Don't call Trump supporters "gullible."

[gulliver]

Calling Trump supporters "gullible" just plays directly into Trump's hands. It both makes his supporters feel attacked and buys into the idea that they are innocently believing Trump's lies. Deep down, his supporters psychologically need to have those two things. They need to be "attacked," so they can feel free to "counter-attack." They need people implicitly accepting that they innocently believe the lies they're being told.

They don't really believe the lies for the most part. There's a difference between believing a lie and simply accepting it because you want to accept it. Trump supporters aren't being gullible. They're being deliberately riled and enraged into complicity. They're in a feedback loop where they are deliberately accepting lies and lying to themselves to build up anger for a fight.

To get there, many Trump supporters, probably the majority, have consciences they need silenced. Calling them gullible helps them get that. On the flip side, calling Trump supporters gullible makes those of us who are against Trump feel good. We're angry, and we want to "attack." It's self-defeating, but that's what we feel like doing.

Trumpies need to be ambivalent; we need to be cool, judgmental, and expect the best from them. They are not being themselves. They need to hear their consciences talking to them. They need to feel their fear of ruining everything. That means we need to tell them to stop being so angry for a minute and think. Why are they angry? Maybe it's Iago.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

1. Yeah, they're pretty much just assholes..... nt

[BainsBane]

2. They aren't gullible

They are fully complicit in Trump's crimes.

[marybourg]

3. "Complicit" is good.

[Maeve]

9. That's the word I came to, as well

[SWBTATTReg]

4. Anybody that falls for trump's crap deserves to be called gullible or worst. Don't sugarcoat it.

[Clearly fogged in]

5. +1 Iago - touche

[Orangepeel]

6. not gullible, culpable

[Efilroft Sul]

7. They are willing participants in the destruction of American institutions.

They are the enemy within.

[gohuskies]

8. They are willing participants in an attempt to destabilize the nation for tRump

Essentially willing to turn a blind eye to all the crimes and malfeasance of Dear Leader as long as they can endorse systemic racism, unfettered access to assault weapons and pro-life misogyny. They are not gullible in any way, shape or form. They are showing us who they are.

[Meowmee]

10. I call them fascists, mostly that is what they are.

[apnu]

11. The Republican party has made grievance a science.

It also plays into the "so much for the tolerant Left" nonsense they spew whenever any of us express frustration with them.

[DEbluedude]

12. I don't.

I call them dumb fucks, idiots, snowflakes, traitors, chickenshits, morons, racists, etc. You know, all in all, Nazis.

[Shermann]

13. Yeah but don't call them "skeptical" either

Calling Trump supporters "skeptical" just plays directly into Trump's hands. It both makes his supporters feel pandered to and buys into the idea that they don't have strong faith.

[lunasun]

14. Fuck trump and his supporters IDC "what they need"

[nuxvomica]

15. I agree. Willful ignorance.

And the ambivalence fuels their rage. I was arguing with a one of them during a protest a few years ago, a fellow who actually calls himself a "deplorable", cuz, y'know, that trolls the libs. He actually said to me, sotto voce, that there were no "kids in cages", that that was all made up. I knew he didn't believe that but in a face-to-face encounter he couldn't admit that he truly was that deplorable. Very strange encounter.