Trump’s base was vocally divided over the prospects of direct U.S. attacks up until the moment they happened.
The MAGA movement’s top influencers were divided over bombing Iran until Donald Trump did just that Saturday night.
Now, at least for the time being, the lay leaders in Trump’s base appear to be rallying around a position that spares Trump criticism: Direct attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities are justified, as long as American troops aren’t sent into a third full war halfway around the world in the last quarter of a century.
They should be humiliated. People without morals or integrity should not be elevated or incentivized to continue doing it.
Raise your standards for people. Just because conservatives have lowered theirs doesn’t mean I have to lower mine.
Well, do you want to be right or do you want things to change for the better?
I don’t think anyone should have to engage with these people if they don’t want to, but something like 40%+ of the population are more or less OK with the way things are going. Humiliating someone, even if they had it coming and it’s entirely justified, tends to make them very defensive and double down on their position.
Is it fair? No. I hate it. They do not deserve grace in a lot of cases in my opinion, but when dealing with people and human nature I often find I have to decide between being right or being constructive. I am no saint. If the stakes only really involve myself, I’m probably more inclined to be a self-righteous sanctimonious jack wagon more often than not, but at these scales I think we need to be realistic. Acknowledge that it’s not fair we have to do this work, and then do it anyway.
I’m not saying you have to forget what they did or advocated for, directly or indirectly, but ffs if someone is genuinely struggling with a belief/ideology, would you rather offer them a soft landing into a much more normal and moderate position, or that they get burned publicly and are lost forever to the echo chambers?
Do we ostracize the people who may be on the boundary of genuine evolutionary self-discovery, and exploit their moment of public vulnerability for what - smug hubris for the in group who were always on the right side? Or do you accept the Klansman’s contrition and disarm that hate via genuine dialogue, and maybe potentially you too might understand their base motivations that got hijacked by political grifters. And maybe in the future their problems aren’t ignored and don’t grow to the point where it becomes a political wedge issue…?
Or y’know don’t; farm those internet karma points. Post that hot take, then shy away from the follow up dialogue and comments. Block the people you mildly disagree with, whilst chiding everyone else’s echo chamber. Pontificate without praxis in friendly spaces. Downvote the dissenter, instead of dissecting their ideas. I know I’m guilty too and it’s hard to keep yourself in check - but it’s essential to keeping both yourself intellectually honest, and your arguments firmly based in reality.
This is a pretty toxic opinion