I am not trolling.

I have never followed news stories as closely in my life or been as consumed and politics as much as I have since about May last year till now.

I've yet to see anyone on the left apart from maybe Van Jones extend a hand across the divide in empathy.

All I've seen is dersion, scorn, smug superiority, self-righteousness and doubling down.

All the things that led to these results in the first place.

And still no one listens or cares. Keep going.

https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/827663049637113857

utah seems like one of the more immigrant/refugee friendly states in the country

It's hard to have empathy for people that don't give a **** about anyone other then themselves and those inside their little bubble. That has nothing to do with racism or being brainwashed.

The irony levels are going off the charts here. Can you see your own words?

Im assuming it's unanimous, LordJvK is the least interesting troll to entire this thread?

Trump supporters have no empathy and generally dgaf about anyone else who isn't them--that's a pointless waste of time.

Got to tailor arguments to america **** yeah instead. A flaw of everyone is they keep making arguments to things they care about and the other side doesn't.

The fight seems more likely to succeed by rallying the sympathetic than changing hearts and minds at this point.

'Nein! Nein! I am being born in your Huddersfield!'

'Nein! Nein! I am being born in your Huddersfield!'

I've been meaning to post something along these lines for a bit, and LordJVK reminded me:

It is important for liberals to understand how wrong the perspective that the left is currently "overreacting" to Trump is just in terms of what works politically. It's crazy that it can even be a discussion after the last 8 years.

I see my liberal friends posting that if we react strongly to EVERY Trump outrage, it diminishes our ability to protest when he does something reallllly bad. This is flatly wrong.

The Outrage Machine has propelled fringe, conspiratorial conservative politics into a position of dominance on Capitol Hill. If you talked to a Trump supporter before the election, it might strike you how few of the things they talked about were events you had even heard of. Huge percentages of their discourse was nonsense that you had to be in the conservative bubble to even hear about. Clinton murder conspiracies, Obama secretly being gay, etc. But those bull**** stories aggregated to create a feeling among those people that this was the apocalypse. Liberals were upending an established order and replacing it with their own, where gender isn't real and pedophilia is totes natural and sharia law is right around the corner.

That outrage machine sustained itself for 8 years and kept the base motivated. They continuously put fringey idiots into power because of it, and it culminated with Trump. Continuous, all-consuming outrage works, and the Democrats should be feeding into it to mobilize their notoriously finicky base.

Two days ago he claimed gamergate never harassed anybody. He defended Richard Spencer. He thought Obamas 2011 travel ban was "the exact same" as what trump did. He never engages honestly, if he continues to post here he will be banned within the day.

well, you must not know anyone associated with education. I know school teachers and university instructors, and their disdain for this women is incredible. and I dont exactly live in a liberal area.

Ok, let me know which of these things you think actual fear is warranted for, if any:

1. Trump and Rs pass a law making it very easy to sue media companies - effectively curtailing freedom of the press
2. Trump weaponizes the NSA and FBI against his enemies
3. Trump nukes Raqqa
4. Trump bombs Iran
5. Trump causes a war in the South China Sea
6. Trump starts making US Muslims register in a national DB
7. Trump starts rounding up US Muslims into internment camps after a terrorist attack
8. Trump starts selling off the National Parks
9. Trump starts deporting green-card holders from undesirable countries
10. Trump's trade wars destroy the economy - causing civil unrest
11. Russia invades and occupies all of Ukraine
12. Russia starts invading Latvia/Lithuania/Estonia
13. More and more reports come out of US intel being fed to Russia through unknown channels
14. Trump starts a war before the 2018 midterms to galvanize support.
15. Congress grants Trump plenary powers after a mysterious attack on the Capitol Building
16. Pizzagate turns into a national pedophile hysteria - egged on by the Trump admin - and used to round up Trump foes in the dragnet - ala Duterte
17. Trump and Rs start passing amendments making it harder for minorities to vote (sure you'd be all for that - must ensure INTEGRITY)

Any of these bother you - or is it still Go Team!? None of these are even the normal terrible Republican stuff like destroying the environment or denying poor women access to abortion and birth control. Just like in the 50s - rich daddies can send their daughters out of the state or country if needed.

The sky is the limit right now for Bannon & co right now with a supplicant congress and a base that believes anything that comes out of Trump's twitter. Anyone who isn't worried, and is relatively well-informed, is fully on board the fascism train. Woo woo!

So you freely admit you haven't followed politics at all until the less half year or so, but you're absolutely sure no liberal anywhere ever has extended help to rural whites?

Makes sense.

That was for minorities. Trump will come out with a new subsidized internet for while people and it will be glorious.

its weird. I traveled europa in 2006 and met a ton of ppl and the main question they asked was "why george bush?" it seemed liked everyone there was a million times more aware of merican politics than us. like, thats about all anyone wanted to talk about. my answere was, how the eff would do I know? I didnt support him but I didnt really are anyway and its not like rando mericaner could stop him. but ffs those euros just loved to bash bush.

back then, a few ppl in merica cared, but it was rarely talked about.

now, well, its still not talked about, but I think its on everyones mind and no one wants to show their hand. bear in mind, I mostly interact at a corporate tech job, and ya, theres that one guy that talks about politics and everyone else smiles and nods, but we really dont go out of our way to express where we stand.

Im just sayin, I feel it under the surface right now tho.

I feel like I've just been called a troll, that my opinions don't matter, and that my views aren't valid. Nice open debate.

I said I haven't followed them AS CLOSELY

But it doesn't matter. I've been told I'm a troll. That I'm a Trumpist in disguise. I'm pro-facism. Whatever else.

One day it will dawn on you why your side in this is losing so badly.

If you lose me, someone pro gay marriage, pro abortion, anti guns, who voted to remain in the EU, who lives in London, who has more college degrees than most people ... I honestly my have no idea how you expect to win over actual Trump supporters.

But keep going, keep alienating people with your righteous indignation. It's a brilliant way to achieve what you want.

Such a lot of fabrication. It's really shocking to see this level of slander and just outright lying.

It worries me that this is what political discourse is now.

Your only opinion is that everyone you disagree with should stfu. So: No, U.

Do you need a safe space with a fresh supply of tissues? Seriously **** off with this open debate garbage. Liberals have been trying to be reasonable with republicans for nearly a decade. For our efforts we've been blasted with conspiracy theories, charges that all liberals are pussies, and a permenant state of right wing protests throughout 8 years of Obama. Now you are begging for us to be civil? No, civility was assassinated in 2009.

There are distinct practical reasons why these tactics will not work for the left.

I suggest reading The Righteous Mind to see why. The right can appeal to the most base aspects of humanity and get away with it. The left has to be smarter. It will not win that fight.

Go for it, but I predict you will lose if you go that route. Prove me wrong by all means. I strongly suspect it will make Trump win more next time.

There are very good reasons for believing this.

people won't challenge you at all in your safe space

Like how Hillary garnered almost 3 million more votes than him and his approval rating right now is the lowest of any incoming president ever?

Change this because the allocation of said votes decided the election?

wtf are you talking about?