In my own similar situation, I have come to the conclusion that it’s bigger than any single issue. You can’t reason any of these folks out of it, because a major factor is their belief that they are always, always right regardless of what the truth may be.
You can show them the math. You can cite paper after paper. You can try whatever you want and none of it will stick. Even if they claim otherwise, they think they’re right and you’re wrong. The closest you’ll get is appeasement.
I agree, based on my own experiences,.that no logic or reason can reach these people. I think we can move the conversation forward by admitting that there is a strong human instinct toward fascism. It’s in our DNA to salute the tallest thing in the room because ancestors that didn’t were purged. Those of us who can reason and maintain values are the exception to this flaw.
But is there another way to reach them on an emotional or instinctive level? Hope springs eternal in me, and I can’t help but feel the solution involves denying them their group identity and making a mockery and shaming them as pariahs for their bad behavior.
These days, the fact is that no MAGA scum is a conservative. They are radical revolutionaries, more naive than the most extreme patchouli scented hippies of the 1960s, who have abandoned their Christianity to worship a man who said the constitution should be dissolved simply because he lost a court case. I think this is the key, but I must admit, I’ve never been able to turn one of them. Sagan was right about the deep seated human instinct to ignore shameful evidence when one is tricked.
Some are delusional conservatives; and/or some think he’s a conservative that they could use, much like some rich Germans thought Hitler could be used to their advantage.
There is no solution here.
In my own similar situation, I have come to the conclusion that it’s bigger than any single issue. You can’t reason any of these folks out of it, because a major factor is their belief that they are always, always right regardless of what the truth may be.
You can show them the math. You can cite paper after paper. You can try whatever you want and none of it will stick. Even if they claim otherwise, they think they’re right and you’re wrong. The closest you’ll get is appeasement.
I agree, based on my own experiences,.that no logic or reason can reach these people. I think we can move the conversation forward by admitting that there is a strong human instinct toward fascism. It’s in our DNA to salute the tallest thing in the room because ancestors that didn’t were purged. Those of us who can reason and maintain values are the exception to this flaw.
But is there another way to reach them on an emotional or instinctive level? Hope springs eternal in me, and I can’t help but feel the solution involves denying them their group identity and making a mockery and shaming them as pariahs for their bad behavior.
These days, the fact is that no MAGA scum is a conservative. They are radical revolutionaries, more naive than the most extreme patchouli scented hippies of the 1960s, who have abandoned their Christianity to worship a man who said the constitution should be dissolved simply because he lost a court case. I think this is the key, but I must admit, I’ve never been able to turn one of them. Sagan was right about the deep seated human instinct to ignore shameful evidence when one is tricked.
Some are delusional conservatives; and/or some think he’s a conservative that they could use, much like some rich Germans thought Hitler could be used to their advantage.