I know this is a weird question, but let me give you some context. I live with my parents. I live in a place where I can't get anywhere that I want to. No public transport and I don't have a car.
I used to live downtown and took the bus. Back then I had a read on people.
It's been a while since I've interacted with the general public. I see people at receptions for doctors appointments or whatnot, but that's about it.
One thing in the past though is that I could hate the beliefs of someone, yet like them well enough as a person.
I despise feminism, but I felt that individual feminists I could be cordial with and they'd be cordial with me. That most individuals will be friendly on some level and you can connect on some level.
I really truly don't know what people are like now.
I see what they're like on the internet and the news, but that is very unreliable to what the day to day experience is like.
I assume some of you live in cities and interact daily with many different types of people. What is it like "In the real world?" to be a little tongue in cheek.
I was at a rally last year where there were "counter-protestors" who were trying to shout us down. I put my sign down and went over to talk to them. I chatted up a guy about why he was there and we got to talking. Then he goes "Everytime I see someone flying the Canadian flag on their car, I want to shoot them", so I said "I have a flag on my car, do you want to shoot me?" and he just kinda went quiet.
They want to kill you, but they're too socially akward to tell you to your face.
What leftists say on the internet is what they say when the mask is off. If you want them to drop the mask when face to face, wear a MAGA hat. You will find that they aren't nearly as cordial as you thought.
it depends on the leftist. contrary to popular belief, most people do in fact value their friends and family over their political beliefs. most people go out of their way to avoid culture war bullshit because they legitimately want to stay friends with the person they disagree with.
you can usually tell when someone is truly wearing a mask. they will be on edge, socially stunted, often wear "subtle" political material for fashion, and are generally looking to pounce when someone says the wrong thing. they will also be skittish because they legitimately think the world is out to get them, or they will be determined because they legitimately think they are the hero of this story.
City leftists are absolutely insufferable, and I generally recommend avoiding them at all costs. however, anywhere outside of a blue hell hole (or even in the suburbs of a blue hellhole) people will be reasonable.
I live close enough to the city and travel there enough for work that I know many die hard lefties in person. They're nuts. Like most people they modulate their opinions in a crowd if they think everyone else isn't on the same page, but once they know they're in a group of like minded cultists they go wild with radical conspiracy theories, retarded liberal philosophy, the latest MSDNC NPC narrative updates, TDS sermons, and claims that they are all enlightened moderates who just want the country to get back on track. It's hard to see them as people. They're more like drones connected to the machine collective.
What gets me is the projection. They constantly claim that republicans have all gone nuts. Meanwhile, the research shows that the left are the ones who have fallen off the table. It takes a legendary absence of self-awareness to see literal communists, trannies, and Muslims taking over your political party and then pretend like your side is the rational one.
I can understand being curious, because they are absolutely bizarre to witness in real life. Back in the day when I was curious about the world more I would go to protest events just to check things out, went to a big Tommy Robinson event in Manchester 'MarchAgainstIslamicHate' I believe it was and seeing Antifa RL was fucking wild as was the disproportionate police response. Those guys were pretty much about what you'd expect, obvious university students larping as revolutionaries getting into fights with the footballers and trying to provoke shit and it was clear it was them doing it.
My own immediate family circle is pretty leftist and it's about as cringe as you'd expect, rants about Trump unprompted, in the UK they worship the holy NHS. I'm very grateful that I managed to move out and can focus on my code. The thing about leftists is, the blatantly mentally ill ones aside who have physical conditions you can spot they're often going to seem like totally normal people but if you bring up one topic they will fly off the handle.
That's not even the bad part about having to deal with leftists though is because as people will know if you don't do enough virtue signalling on a certain topic they'll treat you as hostile. My main tactic at Christmas when I had to live with family was waiting for them all to get drunk while being as neutral as possible and then quietly slipping away. I'm so fucking glad I don't have to deal with any of that anymore.
Trust me, you're not missing much by having it out of your life but if you're wondering, yes they are that bad. Also consider something like motorcycle lessons or something if you can afford it. I've been surprised depending on the engine size how cheap the insurance is. If you're in the middle of nowhere an off-road bike might be fantastic for you.
It’s a bummer day when you realize that the reason they endlessly and spontaneously rant about Trump is because it’s actually a test - and if you don’t enthusiastically reciprocate, you have failed. Basically invasion of the body snatchers, and you didn’t scream back.
Call it by its original name: a struggle session.
Most lefties are awful people IRL. They act entitled and difficult just like their online personalities.
I wouldn't know, I don't permit them to speak to me. Why anyone would bother with social congress towards people you intend on killing, I can't imagine.
Depending on the circumstances, you can't avoid speaking to some people.
To, yes. "Paper bags please" and "yes I want a receipt" is hardly a conversation. Otherwise I keep to me and mine, and associate solely with the like minded. I've thrown my own brother out of the family for being a leftoid(for all I know he's dead), I certainly am not about to tolerate it from strangers.
The normie leftists are not horrible people to be around when nothing related to politics or the culture war is the current topic. Many are quite nice and cheery even. A lot are your usual bleh centrists that listen to what the telievision says but they would easily join our side with a little convincing. Only a relatively small fraction are insane and a danger to be around.
I actually disagree. My experience is mostly university-based, but my interactions with this demographic are incredibly frustrating because they're always depressed losers with an incalculable amount of mental illnesses hellbent on ruining any situation.
The younger ones are like that but the older ones are pretty good. I do feel bad for a lot of the younger people for sure.
I do seem to recall hearing a secondhand story from someone IRL who had to deal with a tranny in college who kept getting uppity over something super minor.
Can't remember what the acquaintance had done to upset the tranny, but it was something fairly benign (Really wish I could actually remember what it was, but I don't want to make something up).
Another friend of mine has to deal a lot of drunk normie feminists in his line of work who clearly don't have a brain and try to wield mainstream feminist narratives as a shield and a bludgeon to get their way. This may have more to do with the sorts of people he's likely to encounter than them just being leftist though.
I've also had one or two Canadian friends who try to wag their finger at me whenever I use "verboten" terms like "retard" and "fag". My response was along the lines of "Really dude? Come the fuck on, just grow a pair."
Unfortunately, these are second hand and sometimes partially online. Can't say for sure how common these examples are, but I've certainly seen a lot of NPC programming have at least some impact on most people to some degree. Many people who develop a seemingly blind tolerance of trannies, others who drink the socialist Kool Aid. Plenty who buy into the "hate speech" "danger". A few who buy into bullshit about "disinformation". Certainly a LOT who go into some normie stance on Israel and Ukraine.
Daytime talk shows in majorly conservative states that give broadcast time to promote local black businesses with "melanin" in the name, or feminist agenda focused businesses. Dating profiles that bitch about Trump or anyone who's not left-wing (IE, "don't bother messaging me if you voted for Trump"). Etc.
Similar to a comment I saw in another thread this past week, I will admit some of this is just normie-tier stupidity from people who hold little interest in actually trying to use their brain and form their own opinion.
The typical normie Progressive scum will continually socially test you at every available opportunity to make sure you're on their team. If you do not constantly signal to them that you are definitely on their team every time they signal, they will attempt to remove you forcibly from the situation/workplace/friendgroup. Neutrality is not an option and signals to them "potential enemy" which they act upon in the same way.
The typical apolitical normie actually functions in the same way, only they have more leeway and test less. The end result is largely the same if you signal to them you're an -ist or -phobe in any way. Luckily, they tend to not care if you keep to yourself.
Yep can confirm, this is why hating normies is valid, I'd say most of my RL circle falls in the normie spectrum. I very much keep my mouth shut on most stuff and don't really talk a lot about my work because it involves tons of code they're never going to understand anyway.
My favourite moment was when as a bit of a shit test I started talking about neuralink and even though they found it funny at the same time they looked at me in genuine disbelief at the stuff I was talking about because I considered that far worse than AI. I hadn't even gone into stuff like what I thought the intended use for neuralink was as well as the concept of brain matter storage.
These kind of topics normies barely even think about. It's like when we had the absolute internet gold of women discovering that men think about the Roman Empire constantly and shows you this kind of shit never enters into peoples' heads these days. Once normies get red pilled they become more pleasant to deal with and it's also pretty funny seeing them wake up to everything going on around them.
I live in a blue city in a red state, and several of the people I do a lot of nonprofit work with are like that.
Basically comes down to what you said, I dislike their beliefs but like them well enough as people. I keep my power level to myself though because once an issue comes up (like a recent school shooting we had here) they just full NPC out, no thought process of their own.
I have gotten through to maybe 1-2 of them on occasion and you can see the gears turning, but it's hard fought and generally not worth it.
I take the opinion that the psycho, anti-social lefties you see are a minority, similar to extreme Right-wingers. They're generally amicable and politics doesn't take up an exorbitant amount of space in their head. However, they'll adopt certain terms and phrases from the fringe. In addition, they'll get very political if they're given an "activation trigger" (for example, anti-Orthodoxy being spread or discovered in their spaces/ hobbies).
Leftists at work are just like internet leftists. You are better not interacting with them or you will eventually get to HR.
However, after several rants from me they still include me in outings and even vacations and we no longer engage in politics.
I've also seen them move to the right on immigration and identity politics but they will always vote left because the right is the absolute evil and for dumb, poor people.
I promise you they exist. A coworker (young white overweight woman in Toronto) very recently tried to convince me that you can be a man and not male at the same time.
That's some serious funk, because I don't think even trannies will say they are a sex and a gender that differ from each other. At worst they'll say they're a pre-op.
From my personal experience (mostly work related) the ratio of batshit crazy maniacs to well-meaning, mislead sheep has radically shifted. In the past you had a core of fanatics (maybe a dozen tops) surrounded by hundreds of "normies". These days it's closer to 50/50 or 60/40 and the moderates quickly bleed away when they realize what is going on.
Things have heated up considerably.
The vast majority of anyone I've met tend to be sweet and wonderful. I might catch them on a.bad day or two, but things work out quickly. Heck, I got yelled at by a security guard because we were both tired the other night. I know we will patch it up quickly when awake and sober.
That's what scares me so much about the fractionous group that destroyed Seattle. Most folks were nice, but the people controlling the narrative didn't want that. They wanted war, and pushed terrible things when we were scared. This small amount has so many controlled and twisted good friends told me they wouldn't protect me when the rioters came.
There were so many obvious plants, and things paid for. Chas had 'inspirational' black people visit at the same time, and artwork that cost thousands to make appear.
Seattle itself had great people, but some small group didn't want that, and destroyed a place I love.
As others have said, they tend to be timid individually but emboldened in groups, although that's hardly unique.
What does strike me, though, is that often times I can't quite tell whether the escalated hostility is on account of them being legitimately emboldened by numbers, or whether it's actually a fear response. People are often like that under dictatorships, their hostility towards wrongthink is as much a way to placate their fellow "comrades" as it is a sincere expression of ideological zeal.
Divide and concur. Ruling through lowest common denominator by abstracting reality and the structure of society. You must talk to people in order to help fix this.
(Yes, I am crawling up my own ass, and yes I have been drinking.)