Chris Bray on the widespread phenomenon of progressives who “can’t even” their way out of political discussions that don’t confirm their priors:
In a long thread on his many discussions over the last year with Trump and Harris supporters, a Daily Wire editor drops this contrast down in the middle:
I live in a deep blue zone, and I have these vibes-and-racism conversations several times a week. I learned today, face-to-face, that Donald Trump hates everyone who isn’t white. I mean, he despises them. All of them. These conversations go like this:
A: Trump is SUCH a fucking racist, man, he hates everyone who isn’t white, how can you even support someone like that?
B: Why is he racist?
A: Are you being serious right now? C’mon, man!
B: No, but why is he racist?
A: I can’t believe you’re defending him!
B: Okay, look: Donald Trump has already been the president for four years. What would you say were the top three racist policies he implemented?
A: You know what, I’m done with this discussion.
B: I’d settle for one really good one. What big racist policy did he implement?
A: I can’t even talk to you about this stuff — you’re so irrational!
Over and over and over and over again, these conversations hit the “I can’t even talk to you about this stuff” moment, the hard shutdown.
- What evidence can you offer for that view?
- [cognitive program shuts down]
Certain trigger terms warn you that the shutdown is moments away: conspiracy theory, disinformation, “what are you even talking about?” This personal observation about social interaction applies equally well to CNN panel discussions, by the way.
I’ve written before that I had a conversation just after the 2016 election in which I was asked how I could support someone who was going to put my own friends and family in the camps, man, he’s gonna put us in the fucking camps!
Eight years later, and after four years of a Trump presidency in which no one went to the camps, Trump can’t be allowed to return to the White House because, guess what, he’ll send us all to the camps:
I had pretty much this same conversation with my brother just recently. The response I get from him, and others, is that I’m just reading people who tell me what I think I want to hear, but they, on the other had, know what’s going on. This from folks who take all their news and opinions straight from the telescreen, and do not read blogs, or substacks, or listen to the radio: “You’re just reading propaganda. How can I be wrong when everyone on television agrees with me?”
Frighteneing age and time we’re living in.
JWM
Comment by jwm — November 1, 2024 @ 09:35
It was notable when more people watched/listened/read the mainstream media you’d still get partisan divisions … I mean Fox kept that “loyal opposition” thing going for years before anyone noticed that it wasn’t all that different from what the other legacy outlets were pushing (having slowly purged all those inconvenient conservative and libertarian-leaning types). The blogosphere back in its heyday was such a refreshing change from the mainstream, but its heyday was twenty years ago now. Dissident voices are now on social media and other places where they haven’t been mass hammer-banned yet. But non-political normies are still likely to get “the news” from the legacy outlets.
Comment by Nicholas — November 1, 2024 @ 16:25