What happens when someone that relies mostly on NPR, BBC, CNN, and MSNBC for news cross paths with someone that relies mostly on Breitbart, FOX, and conservative talk radio?
Parallel universes.
What happens when a person who seeks new ideas and welcomes different perspectives tries conversing with another who is dogmatic about his/her ideas and has no patience for different perspectives?
Parallel universes.
And so it was in a recent Facebook interchange where I challenged Trumpistas with fact based arguments and sought to move the conversation to the topics of empathy, caring for others, and finding some common value. To no avail.
Parallel universes.
The Trumpistas relentless, blind, unequivocal support for “all things Trump” is right down dangerous. Their unwillingness to criticize their leader – and systematically default to criticizing Obama and Hillary is truly alarming.
So, for historical purposes, here are some of my responses to their vile postings – which I don’t want to dignify so I won’t repost them verbatim.
My response to Trumpistas’ post challenging that Trump degrades people and claiming he has ‘sympathy’ for others (admittedly somewhat falling into the gutter with their post):
- President Trump please don’t stop insulting people; it obviously works with your base. And, please don’t stop having zero empathy for those that did not vote for you; it obviously strengthens your base… Go go go! We love you Trump… Like you yourself said, you can shoot someone in NY’s Fifth Avenue and your hard core supporters will not leave you. They are so committed to you!… Lock her up! Lock her up! No more Muslims! Mexicans are rapists! Grab them women by the p***y! rah rah rah!
My response to the Trumpistas default to blame Clinton and Obama for EVERYTHING:
- This is not about Bill Clinton. This is not about Obama. This is not about HIllary. This is about Trump. And only Trump… As I said before: Don’t let your hate of past leaders obscure your capacity to critique the current leader… Indeed, we know full well what happened in Cuba where the hate for Batista led to Castro because people were saying ‘anything can be better than this.’
My response to Trumpista posts hailing him for his ‘genius’:
- Oh. I see. And Trump is a genius. He is so eloquent with his words. So masterfully with his sentiments. All hail Trump! He can do no wrong. Say no wrong. He is our supreme leader! WHEN o when are you going to come to grips with the reality that you WON and bashing past politicos does nothing other than inflate your warped ego? Your blind support for all things Trump will come back to haunt you.
My response to post thanking Trump for his first year in office, gloating about their “great hire”, and a meme showing Democrats crying:
- No, we are not crying. Many of us that disagree with why you hired him will continue working to get him fired…. And, you can yell and post all you want. We will still #RESIST . See you at the polls in November. And, if we are not a majority then, see you at the polls in 2020. And if we are not a majority then (in the Electoral College), see you at the polls in 2022… and so on… So, no. We are not crying. We are resisting what we believe is a political nightmare hurtful to many and an incident President diminishing the Office. You disagree – it is your prerogative. You have no empathy for those that disagree with you – seemingly neither does he. Gloat while you can all you want. We will #RESIST – And no, we are not crying.
And so it is in this new parallel universe.