I am no longer angry at my brother who supports Trump.

[Louis1895]

I have a brother, a brother-in-law, and a sister-in-law who support Trump. There are other relatives who do as well.

I can no longer be angry with them.

I have embraced the idea that they are members of a cult. It is a waste of time to think I can change their minds. They are brainwashed daily by Fox News, Rush, etc. They are corrupted by Trump's tweets and speeches.

When they bring up politics, I do not engage with them. They will not participate in a civil discussion. Their arguments are wacky talking points that are so off-base that I am stunned and cannot immediate rebut them with facts. Also, I have not memorized the appropriate liberal talking points to get into a vociferous tit-for-tat. It is a waste of energy to concern myself with how they feel about politics since they do not care enough about my feelings to listen and discuss respectfully.

I have decided that the only way to save America is to get more sane people out to vote, support rational candidates, and ignore the distractions.

I do not care what Melania wore or whether she had a face-lift. Do U?

Let's focus on the big issues!

I judge government officials by their actions, not by what they tweet. The actions speak so loudly right now, we need to replace these fascist government officials with people loyal to the Constitution, not Il Trumpo.

There may be a few good Republicans in office out there but they sure are mighty silent. Silence is our downfall.

There has been an invisible coup and the government is in the hands of traitors Russian operatives whose leader, Trump, takes his orders from Putin.

Our so-called president idolizes human rights abusing dictators (Putin, Duterte, Kim, Xi). He places children into internment camps. He has no sense of decency.

We must have a Grand Blue Wave this fall and clean house of the insane GOPers who are set on destroying the America that my ancestors fought for and established for us.

[lagomorph777]

1. You are wise not to waste your energy on the lost souls.

Save it for GOTV or anything else you can do to encourage decent people to take action!

[olegramps]

11. When someone tells me they support Trump, I list them among dead and of no consequence.

[ck4829]

2. OK

[pdxflyboy]

3. Well said, Louis 1895

[johnp3907]

4. I still hate your brother.

And I really do care:
https://hornet.com/stories/melanias-jacket-zara-i-dont-care-two/amp/

[Bernardo de La Paz]

14. Hate is toxic to the hater. Oppose, resist, persist, overcome, triumph, but not hate. . . . nt

[saidsimplesimon]

33. "killing them with kindness" figuratively

Time is precious, hate is a waste of time, I try to practice your sage advise. On occasion, I do have toxic thoughts that require reflective comments like yours, thank you.

I refuse to surrender to rumplicans who support sucking the life out of democracy, decency, wisdom and cheer for the deportation of infants and parents.

[EndGOPPropaganda]

5. Yes! If you engage...

Last edited Tue Jun 26, 2018, 12:00 PM - Edit history (3)

If you engage, engage on propaganda. "Fox lies".
[About a maga hat] "That's a sucker's hat. That hat says you haven't realized yet that billionaires lied to you. You'll be paying back that 3 TRILLION tax cut for your whole life."


I like this shirt.
The key moment is asking "Do you know who Rupert Murdoch is?" and they say no. Then you laugh at them and tell them how Murdoch is suckering them through fox, all to get tax cuts for himself at America's expense.



https://weprotectthetruth.com

[FakeNoose]

6. Here's a companion t-shirt

If they go low, we kick 'em.

[EndGOPPropaganda]

7. Excellent - is there a place to buy it online???

[FakeNoose]

9. Don't know

This pic was posted on a twitter thread, but I can see that it's a real shirt (not shopped.)
Maybe it's available on Amazon? I can't say for sure. If I find it I'm going to buy one.

[EndGOPPropaganda]

15. Found it here

Google for

"keep the immigrants" "deport the republicans" shirt

There are a lot of sources, some good and some less good.

[yonder]

12. A "suckers hat." I like it.

And the follow up "That hat says you haven't realized yet...." Better yet.

The hat says you're stupid, not me. It creates a nagging idea that can fester while letting them down gently.

[EndGOPPropaganda]

16. :)

Took me a long time to tweak that message. thanks!

[PJMcK]

22. One problem with your T-shirt

Rupert Murdoch is a naturalized U.S. citizen. This is from Wikipedia:

"... in 1985, became a naturalized U.S. citizen, giving up his Australian citizenship, to satisfy the legal requirement for U.S. television ownership."

So, how do you deport a citizen?

Don't worry, I hate the Republicans, Murdoch, Trump and the whole disgusting crew. But if we are to follow the rule of law, how would that work?

[EndGOPPropaganda]

25. That's the point - make people think about immigration law. Murdoch: citizen who has harmed America

But the use Murdoch makes of his ties to politicians is not a new question. When he was cornered in the early eighties, and regulators said that his media holdings in England should be limited, his prior support for Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher paid off. She rescued News Corp. from further regulation. When he purchased Twentieth Century Fox in the United States, in the mid-eighties, and wanted to create a fourth broadcast television network, he was barred from acquiring the TV stations he wanted because he was a citizen of Australia, not the U.S. His Republican friends, joined by many Democrats who wanted to be his friends, helped him to switch his citizenship and become a U.S. citizen. More recently, he has needed allies to get approval for a deal involving his effort to take full control of the broadcaster BSkyB, a deal that could be threatened by this controversy.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/what-murdoch-made



This is meant to get people to think through their motivations and biases, and the goal of our immigration law.

Do we really want a law that allows Rupert Murdoch, who harms us, to become a citizen?
While determined poor immigrants looking for a better life with their kids, cannot become citizens?

[Louis1895]

39. Is this the answer to Murdoch (and maybe Melania and her parents)?

New DHS office to revoke citizenship of naturalized Americans who lie on applications

That would be funny if Trump's policy ultimately resulted in Murdoch losing his US citizenship!

Would be even funnier if Melania cheated on her application and had her citizenship revoked! (Attention reporters!!)

In America, Naturalized Citizens No Longer Have an Assumption of Permanence

Questions linger about how Melania Trump, a Slovenian model, scored ‘the Einstein visa’

[EndGOPPropaganda]

42. I don't think citizenship should be revoked

But I think our immigration law should help poor hardworking immigrants living the American Dream, and I have no desire to allow billionaires to come here and manipulate our politics.

[meadowlander]

38. Stephen Miller is looking into it.

https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2017/august/hundreds-of-u-s-citizens-continue-to-be-detained-new-immigration-data-shows/

https://www.migrationpolicy.org/news/leaked-draft-possible-trump-executive-order-public-benefits-would-spell-chilling-effects-legal

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-trump-administrations-new-plan-to-punish-legal-immigrants/2018/05/05/6eb12522-4e51-11e8-af46-b1d6dc0d9bfe_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.e4c42d394758

[CanonRay]

8. I am finally in the same place

the kids in cages was the last straw. I thought, if this doesn't snap them out of it, nothing will. Nothing will.

[world wide wally]

10. Our best strategy is not to waste time, money, and energy trying to convert Trump voters but

to get MORE Americans out to vote, period.
There are more of us, but we all need to participate.

[uponit7771]

13. K&R, "only way to save America is to get more sane people out to vote"

[pazzyanne]

17. It is with great sadness that I fully agree with you.

I have had to lay to rest family relationships because of the tRump cult. That said, it is time to resist, persist and GOTV in mass!

[firstwife]

18. Conclusions

I too came to that conclusion last week after getting into it with my sister and my daughter-in-law’s mom. DIL said it too - they have been brainwashed into a cult and I can’t waste time anymore worrying about them. I am putting my energies towards what I can do. I completely backed off posting anything political on FB, and got rid of my phone app (DIL suggested it, she’s a smart cookie!) I am thankful my two sons share my views; one is a public criminal defense lawyer, the other an engineer. I consider their political hearts my greatest accomplishment. So we move ahead. God Bless Robert Mueller.

[PatSeg]

19. Well said!

Excellent post.

[radhika]

20. You all have helped me with a decision.

I live in safely blue CA, and my family is liberal for the most part. I am lucky.

But I have one life long friend, who has been with me thru all my crises. Over 30 years. But after moving to ME she slowly morphed wingnut. Tea Party, Fox TV, Glen Beck, LePage, Trump etc. No ability to coherently absorb ideas or discuss facts. We mutually agreed not to discuss anything political on our phone chats or visits.

I struggle with cutting her off, but can’t out of our bond. But she’ll never be the person she used to be again. I feel something has changed deep inside the brain.

But I can continue doing what you’re doing. Work organize, bring along those who are bringable.

[Pepsidog]

21. Listen clearly, you cannot change them, we must out vote them. Bury them in 2018 & 2020

[BlueJac]

23. just let them go

[progree]

24. My "last straw" was long ago when he committed genocide by ending health care for millions.

[IronLionZion]

26. Dems have been winning a lot of Trump districts lately

So some voters may have woken up from their delusions

[UCmeNdc]

27. The only option is to out vote them. The MAGA people do not want to hear your side.

They just get mad and make irrational personal attacks as arguments.

The best you can do is join voter registration efforts, and GOTV efforts. Fight voter suppression!

Vote the GOP out of office at all levels of government.

[Cirroc]

28. I'm in the sample place..

My parents and in-laws are amongst the brainwashed. I certainly don't hate them. They are good people who are unfortunately naive to the deceit being perpetuated by the fascist Right.

We must fight this fight to save those who agree with us, but also to protect our vulnerable family members who have been blinded by the fog.

[Bradical79]

29. I'll always hate at least that part of them

Thinking they're a "brainwashed cult" is just a lie some tell themselves so as to remove personal responsibility from the equation. It's reconciling an internal contradiction where you love somebody, but they've made a cruel and morraly reprehensible concious decision.

[GoneOffShore]

35. Sorry, they are a brain washed cult, in the same way 'the good Germans' were.

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/06/28/hitlers-rise-it-can-happen-here/

[Bradical79]

40. I disagree

Not that it really matters. Not like I can send them all off or anything.

[Orsino]

30. I try to see them as my fellow victims.

While most of us have been brainwashed, to some extent, into accepting creeping corporate fascism, many of us never had much of a chance, so incessant is the bombardment with disinformation. People want shit sorted out, and the right-wing media provide the simplest, if not always the easiest, answers.

[zentrum]

31. There are no good

…..Republicans. Not even a few. They've been too harmful to the country in too many ways, on too many issues---racial, economic, protection of women, social safety net, etc. —since Nixon.

They laid the groundwork for him.

[Uncle Joe]

32. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread Louis

[MarvinGardens]

34. I still like to plant seeds of doubt.

When it comes up with my Trump supporting family, I like to point out how current Republican / Trumpist policy will actually harm them more than the previous status quo. Plant that seed, so they think, even if they don't admit at the time, that "maybe this whole Trump thing is not working out so well." They might never vote for Democrats, but perhaps they won't vote at all in the next election, which is half as good.

These conversations are rare these days. We had a truce where we did not talk politics, once Trump was nominated. My Mom would routinely violate the truce in the early Trump admin, and then I wouldn't hold back. Now she is pretty silent on politics. Maybe this is a good sign.

[Duppers]

36. Anyone wanting to understand their mindset, read..

🚨
Living with a supremacist...where Trumpism ends
https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/6/19/1773122/-Living-with-a-supremacist-in-a-supremacist-place-I-ll-tell-you-where-Trumpism-ends




Sorry but I will stay angry with them until the day I die.

[Gothmog]

37. Members Of Trump's cult are to be pitied

[we can do it]

41. I will not waste another breath on my brother unless he leaves the cult.