The Conservative Cave
Current Events => The DUmpster => Topic started by: dutch508 on April 05, 2021, 08:56:55 PM
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Star Member kentuck (101,158 posts)
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215306195
Is it impossible to communicate with Republicans?
Especially the ones that supported and still support Donald Trump?
Is there any way to talk with them? Communication is a two-way street but how do you communicate with someone who is so far removed from reality?
If we cannot communicate, where does it end?
They are too dangerous to ignore.
When you have considered someone a friend for many, many years and you find that you can no longer have a conversation with them, it is a depressing matter. I am sure we all know these folks, and some are probably family?
Is there a solution?
:whatever:
BlueNProud (853 posts)
1. A few people who have been part of my life are in the rear view mirror
including 2 cousins and my brother. I have nothing to say to them and will not engage.
Star Member Hugh_Lebowski (20,626 posts)
3. Well, if you're young enough that you could make some new family that would be one option
Other than that ... establishing ground rules ... 'no talking politics' sometimes works with some of them, and is worth a try.
AFA actually trying to win them over, if you care ... the approach of just asking questions rather than telling them things is a good strategy, as is getting them to argue with someone other than you personally. 'A person I saw on the news said XYZ ... what would you say to that?'. Make them argue with some third party.
Girard442 (4,996 posts)
4. Been wrestling with this myself about my siblings.
It's complicated by the fact that most, if not all of them are hardcore Evangelicals while I'm a lifelong atheist who has never come out to them. (Really, guys. It should be obvious by now.)
I was able to hold it together for many years because I thought we shared many of the same values, if not beliefs.Then came 2016 and Trump. I still think they live their daily lives pretty much they way they always did -- but then again, so did most of the Germans in the 1930s.
I can see the value of keeping communications open. Even the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. had the Hot Line in the depths of the Cold War. Trying to communicate wih people who now inhabit a reality with its own facts and its own logic and every damn thing is a wedge issue is really hard though.
Star Member kentuck (101,158 posts)
5. Good analogy!
They are like the "good Germans".
:thatsright:
Voltaire2 (9,092 posts)
7. Not recently.
And by recent, I mean long before Trump.
And with Trump it got spectacularly worse.
They exist in their own world.
Beachnutt (923 posts)
11. Jim Jones syndrom, they'll die first.
And I have a whole family full of them sadly..
Thomas Hurt (9,523 posts)
12. You can communicate but all you are going to get back is rumor, lies and conspiracy....
Downtown Hound (12,408 posts)
13. Sure. There's just no point.
I keep hearing people talk about the need to find "common ground" with Republicans There is simply no need whatsoever to find common ground with people that pose a threat to your life and well being. Even if you do manage to find common ground on some things, at the end of the day, anything less than a complete and total repudiation of everything the GOP stands for is a waste of time.
There is no common ground without basic respect for human life, rights, (such as our right to vote) and dignity. Until Republicans learn those things, anything we might have common ground on means jack shit.
:thatsright:
Star Member doc03 (27,294 posts)
14. How do you communicate with people that have alternate facts?
You can show them government charts, graphs and news articles and they just write them off as fake news. They do not believe any opposing view.
You can't communicate with them period. Around here if you get a half dozen people together at least 4 are trump supporters.
They all gang up on you and won't let you talk. I dread being around a group of people anymore it never fails the
Republicans always bring up politics. Just this morning one starts on MLB to try and get a rise out of me, I ignored it. Then one brings up gas prices and that Biden shut down all the pipelines. The only pipeline I am aware of him shutting down was the Keystone pipe line that was still under construction not in operation. Try to tell them that.
:whatever:
Buckeye_Democrat (11,129 posts)
16. I think Republicans are mostly bullies.
So many of them appear to "get off" on making others unhappy and insecure. And their own supposed expressions of persecution is often utter BS! So they're liars too, and you can't have a healthy relationship with a liar.
I've only occasionally encountered bullies among liberals. They're often the types who just want freebies, in my experience, not really possessing the sense of fairness that's common among most liberals.
In general, though, it's getting more rare for me to encounter any right-wingers who don't have bullying traits. It seems to be their most defining characteristic to me anymore.
Edit: Of course, it's possible that the ones who are most vocal about their right-wing beliefs will have the strongest bullying traits too. Whereas the non-bullies among them will mostly be quiet about it.
Sympthsical (917 posts)
17. I do it just fine
I'm always stymied by posts that assert people can't talk to political opponents. They happen often enough, here and other social media. "I just learned my so-and-so is a Republican, so I unfriended them!" Ok. I mean, keep enjoying that bubble, I guess?
After I moved to my current town a little over a year ago, I realized there was a definite Republican presence. The town is about 66% Democrat, but there are rural areas (it's a big town in geographic area). I made friends with a guy a few blocks over. Nice to hang out with and discuss music with. Total Trump supporter. We still hang out and talk.
Sometimes we alight on political topics - not too often, but enough. He states his thing, I state mine. Then we go back to talking about other things.
I never understand what the massive difficulty is in having discussion with people of different beliefs. I don't think I'm somehow especially gifted in the art of getting along with people.
Discussion is a lot different than flame wars over the internet. People post things for internet approval and points. Gotta have those hot takes. Gotta prove you're more Democratic or woker or more anti-racist than that last guy.
Yeah, people in real life, in person, do not talk that way. At least not in my experience. I seriously think half the stories I read are totally made up just for the attention. "I was at the gas station, and this Trumper was right in my face because of my bumper sticker!!!!!11!! And I stood up and said, 'No, Mr. Trumper. I am the mostest supporter of people in ever!' And then the cashier gave me a knowing nod of approval."
Uh huh. That happened.
Just talk to people. But also listen. If you approach a conversation where the whole goal is to shove and dominate your opinion over the other person's, you won't get very far. Isn't this human communication 101?
Flies, honey, vinegar, etc. I do not comprehend the difficulty.
:whatever:
Autumn (40,247 posts)
18. No. It's impossible to talk to any Republican, it can't be done. Pre tea party and Trump it was possible to talk about some things, but not since they went off the rails.
:bird:
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kentuck (101,158 posts)
5. Good analogy!
They are like the "good Germans".
Remind us again which party:
* bans speech
* militarized the capital
* snitches on non mask wearers
* is trying to centralize everything under the government
* wants only government approved education
* purges the military to install politically reliable hacks
* merges government and corporations to control society
* criminalizes dissent
* seeks to subordinate church to the state
* imports foreign labor to work in slave like conditions
* engineered an attack on the Capitol building as a predicate for passing Enabling acts
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:rotf: :rotf: A DUmmie talking about other people being "far removed from reality"? :rotf: :rotf:
How many DUmmies still believe that G. H. W. Bush flew in an SR-71 to Paris to meet with an Iranian official to sabotage Carter's Iranian hostages negotiations? ::)
How many DUmmies still believe that G. H. W. Bush's CIA created crack cocaine? And that the US military created AIDS?
How many DUmmies still believe in the Steele dossier pee tape BS?
How many DUmmies still believe Trump did nothing in January and February to fight against Covid? http://www.gopbriefingroom.com/index.php/topic,412484.0.html http://www.gopbriefingroom.com/index.php/topic,412485.0.html
Just off the top of my under-caffeinated head ... :rotf:
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Star Member kentuck (101,158 posts)
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215306195
Is it impossible to communicate with Republicans?
Especially the ones that supported and still support Donald Trump?
It is if you aren't open to diversity of thought or respect the thoughts or opinions of others even if they disagree with your own.
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Downtown Hound (12,408 posts)
13. Sure. There's just no point.
I keep hearing people talk about the need to find "common ground" with Republicans There is simply no need whatsoever to find common ground with people that pose a threat to your life and well being. Even if you do manage to find common ground on some things, at the end of the day, anything less than a complete and total repudiation of everything the GOP stands for is a waste of time.
There is no common ground without basic respect for human life, rights, (such as our right to vote) and dignity. Until Republicans learn those things, anything we might have common ground on means jack shit.
Ummmm What say you about abortion and the 2nd amendment?
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Umm, DUmbasses. Anyone you've cut out of your life because they disagree with your hateful, intolerant political views are much better off without you in their lives.
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Umm, DUmbasses. Anyone you've cut out of your life because they disagree with your hateful, intolerant political views are much better off without you in their lives.
All of their appeals to tolerance were nothing more than a ruse to get us to lower our guard. They never had any intention of extending the principle to us; and now that ultimate power is within their reach they have proven this.
We are in a war for our right to exist and live in peace.
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I see no reason to communicate with liberals as I am able to better express their viewpoints and am more honest about what they truly believe than they are.
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Is it impossible to communicate with democrats and leftists? You can show them objective facts about the "wage gap", about gun violence, or about police-involved killings, and they still don't change their opinion. On Twitter or Facebook, for instance, I would say 75-80% of the time, they don't even attempt to formulate an argument, they just respond with "You're an idiot", or "who names their kid [your name], or "You just don't like black people", or "Ben Shapiro is short, ha ha ha!".