stuff I have lying around my house/yard. And that equipment will make me more kilowatts, for free.
The thing that really got her attention was me pointing out I can’t make a gallon of gas by myself, buy I can make a kilowatt of electricity with stuff I have lying around my house/yard.
Yeah, the Technology Connections video on solar panels vs ethanol production (growing corn to turn into ethanol to add to gasoline) was honestly a great tool for convincing people who simply never bothered to think critically about it. I don’t even need to get them to watch the video, I simply paraphrase some of the arguments he makes.
Alec is a treasure. I have some moderately terrifiying switches and I need to figure out a way to send them to him, even if he didn’t do a video he would probably like them.
I can’t make a gallon of gas myself
Come to my house and watch me compress algae and phytoplankton and turn it into fossil fuels over millions of years.
This is the way to go.
If they don’t have left wing friends they would only have right wing friends, and surely they won’t ever change their mind in that environment.
To be real that attitude is a little abusive, “be like I want or I left you!” kind of deal. Preying on vulnerable people that would change themselves just out of fear of being alone. I don’t want that. I want convince people of my views because they see how good they are, not because I threatened them.
If you are voting to take away my basic rights and safety we can’t be friends. That includes 100% of Trump voters, 90% of Republicans and about 30% of Democrats. If you include less basic rights that unfortunately includes another 30-60% of Democrats or so but hierarchy of needs and all that.
Yeah, especially on my husband’s side, we’ve had to cut contact with some extended family. I’m trans, and we’re not even out about my past to these family members on his side of the family. I met my husband after transition. They’re Southern Baptist deep south folk, and while they’re quite friendly when we meet them, they also don’t know about my trans status.
My natural inclination is to not rock the boat in such matters. I didn’t suggest we cut off contact; I didn’t want to be responsible for cutting my husband off from his extended family. I was willing to overlook it to maintain the peace, especially as we see them very infrequently.
But then my husband told me his perspective, and it chilled me to my bones. There was no question on his part. When discussing it, he simply said:
“They voted to kill my wife.”
As a leftist, I’m on board with this sentiment. But as an ex-right-winger, I know this would exclude me from my current community. We should allow space for growth and reconciliation, but if you still support Trump and the Republicans at this point, fuck you.
I agree, but if you voted for him the last election it becomes harder for me. The first one, ya you wanted to stick it to status quo. I get it, not support it. Hillary did suck. The second time it is hard but at least Biden one. But after all the shit, lies, rape, epstein, COVID, fraud, impeachments, obvious corruption…and still support him. That’s tough. It is like a Nazi in 1946. Redemption at that point will be hard earned only.
We should allow space for growth and reconciliation
Growth. Something anyone that’s still a Trump supporter, or in my opinion still were during the 2024 election, are incapable of. He was already a convicted felon and adjudicated rapist during the 2024 election. Anyone that voted for him in that election is a trashcan garbage piece of trash.
Reconciliation. Something anyone still supporting him is in no way interested in.
You can’t reach people that don’t want to be reached. And at this point they don’t deserve the effort.
Yup.
I forget where I learned this, but about 30% of Germans supported hitler until his cold blooded killing of hitler.
There are people who cannot be reached, and should be shunned by society.
Those numbers were still that high even well into the 1950s. Even after Germany had been invaded, conquered, and literally divided in two, even after millions of German deaths. A good portion of the German population never gave up on Hitler.
I don’t disagree.
I’ve done this to even my close family members.
I’m willing to cut very special people in my immediate family a break if they renounce Trump, but they refuse to do that.
Their hill to die on is raping kids. They are, of course, devout Christians that constantly talk about God and love.
These people are hopelessly lost and stupid.
My friends group removed any Trump voters in our orbit, I removed all Trump voters from my social media, and I don’t speak to family members that voted for him anymore.
The result? A lot less stupid in my life.
Australian here who was 100% convinced that Trump ran as a joke to get Hillary elected in 2016.
Now here knowing that Trump is an insane old man who should be in a retirement home and not running a country.
But I don’t care for the fact that most of American politicians are supporting the terrorist state of Israel. Trump is an insane old man but Israel is horrific. Phone bombs, burning children alive, pumping US citizens tax dollars (that was given to them) into lazy American politicians.
Every day I waited for them to announce it was a big joke when he decided to run for president. Now our country is the joke.
Seriously up until I got the message that Trump had become president and Hillary had lost I was 100% convinced he was running as a joke and doing everything he could to help Hillary.
The next time he became president I am 150% convinced that Elon musk rigged the election.
I never liked Hillary Clinton but Kamala Harris is brilliant.
I’m not an American, neither is Elon and I have hated Elon Musk since back when he was a beloved left wing hero… I hated Elon Musk from the moment I saw him and I’ll hate him until the day I die.
I hate lots of others, Disney, Amazon, Adobe, Microsoft CEOs.
Just don’t get me started on how much I think I should be the emperor of earth.
Kamala is the same as Hillary. Both are Imperialist scum. They aren’t as bad as Republican fascists but they aren’t exactly better.
Fair enough, I don’t want to start anything here. I’m Australian I only know about all of Hillary Clintons crimes.
Kamala seems like a highly intelligent woman who just wanted the best for your country, as far as I can tell she would have made your lives better.
But Elon hacked the election and Trump won… Now instead of democratic fake socialism you have people in the streets shooting brown people…
I’m 100% a centrist… But I mean that I think morons crying about the little mermaid being black are just as useless as people crying about over-sexualized big breasted women in video games.
Both sides are equally wrong and pointless, just don’t buy the product and move on with your lives.
Being a centrist I’m 100% against Nazis (and here’s why I got banned on Reddit)… Nazis only exist to be target practice… What I’m saying is you Americans should be following in our grandparents/great grandparents footsteps and executing Nazis where they stand.
Israel Army are also Nazis and deserves the same treatment(There’s your centrism (͡•_ ͡• ) )
You got my vote. Can’t do any worse right?
If you promise to dismantle Adobe you will have secured another vote xD
You were kinda correct. Trump becoming the big Republican nominee was part of the Pied Piper strategy of the establishment Democrat party. The Hillary Clinton campaign intentionally uplifted radical conservative candidates in an effort to make winning elections easier. The logic was if the Conservative party looks crazy, the Democratic party can run on simply pointing out that craziness without needing to actually have specific policies or positions. The establishment Democrats loved the idea of doing less work, so they eagerly adopted the strategy and focused on crushing their own left flank candidate Bernie Sanders.
The Clinton campaign and the DNC had done a bunch of oppositional research on Donald Trump in preparation, but chose to sit on it, not wanting to tank Trump’s chances of becoming the nominee. They focused instead on Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio.
This is why the US has a bunch of feckless Democrats who never seem to run for anything, only against Republicans. They keep running this same, “vote for me or you’ll get the crazy man” strategy, even though they keep losing with it.
Yeah I read a lot about what happened to Bernie Sanders, absolutely wild and really depressing what the DNC did to him.
Same with “I don’t vote” centrists who complain about Trans people in sports but don’t say a peep about ICE, DOGE, and everything else. They can go right to hell.
Anyone that’s been a centrist over the last decade is cataclysmically stupid.
Riding the fence through what we’ve been experiencing is a coward braindead move.
A reminder that 2/3rds of eligible voters in America voted for Trump. 1/3rd voted for him, 1/3rds didn’t vote.
Over 60% of eligible voters were 100% okay with Trump winning.
Idk, Ive often thought jail, homelessness, & work were big contributed to that 1/3 number that gets thrown around
Over 82 million Americans were either homeless, in jail, or working for weeks between early voting opened and election day?
That’s a little difficult to believe. You know you can vote before election day, right? Like… Literally weeks prior?
I’ve been voting in Canada for 20 years. Never once have I voted ON election day.
They said “contributed”. There’s also third party voters.
I don’t buy that you should just vote for the lesser of two evils. Kamala was a shit candidate that I doubt she was ever expected to win. She was such a shit candidate she actually solidified my view that the two parties are colluding to serve corporate/Israeli interests and have the working class point fingers at one another.
Whenever I see an extremely pro party (left or right) comment online I figured there’s an 80% chance that it’s a propaganda bot and a 20% chance that its an idiot cause in real life everyone I talk to is disillusioned with the two major parties.
I don’t buy that you should just vote for the lesser of two evils.
And that mentality is exactly why a felon rapist pedo dumbfuck fascist is the most powerful human being on the planet and absolutely fucking everything up.
Welcome to adulthood, where the name of the game is making rough but intelligent choices to minimize damage.
Hey bud, the Dems are pedos too. They’re the same people. That’s why none of them ever get held accountable. The rest of the class has it’s pencils down and they’re waiting for you.
BOFE SYDEZ???
YOU DON’T SAY!!!
Yo mods, can we get an auto ban for any losers that come up in here playing the both sides card? It’s 2026. Shit’s pathetic. I have to instantly assume anyone doing it is a moron, a bot, or a Russian.
You’re stupid
Don’t breed
They said “contributed”. There’s also third party voters.
Over 82 million Americans didn’t vote. No third party, nothing. Did. Not. Vote. Stayed at home.
75 million Americans voted for Trump.
Ah I see you don’t understand the meaning of the word ‘contributed’. That’s alright then
Ah I see you don’t understand the meaning of the words “Non-Voters”. That’s alright then
Left vs right is a distraction to keep the conversation away from the haves vs the have nots. Because if the haves and the have nots vote against each other than the numbers are a land slide.
Early voting is not available in every state.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/map-early-voting-mail-ballot-states/
Three states.
Care to explain how 82 million Americans live primarily in those three states so they had no option to vote early?
I mean you are basically correct that there are people who simply don’t/won’t vote one way or the other. For context I think it’s worth pointing out US participation in the 2024 election in terms of percentages was consistent or better than the participation most countries get in their elections, it’s not just a US issue. As for why people don’t, I don’t really have an answer there. Some people just can’t be fucked. Some people’s material conditions are bad enough with multiple jobs and responsibilities they don’t have the time of energy to devote to it. Some people are totally oblivious that it’s happening.
A darkly amusing anecdote is that one of the most searched terms on election day was “is Biden running” or something like that if that gives you any context how disengaged some people are.
That said, there are an increasing number of people in the US who don’t vote because no one on the ballot comes even close to representing them or their interests. Not to say that they are both equally bad or equally distant from what they would prefer to vote for, but as Democrats move demonstrably more to the right with each passing election, there has to be a line somewhere at which point they are so far from your interests that they don’t get to just count on you to vote blue no matter who anymore. For many people, that line was Democrats enthusiastic support of genocide.
To further the frustrations, it was made abundantly clear through polls and campaign strategists that support for Israel was an unpopular stance among democratic voters, but Kamala gambled on trump being scary enough she could ignore those voters. Worked out real well for her /s
Yup.
Trump can die and it’ll be a great, great day.
Not gonna change anything. Americans are REAL, REAL stupid and REAL, REAL bigoted. That’s not changing when he’s dead. Volume might turn down a bit, but the stupid train is still on the stupid tracks going to Stupidville.
“Fuck off shitbag. You can’t hang with us; You voted for a rapist pedophile.”
Having voted for the pos is one thing,
STILL supporting it in 2026, after everything that has happened and everything that is known,…
The word straightjacket comes to mind.
2026?
For me it’s 2024. During the 2024 election he was already a convicted felon and adjudicated rapist with one massively failed presidency under his belt.
I thought his supporters were dumb as rocks before that, but from that point on I considered them traitors to the United States of America and enemies to everything it stands for.
You can say Trump’s a rapist without any pretext
Don’t you mean evidence?
We’re a ways past the evidence part. Trump is factually, legally, a convicted rapist.
Nope just blurt out “trump is a rapist”. If you do it casually enough people will treat it like normal behavior
Your society is too polarized, please don’t be part of the problem.
Leave out the sorry and you have the exact words I said to an uncle.
Honestly I’ll cut them out and won’t even explain why. I haven’t spoken to my extremely racist cousin in years. Every now and then he tries to contact me, but I don’t say anything. There’s a small part of me that wants to believe he could change, but then I remember he named his doberman the n word and yelled at it constantly.
he named his doberman the n word and yelled at it constantly
What the flying fuck?
Some people really have shit for brains.
Knowing this guy my whole life he was like cartoonishly racist. Like anything I describe he did will get people saying I’m making it up or exaggerating.
Can we all normalize not giving Ukraine and Taiwan money even if dems win in 2026? I think there should be an understanding about borrowing 2 trillion dollars yearly being a bad thing and not sustainable
Can we all normalize not giving Israel money even if dems win in 2026? I think there should be an understanding about borrowing 2 trillion dollars yearly being a bad thing and not sustainable
FTFY
How did that come into the conversation at all?
“Might as well cut out all humanitarian aid (whatever is left after DOGE) because it’s just giving away money.”
Can we all normalize not giving Ukraine
Nah. I like it when we give pocket change to a struggling democracy so they can fight our enemy for us and prevent them from expanding their borders and increasing their influence and power.
lol money printer go brrrrrr
ahem (taps the Maine Dem Primary)
We were unaware of critical information at the time. Information that was clearly suppressed. Do however note that we kicked the guy to curb IMMEDIATELY upon finding out, so can we call that an “oopsie?” please.
The man was nothing but red flags, from the Reddit history and abuse allegations to the literal totenkopf tattoo. You were still supporting a nazi abuser before you found out about the rape.
I was willing to accept that he had changed. I mean in hindsight, and now knowing what we do, clearly that was less than true. BUT AGAIN WE DUMPED HIM so bullet dodged.
Was the totenkopf not a huge red flag, liberal?
he covered it up. So I was willing to look the other way, given he was a former Marine. Moot point now at anyrate.
He was a former dog of the state? As if that isn’t already a 2nd red flag itself.
Hunter Biden. Guy fucked up A LOT and owned up to it. People love that. It shows that he’s real. He’s had life experience, and not all of it gleaming. Platner was the same way (as far as we knew at the time). Angels are like unicorns in this day and age, sir, especially when a large percentage of the young male population had some hand in the war on terror. It did last 20 YEARS after all. Are we to disenfranchise ALL of them just because they had commanding officers that put them in places and told them to do things that were unsavory? Are we to condemn out right the follies of misplaced patriotism shown by impressionable boys in perpetuity, even as they evolve into men? This was the question Mainers had to ask themselves. There’s an old saying about appearances and paying dues: People are alot like pencils. It’s easy to look sharp when you haven’t done any work. THAT was the narrative Platner was purporting. Did we get had? Yes, and we’ll have to live with that, but at least we are learning from the error, which is more than we can say about Trump supporters. My point was to not lump us in with them. We are NOT the same.
How long did he wait to cover it up? I would have been far more willing to let that slide if he had covered it up years ago. As soon as he knew what it was he should’ve been at the tattoo parlor getting it blacked out. Not waiting until it gets discovered in a run for Senate.
he did actually. Whether or not you believe that he was unaware of what it was in another question however. But as soon as it was pointed out he got it covered.
Are you sure about that? - https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/24/politics/graham-platner-nazi-tattoo-evidence-kfile-invs
As I stated, the reporting leading up to this was questionable at best, but it didn’t come out as that until the Rape allegations cropped up and people started to dig a bit deeper. I also blame the consultants who clearly went “lol, whatevs! Tee Hee!” (no like seriously they actually did that when confronted) about the vetting process.
At the end of the day we here in maine were laser focused on ousting Susan Collins and Janet Mills was just not the sauce to get it done. Mills would have been trading a middling republican shill for a middling DNC shill, and excuse us for seeing the writing on the wall with that one. We were after a “dependable” progressive vote and (Again “AT THE TIME”) it seemed that Platner had the kind of punch required to do it. THAT’S why so many were willing to look the other way about his past, NOT because we were unconcerned about it. This was a “By any means Necessary” MISSION. Collins HAS to go, Not just swapping an R for D, but actually revocating the entire concept of what Collins stood for. TBF, a guy that was broken by his time in the military was an attractive option because it would drop that kind of turd right on the DC suits lap so they could see whole cloth what these frivolous wars on terror had done to these types of men.
But then the Sexual Assault allegations became credible and and pretty much every body dropped him IMMEDIATELY. What I find particularly frustrating is that on the one hand I get “Told you so’s” and “Fake Lib” comment from you lot and then I also get flack from others folks who are still cheesed he dropped out because they think I’m falling for republican Psy-Op and he still has some path to win if he’d have just stayed in. So NO, I’m not the worst of the supporters. I’m with Troy Jackson now thankyouverymuch. Planter needs to see the inside of a jail cell if you ask me.
