Today especially has been pretty brutal. I see my dad for the first time in months and he dominates the conversation about his vitriolic hatred of Trump and anyone who supports him, calling them idiots. My girlfriend is sweet and nice but even knowing how I lean she can't help but say that she wants to go rip up Trump signs in front of people's houses and kill "transphobes". I've tried to curate my Twitter to be exclusively about my favorite game and content creators, but even after muting about two dozen political words and phrases it's just a bloody shouting match. It feels like the only time I'm not walking in a minefield is when I'm talking to a subsection of a group of friends who just like playing games. I went to cognitive behavioral therapy a few weeks ago, and it was really helpful, but even the positive thinking strategies that were effective just a few days ago aren't helping anymore. I don't feel suicidal, but I don't feel like living anymore. The two options of where I can live in the near future is chock full of people who have an open disdain/hatred for my thinking. Am I such a wretched human being for thinking that Trump's policies would be more economically sound and fair than Biden's? I apologize if this isn't the place to rant like this but how do I get past something like this?
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Leave the girl.
I second this wholeheartedly.
You cannot trust a girl who complains about sjw bullshit like transphobia and wants to rip up Trump signs and kill people who disagree with her beliefs.
She is dangerous.
You don't want to give her the opportunity to destroy your life.
We live in the age where a single false allegation with no proof is enough to ruin you in the court of public opinion.
A sjw girl will likely fuck you over differences in political opinions.
I sincerely recommend that you stop dating this girl.
Don't gamble your whole life on this girl being a decent person.
If you're cunning enough, you could try and convert them without them ever catching on to you. I tried doing this in college, though I had little success. It did help me identify kindred spirits though who were hiding among the student body. Keeping their views secret from the ever-watchful Woke Inquisition.
I have to second this.. My ex was similar to this and the constant debates will lead her to thinking & respecting you as a lessor person. While she had serious issues that ripped the relationship apart this definitely was a factor and if you can’t trust her to have your back when the chips are down than it’s doomed to fail
I hear you, that’s like, two thirds of my friends and family, all they do is talk about how much they hate Trump and how he’s the most evil, violent, repressive President in American history. And if I ask for evidence or push back in any way they tell me I’m the one that’s been brainwashed. Never mind that these are people who watch hours of cable news propaganda every single day of their lives. A shallow, superficial interest in politics has become a replacement for sports for a lot of these people.
That's rather insightful. I'm going to use that.
It's not a replacement for sports.
It's a replacement for religion.
This...
It's like something in the human psyche NEEDS a dogmatic belief, if it's not religion then people WILL fill it with something else.
The pandemic has proved that. People desperately sought out science priests to teach them the magic ritual for warding off the kung flu.
Consider getting off twitter. Most of the information you get from there can be found in other places. It's an absolute shithole with very few, if any, redeeming qualities.
Consider dumping your girlfriend. I know that sounds harsh but if she is already radicalized enough that she is ok with violence against people who don't think like her I would wonder about her other qualities. I won't go full TheImpossible1 but if she knows how you lean and still brings stuff like that up, man, you are in for a ride.
Family is tough. I personally feel it's important to maintain relationships with family, regardless of their opinions, unless they have done something truly heinous. That's your call.
Don't take the easy way out, bro. We need people like you around. There are more people who share your opinions than you may think.
You are not alone.
Always be suspicious of everything around you, but NEVER go full TheImpossible1.
Heyyyyy...
I've become a meme
Society will be FURTHER and EVEN MORE divided in the years to come.
You have to accept that to live.
Focus on what you like and what your hobbies are and learn to cut out toxic people who keep bringing you down.
I lost many friends over the 2016 election over my support of Trump but it is OK. I am still better for it.
There is no point in trying to be friends with people who hate you over your political views.
Don't waste time trying to appease people who despise your views.
Learn to lose contact with people you actually care about.
I already have accepted that painful fact.
For a long time I was even willing to be friends with people who I thought hated me. It wasn't until WuFlu and the race riots where they simultaneously thought all cops were bastards and cops should arrest people for going to the beach where I no longer respected them as people and decided I couldn't be friends with people I didn't respect.
On the plus side, I respect my next-door neighbors a lot more since we seem to agree on socio-political matters. And I consider that a lot more important than agreeing with friends who live a few towns over.
This is one of those problems where your options are simple but not easy:
Personally I've been going with #4 since my preferred options of #2 and #3 has proved untenable. And life is too short to worry that every social altercation with people with whom you are supposed to have some understanding of mutual aid and comfort will turn into a prolonged argument.
The failure of the 3rd should naturally lead to the 2nd. I have family members who I've made bets with and won, just to highlight their TDS. They paid up, yet still go on believing lies, so I simply never mention politics around them, it's simply not worth it.
In my experience, #2 (which always comes along with a little bit of #1) brands you as the closet bigot because merely not attacking [insert bad person here] means you're secretly in full support of them.
#3 will never work (you're not a billion dollar global propaganda machine).
#4 is not worth it. It's your life and these people are all you have. You being socially isolated is what the far left wants, don't give them that.
So you're left with #2 while gritting your teeth any time people feel like letting off some steam (#1). Try to surround yourself with people who are not insane. At least for the people that you do get to choose, like your significant other or your roommate. For people like your immediate family, understand that propaganda is very powerful. Try to remember them as the good people that they (hopefully) are. Try to engage in conversation about things that are socially meaningful but not incredibly political, you'll probably find that you agree with them more than you think.
Family is different: blood is thicker than water; and fortunately my family's politics more closely match my own than most of my friends. And if it weren't my threshold for tolerating them is higher.
I used to try #2 and this place was my outlet for when they often decided to not honor my requests. Eventually I just got tired of trying to keep the friendships that seemed to be more trouble than they were worth. My next door neighbors are sane though I wouldn't consider them "friends", and I think that's more important.
leave the chick, have a man to man with your dad.
Or, from the sound of things, a man-to-bitch.
You are living with a personification of negativity and hate, and you wonder why "positive thinking strategies" don't work for long?
You aren't wretched, but you aren't acting in your own best interests. No amount of politics will change that. Get your own home settled and happy as Priority #1.
Well, first thing, there's quite deliberately very few places to discuss this. The people who run media companies want you to feel alone, isolated and powerless because then you'll let them assist in the massive election fraud that's due to happen to your county in November.
Second, it's disappointing that your dad is taking such a hard line on things. Give him time, if Trump wins again he might just have a moment of reflection.
Regarding your girlfriend ... that's a tough one. Obviously being online strips all context, but ask yourself what future you see with your girlfriend. I don't know what you want, but can you picture yourself there with your girlfriend? Is she likely to place her ideology above your relationship?
Dump Jack Dorsey. Dump your girlfriend. Tell your father what an idiot he is.
This is the shit that always happens when politics gets serious, and major political bullshit/change is in the wind. That politician Jesus didn't tell his followers to tear their families apart, they were warning them that this would happen if they followed him in rebelling against the Romans and their Quislings. It's a sign that civil war is coming, and coming hard. Think of the (first) American Civil War, and such.
As for your girlfriend and dad, try to stealth red-pill them. If you can't, well, cut out everyone like them you can, get the hell off of Twitter, find something better for your gaming discussion (official forums? Reddit seemed OK for gaming talk, but I guess astroturfing has been taking over hard.) Basically, turtle yourself. At least until you can breathe a bit of confidence back into yourself.
All this crap might actually bring back the idea of starting private local clubs with local people that meet in person and have initiation rites to filter new members with .... but oh for that chinese pneumonia ... and oh, the whines for "inclusiveness" (ie, "we hate you but we want the absolute right to join ...")
You're surrounded by lefties. Leave them behind
Be honest with your father, make it clear where you stand on all of this. As long as you've not done anything wrong family will always accept you even if they disagree with you, that is what family does. Have a bit of faith in your father, if you turned out fine there is a good chance he is ok as well, and do not underestimate family connections they're stronger and more important to us then the left thinks.
Yeah. Give it time though - the initial response might not be great. Try to keep your cool as best as possible, don't get bogged down arguing about it, make it clear this shit has to stop or they're going to be seeing considerably less of you. Your dad might act tough at first but if he loves you then it'll sink in. After he's ready to reach out and ask you "why", you just need to keep explaining and showing that you aren't some extremist. Just don't expect that to happen the first time you bring it up.
If you can get them to the point where they're willing to listen, I suggest sharing some good episodes of Joe Rogan, like the one with James Lindsay recently. Long form content like that where it's just two guys talking and explaining how this shit works can be very persuasive.
Have you considered joining the military? particularly the Marine Corps?
Even before the Left-wing craziness that envelops the country today, I had to deal with a lot of shit being a Bush supporter. It was similar to now where the media basically just shat on him 24/7 and society just demonized anyone who supported him. Not as extreme as now, but similar.
So I decided to put my money where my mouth was and enlisted. Since I supported a President that got us into a war. It was only fair I fight in that war.
Turns out the Marine Corps is based as fuck, and around 2014-2015 when there were talks of Trump running for President until I got out in 2017. It was basically one massive MAGA rally.
Once I was out, dealing with the negativity was pretty easy. I was so much more mentally resilient from the Marine Corps that it's just funny watching people rage at you for expressing your opinion. Especially knowing too that if they decided to swing at you, you could probably demolish them with ease.
I respect our veterans and I sincerely thank you for your service to our nation.
However, sadly the wars that America fights these days are not to protect our nation's interests.
Why should anyone of us risk fighting unnecessary wars in the Middle East for Israel's benefit?
The Military Industrial Complex is who benefits from our soldiers fighting these wars.
I love our veterans and the enlisted who sign up to fight but I feel they are being exploited by corrupt generals and the MIC.
See here's the thing, the military is a job. If you're gonna take a job for ideological reasons then that's on you. But the biggest reason for me joining was financial, in addition to me wanting to own up to my beliefs.
Realistically, I wasn't in danger all that often. In all the years I was in. The times I was in real danger I could probably condense to a few days tops, probably even just hours really. The majority of my time in the military I spent mainly working out, playing video games, or cleaning. Training surprisingly takes up a pretty short amount of your time and deployments are just really long stretches of boredom and paranoia, with brief moments of chaos.
This was back in the early 2000s too when the war was in full swing. Now deployments even for infantry units are mainly booze cruises(MEU'S) across the Pacific, Mediterranean/Red Sea or a Black Sea rotation. If you're really unlucky you get sent on a UDP to Okinawa and you basically pretend you're in Nam for 6 months. Shit sucks.
But overall, the military was a great gig especially if you come from a poorer background. You get money for college and other life long skills and benefits. You form lifelong friendships that transcend even familial relationships. Yes, obviously there's the risk of dying or getting injured. But you know that going in, so if you're willing to risk it for the biscuit. Then it's not a bad deal. This is also assuming you're even a combat arms MOS, to begin with. I went infantry so this applied to me. The vast majority of the military never sees combat, heck a lot of people never even leave the US, to begin with. To those guys, it's basically a civilian job in uniform. They get the same exact pay and benefits as we grunts did, minus the combat pay now though. That one I think changed under Obama, if you're not actually in combat, you don't get that extra pay bump.
When it was all said and done and I got out. I got my GI Bill and free healthcare from the VA(this VA is trash but at least I didn't have to worry about healthcare emergencies) & preferential hiring due to my veteran status. The Post 911 GI Bill is straight-up unfairly good. If you're actually serious about your education, you can basically get to go to any university not only for free but actually, get paid for it. I had friends that ended up going to Berkely and other really prestigious state universities and in addition to their GI Bill benefits, were getting tens of thousands in state and federal education grants. I had a bunch of C's when I took some college courses prior to enlisting so I only got accepted to the lower tier state universities, so the state and federal grants I got were also peasant tier. I think a friend of mine who went to UCI was getting like $18k in grants annually while I only got $6k. But it was free and I got paid around $3k a month from my regular GI Bill just to be a student. So I didn't have to worry about student loans while I was getting my degree and had a pretty decent amount of drinking/party money.
But yeah, if you look at it from an ideological perspective. Then sure MIC or whatever might be a turn-off. But looking at it from a self-improvement and upward mobility opportunity standpoint. Hands down the best decision I made.
I am glad to hear that it worked out well for you personally!
I completely agree with you that it can be potentially good from a self-improvement and upward mobility opportunity standpoint.
What gets to me is that I have read too many stories of soldiers losing their lives in these wars or coming back severely wounded or coming back with PTSD.
I think that after reading Major General Smedley Butler's War is a Racket, my mind is set on only being pro-veteran and pro-enlisted but anti-war and definitely against the current generals and MIC who seek to create more and more war for their profit and to benefit Israel.
Honestly, I’m pretty sure I got my money’s worth from Israel. My last deployment we stopped by Israel for some urban warfare training. So we were there for several weeks. The USD to Sheckel(Shmeckles as we called it) was pretty good.
Also did you know their military is has a lot of women in it? Really attractive women. That we got to know pretty well. Honestly wouldn’t be surprised if I had some half goyim running around in Tel Aviv.
Join the woke corps (compete with females and SHART training) to get killed on the inevitable war that is coming?
I would advise against that. Find a hobby, travel if you can but dint sell yourself to the state. Not to mention the job prospects after are poor. Marines literally staff gas stations.
I was in an infantry unit so wokeness was next to non existent for me. Maybe in super POG fields like admin that’s a thing but I never saw it. Is SHART the no rape training in other branches? We called it SAPR and it was basically these hilarious videos of what would happen if you picked the messed up option in those dating sim games.
I mean if you’re stupid going in, you’re gonna be stupid coming out. So it’s not like those people wouldn’t have been anything different even without enlisting
Ghost her ass before she cucks you and implicates you in some criminal conspiracy.
Honestly, pretty much the main reason I don't use twitter. Even if I did, I would never bother to follow anyone I like to watch. I swear, I don't know how some people can be entertaining, yet somehow have the maturity of a middle schooler.
I'm in my mid 20s, and some of them are older than me. But it's like they don't think before they type and hit upload. At least speaking I can understand because it's mere millisecond from thoughts to words. But it takes time to type and then you have to take the time to press the button to actually publish those words.
In terms of the politics. I'm pretty much never one to bring it up with family. But I'm glad that if it's ever mentioned, it's not toxic at all. Like, no hate, no wanting to do dumb things. And I should also note that it's not one-sided. I do have family members that support Trump, myself included.
I hope that I don't sound like I'm pitying you or anyone with this going on. But it really does sadden me to hear the state of relationships because of these recent politics. I care deeply about the people close to me, so I really never want to take for granted how things are for me.
I've had this tried on me multiple times and I think it's bullshit. It all amounts to lying to yourself strongly enough and regularly enough to convince yourself of the lie. I refuse to even try it anymore.
I recommend the normal type of therapy where you just talk about whatever's on your mind and the therapist probes you for underlying meaning. Sure, you can end up with a therapist that leans on that Freud nonsense, but as long as they do their part well, it can be worth tolerating. A cleverly placed/timed "Why?" can do wonders.
It sounds like you could do with some help and support because the people close to you are positioned to shut you down when it suits them. I hope you can find it somewhere.
Another overused, but good advice - hit the gym. Look for exhausting high-intensity stuff, this will provide steady flow of endorphines and you wont have any energy while recovering to loop through your worries. If you did not have prior athletic experience, this will be excruciating, but doable, you just have to survive for 2 weeks at least. 3 days a week working out is absolute minimum, but please please start slow. Overall, it will greatly help to shift your mindset to improving your own body and mind, instead of worrying about things you cannot influence.
Take it a step further, pick up a martial art. People there tend to lean right wing in my experience, so you'll find more like-minded friends.
Relative just wonder how could a black woman support Trump after the debates "as they are lynching you people in the USA".
The mainstream media misrepresentation of reality really gives naïve people the impression the cops just murders people based on race. And that "white supremacists" are at every corner, and Antifa dinndu nothing.
Low-information people bought the lie that Kyle Rittenhouse, the heroic teen who shot White violent criminals in self-defense after getting chased and trying to retreat... is a "white supremacist who went out to hunt down Black people".
Try to explain how the MSM misrepresents everything to paint a false narrative and they shut down because they assume you are a "conspiracy theorist" at best, a "nazi" at worst.
Sometimes you can reason with them if you strictly correct the misinformation for one case and don't mention how the media always lies like that, but they still believe all the other lies and will believe the next. And also revert back to believing the specific false narrative you debunked after hearing it again 2 or 3 times on the news.