General Discussion

Full disclaimer: my contacts with Republicans are very limited and getting less frequent. I'm very fortunate to live in a deep blue bubble and I like it here.

I have some relatives who are conservative but I don't see them often and when I do we avoid talking about politics. I'm sure they voted for Trump but I don't know what they think now.

One by one I'm unfriending people I know on Facebook from high school or other acquaintances who suddenly erupt in MAGA nonsense.

I have tried to engage with the MAGA nonsense but I get nowhere. These people move the goalposts when confronted with facts. They are emotionally invested in believing a version of reality that is the opposite of the truth.

The trajectory of a recent interaction went like this:

"I don't like it when either side exaggerates." Then follows a garbled explanation for why Trump tearing down the East Wing is the same as Obama building a basketball court, and how "both sides" exaggerate.

She was gently corrected by people other than me. My correction is less gentle. Then her cousins jump in with racist crap about Obama. They get corrected not so gently, double down.

Finally OP comes back, says she loves all of us, but is so frustrated with "both sides blah blah blah." Tries to correct our corrections about the East Wing, having done her "own research." She's wrong again.

She finished up with a long complaint about some behavior she heard about at a recent protest and how "both sides" blah blah blah.

Done, Unfriended. This "sweet" Christian lady isn't interested in learning the truth. She desperately wants to believe her version of reality.