This weekend, I’m going to see some old friends, a couple of which have been engulfed into the propaganda and alternate reality of the current administration. “I’m not an independent, but I voted for Trump. What? No, I’ve never voted Democrat.”
Yes, I have little tolerance for these people, and I do my best to avoid them at most opportunities. They discourage and me drain my happiness. Be that as it may, I’m going to see them because we go way back and sadly they’re great people otherwise. But we’re gonna get drunk, and one or both of them will bring up dumb shit because I’m outnumbered and they can’t help themselves.
I’d like to go into this prepared for what they’re going to parrot from Fox or the blond bimbo talking heads or other charlatans, and I refuse to watch or read that garbage myself. Perhaps the fine folks here know people like this as well, and have heard all of the current tropes they’re reciting. You would be saving me a lot of headache.
Thought and/or encouragement are appreciated.
They’re going to talk about all the criminals that have been deported and ignore or minimize those who have been wrongly swept up with no due process. Expect lots of “gotta break some eggs to make an omelette” style rationalization. Lots of myopic focusing on the cost of eggs or gas, probably some “trust the process” hand waving about the chaos of the tariff debacle. Probably some culture war nonsense sprinkled in.
It’s seems like the current argument is that state rights matter less than federal rights, there should be no accountability, and tax money shouldn’t be spent to benefit the people who are paying it
If they at least pretend to be Christians you can always quote passages from the Bible (aka “liberal talking points”) that condemn their ideology. Really good chance they’ll scowl and stare at their shoes. You might even see just the smallest twinge of guilt before they shake it off and go back to parroting the latest OAN headline.
But, you’ll have so much ammo you can just keep at it all day if you want to. Not that it will change any of their minds. It probably won’t.
I have no hope of changing their worldview, but if they come at me with their cable news bullshit I’d like to be ready. Last year it was “migrant caravans” and egg prices, both obviously Biden’s fault.
They really are providing so much fodder for arguments against them. Maybe eventually they’ll stop standing behind the cross and own up to just being fascists. Because i cannot understand how they could justify any of this in Jesus name.
I can’t really help except by giving you sympathy.
What I would do is check the https://piefed.social/ toolbox.
It is not an add for piefed in any case, but if you go there with a computer browser (for screen size ratio), on the lower right corner there is an “anti-something toolbox” with useful links about various subjects and ways to handle those conversations. If you refresh the page the toolbox will refresh as well.
EDIT: It seems to have disappeared, I don’t know why, sorry.
Do you have a screenshot of where to find this, I couldnt see it
I’m on my phone at the moment so I don’t see it either.
I’ll try from a computer in less than an hour, or maybe @[email protected] @[email protected] have that link.
I didn’t find it in piefed.social
But you can see it there https://feddit.online/ Here is the toolbox @[email protected]
Ah thank you!
Here the full list of links : https://codeberg.org/rimu/pyfedi/src/branch/main/app/inoculation.py
Cheers
Well, I don’t see it anymore either, it seems to have been removed or something?
I don’t know exactly sorry. The main dev is in the ping above so maybe he’ll get back with the link.
If they are religious at all they might talk about the papacy
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/28/maga-catholics-vatican-pope-conclave
Have fun with that
Oh god they’re both Catholic. At least the Catholic Church is an easy target.
They’re big on “Francis didn’t do enough to root out pedophiles”. I would agree, he didn’t. But he did much more than the Nazi pope before him. This is the new world though, Benedict was the ancient past. This is all Francis’s fault. Plus he was a Commie/LGBTQ plant who turned all the frogs gay
To anyone that asks that question- just ask which Pope was doing enough to root out pedophiles? Because over the past ~2000 years, I’m pretty sure none of them have. Because they don’t see it as a problem, it’s just part of “the culture.” Like how certain Muslim populations have sex with underage children, and claim it’s not pedophilic. Or how certain Protestant groups see no issue with someone in their 20s “courting” (read: dating) someone that is 14. Religion is cancer.
A commie/LGBTQ plant divinely chosen by God himself to be his vessel to humanity….🤔
If he goes against your agenda he is obviously a false pope
“Do I have to talk about the false pope?”
Holly fucking shit those people 🤦🏻
They’re pretty nuts. Saying something like that is heretical if you’re Catholic. The Pope is gods messenger on earth.
I would really be entertained if you could ask your friends what they thought of yesterday’s executive order that will require the military to assist law enforcement. Seems like a real canary in the coal-mine kind of question.
Do you want conservative, right-wing, MAGA, or mainline Republican? Shit is crazy fragmented right now. The GOP has shown it has no place for conservatives, only reactionaries or bootlickers. Even hard-line religious rightwingers are feeling the shove right now. I was never a Republican but I used to be able to vote for them occasionally. Nowadays the only party putting forth conservative candidates are the Democrats.
So, uh, I guess you could talk about that.
Just go read fox news, since that’s where most people are getting it from. No point in filtering your info through someone else.
Absolutely not gonna waste my time and energy reading that garbage. All it will do is piss me off and weep for humanity more than I do. I refuse to give them eyeballs.
i have some friends like this. we regularly disagree on things, and that is okay. they dont want to change their worldview just as much as you dont want to change yours.
“i disagree” is a complete thought - there is never a necessity to explain why you dont have the hatred they do.
