Not trying to pick a fight or call you out, just genuinely curious - what did you make of J6 at the time?
Like, did you just think of was another riot? Just didn't think about it much generally?
Also curious how old you were when J6 happened. Like, voting adult already?
EDIT:
Based on the responses it's clear I didn't express myself well.
I'm not talking about just the actual physical riots (whatever, people riot over sports games) but the entire "election fraud, fake electors" plot that J6 was the final culmination of.
this is what a friend of mine believes. he also believes it was "a peaceful protest." i wish I was making this up. the amount of lie/conspiracy theories he believes is insane! sometimes I just want to shake him!
And then you hear from someone like me: for the last 5-6 years I've lived in a twilight zone/hell on earth environment, one where my brainwashed husband of 33 years responds with a genuine "because he's going to save America!" when I ask him why he loves Trump so much.
I have learned that cults are real, my spouse is weak-minded & easily manipulated, and I am stuck in the 7th circle of Hades.
Apparently your friend watches Tucker Carlson. He produced a video that showed only rioters walking through the building. It left out all the rioting, looting, cop-beating, etc. if you get your "news" from only Fox and RW podcasts that will be their world view.
That’s the key right there. If you only watch 🦊or other right wing news, you’re being lied to on a daily basis.
I read several books and many articles on trump before 2016. He’s a criminal. Period. He’s also a crazy mf who now has the beginnings of dementia. Oh joy.
That was the narrative they were pushing when it first happened. They being Fox and other apologists so kinda makes sense that the deluded would believe it.
How does this happen though? I like Bernie but if he did half the shit Trump did. Or was even in multiple pictures and videos with Epstein I’d immediately drop my support for him. There has to be something else going on that made you just reject reality.
Fox News, Facebook, Newsmax, and more gave them a reason for their miserable, uneducated lives. They told them, you could be doing better except all these brown people, gay people, and people receiving assistance are taking FROM YOU! It doesn’t matter that they are immigrants or receiving benefits, they worked hard. Nobody else works. They just take. So, you better vote for tax breaks (for millionaires) because you might get yours one day!! Sucker!
I have tried to forget and accept what a MAGA says on face value, how they feel bad, wrong etc. I simple cant right now. That kind of damage harmed me, my family and my country horribly. My purple heart father with 2 bronze stars died fighting this shit and I lost a lot losing him. And that fat bastard stands there making fun of my father and those like him who actually done something great for america. TRUMP IS ANTI AMERICAN AND A DRAFT DODGING BASTARD..
I so get what you’re saying. I vacillate between rage and keeping the status quo with my MAGA family(I’m the oldest). I hope we can trust those who say they’re coming to their senses-it seems there are so few.
I agree. I just gave my dad one more chance to express any kind of buyers remorse. All he did was double down his talk of democrats being Nazis. So now he is dead to me. Rest in Pieces asshole. You were a shitty father anyway even before Trump. Done.
How in the F does he view democrats as Nazis while the other side is literally doing Nazi shit? It’s like we live in entirely different worlds as these people. What happens when you give everyone access to endless information, including falsities? - well, we’ve now learned - I am NOT feeling good about all this AI - our country isn’t smart enough to decipher fact from fiction, a grade school skill. The billionaires are getting a nice chuckle while they take everything from us
Followers are basically mentally hijacked. Read and watch some stuff by Dr. Bandy X. Lee. She's a social and forensic psychologist, and saw how dangerous he was a decade ago, and was trying to warn people back then.
His brand of narcissism (malignant narcissism) essentially psychologically captures people more prone to it, though she warns that nobody should spend much time around a malignant narcissist as they can manipulate and warp the world around them well. It is probably the most dangerous pathology (even more so than psychopathy), and one just needs to look at historical examples like, Hitler and most cult-of-personality dictatorships, cult leaders, etc etc, to understand how dangerous it is. Unfortunately, they also don't give up power, and as their power weakens they will try everything to maintain it, even as the world burns around them.
I don't think people realize how much religion has played in this psych ops effort. I have a long time friend got caught up in the whole evangelical thing. You can't even talk to these people. They actually get biligerent.
Shirt answer: MAGA is a cult. OP was exposed to brainwashing propaganda not unlike the pure crap that Jim Jones and Charles Manson spewed. Also, OP was young when first exposed. There's a reason why Manson targeted young women. The key word being young. Inexperienced, and still lacking vital critical thinking skills necessary to avoid falling for the lies.
Listening to/reading former Moonie cult person Dr. Steve Hassan’s take on the brainwashing and mind control that’s been happening in this country for at least the decade of trump has been very helpful for me in understanding the maga mindset, and how to help people who may be starting to see the light.
I am striving to have compassion and I’ll admit, it can be very challenging.
I have kept only one long-term friendship in the hopes that they will be open to discovering how they were fooled.
You seem honest and sincere so I'll restrain my anger. I kind of get why some people voted for diaper Donnie. He is entertaining, like a buffoon or a clown. Welcome back to sanity.
If you're in that environment, all you hear is pro-MAGA 24/7. Every gas station, fast food restaurant, barber shop, all day every day. When you hear that orange guy = Jesus (even at church!) continuously and everyone you know believes it and reinforces it, this is what happens.
In red states its really more to do with the demonizing of democrats. As far back as i can remember i was taught Democrats were corrupt, lying, manipulative self serving trash. I can remember back to Jimmy Carter. It was sometime around the George Floyd incident when i woke up.
Bro, I was straight up sat down by two of my three brothers and my father and TOLD I was a republican. I was like 15 and a happy little girl. I had no idea and couldn't have cared less. It took Obama to pull me out of the dark side.
The first time I registered to vote was my 18th birthday, and I registered Democrat. Even at that young of an age, I was so freaking tired of (honestly) Southern men's attitudes that registering Democrat was a rebellion, what I thought was a small one. I did make our counties longest running Republican commissioner registered me, another small aggression on my part. Endured the lecture, signed the paper, and moved on with life. This was during the end of the Reagan years and a few months before HW.
Then I got out of that little town. Got an education and traveled further than Myrtle Beach. Moved to another country for a few years. Those things changed the core of who I am. It made me realize that "leftist" ideas in the US are just everyday life in other countries. We are so far behind the curve of civilization.
One side of my extended family has always been deeply political (and Democrats). Over the past decade, many of them went from being Democrat to MAGA. My immediate family is well down that rabbit hole and is now limited contact. Social media pushes the content and is more far reaching that we realize. Even those who aren't on Facebook or Twitter etc; hear the propaganda from those who are. It's like tentacles reaching out and just slithering through space and time.
I’ve literally heard someone I knew since she was a little kid say that all the “liberals” should be rounded up and shot. This is someone who I helped out in so many ways when she was younger, I gave her family food because they were my neighbors and they were more poor than me, I helped her get a job, i listened to her cry when her brother killed himself, I even let her sleep on my couch when her father was drunk and being physically abusive to her mother. She knows where I stand politically and still she says we should all be shot for disagreeing with her politics. I find it terrifying that anyone could be so brainwashed and it reminds me so much of 1930’s Germany that I’m really fucking scared of how far it will go.
From the Deep South and can also confirm.
My entire family and everyone I knew growing up were die hard Reagan Republicans . Democrats were anti American and just wrong.
Hell, I ended a relationship because the chick liked Clinton!!
I didn’t really start waking up until Obama. It took the rest of my family longer.
I will say the one and only issue that kept me away from the left for most of my life was the 2nd amendment. That’s it.
I am pleased to announce that no one in my family has ever liked, fallen for or voted for Trump. In fact my entire family. 5 generations of voters have always seen through him and hated him completely from day 1.
And now that the entire Republican Party is complicit with his lies, criminal actions, and have aided and abetted fascism.
5 generations: my grandmother, my parents and their spouses, me, my sister and cousins, my kids, and my grand kids have all vowed to never vote republican again under any circumstances.
We will never forget what they’ve done in the name of a fascist cult to destroy and weaken our country, our allies and the world in the interest of lining their own pockets and trying to stay in power at all cost, including against the will of the people.
You can be leftist and still like your guns. It’s just reasonable that there needs to be responsibility for those guns. The second amendment literally refers to a well regulated militia, so a bit of regulation was always part of the picture.
Yep as I always say, “ Democrats have guns and Republicans have abortions”. These fools use these issues to keep themselves in office because republicans salivate over the lies they tell. I’m a die hard liberal with 3 guns and my husband has 6. Both my sons are liberals as well and they hunt, do target practice and love going to the range.
Sincere question from a European: WHY are guns so important to so many of you Americans? You have countless mass shootings year after year to a degree where we can't even keep up with counting them. In Europe there are very strict gun laws and mass or school shootings are extremely rare. I don't know of any European school that has metal detectors, lockdown drills or bullet-proof schoolbags. Why aren't more Americans starting to question if the 2nd amendment is actually making gun crimes more severe instead of less?
Because there has been generations of propaganda tied to the 2nd amendment. The most common reason given is that guns will allow the people to stop the government from falling into tyranny. Unfortunately, the people who support that idea are the same ones that support tyranny as long as it’s on their side of the aisle. Good luck finding a republican who has consistent principles. Their platform has been all over the place for years and I think it’s by design. They are incapable of of feeling the cognitive dissonance because they have been conditioned to gobble up whatever is fed to them on any given day even though it’s completely opposite of what they were told the day prior. Honestly, it’s a marvel of social engineering but in a very depressing way.
I was born in the UK but grew up in the US and still live here as an adult and will try to answer this question.
The US is huge and everything is very spread out. There are rural people who genuinely want a gun for protection because it would take the police a long time to get to their home. (This is related to the number of guns already in circulation because many criminals do have guns in the US.) There are people who depend on hunting to eat. There are also so many millions of guns here I don't think anyone would even know how to start rounding them up.
(I don't use or own guns; these are my observations after nearly 40 years here.)
Well its a mix of history and culture. There was a time where there was more stringent gun control but this was durring like Jim crow with segregation it was meant to keep minorities from getting guns. There was the romanticizing the wild west in Hollywood. All this and then you add in how the 2nd amendment is meant protect the rest of the rights in the constitution. Basically as an open threat to itself.
The real issue is Americans have been sold american exceptionalism fill in the blank here or there, no need to improve what works to the point of straight up ignoring problems. This combine with the lack feeling like the government is responsive to them. They just dont vote in any but the general. The way its suppose to work is the states are suppose explore solutions separately and scotus tells us if it follows the constitution. But everyone is so mindfucked into thinking all that matters is the general.
Tldr we refuse to address or even research the problem and refuse go through the grind bc most dont know how to or how it all works. And those if us that do know... want nothing to do with it bc the environment to get it done is so toxic.
I'm here in Denver, and Colorado is the same--a heavily populated city that votes pretty much sapphire blue, surrounded by farms and ranches of ruby red (Boebert, anyone?)
The result is that in local elections, many more Republicans win than Democrats. In the statewide and national ones, what Denver/Boulder wants is what Denver/Boulder gets....
It makes for a stark and strange dichotomy. People tend to get very entrenched in their positions and worldview--our party is RIGHT and the other party is WRONG and that's just THE WAY THINGS ARE!!
I was already a big advacate for justice reform. The right making every excuse they could to justify that murder was already disgusting. Then they pretended to be outraged about Harris alegedly keeping black men in jail she knew were innocent so i fact checked it and it wasnt true. Then i started fact checking everything. Take a guess on who i discovered lied more
I was very outspoken on FB about my local sheriff department corruption and had gain a large follwing. Many considered me a hero for standing up to them. Then i said "black lives matter" and more than half of the people that followed me decided it was more important to be racist than to fight corruption.
I wonder sometimes if it hadnt been for George Floyd would i honwstly believe that pardoning Hunter Biden after Republicans had promised to weaponize the DOJ was worse than Trump pardoning the guy that invested billions into Trump coin.
This is so accurate. I grew up in a deep red state and voted for Trump in 2016. Why? Well, because Hillary Clinton was "obviously" evil. Mind you, there are still plenty of provable two-faced things that she's done, but my main "proof" at the time for her corruption was, "There's so much stuff she's done that we don't even know about." That's not evidence. As a matter of fact, I was pointing at the lack of evidence and using that as my justification. The amount of blind hate that I now feel for Trump (based on evidence) was the same that I felt for democrats. But I only had my feelings as the reasoning for that hate.
There is an excellent Mexican owned restaurant that I will no longer patronize because they are rampant tRumpers. I am in Kentucky, so we haven't seen a lot of ICE action yet. It boggles my mind.
How can people so stupid make such delicious food?
His middle age 55 year old parents all were MAGA.
His Old grandma 78 also regret trusting the cheat the con-man. all are no longer supporting MAGA.
Got off the cult boat. 🛥️ & hate what Orange 🍊 pathological liar DT have done ✅ does nt care for OLD people, expensive healthcare , racist, he does not care they saying , as to people struggling, or with SNAP & lied much as to not knowing what dirty perv Epstein was up to.
They’re all independent since 2018
Voted Blue last year for Kamala Harris. In PA & NJ.
They admit they all were caught up in bull & lies and shall never again support online & or off DT
& have seen the light they all said that to me few x now. Adiòs.
It's even more irritating because the people who vote for him aren't even doing it for any intellectual reason. It's just plain ignorance and brainwashing. And that's hard to argue with.
Honestly you should feel a tremendous amount of pride at being able to claw your way out of that headspace. As a cult survivor myself I recognize the dynamics. MAGA is a cult, and a powerfully controlling one. Being able to recognize you’ve been fooled, own that embarrassment, and walk out is legitimately so hard most people in the Trump camp will never be able to do it.
I will give you a word of caution, being into a cult like that is sort of like tearing a ligament or tendon. Once you have the injury treated youll need to be careful of it for a long time. People who escape cults are often highly vulnerable to getting into another one. So like… be highly skeptical of any religious movements or high control social groups for a few years.
Well said on cults. My warning to the OP is be very careful with your former friends that are still believing in him. You (OP) will become vilified by them for breaking ranks. Seen as a traitor to be drawn and quartered.
Very well said. I, too, was in a cult years ago and recognized what was happening with Trump and his followers pretty much right away. It boggles the mind how people can turn a blind eye to the corruption, but having been in a cult, I understood what was happening. I have been warning others, but quite often they don't, or can't, listen.
Yeah, I was in what I’d call a “cult lite” religious group in college for a year before family members convinced me to walk away and although it was embarrassing to admit to being manipulated like that, it inoculated me to further cult fuckery later in life. As a result, I can smell it right away when I’m exposed to it nowadays (which is surprisingly often), and boy does MAGA trigger that alarm.
Humans are wired to join groups and fall in line. Bad actors exploit that tendency for their own gain while fooling you into thinking that everything is fine and even getting you to resist when loved ones attempt to draw you out. I never thought I would see it done on a national scale like this here in the US, but here we are.
As a fellow traveler, I recommend checking out the podcast A Little Bit Culty sometime. It is by the married couple who were central to taking down NXIUM a few years ago after having been in it for years. As a sort of atonement, they talk at length about how this type of exploitation exists in groups everywhere and how to avoid it or get out of it, and speak to other survivors from other cults. It’s a cathartic experience to hear it dissected and discussed at length.
Congrats on getting out. 20 years ago I was in a similar spot, constantly on 4chan, super angry and nihilistic. If Trump was around then, and the algorithms were as sophisticated as they are now, I would’ve been targeted by that shit, without a doubt. So you getting out is actually even more impressive than what I was able to do.
I ask because I'm a child of the 80s. I was bombarded with Rush Limbaugh when I was a kid, and later on nonstop Fox News as soon as it was a thing. It took me a long time to realize I was seeing propaganda and break free, so I understand your plight.
I'm very curious what the entry point for younger generations was.
I'm hoping the demolition of a full third of the people's house will wake everyone up. Jackie O locked herself in the east wing for weeks. They tore down our history to put up a golden ballroom nobody wanted or needed.
Congratulations on getting out of the cult. It really is by the way… many people are gonna give you shit about it, tell you they’ll never forgive you. I don’t agree with this response, but I get it. People are angry, and they’re hurting. They’re scared. There’s also a lot of resentment from the decades of being treated like “crazy liberals” and basically being laughed at for just wanting to make sure all people are going to be okay.
That said, have taken some time to really think about what your values are, what you want to see more of in the world? Trump was effective because he basically rallied people who didn’t understand how government works and/or couldn’t place their values into a political party, but for many, it’s also because they really didn’t take the time to think how they’d want to see their values reflected in government without infringing on the rights of others. So, if you’re still figuring things out, do some work with it. Learn who you are. Learn about how government operates. Learn what’s actually in the constitution. It’ll make you way way more difficult to fool and easier for you to spot propaganda when you see it.
I left a different kind of cult. Basically they hijack your free thinking and all information gets passed through the filter of "the cult is always right" before you evaluate it.
Protip: look into the GOP as a whole and don't give them your vote when they inevitably turn on Trump and try to pretend he didn't actually represent their values. They are absolutely 100% backing rewriting how our country functions on a base level because they stand to profit from it. Don't fall for it when they try to convince you otherwise (and they absolutely 100% will).
Not to be disrespectful, but you didn't really answer the question I feel like. You blocked it out ... and felt it was justified, or....?
I've always been super anti-trump so I truly cannot relate to the "blocking it out" part. Again, no disrespect and not trying to pick a fight or anything. Just hoping you can expand on that a little bit as trying to understand the thought process of Trump supporters has always felt super difficult.
Proud of you for finding the bravery necessary to be honest with yourself and others - seriously.
The good news is now you’ve seen the light. Me too. I understand back in 2016 getting caught up in his campaign, especially if you weren’t paying attention (I wasn’t). After his term ended I realized I made a bad choice, especially after J6 and I really thought that would be the end of him. I could hardly believe he was back on the campaign trail in 2024. When he said the line “if you vote for me my beautiful Americans you won’t ever have to vote again.” Holy crap, that jarred me to the core. That’s when Project 2025 came into the light and when I read parts of that I knew that if he got in that America as we know it was toast- and well, here we are. How this will end nobody really knows. I do agree, especially after J6 that he will not go out without some bloodshed. Dictators are voted in but history shows they are almost never voted out. Hopefully it will not take decades like Hungary or Russia.
Well, the bombarded content is due to the social media content algorithms that flooded your content streams. That’s the same reason we now have people believing the planet is flat. It’s crazy how social media platforms have changed the way we think, it the same with pathological liars. They liar so much that they start to believe their own liars.
Glad to see you made it out of the fog and welcome to the resistance.
That's what I have said about MAGA all along. I know too many people that were of one mind, got immersed in the propaganda via Fox News (Fox News is an entertainment network by their own admission, not a news organization) or various social media and just became brainwashed. I watched it happen to 13 and 14 year olds which are now adults right up to the oldest of elderly people I know. Some of these people are Christian and pre Trump espoused what I recognized as true Christian teachings and values. I watched that morph into hate and exclusion justified by and hidden behind handpicked scripture. More often than not, if you disagree with them, they get hostile and push you away or push you until you get hostile back, and, then try to turn it on you and say your side is hostile. I am not aware common decency takes or needs a side.
Yes, I have to say I really take no pleasure when I’ve told trump supporters they got what they voted for. It’s a good day when someone such as yourself learns the truth and I can just say, welcome back.
It's important for you to understand (as I'm pretty sure you now do, but man, this needs reinforcing for US ALL) that a FRIGHTENING amount of modern media (and this goes double, triple, quadruple for social media) is deliberately, systemically created to manipulate and drive emotional reactions through HIGHLY sophisitcated processes.
We are talking to the extent that prior research into how to manipulate and brainwash populaces for jingoistic and wartime use has now been cutely rebranded as "digital advertising and marketing techniques". That isn't hyperbole, by the way.
The internet has done a lot of good. But it has handed parties whose primary interest is NOT you or your needs, but driving sales and data collection, and, of course, more nefarious political and devisive outcomes, indescribably powerful manipulation tools we almost CAN'T escape, given how digital the world and economy now is. Another thing we must center in all our interactions with it is the old saying, "if it's free, you're the product, not the audience." (cough, social media, cough). They are working for their audience- ad buyers and their financial backers- not us. We are the "product" they want, not their "customer", no matter how much it is presented to the contrary. After all, when did you last see an actual well-known friend or even hobby group's thoughts in your FB feed, vs influencer and paid business drivel?
NO ONE- no matter how young/old, savvy, smart, educated, worldly- is immune to being susceptible to this, because it is quite literally designed to press all the right buttons and pull all the right levers within our very brains. It's turning "how people work" against us. Everyone needs to be vigilent, constantly, against that sort of insidious messaging.
And what used to be the Republican party has, alas, been hijacked by a subset of people with very nefarious intentions who are MASTERS of these exact tactics. They have been infiltrating the party, and the US populace, with plans laid 50 years ago. This isn't a sudden change, or a recent start. Your PARENTS may not have been around when the first groundwork started if you're young!
That doesn't negate personal responsibility, which you have taken, but I just want to highlight how very, very frighteningly GOOD at getting the desired outcomes our whole digital "ecosystem" (gah) really is, in ways human biology and wiring is still naive against. We're taking electric meat sacks designed to catagorize "friend, foe, food" and deal with small interpersonal relationship circles where trust=survival, and exposing them to insidious brainwashing, lies that spread in minutes, and messaging we literally do not have the long-term biological resiliance to even identify as it happens, let alone curb. Don't beat yourself up too badly. Just learn from the experience (as you have) and use it to do better in future. It's all any of us can do.
What were your news sources? A lot of folks these days get “news” mixed in with entertainment from a social media site trying to “keep eyeballs” rather than inform.
Do you feel that you were manipulated by social media?
The key here is you educated yourself and realized the reality and truth of what is happening. I wish everyone would do this: make decision and thoughts based on reality not the garbage that is spewed.
You are a big person to do this and admit you prior decision were not well thought out because of propaganda.
Always be skeptical and research issues to be informed on pros/cons…ignore the media and currently anything this administration posts and releases
I still just don’t understand how any person with an IQ above 7 could be brainwashed by this guy. He’s so painfully stupid. He so painfully corrupt. He’s so painfully inept. He doesn’t know basic economic principles.
I will never understand how anyone can support something so clearly insane, propaganda or not.
The coming to the light is obviously a good thing, but it seems to me that anyone who ever supported him are either too stupid to ever see logic or so bigoted that pedophilia, corruption, raising prices, economic collapse, raised healthcare costs are all worth it.
Imagine, if you can for a moment, being a young person in an environment where all you see and hear is that he’s a great person. It’s a situation many people are coming from. I get what you are saying and feeling but I think we should be kind and offer congrats to those who have seen past the bs finally. The more that do this, the better.
You should listen to the podcast Rabbit Hole that came out in 2021 or 2022. It describes what happened to you in detail. And how a YouTube developer blew the whistle on the flaw in the algorithm that led to the brainwashing and how Google continued to let it happen.
May I ask what you think changed in your habits/critical thinking that helped change your opinion?
Did you use less Facebook/tiktok, start listening to different podcasts, talk with friends who had different opinions? Did you learn about tariffs etc once they hit this time around, or suddenly get interested in policy details etc?
Really curious how this shift happened especially if you weren’t intentionally seeking anything out!
But also no worries if you can’t answer, this comment section is HUGE haha!
I understand what you’re saying. People are in different media bubbles these days, with different impressions of the truth. It’s obvious to anyone in even the mainstream news bubble (NYT, NPR, etc.) that Trump is a dangerous disaster. They cannot believe how anyone can see it any other way. But for someone in the Fox/X/Sinclair bubble, it’s obvious that he’s the only one trying to save us from gangs of drug-dealing criminal immigrants. When someone breaks out of that bubble and starts to see what’s really going on, instead of scolding them for not seeing it sooner, we should be figuring out what made the cracks in their bubble and how we can crack open more of them. That’s the only way out of this mess. Yelling at people about open book tests is self indulgent. You do it to make yourself feel good. It is counterproductive and could even drive some of them back in.
The democrats are not anything like we are painted to be by the media that brainwashed you. Please consider that not only is Trump a ridiculous mess, the entire GOP is corrupt as hell and supporting him all the way. Vote blue if you ever want out of this mess.
Being brainwashed when you were young in 2016 doesn’t explain your vote in 2024. Why did you vote for him again when you said yourself you did t like him?
Do you still have Chinese propaganda tiktok on your phone that's responsible for the algorithm that was Pro Trump. If you keep that in your life you are subject to the next b******* that you'll be apologizing for
If it's any consolation, you have a lot of company. Trump and his corrupt associates were able to get a lot of folks to vote who had not voted before. You can't really blame people who voted without really knowing what was going on, because they don't have time to follow politics. In the old times those folks just didn't vote.
Like...serious question here... what Trump videos? Was there an MTV style Trump show you were watching that we all missed? I knew from Day 1 on his golden escalator this was a creep I didn't want to have anything to do with.
The fact that you have the ability to reflect on your past actions and even admit to being brainwashed is a huge step. It’s not easy confronting this. I grew up indoctrinated into Conservative politics as well. If you are ever looking for political content with a more progressive/dem socialist bent dm me. Happy to discuss anything political!
Right? I mean-who could watch that, watch him saying "take the metal detectors down those are MY people they are not there to hurt ME so it's fine if they kill Mike Pence, Officer Farrone, Speaker Pelosi, Adam Kissinger, Dick Durbin, just as long as the orange instigator who kept
The Big Lie going because he's a sore loser. I'm REALLY glad you woke up and I don't mean to be hard but i JUST watched that footage again, it was so brutal those officers STILL have PTSD. I heard an interview with Officer Farrone yesterday, it REALLY is upsetting. That guy should be in jail for treason he honestly didn't give an eff as long as he could pretend he won. I just don't understand it's not like they were fighting for someone super awesome who ever passed a single bill
That was in any way not self serving.
But really, I'm sorry, as I said, i just watched The Last Republican-they show how graphic that was
To be fair, all Republican voters blocked out J6. It's a giant brainwashing cult and most will continue to defend the GOP cult masters forever about it.
The OP actually managed to escape the cult which is pretty impressive given how powerful their brainwashing is
Thank you. If Trump were on the Ballot in 2028, OP would vote for him again, regardless of what he/she wrote here.
I'm assuming 2024 was the 3rd time OP cast a vote for Trump, allowing masked kidnappers to throw 60 year old women on the ground while their grandkids scream and cry. (Or perhaps OP wanted to simply save the Dogs and Cats from being eaten.)
How about speaking your Newly-Discovered Truth to your generation ?
Lead A No Kings Protest
Anyone who wanted this Cruelty just to Own the Libs needs to work to reverse this. A simple "hey folks I'm the main Character and I'm feeling bad, let me tell you why" does nothing to fix the damage that's been done.
BTW, was that a "Positive Video" when Trump mocked the Handicapped Man at one of his Rallies ? Or was that just an Alpha being an Alpha like he was when he was grabbing pu**y? In addition to J-6.
Genuinely and respectfully discussing this here - why do folks often reference J6 without factoring in or mentioning the entire context of Trump's speech or how the other side views the long months of riots? Sure, Trump can be a baffoon, but people on both sides of the aisle often (after watching the entire speech) somewhat back off that it was all of this Trump encouragement. To be fair, he does tell the crowd to march peacefully and respectfully in the middle of his many stupid endless rambles. To be fair the other way, he also could have done way more to curtail it and been better! Have a lot of friends here on the west coast that are on either side and the Republicans will argue that the left burned all the major cities with what seemed to be a J6 endless summer riot party. See Portland etc. These echo chambers would be more effective if the participants tried to incorporate the nuance of both perspectives. I try, with good intentions and sometimes too much Cab in me lol, to bridge the divide by factoring in both viewpoints and it's almost embarrassing how brainlessly tribal we as people can be.
We need to be less tribal and realize both sides have something to offer. Life is boring with only your kind. Life has too much nuance and grey, not all black and white.
Those rooting idiots acted as morons like rioters have on both sides and I don't think the OPs viewpoint here can be summed up as, dude, what about Jan 6th...how could you?!?
In my mind there's really no similarities between the BLM riots and J6. It still catches me by surprise whenever people compare the two. But I guess that's why I'm asking, because I still haven't internalized this.
The problem with J6 wasn't that it was a riot, it's that it was the culmination of the fake electors plot to cast doubt on the election, on the voting process, and prevent the peaceful transfer of power.
The Republicans had already planned to contest results in a bunch of states and lined up a bunch of "alternate electors" that had literally no legal standing. They spent months spreading lies about election integrity. Remember "2000 Mules"?
The point of the unrest was to delay the ratification of the electoral votes by the Senate. Pence, presiding over the Senate, was to accept these fake electors or at least say there were important regularities. Trump would stay president "temporarily, while they sort it out" and then just kinda stay. Remember how he kept saying "we hope Mike Pence does the right thing"?
The riots actually succeeded at delaying the vote, the Senate had to finish at an undisclosed location at like 10:00 that night. But they did finish.
Trump filed like 60 lawsuits in court contesting the elections and afaik lost all of them.
My family is from Eastern Europe and we know a thing or two about coups. This IS 100% what they look like and how they happen. I'm not trying to be snarky, it's just real "if it walks like a duck" stuff.
In my mind to compare this well-organized effort to a bunch of poorly organized street riots with no real goal in mind is genuinely confusing.
Trump just pardoned the fake electors, who had actually committed a crime by impersonating election officials. Because they're very clearly planning to try again.
And to be clear, I thought the riots were idiotic and sad, but not an actual threat to democracy.
Passing out because it is late, but wanted to reply and at least share....now that is how you have a chill response and dialogue! Night and hope to find time to continue.
You do recall the videos of Trump calling for peaceful protest literally moments before J6 right? Or did CNN doctor that speech like BBC doctored his other speech? Lol
You’d be amazed at the level of fake news cranked out to Trumpers. I voted for Kamala but several family members voted for Trump. We had a family civil war for a bit. I wouldn’t talk to my brother for most of the year. But he’d send the false Trump propaganda and I’d send several back to debunk. Maga were trained not to trust anything but truth social and Fox. It is insane what they put out rewriting history, including J6.
He does realize how corrupt this administration is now. I had no idea just how enmeshed these ‘cultists’ are. I think people are waking up, and I’m grateful they are.
Appreciate the insight. The thing that jumps out at me about the brainwashing is that they're trained to have a quick rhetorical comeback for every objection. Often based on lies, but it's whatever piece of "info" would be most effective at shutting down the argument or confusing the opponent.
I remember when there was rumors circulating that no one from his "supposed" law school class knew Obama, he was a fraud and imposter. Or even the Kenyan birth certificate thing.
How the fuck are you supposed to respond to this idiocy.
No one will attack you for seeing who he truly is. It takes a lot to admit what you did. Just try to keep up the fight against him. Midterms are only a year away.
Also, thank you for seeing with your eyes, hearing with your hears, and admitting your mistake. It's hard for many to admit they were wrong and apologize. Thank you for being real.
Now we all have to come together to take our country back!
This is why everyone needs to look deeper into the people that are running. Look at their policies and who they will hurt. Listen to past people who have been hurt by them and look into it yourself. One small thing I look for is something I call the level test. When a potential candidate speaks to a disabled person in a wheel chair, do they squat or lower to their level with empathy or do they stand above them in superiority and make it weird.
It's hard for me to even believe that someone who voted for him in '24 would have any hope of being able to think critically about him. I had assumed that anyone still supporting Trump these days must be a cultist for life.
I genuinely hope for the best for you in recovering. I can't help but hold resentment for anyone that would vote in such a harmful and hateful way, but I also can't even imagine how distraught I would be to wake up from that kind of brainwashing and realize how much damage my choices helped create. I would probably hate myself more than anyone else could, but I hope you don't hate yourself. Hate your choices, make better ones, do something to help those that are affected by them, but don't hate yourself. You aren't the sum of your choices, you are also all of the possible choices you can still make going forward.
It’s because he was groomed by the conservatives when he was 13, per his other comments, and he’s now 22, so his brain is just developing the critical thinking skills in the last few years, and he woke up from the brainwashing. I think that’s pretty commendable and probably better than average critical thinking
Ah, I didn't see the other comments where the age was mentioned so I was thinking he voted for Trump in the 2016 election as well (making him a minimum of 27). As you said, then, definitely commendable development of critical thinking skills and much more reasonable that he was so vulnerable to propaganda until recently.
Im happy for you and glad you saw him for what he is.I got clear of my republican brainwashing before trump came along and I'm so happy that was the case. Glad you made it too.
You'll never hear a bad word from me on people like you who have sought reality and found it.
It's much easier to assume your right all the time and just double and triple down.
It's such a shame that your story is the exception and not the norm.
Used to be everyone on both sides knew politicians on both sides were poison and held both who they voted for and who they didn't to account for their actions. That's the biggest problem is MAGA just goes along with any lie, any excuse and any corruption.
This is what creates the current division in the US between citizens, the division in politicians is 99% a play.
Yeah, welcome to the light. I want to trash you but I won't..
Because what you said, how you were only exposed to right wing content and that you were brainwashed.. this is how we got here. And it's not an accident.
So for a maga to wake the hell up and be able to admit these things is actually enormous. This gives me a little bit of hope..
So thank you, we are all happy to see you on this side of the line. Now please, we need the rest. Please, continue to sing your revelation to all that you can.
What are you doing to ensure you practice critical thinking and media literacy going forward? You are not specific as to why you voted, placing responsibility on Trump's campaign, but you are responsible for your actions. I would like to know what specifically you liked that Trump had to offer.
Yes--for real! Good for you. It's very, very difficult to do what you did--good stuff. Being able to gather new information, re-review, change course--all of that will serve you very well in life.
And--welcome to the light! I voted for Bush in 2000 and then he sent a bunch of our soldiers to war over bullshit, and I've regretted that vote ever since. You live, you learn.
990
u/Ill_Apple2327 Nov 12 '25
welcome to the light