Trump Supporter

Nan Donald Trump, Politics,
(Photo credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

I happened to read this post as a result of the author’s comment on another blog. Although her remarks about Trump and his latest rally were difficult to get through, I decided to reply and offer a couple of my own thoughts just to see what would happen. I made a point of NOT attacking her OR Trump and to keep my input relatively neutral (as much as I could).

I appreciated that the blogger did the same in her response to me. Even though she held firm in her opinion of Trump, she expressed herself without getting down and dirty as so many Trump supporters tend to do.

I’m sharing this with you because I think it’s sometimes good to get an idea of why his supporters continue to see him as their golden boy.

If you decide to comment on her post, I hope you will keep your remarks civil. To attack him or her opinion of him accomplishes nothing and the discussion eventually ends up in the gutter. Besides, you can always come back here and let off steam. 😄

51 thoughts on “Trump Supporter”

    • Very good point Pink. That possibility should never be completely ignored. In the world of virtual reality (cyberspace/internet) with no organic human matter whatsoever, ANYBODY can be ANYTHING, ANYONE their hearts desire. This always includes the entire spectrum of human behavior; all of its beauty and/or the cesspool. 😉

      Liked by 3 people

      • Maybe I’m living in la-la land … or maybe it’s because I’m not into visiting/commenting on political posts … but I still don’t see where you and Pink get your ideas that it’s a “troll farm.” If she had responded with the usual nastiness and insults, I might agree. But I felt the conversation was fairly civil.

        Liked by 3 people

      • The information is all too scripted. Essentially what they seem to be doing is adopting the model created by the Russian web Brigade: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_web_brigades
        Bolsonaro is doing the same in Brazil. They’ve got FB groups, tens of thousands of fake Twitter and FB profiles and as the wheels turn they create the impression their candidates have overwhelming support, while also disseminating false and misleading information.

        Liked by 7 people

        • It’s really hard to tell. There definitely seems to be almost too much information, coherent and informative, much like someone is using a script. I now know more about Trump and his minions than I ever wanted to know.

          It also seems that Fox News is beginning to bleed a bit around the edges.

          an aside: Has anyone noticed the glut of blonde early middle aged blond women in the Trump entourage and as Trump-friendly news people? They all remind me disturbingly of Kelley Ann Conway.

          Liked by 5 people

        • I’ve been observing these propaganda groups for over fifteen years now. I first became aware of them in 2003 in the lead up to the legalisation of gay marriage in Spain.
          At that time support for gay marriage in Spain was fast approaching 70% and then in what seemed like out of the blue, internet forums, comments sections under articles, blogs, everywhere really, there was a wave of anti-lgbt propaganda. Suddenly it was everywhere. We were all pretty shocked at how things could turn that way and so we started doing research. And we started seeing strange patterns. Like the same comment posted (word for word) on various different sites. Links to the same websites/articles. And very often words and linguistic formulations that weren’t used in Spain but that were common in parts of Latin America. From blog comments we traced IP’s. In the end it turned out American Evangelicals had set up “war rooms” with employees and volunteers spreading propaganda on an industrial scale. They set up that strategy based on the Russian model and since then it’s been seeping into politics all over the world.

          Liked by 6 people

        • From blog comments we traced IP’s. In the end it turned out American Evangelicals had set up “war rooms” with employees and volunteers spreading propaganda on an industrial scale. They set up that strategy based on the Russian model and since then it’s been seeping into politics all over the world.

          Pink, and that is exactly what Cambridge Analytica sold to any who’d pay outrageous costs/fees to them, like Steve Bannon’s group(s).

          Liked by 2 people

    • Just grabbed a bit of her text, and surprise surprise, this is part of something Jon Voigt said a few nights ago:
      “This is a crime that the Left are trying to force,”

      It would be nice if she could use attributes.

      I suspect this is cobbled together from a number of sources, all over the net. tsk tsk.

      (good call, Pink)

      Liked by 4 people

  3. I’m back here to let off steam.

    I’m not actually surprised at that blog page. I’ve had enough contact with Trump supporters to know what to expect.

    And yes, that blog might be part of the troll farm.

    Liked by 2 people

  4. I see no reason to think that blog is anything other than an actual blog of an individual Trump supporter. Trump supporters do exist, millions of them. And some of them have blogs. Trolls usually focus on subverting and disrupting opposing forums, not posting on their own blogs.

    There are plenty of right-wing blogs out there. I read a couple of them fairly regularly. They’re both much more extreme and vituperative than the one Nan linked to.

    This one seems typical in that it ignores or doesn’t know about issues like Trump’s constant violations of the emoluments clause, obstruction of the Mueller investigation, coddling of foreign dictators, pointless fights with allies, or his constant displays of ignorance and incompetence; that it dismisses his gross, childish insults as “humor”; that it accepts unsubstantiated accusations as fact (Ilhan Omar married her brother), etc. On some level, at least some of this must be self-deception. I doubt that most of these people before 2015 would have argued that Trump’s childish name-calling and Twitter tantrums were acceptable behavior in a president, for example.

    That being said, I’m a pragmatist and prefer to focus on practical ways of dealing with problems. I’m not vitally interested in why Trump supporters continue to support him and maintain a whole delusional world-view in order to do so. It’s enough to know that they do indeed do that. The question is what to do about it, which has to focus on the election. I accept that most Trump supporters are probably unreachable by argument or evidence. We just have to out-vote them.

    Liked by 6 people

      • I’ve looked at that blog a few times. She’s statistically unusual and not typical of common right-wing demographics — atheist conservatives are unusual, and female libertarians almost as much so. I suspect some residual Ayn Rand influence — conservatism was very different back in those days.

        Nevertheless, most of what’s posted there is pretty standard right-wing rhetoric, just more literately written and without the usual religious bluster and hate which have been dominant in the mainstream right wing for the last decade or two. There’s a recent post minimizing anthropogenic global warming, for example, which is a good litmus test in such cases. Even extreme ideological views don’t necessarily involve reality-denial, but minimizing anthropogenic global warming requires deliberate rejection of overwhelming hard evidence and the consensus of expert opinion. This is not consistent with the “of reason” in the blog title, which presumably refers only to rejection of religion.

        I see also a pervasive pattern of addressing a “straw man” version of the left rather than the positions the left actually takes, which is very common on right-wing blogs since most of their impressions of liberals are derived from caricatures by other right-wingers, not from direct reading of liberal sites. Only a few nutty politicians, not climate scientists or the mainstream left, claim that “the world is going to end in a decade or so” due to climate change.

        There is some variety among right-wingers, but from what I’ve seen of their blogs, the one Nan linked to is considerably more typical of them.

        Liked by 6 people

        • Indeed! I stuck with her thinking that she might eventually use her “reason” to cure herself, but when she recently published the post entitled “Dear Greta Thunberg and Others Like Her” reeked with the kind of sentiments and claims that staunch climate change deniers have vociferously promulgated, I felt that her mind has been too terminally poisoned to ever be in a state or position to turn over a new leaf or to till her weed-infested garden, which she has long mistakenly believe to be lush and well-cultivated, so to speak.

          Liked by 3 people

        • Personally I haven’t been reading her blog consistently enough to judge. However, people who hold conflicting positions identified with opposite camps sometimes end up going fully one way or the other, or else are in the midst of a slow transition from one to the other.

          There’s another blogger I used to read who used to be fervently Christian, but gradually abandoned religion over a period of study and thinking lasting a year or so. However, even after that, I saw him expressing some pretty cold-blooded right-wing political positions which are typical of fundamentalists. I suspect that the process of reflection and change is still under way, and that in the long run he’ll transition away from those political views just as he transitioned away from religion.

          I don’t know whether ALOR is in the midst of a similar process. But people do change over time.

          Liked by 4 people

    • Well said. I tried to have a “conversation” the other day with a Trump supporter at the dog park and, man, it is NOT possible to do so. Everything that they hear that they don’t like is a lie and fake. The only thing true to them is Trump’s greatness and that he is the victim of a massive witch hunt–neither are true. We have to vote him out and reach those not already lost. My head is still spinning today after the conversation I had with this guy. It is truly stunning. Cult-like in fact.

      Liked by 4 people

      • This is a truly amazing thing…this blind trump support. I would like to read a study of mass brainwashing and total unacceptance of the facts. It’s along the same lines as mass hysteria, seriously.

        Or Jim Jones, Heaven’s Gate multiplied by several tens of thousands. It mirrors religious fervor as well.

        I actually think it changes some cognitive function in the brain. It mutates it. I am very serious when I say this.

        Liked by 6 people

        • It’s beautifully constructed, isn’t it. From the first rally to the last, it has followed a serious guideline that Hitler used: rhetoric, rhetoric, and VERY LOUD inspiring music. Watch a clip of one of his rallies. Way back at the beginning, Trump slipped, and went into a “Sig Heil” salute. Noticeable enough that several people commented on it, and he never did it again. Oops.
          He tells people what they want to hear.

          The first thing I ever objected to (and still do) was that damned “MAGA” slogan. It implies, all so subtly, that American USED to be great, but (ahem) under the dreadful Democratic leadership it has slipped out of what it once was, but you and I, fellow Republicans,, we can fix it. We can Make America Great Again.

          People who disliked Obama got a double icecream cone: he was a liar, he wasn’t a REAL American (with that name, are you kidding me) and he was no good as Presdient. Anyone who disliked Hillary got a bonus, he debated her, and she held her ground, and yes, Virginia, we did win, I’d like to know how that 3million vote victory turned into a resounding win for Trump…but I’ll wager you that any fan of Trumps under a lie detector test will tell you that Obama was a wetback and HIllary lost by a huge margin.

          The other thing he does, is play loud music before the rallies. I have been victim to painfully loud music, and you know what it does to your brain? With some people, it scrambles their thought processes. All they can hear is the music, and when it stops, the first thing they hear is Trump, and at that stage he sounds pretty good. Hitler used the same tactic. We can only process so many noises at the same time, and then the brain shuts down. It is, indeed, brainwashing. You’re dead right.

          I’m almost out of air, hang on. =)
          I have never seen any President dis another, living or dead. He never lets up. I keep thinking, it’s OVER. let it GO. He rips into dead people, he shreds war heroes, people with disabilities, he uses racial slurs, it’s endless. It gives the rest of his fanclub permission to do the same thing.

          He is, you got that right, the Jim Jones of politics. And I am terrified of that.

          Liked by 6 people

        • Me too and this will not end well and may change not only our country, but the world forever. I’m so very glad I’m old. The greatest cost will be the grandchildren that are just coming up now. And they are too young yet to have any interest or basic knowledge of it all.

          I did see a woman interviewed at a trump rally and she said she goes to every single one and that she was addicted. What does that tell you!

          I seriously don’t know if there is a way out of this….ever.

          Maybe climate change is a good thing because it will end all this madness.

          Liked by 5 people

        • I did see a woman interviewed at a trump rally and she said she goes to every single one and that she was addicted. What does that tell you!

          We are, perhaps, seeing the formation of a new religion. Jesus is out and the Donald is in. If he is impeached, that will be analog of the resurrection for this new religion.

          Liked by 6 people

        • Oh, I know you are. This guy I was talking to said that Trump never said he didn’t care about the Kurds because they didn’t help us out in WW2. I mean he said it live, on TV, duringf an interview, and this guy said, “No. He did not. Never said that. It’s just the media making things up.” It’s an amazing amount of cognitive dissonance and..well..stupidity. It’s cult-like. Trump is their god, their hero, and their perfect leader when all he truly is is a lying, narcissist, spoiled-rotten brat.

          Liked by 6 people

      • Looking again at the post Nan linked and the accumulated comments, it’s astonishing. The blogger there actually claimed that Obama increased the deficit. In fact, Bush II grew the deficit more than any president before him (due to tax cuts for the rich and wars), Obama actually reduced it despite having to pull the country out of the Bush recession, which normally requires increased government spending, and under Trump it has exploded again. These aren’t matters of opinion or interpretation. The numbers are there for anybody who chooses to look them up. It’s total reality-denial.

        I’m reminded of a story I heard about a radio call-in show where the topic of the day was the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012. A right-winger called in and claimed that Obama had somehow arranged for the shooting to help himself get re-elected. The radio host said, “But the shooting happened after the election.” The caller said, “Well, that’s your opinion.”

        Again and again, though, I’m drawn back to the total dominance of fundamentalist religion in the right wing. Those people have had decades of experience diligently avoiding and ignoring evidence to sustain their rejection of evolution. The mind that has trained itself to do that will eventually start applying the same habits in other areas, until we get this completely Orwellian doublethink alternate reality unmoored from the real world.

        Liked by 7 people

  6. Trump supporters tend to mirror Christianity supporters, in that they believe what they’re told, and rarely question or dig deeper. I read her first post, and thought, no, stay out of this. I don’t have the wit or the patience to take this one on.

    I still think that Trump under impeachment scrutiny makes Nixon look like the good guy. At least Nixon knew how to behave in public. Most of the time. And to be fair, Nixon had a bunch of jackasses around him, who did him in. Trump gets all the credit for this one.

    Liked by 9 people

  9. I read all of the comments Nan. Good on you for staying calm and keeping it real. I weighed in myself. It’s a good and frank discussion. I have to say, she’s a definite true believer. Hard to believe there’s about 35-40% of the public who think like her. That’s troubling.

    Liked by 4 people

  10. Thanks for noticing. I do try not to insult or denigrate other people’s perspective. It can be difficult at times (as in this case) when they are sooooo brainwashed. But IMO, remaining calm and, as you put it, keeping things real tends to make people think … or at least I hope it does. 😉

    BTW, I also commented on her newest post … which was a list of tRumpsky’s “accomplishments”… in case you want to check it out.

    Liked by 4 people

  11. Geeezzzz, NOW I am really starting to regret having commented (politely and respectfully!) on her blog. She just doesn’t know how to engage a wide, diverse population of multiple political positions and government!!!! Ark does the same thing to me Nan!!! LOL 😆🤨

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Hello Nan. Good morning. I read all the comments here , then because my new blood pressure medication needed a good testing I went to the blog and read the comments and replies there. The good news is that the new medication worked, the bad news was I was frustrated as a blind person trying to find the corner in a round barrel. I will take your advice and simply not comment. Others have tried reason which bounced off the blog writer like bullets off superman, others tried facts, so my siting source material would just be decried as fake news. I agree with the idea that evangelical Christianity’s flat out denial of clear facts in favor of unsubstantiated myths leads to the denial of other things that do not fit in to ones world view. I think those who feel this is a Poe maybe correct. The total over the top would be hard to keep going with out some angered reply on the part of the blog writer. As we know these sites exist and are part of a network to bolster tRump I would suggest this is one also. Every true cult of tRump member I have interacted with has devolved into anger on their part once challenged with facts. They run on emotion just as in their religious beliefs and when challenged they resort to emotion as the reply mechanism. Hugs

    Liked by 5 people

    • HAHAHA! Your description of your frustration made me LOL!! But I am glad your medication worked. 😉

      Several others have indicated they don’t think this person is “genuine” — and maybe she isn’t. But I didn’t get that feeling. Of course, I don’t follow so-called “political” blogs as a rule so I could very well be mistaken.

      In any event, for me it was an interesting venture to go deep into “Trump supporter” territory. I knew many (most?) of them were pretty nutso, but this certainly proved it.

      I think the thing that disturbs me the most about Trump supporters is they are SO close-minded. It’s their way or no way. Reminds me of many Christians. Oh yeah … I almost forgot. Most TS’s are believers. 😄

      Liked by 2 people

  13. Hey Nan: I was wondering why so many people clicked on this blog. It’s because you asked your followers to. I can assure your readers that blog wasn’t a spoof or parody. You guys hate Trump. I get it. But Trump’s followers aren’t blind nor brainwashed or anything you’ve called me. You guys need to all be more open-minded and accepting our our president. You think he stole the presidency from Hillary, no doubt; but he won fair and square. Give him a chance. The economy is great, people are working and shopping again. My kids are doing great. He’s kept most of his promises and then some. He hasn’t done anything that he didn’t promise. We got what we voted for and will stick with him. He may be a little brash and rough around the edges, but he’s from construction as I am. That’s the way they talk.

    So go back to following bloggers you agree with and don’t pile on me again. It’s not nice. When a fish swims in water all he knows is water. Anything different will be perceived as wrong. Think about it.

    BowT

    Liked by 2 people

    • Well hello BetterOff! I wondered when you might wander in this direction. 🙂

      Just a couple of remarks and then I’m going to close comments because I think most of my readers have already expressed themselves either here or on your blog.

      I feel most of my blog readers/followers ARE open-minded. We DO recognize Trump has actually done a few good things. But what bothers many of us is (1) his totally unprofessional conduct — both at home and abroad, (2) his childish insults and name-calling, (3) his outright lies (mostly to protect his ego), and most importantly, (4) the few things he has actually put into action are NOT beneficial to the majority of the people — OR this planet.

      One last thing … you, as a supporter, are in the minority. When you consider this and realize his actions are benefiting only a limited number of people rather than the nation as a whole, you might get an idea why so many of us simply cannot give him a free pass.

      Thanks for stopping by.

      Liked by 4 people

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