“What was he convicted of?” someone asked.
“He had tattoos on his body,” she replied triumphantly.
“Hey, smartass!” shouted a woman in her sixties, jumping to her feet. “You want to see my tattoo?”
“Lady,” the Trump supporter said. “You don’t know what a tattoo is.”
“Yes I do, I’ve got one!” the woman shouted, tapping her chest.
The Trump supporter dismissed her with a wave of one hand. “I’ve had enough of you Democrats,” she said.
i found some of the quotes interesting with regards to the pieces that people in different areas pick up on, what they care about and what they think is happening. Like the farmer guy who is being harmed by the tariffs but thinks Trump must be “asking for a lot to hopefully get half”
i don’t think these people are stupid, just propagandized and situated in cultural echochambers just like libs are (all of us are). They (we) all have blind spots and denial. how do we reach them? if it’s possible at all, the only way is through genuine authentic connection with people who may very well hold ideas we find abhorrent.
i had a really interesting experience this weekend. i stopped at a Diner in Queens on my way home from the airport and overheard a conversation about Trump and the tariffs between two older gentlemen. I think they were both white but one might not have been idk. It was clear they frequent this place and are neighborly acquaintances. The one guy came over and started out saying “you know l don’t like to talk about politics” (honestly i doubt that lol)
it was not clear to me the whole time which “side” either of them were on. when the first guy got up to leave, i caught eyes with the one still sitting and he started to apologize for the subject matter and i said i appreciated their conversation bc i feel like the biggest problem in this country is we don’t talk to each other and that’s why everything is so out of whack.
they both appreciated that and we briefly talked about how “They” want us divided etc. I said i thought we all had a lot more in common than we would think, and they both agreed.
After the first guy left, i continued to chat with the seated man who was a 75yo Jewish man who grew up in that neighborhood and taught political science for his career. He identified as a centrist, taking things from Republicans and Democrats, and gets his news from a variety of sources mostly mainstream tv but also newspapers and magazines- he was reading the economist and said it was a conservative magazine but they don’t agree with trump on the tarriffs.
we had a really amazing conversation because i was very polite and phrased my disagreements carefully, he was not agitated at all by anything i said, he was calm and confident in his knowledge.
he had some seriously wrong information.
whenever i tried to push back on something he said, i would generally say that i can never tell what to trust anymore but that the information I’ve seen said xyz. i acknowledged living in an echo chamber because i can’t read or listen to republican news, and i was vulnerable about how upset i am all the time and we transitioned out of politics talk and into hobbies and maintaining mental health.
honestly, i can’t stop thinking about the experience and want to go back there and talk with him more. it was a hugely positive experience for me and I would love to have more of those. Perhaps he was a rare bird able to talk without getting upset, that’s why i was able to remain emotionally regulated (i did almost start to cry lmao just acknowledging how upset I am generally, I’m just a hair trigger these days)
He voted Republican chiefly on the issue of abortion…
WTAF. Why are there so many idiots like this? You don’t like abortion, don’t fucking have one. And if you are male…it’s not your concern.
This is the only area I DO get. I don’t agree with it, but I can understand where they’re coming from. If you believe a fetus is a person, it makes total sense to vote against murder. And we aren’t going to win anyone over by framing it as just an issue for women. If it’s even possible to change someone’s mind on the topic it would be through education, not telling them that their opinion on murder doesn’t matter.
It just makes zero sense to be a single-issue voter like this, though. And I don’t really think most of them give two fucks about the fetus; for many of them it’s about control.
By the definition of “murder” it’s only murder where it’s illegal.
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Lol Iowa. Good fucking luck.
I heard one of them was about to pen a strongly worded letter!
“Lady,” the Trump supporter said. “You don’t know what a tattoo is.”
^ That line baffles me
The conservative mindset is kind of like a reversed No True Scotsman sometimes. In an inherently hierarchical world where you are OBVIOUSLY at the A, #1, top, “Made in the image of white Jesus” tier, it is a serious insult to question the realness of another. Getting “othered” when you’re one of the Real Americans, one of the Chosen Ones, is a tragedy!
I don’t know what you’re talking about. What does that have to do with a guy who assumes women don’t know what tattoos are?
It’s the exclusionary language. It sticks out to me because it’s something I had to wring out of my brain after a conservative upbringing. My comment was probably an overreaction, lol, but you gave me that little target to pounce on.
“You don’t know what a tattoo is” sounds to me like it’s in line with “you don’t know what a REAL tattoo is” or “you wouldn’t know a decent tattoo if it bit you on the ass.”
It’s just basic immature gatekeeping and “me good, you bad.” So it varies from actual exclusion to generic offhand insult.
I can hear all the variations of it in my head from over the years. You don’t like the same thing as me, or you disagree with me on some unrelated thing, therefore you don’t know a damn thing about tattoos, cars, trucks, guns, fishing, hunting, sports, women, computers, games, and whatever else.
I thought it was a woman arguing with another woman about the meaning of what a tattoo is…
Going to the midwest sounds like going to the zoo.
It’s fucking insane here. I live in a city where people’s opinions seem relatively reality-based, but if you get out into the rural areas, the effects of brain drain and media balkanization are on full display.
I don’t suggest actually doing this, but you would be absolutely fucking shocked by the overwhelming ignorance of the general population if you were to, say, stop at a bar in rural Iowa.
I just don’t recommend going to Iowa, avoid it at all cost.
They can be cold as a frozen thermometer in December if you ask about the weather in July.
Live here, it is.
Every day you hear someone say the stupidest shit you’ve ever heard in your life. And then the next day someone says something even dumber. It’s absolute hell on earth but the plus side is my mortgage is cheap as dirt I guess.
I’m trying to fathom this being an actual conversation and not some horribly, awfully scripted sitcom. How the hell is it this bad good lord.
I like to think it’s because our education has gone really downhill, but I realize some of these people are so old it’s questionable how much they really know and understand. I’m genuinely baffled we don’t have a simple doctor’s check to see if people in retirement are still cognizant enough to vote responsibly- it’s the same issue with driving.
I guess the creators of Heil Honey decided it was time for a revival. 😒
Someone needs to bring these people a holocaust surviver to show them their tattoo and explain why fascism should never rise again
Wasn’t there just a video of some “alpha” guy trying to school a holocaust survivor the other day?
Im not surprised but god
Someone needs to bring these people to cecot, and do a little swaparoo with the current residents.
I’m afraid it would just give them new ideas.
Finishing lunch with two friends at a diner in Osage, Dixie Bowman, 88, a retired welder, said she liked what Trump was doing. Her two friends, when asked, said they preferred not to speak of it.
Dixie Bowman: Trump is “a very kind, very generous person”
Sounds exactly like what one would expect from someone with a name like “Dixie”
Here, let me translate for you:
Dixie Bowman, 88, a retired welder, said she liked what Trump was doing.
“I like how he’s getting rid of all the brown people.”
Dixie Bowman: Trump is “a very kind, very generous person”
“He’s doing things I like. That means he’s a good person. Good people are kind and generous.”
It’s the same concept as when Nazis do Nazi things and claim they’re not Nazis. Nazi = bad, and they’re not bad, so they’re not Nazis.
Yeah. Ego, in the sense of the story about yourself that you tell yourself, is an extremely potent concept. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people get called out on their extremely shitty and deliberate choices and react with “I won’t take this, this isn’t fair, I’m a good person.” They actually believe that they are a good person, and good people don’t do bad things, so they’re being misunderstood and unfairly attacked. When the mirror is held up that attacks that narrative about themselves, it’s like an actual psychic pain, and people react almost like they’ve been physically attacked.
These people have been taught their whole lives that being good is something you are, not something you do.
Given her age, I think it’s more likely that she’s just being fed nothing but pro-Trump propaganda in her Facebook feed. She scrolls through Facebook on her sticky phone covered in food crumbs liking boomer memes and pictures of grandchildren. If anyone knows her, the easy solution to save her from the propaganda is to sign her out of her account since she definitely doesn’t remember her password (and probably has like 3 accounts she’s made by accident)
Everybody on the right “likes what Trump is doing” or “Likes what DOGE is doing”, but when you ask them to articulate, specifically, what actions or policies they like, they will generalize to something the administration has claimed without evidence to be true but is difficult to prove or disprove (“He’s making the border safer”, “He’s getting rid of taxpayer waste”, etc.) or they will retreat from the question by attacking you personally or just saying that the vibes are generally better (“The tariffs will fix the economy”, “America is respected again”, etc.).
I’ve never once had a debate with a Republican who came prepared with sources to back up their claims. That’s because as soon as they try to dig and find evidence of the insane stuff Trump and Musk are peddling, the lie unravels itself and it just becomes easier to accept things at face value rather than think critically.
Crazy that would be the case when 75% of the people on this planet already do belief without evidence with religion. Who could’ve seen this coming.
Editor’s note: This sarcasm is intended to be read in the voice of Jon Stewart with a false look of bewilderment.
Careful, your r/atheism is showing
Pointing out reality typically pisses dishonest people off yeah.
They say welding fumes can cause neurological damage…
I was told masturbating too much causes brain damage. Maybe thats what it was for all of us.
“Everyone that disagrees with me is a Democrat”
“Everrything is woke”.
I have always loved how perfect the phrasing of “Basic Dickheads” is for the type of goobers it’s referring to.
Not only that, but Democrats by default do not matter and shouldn’t be considered at all.
LOL, WTAF.
I hope they rip each other apart trying to justify their own ignorance and his madness.
Unfortunately their disproportionately overvalued federal representation and votes due to the electoral college they are dragging the rest of us down with them
The stupidity of some people in that article is jaw dropping.
Also, if they shout at each other now, just wait for the SSA, Medicare, and Medicaid cuts that make hearing aids too expensive for rural boomers.
Grew up near Iowa, can confirm a lot of stupid people who think they’re smart.
And they all vote. (credit to George Carlin)
EDIT: As fate would have it…
I just got back from a PT appointment.
… The driver (local charity service for the broken and broke)…
Yep. She was from Iowa.
We got to talkin’, I told her about my (former, before being goddamned maimed) line of work.
I had to… spend most of the conversation explaining that software development… and IT… generally refer to completely different things and require significantly different skill sets.
But uh, she was very cheerful and upbeat, with meaningless folksy aphorisms applied wildly out of context, to go along with a bafflingly out of touch assesment of how easy it will be for such a bright young man to find a job. (I am 35.)
… What a world.
Idiots Out Wandering Around
Was heading up 35 to the Cities last fall and came up behind an old pickup with Iowa plates. Guy was poking along 5 under the limit. I was just getting ready to pass him when all the sudden he veered hard off the road and into the ditch. I quickly pulled over to check on him. “Are you okay? What the heck happened,” I asked. “No, I’m fine,” he answered, “I was on my way up to the Fair, you know, and I was just thinkin’ about whether to go to the Dairy Building or the 4-H building first. But then I looked down and noticed my turn signal was on.”
Is this a true story? Sounds to me like the gut may have fallen asleep or had some kind of mental short-circuit or something. I honestly can’t believe someone can survive to adulthood if they were actually just this dumb…
I couldn’t swear to every detail but it’s certainly true that it’s a story.
He was sorta funny lookin’, though. And when he got out of the truck to check the tires, he wasn’t wearing shoes, which was strange. So l said to him, “You know your socks don’t match? You have one black sock and one yellow sock.” And he replied, “Yup I know. Funny thing is l got another pair just like it back home.”
Lord almighty… I’m truly baffled. It’s a funny story, but I’m a bit conflicted regarding whether it becomes more funny or just sad by being true…
Studies show that two out of every three Trump voters are just as stupid as the third one.
Just a matter of time before conservative media finds a suitable scapegoat. They’ll get a wall of “Transgender Mexican ISIS stole the last bits of New Deal social contract” news articles for six months and come out more rabid than when they started.
This isn’t merely “Iowans are uniquely gullible”, either. The toxic nature of modern media is everywhere. And it produces as many Eric Adams Democrats as Donald Trump Republicans.
Most Americans aren’t smart enough to connect the disappearance of Medicaid and stuff to anything.
They’ll just see it disappear, be angry for a little while and write things like “make it make sense”, “a suit without a man” or whatever the buzzwords are then.
Then the next outrage thing comes along and they’ll bite, forgetting what they used to have.
As if MAGAts are sufficiently self-aware to admit they need hearing aids.
Specifically boycotting anything that comes from Iowa would be a great trade policy for our former allies to adopt
I’m still just going to boycott everything American TBH
Boycotting stupidity? How would that even work?!?
You’d think farmers at least would understand the relationship between what you sow and what you reap.
They never have to think about because they use migrant labor
Maybe they have been paid to not grow crops for too long.
“That man is a criminal,” she declared of Garcia.
“What was he convicted of?” someone asked.
“He had tattoos on his body,” she replied triumphantly.
MAGA morons are the bottom of the barrel
This is almost exactly word for word what happened at work today.
Do you live in Iowa? If so, I feel for you - I escaped years ago.
No, the people’s republic of Massachusetts. We’re not immune.
Ignorant people in Mass are way more annoying too, because they speak of themselves as above ignorant people in the south or midwest even though they believe the exact same dumb shit
Of all the places Ive lived in the US, the worst ignorance was probably in Mass, because its ignorance with an extra dose of superiority complex
It’s funny seeing other Massholes in here with all too similar experiences. I was literally just describing in another post an experience I had with a coworker the other week ranting in circles for 2 hours straight about how rational and centrist he is while spewing Fox News nonsense about “basic biology” and talking about how liberals never back their arguments up with facts and logic (unlike the Republican grifters he sees online, because they’d clearly never edit their videos to only make themselves look good).
Just because Mass benefits from being one of the most liberal states and 80% of Boston has a college degree doesn’t mean that their shit don’t stink.
The spirit of Massachusetts is the spirit of America….
Im trying in my head to make that response of “he had tattoos on his body” less stupid than it is, but cannot come up with a scenario where someone would get tattoos anywhere else.
Surely he’d be more of a criminal if he had tattoos on someone else’s skin
There are no more dangerous gang tattoos than the ankle dolphin or butterfly tramp stamp
You’re focused on the word, “body”, when the one that makes the difference is “on”.
If he had tattoos in his body, it would be ok.
It’s just a bit more difficult to find a tattoo artist who is willing to work on the inside.
That can’t have been a enjoyable experience getting that done.
Trying to get into magas heads is a bit like entering the Kaiju minds: dangerous with extensive psychological side effects, and to be avoided
Tattoos are basically body mutilation or improvement, depending on who you ask. beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
I wonder what she thinks of body mutilation like hair cut, nail cutting, plastic surgery and circumcision.
She probably approves of any gender affirming care her entertainment media tells her to approve.
