I thought it was quirky and harmless when, several years back (pre-Trump) my Republican dad who had raised me on Scientific American, developed a taste for 'Ancient aliens' and 'secrets of the Pyramids' and such. In hindsight this was an alarming development. Following up on the erosion of trust in science created by global warming denialism, it seems that increasing levels of unfounded ideas were seeping into the realm of acceptability. And as fast as 'there being no arbiter of truth' created a vacuum of trusted facts, a deluge of alternative realities were rushing in to fill that void.

It's harmless when it's just aliens building the pyramids, but when it turns into "high-school social justice protestors are really Antifa/BLM terrorists" and the violence is escalating in our streets, and new militia plots to kidnap/bomb/murder/intimidate are popping up every day, you realize at last that erosion of reliable facts was a pretext for furthering the cause of fact-free, late-stage-capitalist fascism.

How do you feel about your party being taken over by the nutjobs, and just completely rolling over for it? I'm not asking this as a gotcha, I really wonder how decent conservative Americans are feeling about having no place, no political home to claim affiliation to.

There are aggressive bullies in my rural county whose main rationale could be summed up as "firearm ownership, Christian values, and law & order." I realize that not everyone who subscribes to these core values is going to take them to the extreme (violent threats, harassment, and indeed outright acts of violence/murder), but some do, and "some" is enough to ruin the quality of life for everyone who is within their geographical reach. An observed issue--not a hypothetical but a very real thing that happens with specific individuals in a community where everyone is on a first name basis-- is that moderate, reasonable conservatives often default to "siding with" the extremist provocateurs, because of these specific shared values as named above, and against "the others" who are assumed to be against these values. This caused very real and very damaging rifts in my community, as one group of people simply saying, "you can't threaten to murder people" results in them being identified as "the enemy" and results in them being followed to their home by lifted trucks, boycotted by armed mobs at their place of business, and generally living their life with a target on their back.
 
I don’t know how to explain this to someone who isn’t experiencing the same situation, but-- no one is “focusing on” the radicals—they focus on YOU. It’s not “the media” causing “hype” about fringe groups, it’s the armed and angry militia nuts that literally come and knock on your door if they don’t like what you’ve been saying. This has nothing to do with ratings or politics, it’s a matter of specific and credible threats to the life and safety of your family.
 

Last edited by Flint (10/26/2020 4:02 pm)

Big Sarge wrote:

Flint, the things you say about militias equally apply to ANTIFA and BLM. These are the ones we see, forcing people to kneel and "say her name," intimidating people at restaurants, blocking streets, throwing rocks and bottles, looting, and committing arson. 

We have different perspectives based upon our locations. To you, the militias are a threat. For me, it is BLM and ANTIFA.

This is happening in your town?

Big Sarge-- thank you for sharing your first-person account.

Qanon doesn't actually seem to be dangerous.  It is this year's "50 Shades of Gray," really.

Some of the militia groups are a different story (attempted kidnapping of a governor, etc).

Wait, you forgot to account for "shy Trump voters"
If 50% admit their belief in batsh!t conspiracies, the real number should be much higher, right??

Last edited by Flint (10/31/2020 2:03 am)

They might have answered don't know to the first question, and yes to anything good they're told Trump is doing. It depends on how the questions are worded.

None of the polls are gospel but they all have kernels of truth. The problem is you don't know how they were conducted.

But that's OK as long as they favor my guy. 
 

They did a manual recount and fixed the tally.

replay of my emotions when Bernie lost the 2016 primary..

it's tough, I understand

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Last edited by griff (11/09/2020 7:05 am)