General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI went picking strawberries with a Trump supporter!
First off, I am from Portland Oregon and a lifelong liberal. I will call this man my neighbor. I now live in Florida full time and my neighbor lives in Florida for 3-4 months a year and is from Ohio, thank God. Well, on the way to the patch, with a conversation about crime in our country, he wanted to tell me how this country got so racist. He said it all started when Obama became President and all the people on the left started to become racist, he said like the Progressives, like me I asked. He said no, like the liberals he said. Again, I asked like me, and he did not know what to say. I told him I was a lifetime liberal. So I broke the ice and asked if he thought I was a racist, he immediately said no. I told him I didn't see it that at all. I said I saw lots of hatred toward the Obamas and it was not liberals. People posted the hatred constantly on line. I couldn't wait to get home!
There will not be any more strawberry adventures in the future.
RESIST!
speaktruthtopower
(800 posts)to be living in strawberry picking weather in March!
mnhtnbb
(31,320 posts)onto liberals.
Your neighbor gets the fact that the racism appeared when Obama was elected, but somehow can't manage
to recognize the racism comes from people upset that a black man was elected to the White House.
It was disheartening!
maddiemom
(5,106 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)Liberal bad, yes, but bad. In huge denial, yes, but he believes it's a slur. My guess is this guy's main problem, aside from being a dishonest ignoramous, of course, is ultrapartisanship against Democrats.
In any case, it sounds like he would be ashamed of being caught out in racisism himself and angry at being accused of it. For all the horror stories hitting the news, the cultural advances of these past decades have not been erased.
vlyons
(10,252 posts)liberals and AAs expect them to not use certain words and phrases, like the N-word. We should not be so uppity. Always marching in the street demanding justice. Always demanding more money for schools in impoverished districts. Always expecting to be given a job and be paid a living wage. How dare we point out the disparities and injustices of institutional racism in American, when every decent (white) person knows that the America that white people built (with little to no help from blacks) is exceptional and based on Christian principles, just like our founding fathers intended.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)trc
(823 posts)Sunlei
(22,651 posts)TheFrenchRazor
(2,116 posts)Alice11111
(5,730 posts)for them. Never mind the law, EEOC, etc.
They do not even know that their language is peppered with racial slurs, in front of children, who they are teaching to be little nazis. They think as long as they don't use the N word, they aren't speaking racism.
gordianot
(15,226 posts)However, I avoid calling people Republicans.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)When they use the word "liberals" like its a slur, IMO one can tell they've been exposed for years to RW created media propaganda. They need to be engaged in real world discussion, more icebreakers.
Alice11111
(5,730 posts)Plus, they are so closed minded, that most won't listen to rational arguments.
I agree though, we must keep trying. It is sort of like talking to toddlers or teenagers, they reject whatever you say, or they just want to say "no," but in the long run, some of your reasoning will often slip in anyway. We have to keep trying to mitigate stupid. It is often about education, and almost all of the "news" they get is fake.
Kahuna7
(2,531 posts)as any day now, trump will want to know who ate the strawberries.
Initech
(99,915 posts)Just sayin'.
griloco
(832 posts)Kahuna7
(2,531 posts)If only the strawberries had been poisoned, all of our problems would have been solved.
JDC
(10,084 posts)Don't give up on them. There's always the chance of change . They could be struck by lightning or something not so life altering !
BlueJac
(7,838 posts)Him and his wife watch Fox news nightly and don't even consider my beliefs one bit. When his wife came to Florida she was so worried Trump would not win. I told her right out I was a liberal, but that flew right over her head! It was unreal, because I live in Florida I should be a Trump supporter. It make me sick!
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)you after that? You may not be able to "convert" them, but sounds like they're not among the horrible strong social conservatives who give them all a really bad name.
I was surprised this morning to learn that our house guest, a youngish southern man with a very deep love for nature, and extensive knowledge about it, nevertheless was an apologist for climate change deniers and then actually turned out to be one himself. He's born and raised in the south and prefers to be ignorant about politics. But with his interests, sharp eyes, and keen observations!? Every time he comes here he tells us stuff about the wild kingdom surrounding us that we didn't see for ourselves. Like your neighbors, he's happy to be friends with a Jew and his very political liberal wife, but is also comfortably wrapped up in local delusions.
In any case, I'm ashamed at letting my disbelief get the better of me this morning. He's our guest. I've already loaded up the newer episodes of Planet Earth, and we'll wallow in a completely apolitical natural world together.
bdamomma
(63,658 posts)taken away from them.....maybe that will wake them up.
politicat
(9,808 posts)In my neck of the woods, pick your own farms target 1) people who can't do math (it's usually cheaper and better for the farm to pay an extra dime or quarter a pound at the farm stand than to pay oneself the hour or two of labor), 2) woo-following gullible orthorexics who have a poorly defined personal definition of "clean" eating and 3) parents of small children looking for an outdoor activity to occupy the smalls for an hour. I've gone with the last group, because it usually helps to have a near 1:1 adult to child ratio and since I'm not a parent, I get asked when parents are in need of extra adults. Otherwise, I do patronize the farms, but I use their farm stands.
I grew up spending summers on my grandparents' farm and doing the stoop labor a 3 acre garden requires, and winters doing the stoop labor that a full sized backyard garden (in southern Arizona) requires, and my own 20 square foot garden stoop labor. I don't mind it; I find it meditative and relaxing, as long as I'm not out in the midday sun, but I garden for an hour and then go do something else. Stoop labor is painful, difficult work that takes a lot of mental acuity and muscle memory. I've watched people who didn't grow up doing that stoop labor, and they generally are terrible at it. They complain, whine, and are done well before the job is finished. Was this your experience with your neighbor?
I ask because there are a lot of people with his general outlook who think all those stoop labor jobs should be forced on anyone getting EBT or TANF or Disability or unemployment, not realizing that they're a) skilled labor, and b) require significant mobility, both bodily and the ability to follow the harvest.
I will say your neighbor's media diet is probably in need of far more roughage and nutrients and variety.
TeamPooka
(24,156 posts)ffr
(22,649 posts)Pointing out that when Bill Clinton left office, the CBO forecast something like a $4.8T SURPLUS, that would be spread out through 2009. You can look that up or I can link it another time. It's still out there. Anyway, the national debt at the time was about $4.5T or something, which meant that by 2009 the United States would be a creditor nation had the next administration done nothing but sit on its hands and let the economy do its thing as it had done the previous decade. Oh no! instead we had a republican fiscal conservative elected and instead of the total debt being $0.00 by 2009, the U.S. Treasury showed public debt at $10.6T or thereabouts.
So it appears republicans are actually SPEND-AND-SPEND REPUBLICANS, not fiscal conservatives after all. They put us into near-on DEPRESSION in a period when our nation should have been singing its praises at being a creditor nation. What happened?
THEY ABSOLUTELY HATE IT WHEN I BRING THAT UP. They have no defense.
coco22
(1,258 posts)can't see they are the racists who began showing it to the world because they hated having a black President,they really lost it. They wanted their country back from who? They want their country "great again" beginning when?
These republiCONS are from CRAZYTOWN!
Kimchijeon
(1,606 posts)Can only hope. Also jealous of strawberry picking, here in MN will be some time yet lol.
wryter2000
(46,016 posts)I was at an RV park in Nevada and the group I was with (strangers to me) were all talking about how Obama made the story "all about race." I told them Trayvon Martin would never had been killed if he were white, and you wouldn't believe the howls of protest. I did not back down.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)Zman's "art" work --
jmbar2
(4,832 posts)I personally cannot do it at this moment, except to say that I believe in fairness for all. This will be my mission now, to find a way to express it in an elevator speech. Thanks for the thought-provoking posts.
Alice11111
(5,730 posts)Oxymorons and three or four word sound bites that state the opposite of what the are hiding.
Right to Work
Right to Life
Death Tax
Make Healthcare better and affordable
Make America Great Again
Repeal and Replace
Tax breaks for the Middle Class
Affordable health insurance (yeah, because you won't have any)
There are hundreds. A thread on this would be good.
You have summed up the competition. Now we need to come up with better messaging for our beliefs. Thanks for your post.
Alice11111
(5,730 posts)messaging for Dem Messages.
Maybe, like:
Right Not to be Forced into Illness,
for health care. That is too long and not catchy enough, but the idea is to have it so poignant that to disagree with it would almost shock the conscience. Of course, that presumes there is a conscience.
OnDoutside
(19,908 posts)Zing Zing Zingbah
(6,496 posts)I froze my ass off walking my dog today while you were picking strawberries. 3 F and 13 mph wind.
qwlauren35
(6,113 posts)America's racist tendencies became far more pronounced when a black man became president.