It depresses the hell out of me that people I grew up with...

[Girard442]

...have turned into people I wouldn't tell where Anne Frank was hiding.

[sunflowerseed]

1. This!

[DENVERPOPS]

20. YES, THIS

During the Cheney/Rumsfeld era, I disowned most of my Republican lifetime friends, family, and acquaintances...

In 2016, I disowned the few remaining ones...............

Screw.Them.All..............

[oldsoldierfadingfast]

45. Did not need to disown anyone..

because of my inability to keep my mouth shut, they disowned me! I was happy with that at the time and still am. No great loss.

[DENVERPOPS]

74. Nope,

not unlike their GRAND MAGA MASTER, they would have loved to keep me around as their beating board, or in case I could serve some useful purpose to them in the future.....

[Arthur_Frain]

2. Rejoice instead

That you are smarter that them.

[hlthe2b]

3. That wouldn't be enough to save Anne or any of the rest of us.. That is a devastating fact of our current time...

I can only hope we defeat it. Change it? I don't know how.

[Arthur_Frain]

5. Got to take your peace where you can find it lately.

I make a difference where I can, it’s a pretty small sphere of influence I possess, that and that I will vote is about what my pay grade is. I’m not going to let things above that spin ,me into a depressive black hole where I’m no good to anyone.

I’m actually feeling pretty good just over 3 weeks out from the event, and my heart and my gut both say we’re going to win it, but my gut says it’ll be close. My heart says I’ll wake up Nov 6 and tfg will be behind by at least ten million votes.

Even if I’m wrong, and he either wins outright (which I think is very unlikely) or his minions in place successfully agitate to stop the election tally process, I’m not giving up. If that happens we have to retrench and start over, but I will never let these shitheads sleep peacefully if that happens, I promise.

[hlthe2b]

15. ...

I think we all strive for that.

[in2herbs]

18. What keeps me going is remembering that HRC won the popular vote by more tha 5,000. This means

that tfg will have to change the minds of 5,000 HRC voters plus change the minds of any democrats and independents who have shifted away from being democrats to being cult members. I can't fathom that happening.

[Arthur_Frain]

62. And in a way what keeps me going

Is remembering the ghastly feeling waking up to the 2016 results. Evil triumphs when the good men stand idle. Paraphrased of course.

[brush]

32. I'm with you. Since the convict was defeated in the 2020 election...

he incited an insurrection against the US government, he engineered the Dobbs ruling that snatched away women's abortion rights and bragged about it, had been convicted of 34 felonies and is awaiting sentencing, has been found guilty of sexual harrassment and the judge himself called him an ajudicated rapist, and the AG of New York won a hundreds of million dollar judgment against him and his NY properties.

I believe there are more American voters who will vote against such a despicable character, even in the battleground states, and we will rejoice on election day, or the day after once all the ballots are counted.

We should all be careful not to appear to happy when out in public after the election as the maga ts will be looking to pick fights.

But fuck them ahead of time. trump will become a two-time looser on Nov. 5.

[OMGWTF]

39. Good points, but Trump is not a sexual "harasser" he is a sexual 'assaulter' and an adjudicated rapist.

He wasn't pestering anyone for a date, he violently penetrated a woman against her will. Big fking difference.

[brush]

40. Good point on the adjudicated rapist. I was too lenient.

[Arthur_Frain]

64. If we win by enough of a margin, there won't be any picking of fights.

Seriously, even with all of the election denialism, make them face the fact that they are in the minority in a very serious way.

Think about the fact that two randomly seated juries in New York found unanimously that there was A: reason to send it to trial and then B: the evidence was enough to convince all of the jury members so that the vote was unanimous. One of two conclusions I draw from this, either they’re a lot less numerous than we are scaring ourselves into believing (not one trump supporter out of twenty four with the avowal to monkey wrench the whole thing?), or when presented with unassailable facts, i.e. something like a public record of what tfg did or said without right wing news outlets favorable editing and comment, no other conclusion was possible. After it’s all over that may be what brings us back together. There will always be a fringe that courts the worst case scenario.

But I like your “Fuck them ahead of time”. Gonna steal it if that’s okay with you. I got three weeks, and I need good jargon!

[brush]

66. By all means, take it.

[dawg]

4. Certanily not if she were an undocumented child from Honduras.

Into the camps with her, they'd say.

[lobointexas]

6. I'm right there with you.

My 40th high school class reunion was this weekend. I had no interest in "catching up" with those that have gone to the dark side. What really shocks me is that many of them are Hispanic.

[LittleGirl]

46. I went to school with a bunch of Italian

second generation Americans who are the most racist people I have ever met. I don't get it. I just look at them and want to loudly ask, do you know where your people came from and how they were treated by the locals? Come on! I get so damn angry. It's like they are criticizing my own grandparents and family afterwards and I just have to walk away. It freaking hurts to hear them talk like that.

[MotownPgh]

51. I have noticed this too! When I grew up

they were considered you know what. Total amnesia now. Still shocks me

[lobointexas]

55. Funny you mention that.

I'm a second generation Italian, well half Italian half Slavic. I wish I could say you were wrong, but you are not. The things I heard growing up....

Actually, I'm not sure which was worse, my dad's family, the Italians, or my mom's, the Slavs.

So many friends and family are MAGA, I just don't understand it.

[LittleGirl]

73. It's so sad isn't it?

If their parents were alive, they would have gotten bitch slapped and grounded for talking like that.

My theory is that 30+ years of bad mouthing Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich and Fox Spews brainwashing them into this cult. They also claim to be Christians, lol. They Wear flashy gold crosses around their neck and use four language spouting right wing conspiracy theories with no sense like parrots. I wanted to go out there and help elect sanity but I’m afraid I’ll be forced into something that can get dangerous. They are armed and angry cultists and I fear what they are going to do when they get wiped out in a month.

[lobointexas]

77. I'd like to believe your statement about the parents.

Unfortunately, they may have learned that behavior from them.

[LittleGirl]

92. Indeed. Quite possible. nt

[Mr. Mustard 2023]

100. Oddly, the fact that Kamala is female is rarely mentioned,

and I guess that's a good trend. Misogynists are everywhere and Kamala has that burden to overcome.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

7. why would you be sharing that information anyway

[twodogsbarking]

9. To rescue her?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

17. She didn't need rescuing...until someone told where she was hiding.

Last edited Sun Oct 13, 2024, 11:44 AM - Edit history (1)

[OneGrassRoot]

37. smh

You knew what the OP meant. Why so contrarian? This is a perfect example of why fewer and fewer post here, especially OPs. Inevitably someone is waiting to pounce due to semantics or other unnecessary comment.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

56. I took the OP at their implication that there were people they'd feel comfortable telling where Anne Frank was hiding.

In this day of rapidly approaching fascism, that’s an admission that should be examined, imo.

[misanthrope]

84. My first thought as well

"I wouldn't tell anyone if I knew such a thing." Why? Because my complete silence would be the only way to guarantee their safety.

Never, never, never, never assume a secret is safe with anyone else. That's pretty much the definition of a secret, something you shouldn't repeat.

[chicoescuela]

8. I am also very sad to the bros I used to run with 50 years ago are so maga.

Sad is not the right word, sickened is more accurate

[BSloat]

14. Sad is not the right word...

My reaction was disappointment and then anger. I always thought some of these people (friends) knew better.

Trump has to go. Once he is in the rear view, it will be easier for change to happen but not in what remains of my life.

[chicoescuela]

16. I believe trump released their true beliefs in public.

They are all too far gone at this point with or without trump.
It is sickening also sad I didn’t see this earlier

[Evolve Dammit]

25. Sadly I agree completely

[misanthrope]

86. Disappointed is more accurate for me

The changes I've seen in some as they've aged clarify why we grew apart initially.

[twodogsbarking]

10. I never went to a reunion. I wouldn't want to in any way show support for the school I went to. Catholic.

[BattleRow]

41. Catholic teaching at one time stated that

if you weren't Catholic you were doomed to hell.
To which a friend of mine inquired ,

"Then why didn't God create us all Catholic to begin with?"

Sixty years later,she still never got an answer.

[ybbor]

11. I know, right

So many have been hoodwinked. Family members, too. And we’re the “sheep”.

[littlemissmartypants]

12. Try having one of those as a sister. ❤️

[COL Mustard]

19. Yup. Or a mother or a cousin or a nephew

I have all of them as MAGATS to one degree or another. I’m just glad I only see them once or twice a year.

[littlemissmartypants]

22. She's the only family that I have...

and I can't wait to cut her out of my life. There are other mitigating factors that I don't feel comfortable revealing publicly.

Ultimately, as soon as our parent's estate is settled, I'm history.

❤️

[COL Mustard]

23. So sorry to hear that, smarty

Family can be strange sometimes. And you can't pick 'em and you grow up thinking everyone's family is like yours.

Peace to you and yours.

[littlemissmartypants]

30. Thanks, COL. ❤️

[OldBaldy1701E]

71. As the great Miles O'Brien once said...

"You choose your friends and you choose your enemies. But, family? That's in the stars!"

[littlemissmartypants]

104. Unless you are adopted.

Which happens to be my case. So, I'm not sure how much credit we can give to the stars.

I like Miles, though.

❤️

[OldBaldy1701E]

105. With all due respect...

Something led your adoptive parents to you. Something made them say, "Yes, that is who we want."

Sounds rather rather 'magical' to me.

[littlemissmartypants]

106. Thanks, OB. ❤️

[WestMichRad]

44. Yup, I can certainly relate to that!

[Playingmantis]

76. I do .

I think my sister grew up looking for a father figure she never had ..and I suspect Trump is it..

[moniss]

13. A quote from an old John Mellencamp song

"Crumblin' Down". The lead line is "Well some people ain't no damn good" and that is so very, very true.

[Figarosmom]

21. My daughter is gay

And had friends that are voting for Trump. Notice I said had. And every neighbor on her block is voting Harris/ Walz because they want to protect her and her partner. The neighbors turned out to be better friends then some of the people she was friends with since grade school

[BattleRow]

24. I just wonder,what exactly will this country

be like if MAGATs wishes come true?
What do they envision this country to actually become?
If they hate government.why run for office..to dismantle the country, constitution,rule of law?Qui bono?

[Evolve Dammit]

26. Wild west. Buckle up and plan ahead.

[Zambero]

27. MAGA sees themselves as somehow "protected"

from the wrath and veangeful actions that their Dear Leader would surely visit onto "The Others". But as history has clearly demonstrated, it doesn't always work out that way. Unintended consequences will befall many who never saw it coming.

[Wednesdays]

42. They don't think the leopards would ever eat THEIR faces! nt

[BaronChocula]

63. Some of their faces are being eaten right now

Springfield, OH is in a super red district. Springfield republicans are now victims of a republican hoax. In NC, hurricane victims are being turned against the government agencies there to help them through vindictive republican talking points.
And so on.
Republicans for Harris get it.

[BattleRow]

72. Leopards don't change their spots,and

they are equal opportunity predators when it comes to victims.

[Whatthe_Firetruck]

59. If magat victory puts someone...

... under their thumb or at their beck and call it would be worth to them.

Even it's only one person to lord over and feel superior to. That's just who they are.

[BattleRow]

61. One doesn't stand taller on the back

of another.

A pygmy is still a pygmy..even atop the Empire State building.They aren't fooling anyone.

(Apologies to pygmies,btw.)

[The Unmitigated Gall]

28. Over the last 8 years or so

I've found that pretty much everyone I was friends with in high school has gone with Trump.

Fuck them. I'd rather walk alone.

[Puppyjive]

29. Ignorance has gone the way with Trump

Almost everyone I know who endorse Trump are ignorant, can't read beyond a headline and know nothing about current events. They seem to have financial struggles and can't get ahead in life. Why these people endorse someone who doesn't have their back is beyond me. I joined the democrats in my town. Now I am educated and feel somewhat successful in life. They encouraged to get my degree after I had been in the Air Force. They saw me struggle with pregnancy discrimination at my job and helped me fight the good fight. They volunteered to visit me when I was a new mother. A welfare check, but it was awesome. Made lifelong friends.

[OMGWTF]

35. Democrats care about people, Rethuglicans care about money. Period.

[eppur_se_muova]

54. Well ... money is power, and I think power is what they really want. If they don't have a lot of money, at least ...

they can still threaten people they don't like, or just disagree with, with violence, and that makes them feel powerful.

They define themselves by who they want to beat up on -- it's their core identity.

[Jmb 4 Harris-Walz]

36. Quite the inspiring story. Very happy that you found your place with people who cared about you.

[Quiet Em]

31. I quit Facebook in 2015 over that.

One of the most depressing was a woman who was my best friend in elementary school. Awful.

[MayReasonRule]

33. Attended School With The Current Mayor Of Bossier City, Louisiana

He excelled in academics and sports.
He was an all around decent guy.

His current and past support of Mike Johnson, Donald Trump and the GOP is sickening.

He is no longer that all around decent guy.

The shit-heads I went to school with I expect it from...
He is a true disappointment.

I empathize.

[BattleRow]

38. North Louisiana is more Arkansas than Louisiana

by political persuasion and public opinion of Southern Louisianians.

The worst of both worlds.

And the food sucks,too!

[MayReasonRule]

43. Lol... As Far As The Food

Like anyplace you've gotta' know where the good stuff is...

The food scene here isn't Dallas or New Orleans...

Nonetheless, Shreveport and Bossier do have some excellent choices for high-quality super tasty food.

Two of our favorites when we do eat out on occasion are The Mabry House and Ki Mexico.

I do the majority of food preparation for us at home in our kitchen.

[BattleRow]

58. Good to know it's not a total food Sahara,but

after south Louisiana Cajun and Creole cuisine,most would throw rocks,lol.

HOWEVER,the folks at Furr's,next door in Texas ,make the ultimate chicken fried steak!

[ArkansasDemocrat1]

79. I grew up eating Creole food. It's hard to find good food here

I usually make it myself or cheat with Zatarain's gumbo base when the Gumbo craving becomes irresistible. Nothing store bought tastes right. And it has to have sliced okra, shrimp and chicken.

[BattleRow]

82. And smoked sausage,oh yeah,cher!

[ArkansasDemocrat1]

83. Conecuh is my favorite sausage

https://www.southernliving.com/southern-chefs-love-conecuh-sausage-7090544

[BattleRow]

88. Google up CajunGrocer out of Lafayette

Great resource for authentic Cajun and Creole foodstuffs..they ship anywhere,too.

Bonappetit!

[ArkansasDemocrat1]

89. Ooh! Yum! Thanks 😃

[BattleRow]

91. YVW

[OMGWTF]

34. I met up with a woman at my recent 50-year high school reunion and we had a great conversation.

We became friends on Facebook, and I had to unfollow her the very next day. The nasty shit she was posting dissing Harris and Walz really pissed me off. Fuck her and everyone like her. They bring nothing to the table but hatred and ignorance. I would rather be dead than be like them.

[WestMichRad]

47. Thank you for making me feel better...

… about not having attended my recent 50th class reunion. I did visit a reunion several years earlier and saw first hand what most of them had become. Never again will they see me.

I’m so glad to be in the company of good people here at DU!

[ArkansasDemocrat1]

80. I have no plans to attend my 50th

Anyone I was still friends with from school has passed. I have no desire to waste my money and time.

[Freddie]

102. I didn't go to mine

Was a couple weeks ago. The only person I’m really friends with from my class was away on vacation and I just didn’t care about seeing anyone else.

[SupportSanity]

70. I'm getting pummeled by Classmates.com. I guess there is a high school event coming up. But...

I'm not doing anything before the election. I'm not getting into it with anybody from there. Maybe next year.....

Also, I saw way back when how dangerous facebook could be. And it has lived down to my expectations. I know a lot of people live on it, but I think that in the coming years, if Kamala wins, that we will find out just how culpable Zuckerberg has been. And the cost of connecting via a system that is mostly unregulated.

I would love to be connected.

After we win.

[CrispyQ]

103. LOL LOL

I went to my 40th HS class reunion in May of 2015 & friended a bunch of old classmates. A month or so later Trump declared & by the end of the year I'd unfriended almost all of them.

[LuckyCharms]

48. I figured out that...

Virtually all of the people I thought were fucking assholes way back when turned out to be Trump supporters.

My gut was correct.

But also, even some of the people I really liked turned into Trump supporters.

Yes, it is depressing.

[ShazzieB]

49. This may sound terrible...

But I'm grateful that my sil passed away before the rise of Trump.

She was very conservative and had narrow-minded views about a lot of things, so she would probably have been ripe for the picking if she'd still been around when he rode down that golden escalator. My bil (her and my husband's brother) was very liberal like us, but there was a whole list of topics that were never discussed in her presence (including my bil being a closeted gay man). I'm afraid MAGA would have been the proverbial last straw.

She died in 2012, at the age of 82. She was in extremely poor heath by that time and more than ready to go, so on that score, her death was a blessing of sorts. The fact that she left us a few years before the rise of Trump feels like a bullet dodged, on top of everything else.

[Ohioboy]

50. Wow, you expressed my sentiments exactly!

To MAGA it's as if not following Trump is a crime. They want to have tribunals for people like Liz Cheney.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

52. One of my best friends for almost 30 years went off the deep end during the Obama administration

Got on the Ron Paul bandwagon because he was "pro pot". Then started collecting guns and listening to weird radio shows.
I dropped him when he called the Obergfell ruling "Dead F**s Day", but I still creep on his Facebook page occasionally. It's all John Birch Society bullshit now (he even has a photo of himself giving JBS pamphlets to the QANON Shaman at TPUSA last year), with plenty of references to Venezuelan gangs in Colorado, and multiple defenses of the dog-eating accusations in Ohio.
And a ton of transphobic bullshit. If I want to know what is bubbling up in QANON/MAGA-Land, his FB feed is a pretty good source of the craziest.

[SupportSanity]

53. My neighbor tried to force out my political views. Claiming that Biden was responsible for high grocery prices.....

(I had just come back from grocery shopping and was carrying my bags from the car.)

He said it twice trying to lure me out.

I replied to him "Yeh, ever since the pandemic started the grocery prices have been crazy!". He walked away.

Not looking to start anything. Thinking that things will be VERY different after November 5th.
Hopefully with Trump in the rear view mirror.

And then these arguments will be a non starter. Can't wait.

[Skittles]

67. how did Biden cause inflation world-wide?

these people have no ability to think for themselves

[SupportSanity]

68. Yeh, well. If Kamala wins, no more arguments. If Trump wins, everything my neighbor says is right.

The stakes in this election are incredibly astronomically impossibly high.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

57. I'm lucky. Most of the people I grew up with are now liberal. Most of our parents were Reps.

Not to be a snob but I see that the people who I grew up with who are Trumpsters and were for George W Bush were not the brightest bulbs in the tree and went to inferior colleges. I have a couple of friends who had genius IQ’s and a lot that were highly intelligent who are all liberal.

[Elessar Zappa]

75. I know a lot of highly educated Trumpers, including two PhDs in my own family.

[oldsoftie]

60. I agree. And many of these are highly educated people too

Good at their jobs, but then say they'll vote for this POS

[Skittles]

65. I know I am the kind of person who would have hidden people

it dismays me how many people would gleefully turn people in

[samplegirl]

95. I would too

I would have taken a Ukrainian if they needed help.
I did apply.

[Initech]

69. I know, I've lost ties with friends I once considered close over this bullshit.

Trump and Fox are totally killing this country.

[hay rick]

78. Time to turn the page.

They are irredeemable and you know it. They made their choices and it's not your fault. Don't blame yourself for discarding a friendship- hold the friend responsible for discarding their decency. If the people you refer to as "people I grew up with" are family members, know that you have a lot of company in that sad situation.

[littlemissmartypants]

93. This...

"...hold the friend responsible for discarding their decency."

❤️

[ArkansasDemocrat1]

81. Shake the dust from your feet and walk on

You owe them nothing.

[TNNurse]

85. I have a cookbook by the author Pat Conroy.

He tells stories with the recipes. One is about his kids getting to know a Jewish neighbor. Essentially he says he wanted to raise children "who would hide Jews". I did not have children, but feel I would have tried to do the same thing.

[SupportSanity]

96. Pat Conroy cookbook? The author of "The Great Santini" and "The Prince of Tides"?

I didn't know he had a cookbook. In the movie "The Prince of Tides", he does a lot of cooking in it.

He thinks and remembers while he cooks.

And there is a great scene from his childhood. His mother was always trying out new fancy French
recipes as she was using the food as a way moving up -- social climbing. Her husband, a shrimper, would have none of that and at the dinner table with the family there, loudly demanded she make him plain American food.

She went back into the kitchen to make his plain meal, and with the children helping, opened up a large can of dog food, cooking it as the meat base, adding onions and other ingredients to make it a plain American meal. The husband was completely satisfied. And while he was eating, the father had to brush off the dog who also was also trying to eat his dog food.

I'll bet the recipes are good!

[TNNurse]

98. The Pat Conroy Cookbook, Recipes of My Life.

I treasure my copy.

The stories are as good as the recipes...no surprise.

[Martin68]

87. Girard, welcome to the club! Family and friends who turn out to be MAGAts make me question everything I believed

about other people when I was growing up. But sometimes, if you think about its, there were signs...

[Tikki]

90. Opposite...my husband and I are really surprised when we go to...

our High School Reunions and find a Progressive, Liberal or Democratic Voter in the bunch.

The current repug who is running for Congress in our former home town
area is a real fascist. He will win.

The Tikkis
p.s. We left there a long time ago.

[Tweedy]

94. If you still speak

Take them to a beautiful place that you both once frequented

And be kind and decent.

If they are not in return, ask them what has made them miserable? Remind them, if you can still remember it, what a bright, happy person they once were.

Don’t mention Mr. Trump, his hate or his weirdness. Maybe they can be retrieved from the quicksand of miserableness that is sucking them dry. It is never too late, I hope and pray, for any one of us.

All of that said, never tell them where Anne Frank is hiding.

[ColoradoHoosier]

97. An excerpt from "They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933 - 45"...

...written in 1955 by American journalist Milton Mayer. This is one of a series of interviews Mr. Mayer conducted during a year long visit to post-war Germany, in an attempt to provide some insight into how ordinary German people were caught up in the nationalistic fervor of the Nazi movement.

"To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it - please try to believe me - unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had ever had occasion to develop."

"You see, one doesn't see exactly where or how to move. Believe me, this is true. Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for the one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow.

"...But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That's the difficulty. If the last and worst act of the whole regime had come immediately after the first and the smallest, thousands, yes, millions would have been sufficiently shocked. But of course this isn't the way it happens. In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next. Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C? And so on to Step D."

"And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you. The burden of self deception has grown too heavy, and you see that everything, everything, has changed and changed completely under your nose. The world you live in – your nation, your people – is not the world you were in at all."

And as Mayer cautions in his book:

"I came back home a little afraid for my country, afraid of what it might want, and get, and like, under pressure of combined reality and illusion. I felt - and feel - that it was not "German Man" that I had met, but "Man". He happened to be in Germany under certain conditions. He might be here, under certain conditions. He might, under certain conditions, be I."

[CousinIT]

99. Ditto that. EVERYBODY I went to high school with ...

... are MAGAts. I looked them up on Facebutt when I had an account (I've long ago shut it down). Every damn one, including one who was my best friend -- are now Trump-humpers or Libertarian idiots.

[BlueKota]

101. I feel the same way.