We spoke about typical family shit for 30 minutes, and then he asked me if I'm following the Trump indictments and what I think about it.
I forget my exact phrasing, but I basically told him I think it's a travesty that makes a mockery of our justice system.
He was taken aback and said he thinks it's a great thing and has been a long time coming. He truly believes that Trump tried to take over the government by ignoring the 2020 election results.
I asked what Trump did specifically. He said, "Trump filed a bunch of court cases and lost every single one."
I said that's sort of true but most cases weren't even heard so the evidence couldn't even be presented, but regardless there's nothing illegal about challenging election results through the courts. I then pointed out that Trump left office right on schedule. I also pointed out all the election results that Democrats have claimed (and still are claiming) were fraudulent.
So again I asked, what specifically did Trump do that constitutes trying to take over the government? And why is it a crime for Trump to question election results but not Hillary or that fatass from Georgia?
Crickets on that, so he shifted gears to the classified document case.
I told him that case is a complete joke. Trump didn't do anything that every past president hasn't also done with their documents. I pointed out that Biden had thousands of classified documents in his fucking garage, and he didn't even have the power to declassify, so why aren't your calling for Biden to be prosecuted??
He said that's different. I asked how. He couldn't even muster a pathetic reason and told me he doesn't think it's productive to continued the conversation because we aren't going to agree.
I said you're the one who brought it up and I'm fucking sick of people claiming all these wild things about Trump without being able to back it up and then saying they don't want to talk about it.
I ranted for a good long while lol, stopping every so often to ask him for specifics on this or that (all related to his original claims) and each time he just remained silent, so then I'd start ranting again. I reminded him that Hillary Clinton was caught red-handed using a private email server and she sent and receive classified documents, and that she destroyed evidence and laughed about it.
I said, "You're telling me if Trump were caught using a private server and classified material was involved, you wouldn't want him prosecuted??"
He said "I'm not sure." I said give me a fucking break, you know damn well you'd cheer on his prosecution if that happened. The media would claim he endangered every American and you'd be there nodding along.
At some point, he referenced Russia helping Trump in the 2016 election via Facebook. I asked him to explain what they did. He couldn't. I said why are you going around making claims about something you can't even describe?? Crickets.
I asked if he knew the Steele dossier originated from the Clinton campaign. Crickets.
It went on like this for another 30 minutes or so. He couldn't provide specifics about anything. I kept pressing him. He kept saying this isn't productive. I said yeah no shit because all you can do is regurgitate claims you've heard from biased sources.
I could have handled it better in some ways but I don't regret what I said. I'm so fucking tired of otherwise smart people being completely clueless about important issues that THEY bring up and claim to be knowledgeable about.
That's about it. Not all that interesting but it's slow around here so I thought I'd share.
Anyone else get into it with family members about politics lately?
You know how birds can fly together in a flock all somehow seemingly coordinated? People are just like that with their opinions. They look left and right and see what most other people are doing, then they follow the herd because for basically forever until 5 seconds ago, being expelled from "your group" was a immediate death sentence. It takes a very strange person who is willing to diverge from the direction of the herd. Honestly you shouldn't expect most people to even be able of doing so because regardless of the intellectual or factual arguments you can put forward, their instincts won't allow them to do so. Republicans included. Just try discussing the downsides of the Civil Rights Act with a dyed in the wool patriot and tell me how that goes.
If I was pressed I would try to say the most confusing things (to them) possible. Like if we're talking elections, I would say that literally every election I've personally lived through is always and immediately followed by claims of cheating and stealing, from both sides. It's to the point where if you don't try to cheat and steal, are you even really trying? I would attack Republicans and Trump for being losers who didn't do what it takes, and praise the Democrats for having the balls to seize power and override the will of the people. I would look down at either side for being naive if they are not pushing to the letter of the law and even going beyond occasionally when they think they can get away with it. People literally cheat in completely meaningless activities like Monopoly or Counter-Strike, what sort of fucking imbecile would think that there isn't foul play in elections?