What I learned from interacting with Trump supporters after one hour on Facebook...

Several years after his false election, I am STILL ferreting out Trump supporters from my friends' list on Facebook. Occasionally one will really shock me and I will be forced to thwart my personal rule of not engaging the insanity, for the sake of my own sanity, to question why they are posting such hateful spiteful and completely immoral conscienceless falsehoods. Against my better reason, I spent one hour debating a group of people who claimed that liberals were just as bad as White Supremacists. This judgement seemed to be solely based on one article featuring what appeared to be about 15 or 20 people standing in front of Mitch McConnell's house, and one protester's statement that Mitch should be "stabbed through the heart". Suddenly, all liberals became psychotic murderers. Which, also, in their eyes, completely made all of Trump's xenophobic, hate speech acceptable and reasonable. It also seemed to make White Supremacists the "misunderstood" faction, and liberals the problem to be "eradicated".

When I attempted to interject reason and state that, if they didn't want all conservatives to be lumped in with Nazi's then they shouldn't lump all liberals in with the fringe on our side, they basically told me to go to hell. This went on for an hour. Every time I thought I was getting through to one person, another MUCH LOUDER Trumper would weigh in and basically state that nothing I could ever say would make them change their minds. Is this what propaganda brainwashing looks like? I guess it is. Is this what our grandparents who fought in WWII faced when fighting the Nazi regime? It weighs very heavily on my soul that my grandfather fought in WWII and came back a shell of a human, but helped to win the war against fascism and Nazism, only to have our country unravel now, 80 years later, in a matter of a few short years...

Meanwhile, we've had three mass shootings, and a possible fourth today (being confirmed) in the past four days. All following the hate speech of our sitting president and even citing it in their manifestos. It's more than my mind is able to process, honestly. My heart is breaking. And I think about my own city of Austin, Texas. We've been under fire since the beginning of this insanity for being an asylum city for immigrants. Our own Governor Iron Sides has condemned us and threatened us time and time again. But we have held strong thanks to the leadership of Mayor Adler and our brilliant and diverse City Council.

We are a city were ALL ARE WELCOME. We will continue our commitment to protecting all that are within our city limits and beyond. But just because we espouse this credo of love and acceptance as a city, it does not keep some Trumpet madman armed to the teeth with firearms from silently walking into our midsts and unleashing a reign of terror on those that sad individual believes unworthy of this country's protection. Needless to say my anxiety has been on the high side of the spectrum today. But what do we do? We can't just hole up in our homes and never venture outside. Because that is how they win. They win through fear. Through intimidation. Through the harrowing depression that causes a sense of defeat.

We will not let them defeat us. We will continue to believe in the principles this country was founded on. We will continue to protect our immigrants, because WE ARE ALL IMMIGRANTS!!! We will not bow to intimidation tactics. Mitch McConnell can try to block our ability to vote -- WE WILL VOTE! Trump will try to block our ability to vote -- WE WILL VOTE! WE WILL VOTE THEM OUT!

And if the conservatives I have attempted to have "reasonable" conversations with want to continue to vilify the average non-Trump supporter, go ahead. Your world is a sad one, an isolationist one, a world filled with hate and fear and suppression. You could work with us. The non-crazy people who don't believe in Trump's rhetoric. Again, if you don't want to be called a Nazi for being conservative. Stop calling me a "wingnut" for wanting AK-47 assault rifles banned.

Maybe let's all sit down and talk. Not in media mouthpiece sound bites and Facebook headlines. How about a real discussion about why we're all so fucking broken in this country. And why there are so many people so filled with hate and fear. I guarantee that the color of someone's skin has almost nothing to do with the source of that person's hate. And a whole lot to do with the way the government has been fucking EVERYONE over for a very long time. Why not work together for a government we can all get behind, that supports EVERYONE, and makes sure that EVERYONE has a helping hand?

Sigh...

#MoscowMitch #trump #impeachtrump #conservative #liberal #TraitorTrump #politics #talkingpoints #massshootings #EnoughIsEnough #DaytonStrong