Out of office but still batshit crazy and a powerful influence in the Republican Party.
I have had multiple discussions with Trump-supporting workers. One of them I know personally. He’s a very nice guy to meet in person, and we had several long political discussions. Others I’ve tried discussing with online. (These are workers, not rich snobs.) But for all of them, their method is to evade, make general claims and refuse to back it up, and say things that are outright untrue. Several of them claim that they don’t even like Trump and criticize him constantly to their friends. But yet they voted for him twice and in effect defend his policies. I’ve concluded that it’s fruitless trying to talk with them. Here’s a very clear example of their method:
Recently, two of them told me that CNN was saying that Kyle Rittenhouse is a white supremacist. Among other news sources I watch CNN quite a bit. I told them that, and asked them where they’d seen CNN say that, or was it just something they had heard. The first person tried to ignore my question and, when I persisted, he first responded with a bunch of religious garbage and then when publicly challenged said that he didn’t have the time to go through all CNN to find it again. The second guy simply refused to even acknowledge the question.
I got curious, so I decided to do a little research myself. I did a google search “Did CNN call Rittenhouse white supremacist”. The only things I could find was first an interview with Biden during the election campaign where he raised that as a possibility. Strike one.
Then I came across this report of a Sean Hannity interview with Alan Dershowitz (defense lawyer for Trump during his first impeachment trial) in which Dershowitz implied that CNN had said that. I would be willing to bet anything that that’s the basis of these Trumpsters’ claim. That’s okay. We all make mistakes, but if they were honest they would have said something like: “Well, come to think of it, you have a point there. No, I didn’t actually hear it on CNN; I just saw that claim on a Sean Hannity interview. Thanks for correcting me.”
Of course, if they do admit to that their whole facade would begin to crumble because it’s all based on this sort of misinformation. That’s why, once the are challenged on such fairy tales, they have to add to it.
So they have to lie, evade, mislead and avoid. There is no way to have a serious discussion with such types. The only thing that will change them is a working class movement in the streets.