Disturbing People near Lewes, DE yesterday

[Delarage]

I was at the Delaware beaches yesterday (OMG--picture-perfect day!) and drove by a crew of about 10 Trumpers waving American flags, Trump flags, and playing "God Bless the USA" loudly. I had pulled into a shopping center near where they were--and I know I've been warned about this---but I yelled "Fuck you, traitors!" -- one of them said "Thank you" There were a lot of people around, so I figured that there would be witnesses if they shot me. On the way out of the shopping center, I just held up my middle finger towards them. The car in front of me and behind me were giving them the "thumbs up" and I did notice a few people beeping in support of them. The people behind me had to deal with my still-affixed "Biden-Harris" and RESIST stickers, LOL.

They are drastically outnumbered here in DE, so to hell with them. But these crazy cult people annoyed me--it's just so shocking that ANYONE ANYWHERE would support this cretin.

Anyway---they just motivated me to work harder for Kamala (EDIT: in nearby Pennsylvania, of course--my usual strategy).

[elleng]

1. Pardon me for 'disagreeing,' but 'Fuck you, traitors' is NO WAY to make friends and influence people.

Please don't continue.

[Delarage]

2. I'll try

But I'm not sure I want to be friends with those people.

[elleng]

4. No need to be 'friends,' but don't alienate.

[we can do it]

8. Sorry, anyone still supporting drump/insurrection at this point is out of reach.

They’ve alienated themselves.

We need to focus energy on reachable voters and possible voters.

[elleng]

10. Yes focus energy on reachable voters and possible voters, and

at the same time do NOT alienate.

'Foolish' and harmful to 'harden' into 'enemy' groups.

[raccoon]

30. And dangerous.

[elleng]

63. Yes.

[paleotn]

59. Uhm, elleng. They're already hardened. They're ALREADY ALIENATED.

Where the hell have you been? It's an f'ing cult. They think we're the mortal enemies of Amurka (when in fact, thay are.) Being nice ain't gonna f'ing change that. But not being nice can certainly, in the collective mindset, change the perception of maga into a lunatic fringe of nuts no one wants to be a part of. Kind of what they did to the word liberal for decades, so don't say it doesn't work. Being nice? That gave us 2016. Nice work.

[elleng]

64. I've been here, where we've all been, and I'm old enough to know that people

can and do change; we're idiots if we don't recognize that.

[paleotn]

70. And I'm old enough to know they don't.

Point out the error of their ways politely or impolitely, and they quintuple down just the same. Most people will not admit to either being fooled to this degree or being just plain wrong. That would take a level of character absent in magas. Otherwise, they wouldn't be spittle flying magas in the first place.

[karynnj]

37. Consider then that it is not them, but possible nonaligned listens

Sinking to their level would not seem to help. How about something like " no thanks, we tried Trump and it was a disaster then. We need to preserve our democracy from someone open about wanting to end it. (Note if they dispute that his quote on not having to vote again exists) As you said, they won't change, but this creates a contrast between us and them.

[central scrutinizer]

74. In one word, they're

Deplorable

[Conjuay]

6. I disagree with your disagreement.

They are fascists.
THOUSANDS DIED last time we had to deal with fascists.
I refuse to be ‘pleasant’ to people who want to destroy OUR WAY OF LIFE.
I realize our ‘way of life’ is far from perfect, but I ain’t tolerant of this BULLSHIT.
Fuck. them.

[elleng]

7. and I refuse to communicate 'fuck you traitors' to strangers.

I won't tolerate that BULLSHIT.

[whopis01]

35. You get to choose what you say

You don't get to choose what others say.

What does "I won't tolerate that BULLSHIT" mean? Had you said "I won't say that BULLSHIT" or "I won't participate in that BULLSHIT" or the such, it would be clear you were talking about controlling your own speech - but the way you worded it, it certainly sounds like you are trying to control other's speech.

[Think. Again.]

39. Social shunning is a necessary and effective response when a minority of people attempt to....

...sway our society in a dangerous and majority-unwanted direction.

If we do not show them clearly where the boundaries are, they will continue to try to push those boundaries further.

If we do not firmly let them know that their efforts will not work, they will continue those efforts.

If we are not clear, in language they will understand, that their negative point of view will not be tolerated, they will continue with whatever negative ways we tolerate from them.

Fuck those traitors.

[paleotn]

60. Nor will I. They're traitors. Get over yourself.

[RAB910]

11. these traitors thrive on the Ad populum fallacy. Letting them know they are not right or supported is a good thing

Ad populum fallacy refers to a claim that something is true simply because that's what a large number of people believe. In other words, if many people believe something to be true, then it must be true.J

[electric_blue68]

24. Ah, never heard that phrase, or meaning. Ty

[John Shaft]

15. Why would you want to be friends with someone of such low character

like a MAGAt?

[aeromanKC]

23. Fuck the MAGAt traitors!!!

They are domestic terrorists!! Fuck them!!!

They are far too gone for an intervention. They will never be productive members of American society. EVER!!

[True Dough]

29. I'm pretty sure

Dale Carnegie himself would have reacted the same way if faced with this situation.

[Voltaire2]

32. Why would one want to befriend fascists?

Last edited Sun Jul 28, 2024, 09:30 AM - Edit history (1)

Didn’t we get this nonsense out of our systems after the 2016 debacle?

[paleotn]

38. Unfortunately, we still have purists.

And during the Trump dictatorship, they can all pat themselves on the back and say what wonderful people they were. Yea, that's fucking useful.

[paleotn]

33. Oh god, not this crap again.

Get off the goddamn high horse and face reality. We've gone "high" how many times? Look where it got us.

You cannot reach those people. They're in a cult. The only way to deal with them, short of the Ripley solution of nuking them from orbit, is to make being a magat so damn unpopular that no one wants to follow them down the rabbit hole. Open ridicule is an effective way of doing that. It's not meant for them. It's meant for the masses who aren't in the cult.

[orthoclad]

45. The High Road leads to hell

Look where it's gotten us.

The red tribe and the blue tribe are dug in.

In some ways, the OP can feed the red team's martyr complex. Reich-wingers love to play victim. I've had that feeling in anti-war, anti-racism rallies myself: getting the finger validates me.
On the other hand, it's useful to let them know that they aren't raking in the whole pot.
Hate the message, love the messenger comes to mind, but I can't bring myself to love the violent, hateful people who respond to the Reich-wing message. Creatures of the id, to quote Forbidden Planet.

I'd rather educate working people that the true issue is the obscenely rich against the rest of us. The ob rich love to play divide and conquer, using race, gender, etc. But education is long and tedious. "Fuck you" is short and sweet.

We're in a bumper sticker war of words. Sweet reason does not trump the emotional hot buttons that the Right knows how to push oh so well.

I'm not so concerned with Team Red which is busy digging trenches and putting up barbed wire (plus locking and loading). I'm much more concerned with the 1/3 of USians who don't think it's worth voting. A firm show of resistance and commitment via "Fuck you!" might motivate them. Policy statements won't.

[obnoxiousdrunk]

57. This.

[Happy Hoosier]

62. No. Fuck those traitors.

People out doing those events are not our friends. They are traitors. And they must know that we see it, and aren‘t afraid to say it.

[DeepWinter]

65. I agree

Too many Democrats burning bridges and counting out swing voters. Have faith, there's a lot of us Dems still out there re-building bridges and trying to pull people back on board.

[Sky Jewels]

68. Lol. These cultists are not ripe for converting.

They need to know that a lot of us -- A LOT -- hate Trump and everything he stands for and will be working hard to make sure they are weeping into their hamberders in November.

[Walleye]

3. Not the least bit grateful that they can live in a state where they can do this and not be afraid of getting hurt

I’m thinking maybe they’re from out of state anyway.

[OldBaldy1701E]

5. "...it's just so shocking that ANYONE ANYWHERE would support this cretin."

Well, actually, they don't. They support their own malignancy. They live for it. That orange gibbon is just their excuse for atrocities. And, he validates their malignancy by being worse than they are and fighting to be a dictator so that they can all be evil with impunity. The fact that we don't reference their evilness by name is a bit worrisome, as that is what their actions are and they need to be described as such.

That's just me, I guess.

[paleotn]

40. Donny makes it OK for them to be their disgusting selves.

[orthoclad]

51. It's a positive feedback loop

I know some trumpers with personal integrity. I know many more who have had their brains eaten by worms.

The internet and other media like talk radio have been used by the ruling class for decades and decades to push emotional hot buttons. The RC knows that the ancient parts of the brain which deal with perceived threats are much more powerful motivators than the frontal lobes. As I put it above, emotional hot buttons trump sweet reason.

So the trumpers have increasingly been painted into a corner. Their fetish-object is under legal threat. They're told that their turf is being stolen by women, by other races, by aliens. The intensity of their feelings grows in proportion to the degree of threat they feel. The worms eat their brains until all that's left is the limbic.

Positive feedback amplifiers feed the output signal (I'm threatened) back to the input, which amplifies the output, which feeds back to the input... This spiral either gets limited somehow or it ends in a crash - a squeal of pure noise. This is why I take the "civil war" talk seriously.

Rationality can limit the feedback, but microblogs like xitter and button-pushers like talk radio throw rationality to the gutter. Buttons to push are short and sweet.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

9. there is a group waving Trump trash from overpasses in dark blue California

[karin_sj]

17. Very true

I see quite a few of them spouting off on Nextdoor and Facebook to blame Newsom and the "Democrat party" for any issues that are brought up, especially crime and homelessness. They're in the minority, thank goodness, but they are a very vocal minority. Idiots. Luckily, their comments are usually countered by the sane people and they're vastly outnumbered here in the Bay Area.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

19. following youtube news stories about crime events in NY, CA, OR, Commentors say "you voted for it"

I ask them, why aren't they posting the same following news stories about Crime in TX or FL? all kinds of crazy awful crimes happen in those states.

[Dennis Donovan]

12. I'm too timid

I just flip them off.

[Happyhippychick]

13. It's a war and I'm so over being the bigger person so bravo to you!

We need to match the ferocity of our opponents because the literal future of our country is at stake.

[aeromanKC]

25. +1000

[meow2u3]

42. I'm sick of ignorant, stubborn people getting a free pass

I'm so sick and tired of being told I have to be the bigger person while those rude, uncouth, ignorant, obstinate, and bigoted folks get away with murder.
We're not dealing with normal people. We're fighting fascism and I refuse to have my hands tied behind my back.

[paleotn]

44. In my mind, being the "bigger person" gets us 2016.

We've been down that road many times. It leads nowhere. We need to do the same thing to maga that Republicans did to the word liberal the last 30 years. Turn it into a pejorative even magats avoid using. Part of that is open ridicule. Simply pointing and laughing at them works if you don't want to use the risqué but fun parts of the language.

[orthoclad]

52. Better put than my wordy comments

Short and sweet.

[Blaukraut]

14. Same kind of group

On weekends across the border from us in Seabrook, NH. They congregate on the sidewalk on Rte 1 near the Walmart shopping plaza. They receive mixed reactions from passersby. Some signs of support, like honking horns, and I’ve heard a FU and seen middle fingers pop out of car windows.

They do believe they have more support than they actually do. Keep in mind that they WANT a reaction from people; positive or negative. I suspect they actually enjoy the negative feedback more. So don’t give them that satisfaction.

[sindri]

16. It is hard not to let them pull me down to their level

but I keep reminding myself to detach their deranged behavior from the vulnerable, fragile and yes beautiful people they truly are underneath all that hate. My 81 year old mom is an avid Trump supporter and crazy conservative xtian. She is otherwise lovely and kind but goes into some kind of psychotic episode whenever the conversation goes towards LGBT, DEI, climate change, evolution, etc. and she starts spouting random bible verses as "proof" for everything she thinks (which is in line with OAN and Trumpers). She makes no sense but then after calming down a bit can say loving things, say intelligent things (she is quite smart). It is painful to see this Jeckle/Hyde thing happening to someone who once was a Jimmy Carter loving democrat. Things snapped when we moved to the suburbs and Reagan was president. She got sucked into this cult via our church.

[Boomerproud]

20. I'm so sorry about what happened to your mother.

[Delphinus]

27. Belated

welcome to DU!

And a huge from me for what you are living through with your Mom. So sorry.

[Dan]

58. I wonder, did she/you ever see the documentary "Blind Faith'

Definitely worth watching and explains a lot…might open eyes.

[TheRickles]

18. You don't have to like them, but they feed on your anger. You can use your energy more constructively.

[elleng]

66. Yes.

[Takket]

21. Really... don't do this.

Nothing good could possibly come of it for you.

[BumRushDaShow]

22. Lewes is where the ferry is to Cape May, NJ

I always heard there were more loons and MAGats down in Sussex County (DE) than the rest of the state (similarly on the other side of the border down there on the eastern shore of MD). Of course that's where all the popular DE beaches are too, which is unfortunate. I suppose there is a similar infestation of the GOP loons in South Jersey too in the beach counties.

[mopinko]

46. loons in cape may.

🤣😂😜
for those that dont know, cape may is 1 of the top birding spots in the country.

[BumRushDaShow]

49. Huge bird migration spot!

Also home to "Cape May Diamonds" - one of my earliest memories as a wee one gathering those near Cape May Point!





https://watchthetramcarplease.com/cape-may-diamonds/

[mopinko]

50. i did not know that.

on my bucket list.

[IronLionZion]

26. I would hope they are outnumbered in Biden's home state

Kamala Harris for President HQ is in Wilmington because of Biden.

[paleotn]

61. Delaware is quite blue.

Even here in ultra neon, painful to the eyes, blue Vermont, we have some magat trash.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

28. What did you hope to achieve? NT

[womanofthehills]

31. Over reaction makes the divide worse

It’s a bad look for Democrats.

I live in a small town where Dems & Republicans get along. My girl friend’s husband had a Trump t shirt on - I just said Hi and smiled at him - last thing I’m going to do is give anyone the finger and start an argument. We all have to live together.

As a human, we don’t have to be reactive & let others upset us - we choose to be or not to be reactive -

[Think. Again.]

41. I think we're in far too much danger from rightwingers to worry about how we "look".

[orthoclad]

53. It's now a case of react or die

The loud trumpers initiated the story.

The US is now similar to Deutschland 1935 - near to the time some of my family fled Europe.

[chouchou]

34. You SHOULD NOT have said those things Tsk..Tsk...

fuck you traitors.......The proper etiquette is "Fuck you, God-Damn Dumb-Ass traitors!" You're Welcome!

[Joinfortmill]

36. You're brave. This old girl hasn't run into that yet, thank God

[niyad]

47. This old Crone runs into them occasionally in this slightly saner part of this

turning-purple county. And I promptly let them know that they are not welcome here, in whatever manner is appropriate at that moment.

[orthoclad]

54. I've encountered gunfire

Bravo, OP!

[ProfessorGAC]

43. A Group Did That In Our Town

Two weekends in a row. They were mostly getting ignored or flipped off (like i did), even though this town was 51:49 TFG in '20.
The second Saturday, the cops came & rousted them. They were on private property without permission.
The property owner is a Democrat, formerly on the county board, & 2 of the business owners in the plaza are dems. Plus, the owner of the restaurant across the street is a dem supporter.
So, the cops came, told them to pack up & go. The cops stayed until they packed their flags & signs. I was in a parking lot across the street watching, & I saw a cop walk over and did the "let's get rolling" thing with his hand.
The 3 cars high-tailed & I followed. They weren't even from our town because they took the highway completely out of the township.
They haven't been back anywhere in town since.
Big dummies

[orthoclad]

55. Not arrested for trespassing?

The cops are on their side.

[ProfessorGAC]

67. Not This Cop

I've met him. And, they only get arrested for trespassing if the property owner wants to press charges.
It's not up to the cop.

[orthoclad]

69. I cam imagine that the owner doesn't want to escalate

It could get ugly.

[ProfessorGAC]

72. Yeqh, That's Pretty Likely

[Arne]

48. When I was a young child the Lowes theater was showing

"The Sound of Music".
I don't even have to say which scene I'm thinking of.

It's where the Father tries to tell the boyfriend he's not one
of them.
But he is.

[Prairie Gates]

56. I don't agree with your behavior

They got the best of you by replying "Thank you."

You did not come off well in this exchange, unfortunately.

[XanaDUer2]

71. Be careful nt

[elleng]

73. They DO change; don't be FOOLS, DUers.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219252936