To begin, I want to be up-front in that I do not hide my political beliefs from anyone, if anything just the opposite. But I do not try to force my views on anyone, and am happy to discuss any topic with those with whom I disagree; sadly, for the most part these people are completely unwilling to have a discussion. I am proud to have voted for President Trump, and have made and continue to make my views known on various social media. This has had the effect of showing me a lot about many people who, previous to outing myself politically, I considered to be friends.
I am sorry to say that I recognize the letter writer you referenced in quite a few people who I know, including family members. I have been "cancelled" by almost the entirety of my wife's side of our family, all of whom are what they would consider "good Democrats". Meaning that they vote Democrat regardless of anything other than the party of the candidate. Numerous friends of many years have put our relationship on hold or outright told me that they just don't want to be friends any longer. I suppose that finding out their true character should be a relief; but in some cases it hurts to discover how badly I misjudged both them and the nature of our friendship.
So what is it going to take to turn things around? I sure wish I knew! If you have read The Fourth Turning you understand that we are at a critical turning point in the future of our country, and the final result is still up for grabs and may be for another 5+ years. As long as TDS runs rampant, and the extremely Left-leaning media continue to spread lies, it's going to be a long and unpleasant slog until Reality forces its way into the heads of those who have currently placed their heads firmly and deeply into the sand (or a particular bodily orifice) where they are doing their best to ignore and/or forget about the past 4+ years, and how close our country came to turning into an authoritarian state. The "never Trumpers" are going to scream about the terrible things that Trump is doing to our "Democracy", not understanding that the real reason that their leaders are so upset is because Trump is cutting off their ability to steal at will
from the American people, and without that theft the Democrat Party has no chance of
surviving. Desperate people will do desperate things. We need to stay strong and hold things together regardless of what I predict will be the increasing societal insanity created by the
I hear you. Just last week, I yielded to a threat from a long, long, long time friend who said, "I'm angry about what you're writing on your Substack, and if you write about trans issues, our friendship will be over." It's not the first time she's blown up over my writing, published out in the world on my various platforms, insisting that I reshape my thoughts to conform to her own worldview or otherwise keep my mouth shut. I decided I was done being dictated to, yelled at and threatened out of the blue - when I hadn't said anything other than "Hi, how's your day going?"
The next day, I dropped by another long, long, long time friend's house, because she hadn't gotten back to me for a couple months (this is actually somewhat standard and not entirely unusual) and I was authentically worried about her - was she sick, depressed, were her kids okay, or was something overwhelming her in her life?
Turns out, she was avoiding me because she doesn't just distrust and fear President Trump, but she distrusts anyone who voted for him. As in, me.
The great irony is that we rarely discuss "politics" and anyone who ever says they don't want to discuss "politics" gets my 100% cooperation.
But, in this case, she was watching my Facebook Feed, decided to avoid me, then when I dropped by to see how she was, she brought UP politics and then got mad at me when I respectfully, carefully, and with kid gloves answered questions SHE was asking.
It's tremendously sad for me, because I can see how these two women are deeply vulnerable to narratives that prey upon fearful and soft hearts, directly harming targeted victims while turning them into warriors of a "narrative army."
Most sad is that neither of these women seems to feel happy or safe. They're hyped up on natural anxiety drugs, stimulated by an endless stream of media that, in my opinion, intentionally causes anxiety and other forms of mental, emotional and physical illness.
And I'm not insulting them. They're smart women. But still, vulnerable. Meanwhile, my social media feed is filled with vitriol, hate, sneering, insults, inflammatory freak outs, and worse...making me feel actively unsafe knowing the mental state of the people who live around me.
I'm also already "out of the closet" and so, I speak up publicly and then the bullies on the playground take turns taking cheap shots at me, rapidly devolving into vulgarity and excessive expressions of hostility. To which, I maintain civility. It's amazing and disturbing to witness, all at the same time.
Someone recently accused me of coming across as "higher than thou," even though he said he generally tended to agree with me. I didn't disagree. I did say that was unfortunate, but given the "lows" to which so many people were going to of late, I imagine my mere use of non-gratuitous language, full sentences, punctuation, and clearly expressed ideas, presented with respect and decency, probably does come across as "higher than thou" by comparison.
Mental illness, whether caused by physical war, endless propaganda, drugs, or actual illness is not to be taken casually. This is what results in random or targeted violence, such as cross burnings, school shootings and "going postal."
Meanwhile, all I'm doing is "speaking respectfully" as I express Red Pilled opinions shared by tens of millions of Americans...in a Dark Blue Bottle environment.
As you say, "Desperate people will do desperate things." I agree, "We need to stay strong and hold things together regardless of what [you] predict will be the increasing societal insanity created by the panic." Yes, indeed.
Kudos to that man for writing the letter, and to you for sharing and engaging with him. Unfortunately, I doubt he will change any of his opinions. He gave away his extreme emotional need to believe everything he said with his last sentence. I have concluded that, due to 8 to 10 years of Trump derangement syndrome, It’s gonna take a long time to undo the brainwashing. I gotta say, I know a lot of Trump voters and I have been one. But I don’t know anyone who is this extreme MAGA monster that was created I believe in the media. A lot of us were not happy when it looked like Trump would get the nomination this last time. I was seriously considering RFK Jr for my vote for a long time. What is it gonna take for these extreme Democrats to quit reflexively believing in and supporting everything they hear and say from their party and the mainstream media? I sure as heck don’t believe much that Republican leaders say And won’t give that party any money. I think they’re pretty much as corrupt as the Democrats.
To begin, I want to be up-front in that I do not hide my political beliefs from anyone, if anything just the opposite. But I do not try to force my views on anyone, and am happy to discuss any topic with those with whom I disagree; sadly, for the most part these people are completely unwilling to have a discussion. I am proud to have voted for President Trump, and have made and continue to make my views known on various social media. This has had the effect of showing me a lot about many people who, previous to outing myself politically, I considered to be friends.
I am sorry to say that I recognize the letter writer you referenced in quite a few people who I know, including family members. I have been "cancelled" by almost the entirety of my wife's side of our family, all of whom are what they would consider "good Democrats". Meaning that they vote Democrat regardless of anything other than the party of the candidate. Numerous friends of many years have put our relationship on hold or outright told me that they just don't want to be friends any longer. I suppose that finding out their true character should be a relief; but in some cases it hurts to discover how badly I misjudged both them and the nature of our friendship.
So what is it going to take to turn things around? I sure wish I knew! If you have read The Fourth Turning you understand that we are at a critical turning point in the future of our country, and the final result is still up for grabs and may be for another 5+ years. As long as TDS runs rampant, and the extremely Left-leaning media continue to spread lies, it's going to be a long and unpleasant slog until Reality forces its way into the heads of those who have currently placed their heads firmly and deeply into the sand (or a particular bodily orifice) where they are doing their best to ignore and/or forget about the past 4+ years, and how close our country came to turning into an authoritarian state. The "never Trumpers" are going to scream about the terrible things that Trump is doing to our "Democracy", not understanding that the real reason that their leaders are so upset is because Trump is cutting off their ability to steal at will
from the American people, and without that theft the Democrat Party has no chance of
surviving. Desperate people will do desperate things. We need to stay strong and hold things together regardless of what I predict will be the increasing societal insanity created by the
panic of the Left.
I hear you. Just last week, I yielded to a threat from a long, long, long time friend who said, "I'm angry about what you're writing on your Substack, and if you write about trans issues, our friendship will be over." It's not the first time she's blown up over my writing, published out in the world on my various platforms, insisting that I reshape my thoughts to conform to her own worldview or otherwise keep my mouth shut. I decided I was done being dictated to, yelled at and threatened out of the blue - when I hadn't said anything other than "Hi, how's your day going?"
The next day, I dropped by another long, long, long time friend's house, because she hadn't gotten back to me for a couple months (this is actually somewhat standard and not entirely unusual) and I was authentically worried about her - was she sick, depressed, were her kids okay, or was something overwhelming her in her life?
Turns out, she was avoiding me because she doesn't just distrust and fear President Trump, but she distrusts anyone who voted for him. As in, me.
The great irony is that we rarely discuss "politics" and anyone who ever says they don't want to discuss "politics" gets my 100% cooperation.
But, in this case, she was watching my Facebook Feed, decided to avoid me, then when I dropped by to see how she was, she brought UP politics and then got mad at me when I respectfully, carefully, and with kid gloves answered questions SHE was asking.
It's tremendously sad for me, because I can see how these two women are deeply vulnerable to narratives that prey upon fearful and soft hearts, directly harming targeted victims while turning them into warriors of a "narrative army."
Most sad is that neither of these women seems to feel happy or safe. They're hyped up on natural anxiety drugs, stimulated by an endless stream of media that, in my opinion, intentionally causes anxiety and other forms of mental, emotional and physical illness.
And I'm not insulting them. They're smart women. But still, vulnerable. Meanwhile, my social media feed is filled with vitriol, hate, sneering, insults, inflammatory freak outs, and worse...making me feel actively unsafe knowing the mental state of the people who live around me.
I'm also already "out of the closet" and so, I speak up publicly and then the bullies on the playground take turns taking cheap shots at me, rapidly devolving into vulgarity and excessive expressions of hostility. To which, I maintain civility. It's amazing and disturbing to witness, all at the same time.
Someone recently accused me of coming across as "higher than thou," even though he said he generally tended to agree with me. I didn't disagree. I did say that was unfortunate, but given the "lows" to which so many people were going to of late, I imagine my mere use of non-gratuitous language, full sentences, punctuation, and clearly expressed ideas, presented with respect and decency, probably does come across as "higher than thou" by comparison.
Mental illness, whether caused by physical war, endless propaganda, drugs, or actual illness is not to be taken casually. This is what results in random or targeted violence, such as cross burnings, school shootings and "going postal."
Meanwhile, all I'm doing is "speaking respectfully" as I express Red Pilled opinions shared by tens of millions of Americans...in a Dark Blue Bottle environment.
As you say, "Desperate people will do desperate things." I agree, "We need to stay strong and hold things together regardless of what [you] predict will be the increasing societal insanity created by the panic." Yes, indeed.
Kudos to that man for writing the letter, and to you for sharing and engaging with him. Unfortunately, I doubt he will change any of his opinions. He gave away his extreme emotional need to believe everything he said with his last sentence. I have concluded that, due to 8 to 10 years of Trump derangement syndrome, It’s gonna take a long time to undo the brainwashing. I gotta say, I know a lot of Trump voters and I have been one. But I don’t know anyone who is this extreme MAGA monster that was created I believe in the media. A lot of us were not happy when it looked like Trump would get the nomination this last time. I was seriously considering RFK Jr for my vote for a long time. What is it gonna take for these extreme Democrats to quit reflexively believing in and supporting everything they hear and say from their party and the mainstream media? I sure as heck don’t believe much that Republican leaders say And won’t give that party any money. I think they’re pretty much as corrupt as the Democrats.