Emails from a Republican friend

[grumpyduck]

Okay, folks... before you flame me, please read to the end.

I have a friend from forty-odd years ago who's a Rep and occasionally forwards emails to me that he gets from somebody else. Most of them are jokes (non-political and often hilarious), but now and then he sends a political commentary. I'm about to ask him to stop these, but, in reality, I'm fascinated by the content and the arguments put forward. I posted one of them here a week or two ago and asked for your opinion, and my post was deleted and later re-instated.

A couple of days ago he sent one with snippets from a former Secret Service agent's book basically praising the Reps and bashing the Dems. By the time I got to the bottom, it was obvious that the email's content was very selectively edited. I even considered getting the book, reading it through, and sending my friend an email back, pointing out things the author said against the Rep presidents.

So here's the thing. I refuse to lump all Reps into one box. There have been threads here about why people vote Rep "in spite of," and some responses made perfect sense. But there are those, as has been noted here, who apparently only get their news from one or two sources: Fox, Breitbart, and the like. They don't go anywhere else and seem to only focus on the messages put forth there: Hillary is evil, they want to take away our guns, and so on.

So how do we (as in we) get through to those specific people and get them to see that there's another side to the coin? How do we get them to start questioning the material they've been getting fed? The MSM won't do it; it's not their style, and, besides, many conservatives won't go to other-than-RW media.

Please don't say "we can't." If Washington, Churchill, Eisenhower, MLK Jr, and many others had said "we can't," the world would be a whole different place today. This is a war for survival.

[in2herbs]

1. I read an idea yesterday suggesting all the progressive millionaires

combine their monies and buy iHeart radio. This would give progressives a voice to counter Fox. Shame on them if they don't.

[CrispyQ]

3. Better late than never, I suppose.

The dems have ignored hate radio for 40 years.

[hlthe2b]

2. With Trump and with Faux "News", Breitbart, Sinclair, they are behaving as in a cult....

I'd suggest we start by reviewing what is published on cult intervention/anti-indoctrination...

And... actively fight the brainwashing influence of the above (and similar RW media outlets) by pressuring advertisers.

[Blue_Adept]

4. You'll be hard pressed to get support for that here

Tribalism has taken such a deep root these days in these parts.

[grumpyduck]

9. That's true

And it's true for both sides, at least for people who can only function "tribally."

You can't discuss anything, you can't learn anything, you can't see anything in perspective if you come to the table with the attitude that the other side is just a bunch of asshole despicable morons and that you can't trust them. And that's really sad because we all need to focus on this nation and its future instead of on that tribalism.

The whole idea of "selling" your viewpoint to someone else seems to be history. We can't be bothered anymore. We just want to be pissed off at anyone who doesn't agree with us. Thankfully there are still people out there willing to listen and discuss in a civilized manner. But, as in so many other cases, the squeaky wheel is the one that gets all the attention.

The blood-pressure medication industry must be doing great.

[Blue_Adept]

10. I totally agree

It's one reason that my interactions here are largely minimal because I like to think that I'm still of a mind to be able to try and find common ground with the moderate side of the other side and the various factions within our own side. But it's so binary here and lots of anger, which is understandable, that I keep having that feeling of we're becoming that which we hate. So I try to temper that with my own reactions.

[kmla]

5. It will take a while for the pendulum to swing back to center as it pertains to people's opinions...

In my opinion, (and this is my opinion only),

a.) the right has been very effective in outflanking the left when it comes to controlling the mass media, which is where most people get their news. (Be it TV, talk radio, internet, or social media). The lifting of the Fairness Doctrine and the removal of limited ownership of TV/radio/newspaper outlets has been exploited very well by those on the right. On the left, not so much. (Remember Air America?)

b.) Right wing voters are less nuanced in their selections. Their mindsets and allegiances tend to be determined and dominated by one or two issues, and you have a hard time convincing them that there might be a middle ground or compromise (or god forbid, they might be wrong). On the left, there appears to be a much less solid, more malleable allegiance.

c.) and relating to item b.), the dumbing down of the electorate due to over-consumption of anal-retentive right wing media offerings have reduced the right vs. left/red vs. blue dynamic to more of a sporting event type of mindset (at least to the low hanging fruit of the right wing tree). Gone are the days of a government that can compromise to forward the goal of bettering the country. Now it is a requirement to demonize your opponent and oppose everything they stand for, and minimize and dismantle their accomplishments, even if they benefit people.

To the right wing base, you can express your patriotism through bumperstickers, cute slogans and sound bites. Getting off of their ass to defend someone's right to free speech (that is different from their viewpoint) hurts their feelings and makes their brain cramp. They simply want everyone to be like them and think like they do. Then everything would be easier...

So, to answer your question on how to get them to see there is another side to the coin? Just keep trying. It will happen one person at a time, not in a huge mass movement. Point out the absurdity of someone's argument in private so as not to embarrass them in public. And realize that you will not be able to reach some people, simply because they are unfeeling and callous assholes.

Just my $.02.

[Freethinker65]

6. I have no idea. I recently commented on a post by a right-wing FB "friend" of mine

He is a mostly self educated outdoors type nature lover that also loves his hunting rifles and ATVs. In previous years I saw him a bit when I went out to visit my sister and we have shared some good conversations, adventures, and meals in the past.

He posted some anti-Jane Fonda meme on FB that was really easy to investigate and prove completely false. I responded to feel free to hate on Jane Fonda for things she really has done if he likes spending time and energy doing so, but please refrain from reposting crap that is completely false, and provided links disproving the meme. (It was more to let anyone else that saw the meme he posted know it was crap, and I hoped he might feel a bit foolish himself for falling for it and just sheepishly remove the post.)

Well, nope. He responded he did not care it was false because she was Hanoi Jane and he had friends that were POWs (um, possible but doubtful by his age) and he would post whatever the fuck he wanted. I then reported the meme along with the link to the site, which I blocked, that promoted the meme to FB and hid my "friend" for 30 days.

Just found out his Dad died a few weeks ago. I suppose I would have found out earlier if I had not hid his FB post. I still feel I did the right thing for my sanity by hiding him.

I also received a racist forwarded email from the husband of a past coworker once. I responded back I was surprised that he would forward something like that especially since his wife would be considered a minority by many racists. He apologized for including me in the email chain, but not for the Email joke itself! Unbelievable.

[Civic Justice]

7. I've been including in many of my writing the need to Create and Promote Commentary

and stressing the necessity to pursue the gaining of prominent public narrative..

and all these people in this site do is attack, anything... that tries to move them to create narrative.

Either they don't understand the value of it, or don't care, or maybe some of them are plants who huddle here as covert operative willing to do anything to push down and keep down Democratic Narrative.
one would be completely unaware to wrongly assume that this site has not been infiltrated.

Think how easily people went on Facebook and got hoodwinked, and driven to be filled with doubt about the Democratic Nominee, and none of them stopped on second, to realize.. the Republican attack started against Hillary, 2 yrs earlier, with the Benghazi spins... the only thing stopped that spin, was the exposure, that it was Republicans Responsibility to provide funding for security.

But... by then.. they had already planted the seeds of doubts in Democrats Minds.... The Email Ruse, was nothing more than arousing the seeds of doubt that had been planted. The Republican studied the gullibility of American, and with the help of Russia, who is even more adept at understanding how to deal with and seize upon callous and lackadaisical minded people, the Russian intelligence apparatus is not like current day Americans... they are pragmatic and dedicated to being so. When they encounter people who are callous and lackadaisical minded, they have many ways to capture and contain such a person, and they can do it in ways, the person is not even away of being converted. We saw it happen in 2016 !!! Its still happening now... its a model used to endear Republican to Right Wing Ideals, and they have many models to use to ensure Democrats are passive, and will attack anything that tries to get them to stand up and speak up, because the point is "confound" and "confuse", and you diffuse the power they could become. The combination of Republican and Russian Operatives has been working non stop, long before 2016.

Has anyone paid attention... You don't hear anything about ISIS... it was backed by Russian and Republican Idealist, to insure there would be no peace in the Middle East during the Term of Obama. All of a sudden, ISIS is not in the news like they were, all the weapons sellers got to sell the left over war weapons, the Right Wing got the ISIS group to destroy as much of Islamic History as they could manage to so, and weaken the people by destabilizing the remaining parts of their homeland. it simply was another method of warfare, constructed just as ISIS said... they were created in the prison camps instituted during the Bush Administration continually advancing war acts.

Most people can't see the forest for the trees.... and quickly become lost, and then even the trees confound them, because they can't fathom being and see the expanse of the forest.

Right Wing System of paid operatives and Russian Paid Operative created, supported and promoted ISIS, and when Obama was out, they began to wind down their support, and like magic... they just magically knew where its leaders were and killed them. Its no coincidence, its part of the script.
They they push for their right wing travel ban for various Muslim Countries, because they know... when the people figure out what the Right Winger Republican System did, they will want to get revenge for being used and for what was destroyed and the lives lost in the mess.

It all sound far out there, but in the Big Game of Power and Dominance, one does the outrageous and the unbelievable, because the people will fight themselves not to believe it.
Putin used that tactic when it annexed Crimea and Encroached in and upon Ukraine
Hitler used that tactic to an extreme degree.
Republican have adopt the tactic and have been using it, and now under Trump, they have their Hitler to lead the charge in open public.

The separation of kids from their parents, is straight out of what Hitler did to the Jews, but he did not only do it to the Jews, he did it to people who were non white German's in every country he invaded.

History of what happen to the American Indians, should have told every nation that the Right Wing Minded White Male, is not one that can be trusted on any levels and certainly not when it concerns, money, land and resources.

[grumpyduck]

8. BTW, this thread was picked up by Conservative Underground!

Check it out in the Best/worst of DU/Discussionist. Some intersting comments.

Actually, I was hoping it would.