I have a close friend that I’ve known 20 years who became obsessed with right-wing politics. even though I’m liberal, I don’t make it my entire personality and life. But anyway… I was talking to him this morning casually like friends do.
Me: “Hey man. Do you have off today for MLK day?” Friend: “No, I have to work today.” Me: “Damn, sorry to hear. I have off today since it’s a company holiday.” Friend: “Yeah, I work for a living. Guess that’s the difference me and people who live in an ivory tower.” Me: “Uhh I work for a living too. Idk why you’re acting like I don’t?” Friend: “I didn’t mean you specifically. But you’re off and I’m not so it shows that you get to relax at least. You should be able to handle the truth lol. There’s no shame in admitting that I’m a harder worker than everyone else. you shouldn’t be so sensitive”
Honestly, he’s not unique, either. I’ve met so many people who are conservative, obsessed with right-wing stuff, and they’re all like this. They act like they’re special and the whole world is lazy, “no one wants to work anymore” attitude.
It’s not even that they only accept people that abide by their views - it’s just that they are oblivious to those outside the scope of their lives. They are not people who hate immigrants or other minorities, they’re people who never interact with minorities at all and so get no pushback when they just passively accept the idea that they are stealing all the jobs in the US. They don’t know any trans people and so when they hear that trans people are groomers, they just go “that’s horrible! Someone should do something about that”.
We need to remember that these people are a large portion of half the US we constantly have to fight against. They’re not all just a hateful swarm, there’s variety within that mass. They’re our relatives and our neighbors. A large amount of these people are really just insanely gullible and don’t see past their own noses. That gullibility is a mark on their quality, yes. They can still be decent human beings, despite that. They can also be corrected if you get them to understand, which I’ve done before. Many others have done the same.