This question’s on my mind because my coworker today mentioned they would vote for Trump if they could (mind you this is 2023, in Canada). I don’t generally have the talking points or the desire to fight about it, so I just deflected the conversation. But I often wish I was more strong-willed and could try to figure out why someone believes what they do and, if it’s invalid, then convince them otherwise.
Thus, I’m curious what you all would say or what you’ve done in the past!
Think about what you just said in response to my story. You’re so ready to tar and feather that you’re willing to tell me that somehow you know the true intent of my sister better than her own brother.
In this cartoon of a world you live in, I hope someday you find room for nuance.
There’s no need for tar and feathers, but it’s good to know that’s how you see anyone who disagrees.
The thought that we know someone better-especially someone we love- often clouds our judgement of them. We want them to be good people so we gloss over the terrible parts. That’s ok, you keep defending your sister and the rest of us will keep knowing better, no tar and feathers necessary.
There’s no nuance when it comes to Trump though.
You are simply wrong on all points here, with the exception of emotional clouding. There may be emotional clouding going on here, but it’s not with me and my sister. It’s with the left and Trump. It’s causing people like you to speak with insane antisocial rhetoric, and it’s what’s driving people further apart.
So you can play the part of the stuck-up bitch, or you can open up to people and their complex lives and beliefs, and see that things aren’t as simple as you are trying to make them out to be.
While I’m not orthodox, I’m well into the left wing of politics, and even I can see that Trump isn’t all bad. Few people that ever lived are all bad.
I would argue that the problem is the blindness to the hatred. Just because someone did a good thing once doesn’t mean they are a good person. People can be all bad and still do good things- like Trump. When the root of everything you try to accomplish is taking away from others then you are all bad,no matter how many good things you make your disguise out of.
That’s not stuck up- that’s reality.
Generally speaking people are a mix of bad and good- people who so wholeheartedly support Trump are not those people, sorry. You cannot base your beliefs on hatred and taking away rights and then use the same breath to say that you are also a good person, the grey area isn’t that deep. You cannot vote for the suffering of people and then say that you are a good person too.
But that’s exactly it, from another person’s perspective he’s not taking away anything, he’s giving. This is what I’m trying to highlight here and all I’m getting are squawks about Trump is bad, my sister is bad. To some people Trump is restoring a desecrated country. They grew up their whole lives with a certain world view of good and evil, it’s not their fault religion twisted their minds, this is the nuance I’m pleading you to take notice but all you can give me are limp platitudes that most people are good and bad, but Trump and his supporters are bad bad. Not very enlightening, because it doesn’t say much about the real life people we’re discussing.
Those people are not evil, though they may be doing evil. Just as you said, which means I expect you to acknowledge this point, “just because someone does good it does not make them good” works the other way around: just because someone does evil does not make them evil. This is why we need to find inroads with this group to create a space that can be shared peacefully by everyone. Calling them all bad and shutting down any effort to discuss only results in something even more horrifying, and frankly, evil: war.