A new psychological study has found that people who report favorable views of Donald Trump also tend to score higher on measures of callousness, manipulation, and other malevolent traits—and lower on empathy and compassion. The findings, based on two large surveys of U.S. adults, shed light on how personality traits relate to political beliefs, including support for Trump and conservative ideology. The research was recently published in the Journal of Research in Personality.
Seriously. Next time, ask one of them that repeats “maga!” without any sense of irony what that even means. I’ve done this for at least one of my in-laws in Taco’s first term.
I tried to ask what “great” is supposed to mean. What is Taco going to do for his policy? I also asked when it was last “great” and when did it stop being “great”? I didn’t try to “debate” him, I was just asking more clarifying questions about his statements.
Seriously, they find this truly baffling, by the way. They expect either: people will get mad and react to them (thus, “liberal: owned”), or to give a thumbs-up and yes-and them with all the latest hate radio/Faux talking points, or what most people do, which is to try to change the topic or wander to another room, etc. Asking more questions about their claims is just not something that happens in most cases, I think.
About the only specifics on any kind of policy seemed to involve punching down on others. Getting women in line, showing people with degrees that Taco is actually smarter than all of them, othering any non-xtians, most especially Muslims and atheists, “closing the border” (wtf?), an obsession with trans and gays and what they are seemingly “getting away with”, Blacks being put in their place because too many quotas, and so on.
When I asked how their life would be any better…it was even less coherent. I couldn’t really get anything out of them. It was all about these stupid petty phantom grievances about what other people - mostly in big cities they don’t even live near - were up to, and about reining them in.
The one that kills me - my brother does this - is framing it as a response to imaginary opponents.
He does these monologues about the libs or the woke mob or the city people or whoever in which he first mimics what they’re supposedly saying, then responds to it with some copy and paste bit of MAGA dogma.
He doesn’t even engage with actual people - it’s just the strawmen in his head.
Sometimes when I’m talking to someone I know like this, I have to refrain from being snarky and saying something like “show me on the doll where Obama hurt you”.
But in all seriousness, I do tend to ask lots of questions of these people. I think some of them think I’m just doing trolling IRL, because they seem to legit be taken aback. They are used to people taking one of three paths (push-back from the now-owned liberal, emphatic agreement that maybe comes just shy of high-fives and a chest-bump, and others trying to ignore/shun such people), and I take a fourth. Maybe there is just a bit of a trolling element, but honestly, I’m morbidly curious.
Asking things like who are they talking about and where did they see this kind of thing when they are doing the strawman thing. And how were you harmed by Clinton’s policies, or Obama’s or Biden’s. And which specific policies? Also, which specific policies of Taco’s have improved the economy and/or their lives in quantifiable ways?
I don’t know if this causes any stir of thought in them at all, but often, I find that they don’t have answers for any of this. I’m able to keep a cool head and ask questions in a calm and indoor voice and not react in the predictable ways that they think a liberal will act, and that’s really key - because they do tend to get emotional in the process and sometimes, the person they are talking to not getting emotional can make them even more angry, at least in the moment.
Huh… I should try that.
My standard response is to just leave the room.