COVID broke people's brains too. don't know about your timeline but in my opinion while some people started showing their true colors, some people actually changed during that time.

Im 50 and Im not straight. A lot of the guys my-age didn't grow and become accepting of people they just learned to shut the fuck up about their opinion in public in the early 1990s. Those guys didn't raise their kids to be any different they were just quiet about it.

They just got really good at masking the shit in their head, don’t blame yourself

Yeah, its a bummer. For those relationships you value you can still talk about why they feel that way. Its harder when they are consumed by the fb algo though.

If you think back before that, weren't those the most self-centered and selfish ones?

I remember a situation with a friend of mine from back in my Uni days (not a case of him turning out to be a Trumpist but a case of him having drifted away from his family, rather than "facing it like a man" he just kept deceiving them and living a double life until things inevitably blew up) and looking back from my by then far more mature and adult point of view than when he and I became friends I could spot how he was always the guy who put himself ahead of the rest of the group.

I get the impression that Trumpists are those who are a mix of being the most "what's in it for me" types (to the point of putting the satisfaction of petty and even mean personal psychological wants ahead of other people's actual lives) and useful idiot, and those would have a track record of putting themselves first even in situations were one wouldn't act like that with friends.

They don’t see it as fascism. They just see that their “team” is “winning”, and the “other” people are losing. That’s all life is to them, winning over everyone else, even when it goes against self preservation.

I own a business, and I wouldn’t hire someone who is openly MAGA.

I work in the O&G industry. Quite a few of the rank and file office folks are vanilla liberals. The senior execs are all Christian MAGA.

Silicon Valley has the same problem. The professional working class is liberal, while the senior sex pest corporate ice chewers are all in the same insane Scientology cults and Mormon tabernacle choirs and Longtermist Transhuman Collectives.

I've seen the same dynamic in health care, professional sports, Big Law, finance, heavy industry...

Great that you managed to break into the club as a Normal. But I don't see a future where I'm sitting on the board of a Fortune 500 corporation. A notable reason why is that I'm not working my way up the chain at Opus Dei.

Or, less generously, they enjoy the cruelty and hate.

I've boycotted Republicans/Conservatives since at least 2000, when they decided that it was perfectly acceptable to steal the presidency.

Once they fully adopted the "ends justify the means" approach, I considered Conservatism to be a character flaw. I wouldn't be friends with people who physically abuse their spouses or their children, and by the same logic, I won't be friends with people who abuse our society, our government, or our citizens.

you would be surprised, only about half of the trump supporters I've met know about and support him for being fascist (among other things). The other half think that the deportations and basically anything negative about trump is fake news, a smaller amount also think they are voting for an imaginary non-maga republican party.

Nah, way earlier than 2024. In fact ever since the "grab them by the pussy" tape was released before the election in 2016, these miserable bastards knew what he was about and still chose to support him. No decency to be found among them from that point on.

It's a dumb line anyway. There's no obligation for us to tolerate their antisocial behavior in the first place. All that line does is betray that the fascist treats liberalist ideals as a game or a weakness, only a fool would humor their insincere appeals to liberalism.

Jean-Paul Sartre, Réflexions sur la question juive (1946)

"Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past."

I will tolerate anyone but the intolerant

It's Okay To Punch Nazis

Considered a public service, ideally.

I mean, it should be socially acceptable to punch Nazis.

Yes, it should be that way everywhere. In plenty of societies, it already is.

An international friend of mine in the UK was let off lightly by a judge for punching a Nazi, because the victim was a Nazi. Obviously judges can be a game of luck so I'm not claiming this is a low-risk action, but law isn't set in stone.

We tried hugging them but they don't like it.

It's not though, it's a very direct exposure to other viewpoints. Those who can't reflect on the consequences weren't going to be convinced by you talking at them in any case.

Trump supporters do not argue in good faith and that fact alone is a good reason to not interact with them.

Yes. But like with cancer you need to kill it before it kills you

choke them out if need be, they are adults who are responsible for informing themselves if they want to live in the real world

No.

Maybe instead we should let them do whatever they want with no repercussions or pressure to change ever.

Fuck them, and fuck yeah to the students (and everyone) pushing back