this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2023
374 points (95.4% liked)

politics

19089 readers
3850 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I agree with the sentiment, but the ones that have fallen down the rabbit hole are virtually impossible to reach. I had someone I knew go that way. We previously had excellent political discussions and pushed each other to examine our biases, but now he drunkenly rambles about the evil libs online.

Meanwhile those unreachable people are feeling more and more persecuted and their beliefs (which are already based on fear) confirmed. Maybe they keep their heads in the sand and "trust the plan," but when they realize the storm is never coming, they may resort to violence.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I definitely agree with what you're saying. Some people are too far gone that no amount of facts and logic will persuade them. Innuendo Studios put out an excellent suite of videos on how the alt right is like an abusive relationship and a cult. I won't waste your time reiterating his points.

I do have a friend, let's call him Greg, who is ultra religious and genuinely believes that he needs a carrying permit for his firearm because there's no way to tell who has a gun willing to put him and his family in harms way. He also believes a lot of the talking points that you would expect about abortion, LGBTQ rights, etc. Whenever I debate Greg, he backs up his claims with how he feels and the superfluous fact that erases some pretty important context. He has no idea he's being misled on issues specifically designed to polarize us. Greg also believes that white people are the most discriminated against in today's world, and trans people "are coming". He's very fearful of his fellow man for someone who's supposed to love his neighbor, but as his friend of almost 10 years, I know he would never hurt a fly.

With the exception to abortion, he's been slowly outgrowing this culture of fear and is adopting more middle of the road stances. I'm not sure how he snapped out of the fear-mongering, but I'm just glad he did.

There's always hope.