The Cowardice and Obstinacy of the Trump Deranged: A Depressing Case Study From Facebook (I Despair)

This is a “rest of the story” post but I don’t need Paul Harvey. That image is how I feel right now.

The story began when I posted this meme…

…that had been endorsed on Facebook by a dear friend, a religious and smart woman, whom I have known for decades in many capacities. Naturally the thing attracted the usual “likes” and “loves” on the platform despite being, as you can see, moronic, dishonest, arrogant and offensive. I posted a very brief summary in reply admonishing my friend for spreading ignorance. I got a disappointing response from her suggesting that I wasn’t “caring” enough, which is emotional blackmail, and several other really stupid replies from her pals, including one that said she hoped I was “comfortable with” my “lies.”

I had challenged the Ethics Alarms commentariate to dive into a thorough fisking of the meme, as I was not in the mood. As evidenced by his subsequent Comment of the Day post, Ryan Harkins responded with an ethics tour-de-force that was civil, thorough and devastating.

I decided to confront my friend and her bubble by posting Ryan’s masterpiece along with a long, also civil and measured, introduction as a further response to the stupid meme. I waited to see how the Bubble would respond. I waited to see how my friend would respond. Was there a rational, substantive retort to Ryan’s work?

3 thoughts on “The Cowardice and Obstinacy of the Trump Deranged: A Depressing Case Study From Facebook (I Despair)

  1. I tried EC’s engagement techniques with a masked woman outside a very one sided “round table” hosted by April McLain Delaney (D 6th MD) and Governor Moore on the ICE facility proposed to be constructed here in Washington County.
    This youngish white woman held her sign saying NO ICE when she walked up After hearing the standard talking points that ICE makes us less safe and that she worried that her black child would be taken by ICE. She then went on about being low income and that the government had a duty to care for the disabled. She made quite a few declarations but could not provide any evidence to back up her claim other than she new two citizens were taken by ICE but when I asked her who they were for me to verify her claims she said she said she could not trust me. on our conversation I asked her why she was masked when she had a problem with masked ICE agents and she said she had a cough and did not want to infect others. When I asked her whether there might be a reason these agents are masked and she said fear of retribution. I asked imany question and when I pointed out several inconsistencies she decided to claim I personalized behaviors to her and it was not her fault. When I said she mis heard me because I was speaking in generalities and never used the word you except to say “I heard you say”. She then claimed I was prejudiced against the hearing disabled which she then claimed to be one. I said that might account for the misunderstanding to which she replied “I heard what you said”,

    What I have learned from this encounter is never give an inch because they will use it against you because their mind is made up so you are always wrong. EC’s methods have merit but not with bigoted opinions from people with limited understanding and your position undermines their fundamental needs for safety. Self actualization is an illusion for them and is in reality either unattainable given their limited ability to process information or undesired.

  2. Charles Krauthammer once said that conservatives think that liberals are stupid and liberals believe that conservatives are evil. If you believe that your opponent is stupid, you are willing to engage in debate in order to teach and change minds. If you believe that your opponent is evil than you do not consider your opponent worthy of debate as evil cannot be reasoned with; only resistance and condemnation are in place.

    The brain state of many of the Trump deranged resembles that of cult members. Scientology. Heaven’s Gate. Children of God. The Nazis. Hamas. It is a brain disease. People’s self regard and identity is tied up with the cult. It can only be cured by death or true repentance.

  3. I have become convinced that the vast majority of what we would consider ideas, phrases or words which we think we have constructed to communicate some point of understanding or incite are all merely treated by listeners as a multitude of tiny independent shibboleths any of which, upon cursory attention being found objectionable, leads to the objectors guillotine because the only reason you would use that one word out of your other 10k is because you are intrinsically bad.

    I want to largely blame this on mental illness due to insulin resistance and metabolic dysfunction in the brain. I have yet to meet anyone who consumes a high(65%) saturated fat diet and 0% carbohydrates who is even rude.

    Yet, all of the people I know who post to Facebook nonsense similar to what you have described are by nature hyper emotionally expressive and have always only posted content that mirrors their feelings.

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