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.
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.