Do you agree with this stance to my FB friend and family?

[BARKDANGER 855]

13 hours ago, Reality said:

I can relate in some ways to my mom. My dad is a hardcore Trump supporter and he's long gone. He's not necessarily ignorant either. I mean, I believe every Trump supporter is ignorant to some degree, but he knew full well who Trump was and what he stood for.

My mom voted for Trump both in 2020 and 2024, but she is extremely ignorant. Like, shockingly so. I guess I should mention that both my parents are immigrants from the Philippines, so she is not well-versed in American history. Hell, she admits she's not versed in Filipino history either. But sometimes she will say just some of the most inane, idiotic things that make me want to shake her and be like "YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!" 

Sometimes I wish I could just sit her down and educate her, but she's also incredibly stubborn. I want to be empathetic and understanding, but it's so difficult to do so. My mom, like your dad, loves her children very much. Like, so, so much. But I will never look at her the same way knowing that she has such bigoted beliefs.

I applaud you for speaking to your loved ones with grace and courtesy though. I wish it was something I could do.

I understand what you're saying, but I think at some point, some of these things are just basic empathy and compassion. It's very much a "If it doesn't affect me or the people I care about, I don't care about them" mentality, and I just find that so depressing and inhumane.

I'm speaking from my own experience here, but when it comes to my family, they might care, but feels very conditional. And truthfully, that is why I chose to look at them with disdain. Maybe it's extremely cynical of me to do so. Maybe it's wrong. But it's a coping mechanism for me. They care about me to some degree, but their care only goes so far when they consistently denigrate people like me. Yes, they look at LGBTQ+ people as this amorphous thing and exclude me from it occasionally, but when their beliefs directly contradict your existence, it's difficult to be like "Well, they just don't understand. Maybe they will someday." They might care because they see that I'm more complex than the stuff they hear, but if they can't apply that same thinking to other people, I just don't know how to combat that. Again, it's just basic empathy and compassion that these people lack.

And I'm trying so hard not to offend them- even though since 2016 it's been constant bashing of if I don't agree with "their" stance fully. I want to understand why they feel the way they feel, and I want them to be passionate about the way I feel so that we could have a mutual understanding. But they won't let me get through. And it's truly sad. It's like I respect my dad, and others so much. Can you just listen to me for a second and think outside the box 

Edited November 7 by BARKDANGER

[BARKDANGER 855]

11 minutes ago, faysalaaa said:

I just dont take peoples vote personally or seriously, and I dont see it as them voting against me.

I don't see it as them voting against me either, but rather them pissing upstream and then not realizing it flows downstream where I am at. Not realizing that their actions are toxic and contaminated the water. If that makes sense as an analogy

[River 105,693]

One of the reasons why Trump won is because "he tells the truth, he's not pc!!!"

so tell them bitches the truth and don't be pc, just lash out, who gives a sh-t?

why dems needs to think twice before they say something, in case they'll offend someone, while trumpsters just offends everyone without caring?

they can all go f*ck themselves.

[Didymus 34,379]

52 minutes ago, Reality said:

I understand what you're saying, but I think at some point, some of these things are just basic empathy and compassion. It's very much a "If it doesn't affect me or the people I care about, I don't care about them" mentality, and I just find that so depressing and inhumane.

I'm speaking from my own experience here, but when it comes to my family, they might care, but feels very conditional. And truthfully, that is why I chose to look at them with disdain. Maybe it's extremely cynical of me to do so. Maybe it's wrong. But it's a coping mechanism for me. They care about me to some degree, but their care only goes so far when they consistently denigrate people like me. Yes, they look at LGBTQ+ people as this amorphous thing and exclude me from it occasionally, but when their beliefs directly contradict your existence, it's difficult to be like "Well, they just don't understand. Maybe they will someday." They might care because they see that I'm more complex than the stuff they hear, but if they can't apply that same thinking to other people, I just don't know how to combat that. Again, it's just basic empathy and compassion that these people lack.

Totally feel you. And also, I wanna go: weren't so many Democrat voters, even on this forum, like "ok a vote for Kamala is a vote for the continuation of a genocide but at the end of the day, we still need to vote for her for x, y and z so shut up and let's be pragmatic here"?

I think it's a bit naive to deny that Republican voters vote the exact same way. They might be dimly aware that they are voting for a bunch of things they don't want but they don't focus or fixate on those things because they have other reasons that convince them anyway, and, even if selfish, those are ultimately more convincing than any appeal to what's morally questionable.

I dunno. I think if we want change, we have to drop the moral arguments and seek out what those real motivations are and how they can be met directly vs. indirectly through Trumpian spectacle.

[GagaSuperfan1 312]

I think the reality is every liberty is up for grabs. It was foolish for anyone to vote for Trump. It’s up to you exactly how you want to approach it, but I won’t be sugar coating how I feel with any friends and family members. They’ll know exactly how I feel, & they’ll hear facts & research from me, regardless if they want to put the blinders on, because at the end of the day, I don’t want to live in a hunger games world, and I don’t want that for them either. Whether they like it or not, they’ll hear everything the liberal gay of the family has to say.

[Reality 72,116]

7 hours ago, Didymus said:

Totally feel you. And also, I wanna go: weren't so many Democrat voters, even on this forum, like "ok a vote for Kamala is a vote for the continuation of a genocide but at the end of the day, we still need to vote for her for x, y and z so shut up and let's be pragmatic here"?

I think it's a bit naive to deny that Republican voters vote the exact same way. They might be dimly aware that they are voting for a bunch of things they don't want but they don't focus or fixate on those things because they have other reasons that convince them anyway, and, even if selfish, those are ultimately more convincing than any appeal to what's morally questionable.

I dunno. I think if we want change, we have to drop the moral arguments and seek out what those real motivations are and how they can be met directly vs. indirectly through Trumpian spectacle.

It's more understandable when you frame it that way, but with the Gaza genocide specifically, I do think it's different. I mean, I don't want to get into a whole tangent there because that is an entirely different discussion, but when it comes to the genocide in Gaza, Kamala was the only one out of the two who could've been influenced in any sort of positive direction. I think it would've been naive to think she would've stopped it and condemned Israel 100%, but the alternative is Trump saying that Israel should "finish the job."

I think a lot of Republicans vote for Trump despite his rhetoric and actions because they believe that he'll ultimately be good for them, but those kinds of voters are so misinformed. I agree that we have to seek our the real motivations for people's frustrations, but I also don't think we can drop the moral arguments either. When one side wants to actively strip away other people's rights and dehumanize them, you've got to talk about morality. Because if not, you're just going to continue to normalize and perpetuate it. 

The Democrats need their version of Trump, meaning that they need someone with a populist message that people feel like they can relate to. Bernie was the start of that, but centrists pushed him away. I just hope someone is able to rise the ranks so that in 2028 we can run someone like that.