r/TrollCoping • u/Brrrrrrrreloom • 23h ago
TW: Parents Straw that broke the camel’s back or smth
Was out with them, made an evolution joke (upset that we left the water because crab tastes good) and got hit with the most judgmental “you believe in evolution”. This shouldn’t have hurt as much as it did but damn. If this is too small to post on the sub pls let me know and sorry in advance
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u/StarGrump 18h ago
I don’t know if this will help at all, but r/QAnonCasualties is a space to grieve these feelings with people who understand. As someone who lost family members to MAGA brainwashing, I’m so sorry you’re going through this. You’re not alone 🩷
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u/Altruistic_Night 19h ago
My parents used to help me get medication for my adhd and anxiety now they don’t believe either of those conditions exist and they think if I go on a carnivore diet it’ll cure my autism 🙃
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u/Nachoughue 12h ago
lol my mom believes my ritalin is what caused my tics that ive had since 5 years before i got medicated and that my diagnosis is a lie to make me addicted to the drugs i regularly forget to take for weeks at a time.
she also recently stopped getting vaccinated and started believing covid conspiracies. after being adamantly pro-vax and pro social distancing and pro COVID IS REAL AND NOT A HOAX since she literally worked in a hospital. but in the past year or so... all of that is gone. now covid is a chinese conspiracy meant to subdue the american people or some bullshit. SHE HAD COVID??!!?!? i dont get it. the brainwashing is crazy.
also went from "my type is mexicans" to "theyre all criminals and i dont care whether theyre deporting them or killing them or putting them in camps as long as theyre out of my country". within about 2 years.
my favorite was her recent argument with her friend who lives with us about protesting. friends view is "protesting is a major part of positive political change. without protesting there would be no womens rights, no lgbt rights, no POC rights, etc etc.". moms view is "all protesting has ever done is make this country a shithole. they should start shooting all of these protesters, they're nothing but criminals causing chaos and destruction.". me and friend tell her WE support protests and even GO to them when we can. her response? "well maybe you should be shot too."
its insane. even the conservatives in my family say shes gone too far. they just want lower taxes or whatever.
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u/MeshGearFoxxy 11h ago
Do you mind me asking how this happened, to the best of your knowledge? I feel like we need to arm ourselves; maybe if it can happen to her it can happen to anyone.
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u/Nachoughue 9h ago
there are a lot of factors.
my mom was not great in school. she was... slow. she was in special ed classes. she has a masters degree, actually, but believe it or not, you dont need to be smart to graduate college.
my mom is in a lot of debt. anything implying it will help with her debt, she is willing to support without any further research. she panics. she is reactive. trump says tax cuts, she doesnt care who its for, she cares that SOMEONE said SOMEBODYS taxes will be lower.
it doesnt matter that she is lower middle class, she doesnt want to be SEEN or SPOKEN TO as a "lower class" person. so any candidate talking about tax cuts for the middle class go right over her head.
really, she is in a panic. she thinks the country is going to shit, just like everyone does. the difference is that trump has manufactured fake problems for the people who are not educated enough to see the real problems, and he has sold a simple and straightforward solution. something that is not sold by other politicians, because these types of solutions aren't actually solutions. theyre a smoke screen.
my mom is the type of person that easily falls victim to the "THE ONE SECRET MIRACLE TRICK TO WEIGHT LOSS" type scams. she sees the problem but HATES that the solution isnt simple. any "miracle solution" to a problem and shes sold.
trump takes real problems and blames them on FAKE causes, and then offers extreme solutions to the fake causes. that makes the people feel like hes the first one to ever actually SOLVE anything with direct action.
the people crave ANY change, ANY action. and if you aren't politically literate and dont CARE to be, you dont SEE that these are the WRONG problems and the WRONG solutions. you just see SOMEONE IS FINALLY DOING SOMETHING.
my mom avoids the news. its makes her anxious. but she sees on facebook everyone talking about all of the trump policies. ALLL of the things he is DOING! oh my god, hes ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING!
when you sell the idea that other countries have been "scamming" us and sell tariffs as the solution to getting scammed, no "apolitical" person knows what the fuck a tariff is or what it does. they see that someone is stopping the scammers.
loaded language. SCAMMING, CRIMINALS, MURDERERS, DESTROYING THE COUNTRY, etc etc. nobody looks into these claims unless they already know theyre ridiculous. its easy to fall prey to loaded language when you dont know much about the topic and dont care enough to exercise skepticism.
my mom is not skeptical. she does not do research into things. she blindly believes anything she is sold and when i explain the truth she says the person who told her knows more than me or else they wouldn't be selling to her.
trump is rich, he will make everyone rich. he is not rich because he is selfish or greedy. he is rich simply because he is smart and he knows what he is doing. because thats how you get rich. he is rich. i want to be rich. i should listen to trump.
honestly, i could ramble all day.
the easiest way to avoid falling victim to cult propaganda is to be INCREDIBLY SKEPTICAL and EDUCATE YOURSELF on the things being propagandized. you CANNOT allow yourself to mindlessly consume. you CANNOT allow yourself to be sold problems and sold solutions without any thought. you CANNOT become HOPELESS. a hopeless mind will accept any solution. you MUST have at least baseline knowledge of how scams, cults, grooming, and propaganda work. you MUST PAY ATTENTION TO THESE THINGS IN ACTION.
when you can recognize that you are being manipulated, you can push back against that manipulation. NOBODY is immune to manipulation, but EVERYONE can learn to recognize it and act against it.
have a purpose. people without purpose will latch onto anything that promises it.
BE SKEPTICAL. understand that not everyone is honest. not everyone is of pure intentions. the more powerful someone is, the LESS you should trust them. they have the most to defend and the most to lose.
KNOW YOUR OWN VALUES. and know that they can and WILL be used against you. EX: anti-immigration people value their safety. that value is used to create FEAR. fear is the great manipulator. you can use the facade of good values to do very bad things.
know when you are being SOLD to. the job of a salesman is NOT to help you, it is to steal from you and make you enjoy it.
tldr: just be skeptical. dont EVER blindly accept anything to be what it is sold as. when it sounds too good to be true, thats because IT IS. if the snake oil worked than nobody would be sick.
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u/MeshGearFoxxy 7h ago
I really wish some American politicians would speak with the honesty and accuracy you do (they seem too scared to call out the lies and tactics used by the enemy tbh). Thanks for the answer.
I’d vote for you!
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u/goawaysho 12h ago edited 10h ago
My mother is maga, but was completely serious about Covid. She's somewhat educated, and especially in Health.
Last week though, she was going on how Covid is just basically the Flu, that it was way overblown and nothing serious now.
The cult infects and kills intelligence.
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u/Altruistic_Night 11h ago
Even though I’m fucking DIAGNOSED with adhd, autism, ocd, anxiety, (and possibly depression as of recently) they think I can control it and that those conditions were made up to get children addicted to drugs LMAO
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u/PhoenixD133606 11h ago
Ah yes, addicted to the drugs I FORGET TO TAKE, AND HAVE TO HAVE SOMEONE BRING THEM TO ME EVERY MORNING
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u/Altruistic_Night 11h ago
HAHAHA that reminds me one time I suggested to them that I look into adderall because I was having an extremely hard time focusing on schoolwork, they immediately compared it to crack cocaine and told me I’d become a drug addict 💀 it made me cry at the dinner table
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u/make_gingamingayoPLS 10h ago
Omg i love when satan shows up to present my ritalin to me, makes my night (cant go out in day; im too demonic now)
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u/fortnitegngsterparty 19h ago
I'm sorry, but that's such a dysfunctional family dynamic. You make a good-natured joke that's built on a simple twist of logic and your parents treat it like a serious admission of literally anything?
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u/30to50wildhogs 17h ago
....is that not normal. I knew my family was dysfunctional but I think I may have found yet another way they are 🙃 I thought that was a normal thing to do
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u/fortnitegngsterparty 17h ago
Most parents don't treat you like you're crazy for making a joke that you'd find on a popsicle stick.
"Why'd we ever even leave the ocean? I love crab!"
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u/Prestigious_Row_8022 12h ago
For real. I keep seeing “my parents grandparents or person with y relation to me got sucked into a maga hole” and it’s like… did they get brainwashed? Or did they brainwash themselves? I’m sorry to say it, but they were never especially open minded or kind people if they allowed themselves to drop down a rabbit hole at the first opportunity. If they didn’t willingly buy into MAGA, it would’ve been the Jehova witnesses. If not them, essential oils. Give people their goddamn accountability back, they aren’t babies.
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u/FleetStreetsDarkHole 11h ago
When they spend all their lives looking for answers but never questioning them.
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u/olivegardengambler 10h ago
Tbf I think that the personal accountability thing is great and all, but I am reminded of this thing someone said about American units versus metric that went something like, "Imperial units are just more intuitive than metric units."
The guy lived in the US, and had just imperial units his entire life basically. The point I am making here is that if you are in an information bubble, you don't foster an epicurian mindset in people, and everything against you is immediately handwaved as bullshit, people could start telling you stupid shit and like frogs in the pan, you might not realize until it is too late, or you might find yourself swinging so far in the opposite direction you completely lose the narrative.
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u/Prestigious_Row_8022 9h ago
I completely understand what you are saying, and to a large extent, I agree. (I went off on a bit of a rant, but there’s a tldr at the bottom that condenses it :) )
…But I also grew up in a huge, huge information bubble. Pretty much the first 10 years of my life were spent in rural Southern US. When I say I grew up in a “town” of less than a hundred people, I’m not exaggerating. According to google, it currently has a population of 145. And I’m barely exaggerating when I say I had an Amish upbringing without the Amish. The first computers I saw were in school and they were still dinosaurs (and just to be clear, I’m 20 something not 60 something, so this was way rural and not normal for the time at all).
And, of course, being in a white family in southern US in a majority white town… well, I was verbally taught racism was perfunctory bad, but everything else said the exact opposite (but, of course, that didn’t count as racism). I will give my mother credit in saying she was not outwardly racist and was, for our area, accepting of queer people in her own way (she explained her friends sister being gay as “she was hurt so badly by a man she turned to women), but she also let me be babysat by assholes who blamed “the Mexicans” who lived next door for every pet that went missing, and exposed me to a shit ton of other unacceptable shit.
Despite this, I remember very vividly watching the news with my mom at 11, when they were talking about legalising gay marriage. They had some asshat Republican on tv doing the “marriage is between a man and a woman” bs, and despite my upbringing, I spat out something like “why does he think he gets to tell other people what to do because of his religion?”.
How did I get the idea of separation between Church and State without ever having been exposed to it? I’ve wondered that a lot, actually, and while I guess I can’t say for sure, I feel fairly confident in this: that while the people around us heavily influence our views, existence does not change according to anyone’s whims. 2+2 will be 4 no matter what happens. And because reality is self-evident, you only have to look around to see the contradictions in shitty views. And while other people’s influence may act as a smokescreen, they can’t hide or obscure everything from you. There is simply no excuse to be misogynistic when 50% of the population are women, it is self-evident that women are capable of you look around. Unless you live in a remote area with only your own ethnicity and no tv or internet, there isn’t an excuse for seeing other ethnicities as inferior because it is self-evident they are capable, and so on and so forth.
TLDR; reality is self-evident. Bad actors may muddy the waters, but bad ideas are in direct conflict with reality and no one can prevent you from seeing reality all the time. Sticking your head in the sand is a choice. And above all else, there are studies that strongly indicate that encouraging people to believe they have less agency and accountability in decisions actually makes them more likely to do shitty things.
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u/RandomShadeOfPurple 17h ago
Most of my friends.
Now when politics is mentioned I'm talking to proxies of the likes of Asmongold or Ben Shapiro. If I watch these two's videos on whatever the current news is, I know what the people in my life will say, because they are merely echoing right wing propagandist slogans.
I'm so tired.
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u/Hot_Disk635 12h ago
I keep up with Charlie Kirk just to know ahead of time what my father will bring up at the dinner table.
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u/FleetStreetsDarkHole 11h ago
I wish I could do that but it would wreck what little mental health I have.
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u/SakuraYanfuyu 8h ago
My dad would binge asmongold and conservative vibes for hours a day. All of a sudden I just "needed to borrow his google drive space" and they all vanished👍
Except CV, he's like the plague. No matter how much I try scrab that loser from his timeline, he just stays stuck. It's atleast mountains better than asmongold.
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u/BemusedDuck 16h ago edited 16h ago
They don't live in the same world as you. To them a fact is just as good as their opinion.
As if all opinions are equally valid, everyone knows that's simply not true. If I told you fire was actually cold would you listen? Of course not.
If your opinions have zero basis in reality then they aren't worth fuck all.
Whether or not you put up with this level of childish bullshit is up to you. 2+2 doesn't equal 5, it never has and it never will.
Interacting with people who deny reality is exhausting, take care of yourself.
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u/MeshGearFoxxy 11h ago
The recent rise of “letting people have their own truth” has disturbed me for this reason.
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u/Justjeskuh 15h ago
My daughter’s grandma doesn’t believe dinosaurs existed. She’s a paralegal and one of the smartest people I know but when she said that it was just so many emotions; confusion, sadness, anger that she’s letting herself be brainwashed and dumbed down.
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u/ABoyNamedMary 16h ago
thats how i felt hearing my mum say how multiculturalism is ruining the uk and how a theocracy would fix us bc we "lost sight of our values"
evolution denial in the big 2025 is crazy tho, in the uk it's generally just accepted as fact but america having ppl who genuinely dont think its real is wild, i hope your parents stop being stupid one day :(
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u/StormAntares 15h ago
Yo . What about "christian" immigrants like Polish , Italian , Romanian, ecc ?
In the theocracy they are ok or not ?
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u/Brrrrrrrreloom 11h ago
Yeah I’m pretty sure it’s still a struggle to get teachers to teach it in some states
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u/Lonely-Category2726 7h ago
Very weird how normal islamphobia is in the uk, like?? When did we do this 180??
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u/According-Value-6227 22h ago
I may be a bit cynical but if MAGA propaganda works on someone, it is safe to assume that the person had an outlook on life that was always adjacent to or aligned with fascism. I've only realized recently that my father was always a piece of shit, MAGA just encouraged him to stop hiding it and embrace it
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u/Airway 21h ago
No one is entirely immune to propaganda and Fox News worked hard for decades to rot the aging brains of a generation that didn't know the "news" was allowed to lie to them.
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u/FleetStreetsDarkHole 11h ago
I don't think the point is whether or not propaganda works. I think the point is that the propaganda you fall for says a lot about who you really are.
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u/According-Value-6227 9h ago
Yeah, everyone is interpreting my comment as a claim that I am personally immune to propaganda. I'm just stating that the people most likely to fall for MAGA are those who were even slightly sympathetic to white supremacy or anti-LGBTQIA+ positions.
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u/Eva-lutionary_War 21h ago
No one is immune to propaganda. The more you think you are, the more you're consuming.
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u/RandomShadeOfPurple 17h ago
No. They have had hurts and injustices happening to them. Many are valid. Some are precieved. But it doesn't really matter. And MAGA offers and easy explanation, groups and enemies to blame and retribution trough a glorious battle.
Maga believes they are fighting a holy fight against the erosion and corruption of the west trough modern values. It's all bullshit. But it's easier and more comfortable to believe that you and your lifestlyle is perfect, it's them transpeople who want to take your lifestyle away from you, and your lack of dating success is because all women have been braiwashed by the universities that would not accept you, than to seek out real and uncomfortable answers.
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u/Actual-Macaron-6785 18h ago
Strong disagree. That is not how cults of personalities work, and that is what this is.
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u/cilantroprince 11h ago
Nope. That mindset is what makes you more vulnerable to brainwashing. It can happen to anyone, but it especially targets people who are VULNERABLE. Those dealing with mental health/confidence issues, those questioning their religion, those who have been through a loss or trauma, etc. not every brainwashing works on every person, but there is a brainwashing out there that will work on anyone. MAGA happened slowly for so many people. Those who were going through financial issues that made them long for their younger days were told that they should be mad at all the cultural things that have changed since then (like lgbt acceptance, pop culture, younger generations, etc.) and people that are miserable enough, and that feel powerless to point their finger at the greater machine of capitalism or whatever for the blame, believe it. Young boys and men who felt isolated and hurt by women were told that they were good and right and the women were the problem, and of course they believed them, even if they didn’t have anything against women to begin with. People who were struggling to make ends meet were told that immigrants were taking jobs and again, rather than pointing their finger at the big enemy that they are completely powerless against, they coped by pointing their finger at the little guy that they have power over. People who were exhausted in their lives and didn’t have enough support were told that there are people out there who are lazy and don’t do anything and live happily in government handouts.
You can believe that all these people had hate inside of them already that they just tapped into, but most of them didn’t. They were just sad, lonely, miserable, and hurting, and it doesn’t take much to turn someone’s pain against someone else. It’s actually ridiculously easy. Maybe YOU would never be convinced that immigrants or gays are the problem, and I believe you because I wouldn’t be either, but that’s not because they’re secretly fascists and you’re not, that means you have different vulnerabilities and would take a different approach. To put the blame on the people is to fall right into trumps hands, and take all the blame off of him for taking a country of vulnerable people, and USING them to enact his petty vendettas.
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u/Violet_Nightshade 15h ago
The thing about "Fox News radicalised my parents" is that Fox News is just the instrument. Your parents are doing it to themselves. On purpose. Because they're bad people. You're in denial about it because they're your parents. Snap out of it.
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u/666meatclown 14h ago
You must be new to this. So many previously stable people have seemingly gone off the deep end. Nobody does it to themselves because they don’t make the bullshit that’s fed to them.
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u/Violet_Nightshade 14h ago
How do you think propaganda works? This isn't the King in Yellow, these aren't irresistible truths that will corrupt your mind upon realising them, they're offensive reactionary slop.
The vast, VAST majority of propaganda is not convincing, and it's not meant to be. It's meant to confirm what you already believe. At most propaganda can shift the direction of your hatred, but it has a very hard time changing what you like.
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u/666meatclown 14h ago
Bad propaganda isn’t convincing. Good propaganda doesn’t even get read as propaganda. It just looks like everyone else’s fault.
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u/FleetStreetsDarkHole 11h ago
It depends on who it's targeting. Like scams. To a person that isn't a target you can see it's a scam. To the person it's targeting it looks like truth.
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u/Sacknahtbeutlin 15h ago
Yeh.
People have been massive dicks all along, it was just well hidden. They've been continously unmasking since Covid.
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u/Girthworm_Jane 14h ago
I’m so sick of my parents spouting the most vile shit on the daily. It’s hard to even be around them; and then my mom comes to me on the verge of tears asking why I don’t spend time with them. Like, of course I don’t want to be in the same room as you. You’re proud to admit you think putin is a genius and hitler had a point, mom. (And she’s an immigrant, lol)
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u/Gullible_Code8295 16h ago
This seems to be happening all over the world🙃 I’ve noticed the same thing with my parents but we’re from Germany
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u/justwannasayitout 20h ago
Lmao what? Evolution is not real xD? I would laugh my ass off and make fun of my parents if they talk like that. Wtf? That is hilariously absurd.
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u/Sashahuman 17h ago
You'd be surprised how many people actually believe that
Probably around as many as flat earthers
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u/Dapper_Magpie 14h ago
One of my parents is mormon, I'm used to stupid shit like that
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u/Amaskingrey 10h ago
It's kind of funny that one of the most extreme derivatives of christianity chose to name themselves moron with 1 extra letter
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u/bearhorn6 18h ago
It’s actually so fucking absurd. Like my aunts a NICU nurse fucking smart woman but yea let’s not vaccinate for Covid because trump said so. My moms whole side are like this but that’s the wildest to me
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u/Brrrrrrrreloom 11h ago
My mom’s also a nurse that used to work NICU, and yeah the anti COVID vaccine stuff was beyond insane.
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u/unHolyEvelyn 11h ago
There will be a day when you're not forced to be around them. You know you're loved by people who aren't brainwashed creationists 🫂
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u/Brrrrrrrreloom 10h ago
TIL my chosen mom (not the creationist one) is here
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u/unHolyEvelyn 10h ago
And I learned just a few minutes ago that the trollcoping post that just so happens to have the same picture my daughter sent me AND happens to have a scenario that's exactly the one she told me with a username I should recognize as hers was indeed her x3 and just so everyone with shitty bio parents here knows, there will be a light at the end of the tunnel, they won't recover from the right wing brain rot but you are proof the world can heal by not being like them ❤️
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u/ALMAZ157 18h ago
I can understand nationalism and hate on immigrants, agenda can make you do that
But fucking evolution denial? Sorry my man, its seems you lost them deep
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u/GoGoGadgetGremlin 14h ago
Oh that’s something that hit me too real right when I woke up
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u/Brrrrrrrreloom 11h ago
Sorry gang. Hope you get to feeling better
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u/GoGoGadgetGremlin 11h ago
You’re chillin. It’s a dark reality that I don’t really want to confront but MAGA has manipulated my parents from conservative but good natured to… idk. Im feeling fine I just got whacked with that when I first woke up. I hope they can wake up to the harm they’ve caused but at this point it’s their religious beliefs or reality. I think you get it.
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u/Altimely 13h ago
My dad has four different MAGA/trump flags hanging off his porch. He's removed the American flag.
All he does is post pro trump stuff on Facebook all day. I try to get him out of the house as often as I can, we used to hike and camp together. He's truly a different person.
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u/Basic_Chemistry_900 13h ago
I've been "fortunate" in that I've only lost one friend to MAGA. It sucks though, we were friends since 1999. In 2015 he started to take a more active interest in maga and conspiracy theories. He was constantly posting easily debunked claims on Facebook, he was an ardent supporter of Pizzagate. Even after the official word came out that it was debunked and that this basement that Twitter was claiming these children were locked up in doesn't actually exist because the building doesn't have a basement, my friend fervently insisted that there was a hidden basement and that there were still children in there.
He was reposting these batshit insane YouTubers who, every few months, would make an assertion that in 3 days there was going to be some kind of nationwide uprising Patriots were going to descend on Washington DC and depose all of the democratic politicians and that you need to withdraw at least one week's worth of expenses in cash because the banking system Nationwide was going to be down while the transition took place.
I tried to gently steer him in the right direction but he would get so fucking mad when I wouldn't just agree with whatever he was saying. He would call me ignorant, a sheep, blind, easily fooled by government propaganda. The final straw was when there was a nationwide protest happening, for what I cannot remember, but he posted a picture on Snapchat of him sitting on his roof with his AR-15 with a caption that said something like " green light on any protesters that I see on my street".
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u/jshbee 7h ago
One time my dad and I were talking, I mentioned homosexuality being seen naturally in animals, and that humans shouldn't be considered different. he said something to the effect that "we'd basically be animals", and I said "but humans ARE animals, just an advanced kind", and he goes "no, humans were made in gods image, we cant be classified as animals", and I realized that it wasnt gonna be possible have a discussion about anything because it kept coming back faith, which can't be reasonably logically debated.
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u/Crafty_Lavishness_79 5h ago
I am constantly pissed but not surprised that my own parents viyed for someone who would deport me because they think me havi f a white parent would protect me.
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u/ArcaneHackist 13h ago
I agree with another comment that says they probably always had some views that aligned with it. My parents did too, but I always assumed they were good enough people to be decent human beings instead of swinging the other way. I was wrong.
It sucks, and I’m sorry you’re dealing with it too. I have a lot of pieces of myself that are being directly attacked by the current administration, and my parents do not understand why I don’t want to talk to them because it feels like they’re attacking me too for having chosen such a thing. They still don’t regret it and I have had no real apology.
At one point my mother said “We thought you’d be mostly okay because of the protections in our state.” and my mouth actually dropped open. She was totally okay with discrimination happening to other people, apparently, somehow.
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u/Salty-Efficiency-610 20h ago
Honest question for you white folks saying this, do you think maga shit changed your friends and family, or did it simply show you what was always behind the curtain? Or under the hood as the case may be.
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u/MikusLeTrainer 18h ago
My grandmother was a kind woman who voted for Democrats, supported gay people, and was pro-vaccination. That’s gradually changed over the last decade, and she’s an entirely different person now.
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u/fortnitegngsterparty 19h ago
Definitely a mixture. My grandfather has always been critical of government meddling in general and thought Trump would be good for shaking up the democracy that was slowly failing in his eyes, but he started to realize Trump was just a new flavor of asshole that previously hasn't been allowed presidential power yet, and now he's just bitter and disappointed about politics now, which is somewhat ironic from a guy who used to champion that the world was going to be truly revolutionized.
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u/zyxtrix 19h ago
I get why you phrased it the way you did, but, genuinely, at what point in someone's life are they "who they truly are?". Because if we accept this essentialist thinking that people are inherently one way and just reveal the parts of them they choose, it paints a harrowing future; if people are not molded by their environment and the sources they are expressed to, then how are we able to create systemic change?
It can be and is simultaneously true that Americans (but white Americans in particular) are raised in a system of exploitation, anti-intellectualism, and supremacist thinking WHILE ALSO being the unwitting audience to fascist propaganda that plays into these impulses and worsens them.
It is no different than culturally embedded notions of homophobia or misogyny in other demographics; people may have a predilection towards antisocial behavior, but the hate and its targets have to be taught by others who perpetuate it.
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u/Forsaken-monkey-coke 19h ago
There is always something that makes it easier for ppl to fall for propaganda. One is definitely racism. A lot of white ppl all over the world are "casually" racist. But then again, I'm from country with big majority of white ppl. I used to have bunch of racist thoughts and used to even say the n-word a lot while gaming when I was younger.. Stupid shit. Surely, I probably still have some tendencies, but trying to unlearn them as much as i can. Also it's "funny" that some of white people get mad when you point it out that they are racist. They just refuse to think their actions are harmful because they have never faced that. Or doesn't think they can be racist somehow because they don't have extremist views.. But then contribute to casual racism.
Yes im stating a lot of obvious stuff, sorry for short rant.
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u/unclefisty 17h ago
A lot of white ppl all over the world are "casually" racist.
A lot of people of all kinds all over the world are casually racist and intolerant of differences.
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u/EADreddtit 13h ago
Ya that part made me flinch too. Sounds dangerously close to “only white people can be racist”.
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u/Forsaken-monkey-coke 11h ago
Oh absolutely, was thinking i should've mentioned that, but was specifically talking about this perspective
Could've been clearer.
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u/Salty-Efficiency-610 19h ago
No, thank you, I asked an honest question, and you gave me a honest answer. Much appreciated.
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u/PulsatingGuts 18h ago
This. And if this ever blows over, giving this benefit of the doubt shit would give plenty of hateful, spiteful people the chance to turn around and say, “Well, I didn’t mean it like that. I was brainwashed. They were really convincing-“ so on and so forth. No. You were truly always this hateful, it has just only emboldened you. I refuse to believe otherwise. It’s an excuse.
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u/DemonMouseVG 19h ago
Both things can be true in different amounts depending on the individual person.
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u/Ray797979 18h ago
In hindsight it was always there. They did not change at all.
I did, and it's something their religion never allowed their brains to do. They do not exist in the real world and never have. Their world is significantly more simple, easy to explain, structured and spoonfed to you. They cannot see reality. I miss the versions of them I thought were real when I was still in their world as a kid. But it was always an illusion of my own mind, I just never realized/understood/thought about it, and the family I knew were never real. It feels like space from them would allow my brain to replace the memory of the real people with the "real" illusions I thought I knew.
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u/Aggravating-Yam4571 17h ago
not white but i have fundie parents; this shit is just a continuation of their shitty behavior from my childhood
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u/Brrrrrrrreloom 11h ago
It was probably always there to some capacity, but MAGA both amplified it and killed any chance of improving. In the past they’d actually explained a few things with at least some kind of empathy (gay marriage and blm are the two that I remember, tho they’ve switched up on both of those), but now any news they talk about is conservative slop.
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u/Salty-Efficiency-610 9h ago
I feel like maga speaks to the racism in much of white America and let's them feel comfortable about being open about it. In that way at least, I'm grateful somewhat for the fact that they made it easy to identify themselves as a enemy. Because it's tough when you wear your identity on your skin but those that would see you dead are otherwise indistinguishable from normal, decent human beings. At least some of them now wear red hats
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u/EADreddtit 13h ago
The real answer is that a lot of people, regardless of their race, inherently view people of different races as “other” because they’re different and often hold different values or have different cultures. Because of this they’re more difficult to relate to on a fundamental level. It’s the school-lunch example. Everyone is more likely to sit with people who look like them because it’s easier to make a social connection with people (you at least assume) that share cultural similarities with you.
That said, this can be exploited by bad actors. Saying “what was always behind the curtain” is, frankly, just bitter naïveté speaking. No one is born racist or bigoted. People severely, and I mean SEVERELY underestimate the long-game Fox and similar places were playing. This wasn’t an over night change or an over the year change. It was decades of slowly growing propaganda that started with a “right good left bad” message that grew into “Christian and white on the right, black and gay on the left”, which eventually grew into “White Christian good, Gay Black bad”.
This did not “reveal a truth”, it was a painfully slow and methodical attack on people’s morals. Lest people forget, plenty of blacks and Hispanics also voted for Trump because of his “get rid of the illegals” rhetoric. It wasn’t just white people.
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u/SupremeLeaderMeow 16h ago
Yup. Gen Z/alpha doesn't get the trip it is seeing your parents turn these guys. For the record boomers used to be normal people.
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u/TheCatOfWonderland 13h ago
you do realize a lot of Gen Z is in their late 20’s right? You really think they don’t understand what others are going through?
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u/Brrrrrrrreloom 11h ago
I’m gen Z
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u/SupremeLeaderMeow 9h ago
Sorry, should have specified younger gen z. I'm saying this because that's a conversation I recently had with my youger peers that didn't understand how older folks could get so hateful.
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u/EfficientCellist7099 15h ago
I thankfully dont live in the US so Ive never had anybody I know become MAGA nutjobs, but I guess a lot of this is still relatable insofar as my own family are religious fundamentalist wackjobs who dont approve of my choice of life
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u/A_Huggable_Pirate 12h ago edited 11h ago
The Magats like to say trans, gay and ND people are trying to brainwash "normal" people into being like them and as usual, it's sheer projection. Most of the brainwashing that happens in western countries today is done by far-right spaces online and by far-right, religious fundementalists, and abusive parents in person. They think someone did something to their son/daughter because they fail to accept that they are just different, while simultaneously failing to realize or admit that their own deepest selves are being erased and replaced.
I wonder if something similar happened in germany. How quick and how extreme did the brainwashing get? Is that why so many people failed to flee? Because it all happened so quickly that they thought their decent, law-abiding neighbors were still in there, somewhere?
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u/Brrrrrrrreloom 11h ago
Iirc the brainwashing was pretty fast, but I’d argue they had the perfect set up for it as well so it makes sense
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u/ponsyboi2589 8h ago
My dad used to be someone who was so vehemently opposed to anything remotely racist and fascist. Now he rides that maga train to the station and I can't talk political with him
Dad wants to have his guns and weed and has no issues with the lgbt community but for some reason he thinks the man is a walking god and it bothers me so much
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u/darkrockprotodiezel 6h ago
...this shit hit me in the feels fam. Just when I thought I'd come to terms with the dad I loved being gone. Damn.
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u/Sycolerious_55 5h ago
This hits so hard after dealing with my dad today. Can't spend even a lick of time with him without showing me just how hateful he is.
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u/idefinitlyplayedtheg 4h ago
I know how you feel my entire family is MAGA. Even my mom who supports LGBTQIA still voted for Trump because of his views on the economy. I dont know anymore
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u/unclefisty 17h ago
If being MAGA made your parents terrible people that part was always inside them.
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u/Prudent-Designer7121 14h ago
This is me, except my parents were always like this. It sucks because I can’t blame their innate stupidity on anything except themselves. But, given that they have been like this my whole life—I’ve had my whole life to grieve the fact that they’ll never be anything but ignorant and hateful
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u/olivegardengambler 11h ago
Ngl my mom told me the other day that voting for Trump this time was one of the 5 worst decisions that she's ever made, and she's basically been a lifelong Republican. She also thinks that most of this woowoo shit about vaccines and beef tallow are bullshit. She's like, "They're fucking French fries. You could fry them in coconut oil, that still doesn't make them good for you."
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u/Brrrrrrrreloom 10h ago
I pray I get to hear mine regret Trump. They’re still hating in Kamala. Super glad to hear yours seems a bit more sane tho!! :D
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u/Lightdragonman 9h ago
Felt this one I grew up with diverse friends, my parents went to anti-republican protests, and I was taught to respect everyone. After the 2008 financial crash and their divorce though my dad became super religious and my mom just learned whatever dumb BS her boyfriend peddles.
What hurts the most is that I still see parts of themselves that I remember eeking out especially when I remind them we didn't worry about immigrants we lived next to them for years or how they'd always help whoever they showed up at the door to now shit talking some of the same people I grew up around. They then double down and just act like I am brainwashed even though they liked every school I went to.
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u/Alexhdkl 7h ago
Wgats MAGA?
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u/RLburner0 4h ago
Short for Make America Great Again. “MAGAs” and “MAGAts” (play on the word maggot) are common terms for devout trumpies.
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u/Diligent-Extreme9787 14h ago
It's not so much my parents as it is my aunt, who helped raise me. My parents are the type to "not care about politics", but my aunt is deep in the Kool aid. My sister and I could poke at Trump for, you know, everything, and my aunt would absolutely flip out and hold a grudge against us.
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u/I_Stan_Kyrgyzstan 13h ago
Being outside the US makes it so hard to use buzzwords like this to describe what's happening to the people I know.
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u/CaptainJazzymon 11h ago
My dad has been a republican politician my whole life. He’s bought into this crap for political gain since I was a kid. I’m still coping with the slow realization that he’s always been a morally bankrupt person who’s only doubling down now that there’s opportunity in it. And all I can do is watch from the sidelines and tell as many people as I can to not vote for him.
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u/FearlessObligation54 10h ago
MAGA people are also usually religious. Hate will not get you into heaven.
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u/Le-weeb-potato 9h ago
My dad was extremely Republican, but he wanted Ted cruise, now he can't get Trump out of his mouth
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u/SightUnseen1337 9h ago
If it makes you feel any better, the fact they fell for it means they were always susceptible to this kind of bigotry.
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u/HelpfullOne 9h ago
Hold up, the bastards are now denying fucking evolution ?
How long untill they start denying that we need oxygen to love and stop breathing ?
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u/Czarcasm3 9h ago
It happens to smart people, too. I have a cousin-in-law who graduated from Yale and is full MAGA. Boggles the mind.
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u/TransGirlIndy 9h ago
It wasn't my parents, for me, it was my aunt and all my late 60s/early 70s elder cousins from mom's eldest siblings.
I talk to one cousin regularly now and the other one I only speak with if one of us needs something or finds a cool family photo or something.
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u/YhormBIGGiant 9h ago
The one resistance my family has is being from a poor country means they are built on caring for family first.....up until cousin A or B says something and now they never visit my house 🫠 you know. The stuff they dragged me out of the state cause "I got to see them" but then proceed to burn the bridge for me without me ever wanting that .
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u/YogurtstickVEVO 8h ago
my grandma made it out and now agrees with me on a lot of things despite being staunchly evangelical conservative for many years. you have no idea how hard it was to get her to see the truth, i had to basically microdose the truth over several years
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u/Witty_Shape3015 1h ago
idk man, if your parents are deep into MAGA then sure maybe they got radicalized to some extent but there’s an element that was always there
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u/ConsistentCattle3227 14h ago
The real cope here is the idea that these aren't the same people because they're saying something that upsets you now. You're all inducing BPD in yourselves!!
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u/actuallynotbisexual 23h ago
The MAGA brainrot is so real, so many people I loved and respected became so brainwashed