Rant by Anand Giridharadas about turning people away from the pro-democracy movement
Yep and look at this thread, more than half the commenters (heavily upvoted) seem to think that all Trump voters are deeply hateful white supremacist Nazis that are incapable of change when that ain’t reality. Sure, you can sneer at them, shout at them, deride them - feel superior because you figured it all out sooner. And that would continue letting Russia’s investments dividing America (via online propaganda farms, assisting Trump in the 2016 election, and ongoing payments to right wing figureheads like Tim Poole, Tucker Carlson, Dave Rubin, Lauren Southern) be the best money and time they ever invested.
If you think ‘its not my job’ well, bad news is you will either convince these people verbally with a compassionate ear and tone, or (best case) keep seeing your best future stripped from you or (worst case) meet them on the battlefield in some civil war 2 or other violent civil clash.
Throw away the black and white thinking shit. Sure, there are lots of hardcore Trump voters that are deeply conservative, love Project 2025, and are just fine with fascism. However, a huge proportion of Trump voters are just ‘low-information voters’ that have been brought up in conservative households and voted Trump because they didn’t think much about it. Many further are dumbasses that knew the US was a mess and wanted political ‘change’ but were political laymen and were grifted by multiple dozens of RW media figures & orgs (which are just the default shit on tv in many states) into believing Trump will bring his promised change for the better.
If some of them are waking up to the con now then that’s a gift horse that you shouldn’t look in the mouth. They are perfectly positioned to be pushed farther along with more knowledge - you can show them the left wing rabbit hole while they have a more open mind, or some brainwashed racist can show them a different rabbit hole about “(((globalists)))” that may lead them to a become even worse enemies.
Gosh your country is a mess. Is it still “plain popcorn” time or should I get the fancier caramel and peanut kind?
MAGA is imploding
lol… no it isn’t.
So make the same mistake the Union did after the civil war and don’t hold traitors accountable. That would just lead us to the mess we’re in now, fuck that.
No.
They’ve had 10 years of leftists explaining to them that Trump is a nazi and a child rapist. They always knew. They made their choice.
If they’ve had a genuine change of heart, I suppose that’s one thing. But most of them have not. They still believe all the same horrible shit they did before, they’ve just stopped liking Trump as much. And even if they HAVE had a change of heart, they need to atone for all the suffering they’ve caused before they can expect to be accepted on the left.
They still believe all the same horrible shit they did before, they’ve just stopped liking Trump as much.
That’s the bottom line. Anything they don’t care deeply about doesn’t matter. When it affects the personally or violates their deeply held beliefs, suddenly a moment of clarity. They have zero empathy.
They aren’t deep beliefs, in my experience many of them are all newly learned beliefs that they would flop on had the media not been telling them it was okay. All we saw was how easy it is to influence our society by sowing hate. Many of the people who voted for Obama and gay marriage now are racist and hate gays. If the beliefs were deep, they wouldnt have flopped.
yep. words are cheap, especially words from this crowd. If they want to show how they’ve changed, CHANGE. Become better people. Support your community, all of it, not just the white christian segment. Gather your cohort and make the world better, then come back and ask for forgiveness.
I can’t stand magats, but if you find common ground then it’s a case of “the enemy of my enemy” is my friend. Not going to lie, it’s really, really hard to do. You don’t have to like them, you don’t have to be their friend, but kindly encourage them to betray their cult so the rest of us can steer the ship back on course when they go into complete disarray. Even simply telling them, “You are seeing you have been lied too” becomes a little ear wig . Yes, you’ll want to throw up a little bit in your mouth just talking to them, but every bit helps. And if they get mad and start magat’ing out, just walk way.
Or just pile on. “Oh, this is where you draw the line? Not when they cut medicaid to millions? Not when they deported American citizens?”
Could go on but y’all already know the list…
I think the more useful tactic is to undermine the right-wing propaganda machine. We’ve known Trump was a pedo for years. Why did Fox and all of them hide that information and cover for him? What else are they lying about?
I just saw, probably on Lemmy The Far Right Contagion, offering the explanation that many of the people turning to far-right movements around the world don’t necessarily hold far-right beliefs, and often oppose far-right policies. Instead, they feel abandoned by the current system and will align with nearly any movement promising to dismantle it.
If another movement makes them feel heard and offers solutions to their problems, it’s very likely to be able to redirect that momentum. Assuming it’s a better movement (and it would be hard to do worse), that’s a win for humanity. We won’t get there by branding everyone who got sucked into a far-right movement as an enemy for life.
That’s not to suggest that any person is wrong to be angry at someone who voted to hurt them, but is holding on to that anger more important than a better future?
Why do people like this guy always put the onus for reconciliation on the victims? If someone voted against humanity for years, and treated me and mine like garbage, why is it up to me to extend the olive branch?
If these fucking dipshits decide to vote for non-Republicans, that’s great, but it has fuck all to do with me. I’m in no way responsible for luring them back to humanity one painful step at a time.
Yeah seriously. I want an apology and a promise.
So, when a racist, white nationalist becomes upset with his cult leader over his refusal to release the names of the baby brain-juice drinkers in Hollywood and Washington…we should open our arms to them?
Are they “on our team” now, despite still advocating for most of us to be lynched in the town square?
No.
If that cult leader was a factor in him being that racist and white nationalist, and if this is an actual opportunity to pull him away from that, then yes. If isolation from decent people perpetuates the echo chamber I’d rather not let that continue in the name of a grudge.
But if that person tries to hold on to those beliefs they can fuck right off.
Still, people can change and I’ll encourage it in the right direction.
I don’t believe that Trump is making anyone more racist. They always were. What they like about him, is that he validates those feelings. He says everything they’re already thinking, and they relate to that.
Most of those people feel isolated, because those feelings are not acceptable to the rest of us. That’s why they gravitate towards others that feel the same way. When it comes to Trump and their cult…they’ve finally found their people. They feel like they belong, with them.
If they’re feeling disillusioned right now, it isn’t because they feel any different. They haven’t changed. The only thing that might have changed, is they are realizing that Trump is fake as fuck, and has just been using them all along.
That doesn’t bring them any closer to “our side”. It just gives “us” an opportunity to drive a wedge between them and their cult leader. It weakens their movement…but it doesn’t make us allies.
There’s plenty of people beyond saving, that’s for sure: but I think people aren’t so immutable. I think people are being made more monstrous by the capitalist system we live in, and the people at the top who exemplify avarice as a path to success. I’m not going to be buddies with ex maga unless they’re really going the extra mile to make up for the damage they’ve done, but I hope at least some can be decent humans.
It depends what we mean by “not turning away”. Absolutely on board with telling people they can join, and look at our side and what we have to offer.
Absolutely opposed to “OK so lets extend an olive branch and start hating trans people, cheering on ICE and concentration camps so they feel at home”.
Anyone who wants to embrace that all people, are people and deserve respect, dignity and kindness, and that the government is supposed to be trying to help as many as possible… can become an ally and friend.
Absolutely opposed to “OK so lets extend an olive branch and start hating trans people, cheering on ICE and concentration camps so they feel at home”.
I’m quite certain no one meant this when they said “not turning away”, lol.
I mean you do hear it left and right among democratic politicians, strategists etc… blaming our losses on going too far in woke, or supporting trans too much. Like say Gavin Newsome who’s clearly trying for a 2028 presidential run, and his first step was starting his show, bringing on Charlie Kirk, Steve Bannon etc… and looking for points of agreement, and the first one he chose was that “it’s very unfair for trans women to compete in sports”.
Exactly this. This should mean something like stopping rhetorical attacks on right wing followers and focusing in on leaders and ideas
And then extend that to “if you’ve been lied to on X maybe they also tricked you on Y”. Don’t give up Y to try to bring them in
they were still racist, selfish, stupid, hatemongers.
all that changed is that their pedo leader was a pedo leader
someone else can offer that to disenfranchised MAGA, im just gonna be mean to them
… they still don’t support minorities and marginalized communities. Why should they be welcomed with open arms?
Getting then way from the constant propaganda machine is a first step towards what may not be a full 360, but at least potentially realizing that the ones they’ve been trained to hate are just a scapegoat for those who have really been fucking them (and everyone else) over.
They don’t have empathy unless it specifically happens to them. They didn’t learn a lesson, they’re not capable of learning this kind of lesson.
I think the left would benefit more from being open to socialists rather than coddling fascists.
I would be way more sympathetic if these MAGA “defectors” gave a tiny shit about the little girls who got rapped, rather than than being disappointed their side lost this round.
I think the left would benefit more from being open to socialists rather than coddling fascists
For a lot of red states, the exceptions have been FDR and 08 Obama…
Progressive campaigns wins votes. It just also pisses off billionaires so the candidate has to choose between gaining votes directly and money to spend on ads no one even sees anymore.
Recently I remember something from the Democrats where the person was complaining that most of their funding was coming from the voter base and not from rich capitalists. Like, you’re getting money but not the correct, evil money and that’s bad?
The problem is more about what they’ll be expected to do, once they’re elected. If regular people are giving them money, they’ll be expected to do things that will help regular people. If it’s all coming from wealthy elites, then they’ll be expected to do things that will help the wealthy elites.
Rich people will typically just want you to stay out of their way, and do nothing. Regular people problems are often much more difficult to solve.
Making the lives of regular people better usually means making the lives of the wealthy “worse” by way of income redistribution. Guess who has the money to ensure they come out on top?
I put worse in quotations because functionally, your life isn’t much different if you have 8 digits in your bank account vs 9+. It’s still an obscene amount of money for one individual to have and likely will have zero impact on your quality of life.
There are defecters from the Trump cult, not the Republican party. They still would prefer people like me don’t exist and will work against me having civil rights. They still cheer when people who don’t look like them get tortured and killed, and will support that however they can.
I’m not going to talk to that kind of person, I just flat out refuse. More power to the people who can tolerate that, but I don’t know that the hate party is redeemable.
