As someone who’s not partisan about their politics, I’m curious to hear your thoughts on this.
Thursday, 13 Mar 2025
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As someone who grew up in Europe, particularly in Italy, during the 70s and 80s, I carry with me a deep understanding of the dangers of complacency in the face of authoritarianism. History taught us—especially in Europe, where the scars of World War II are still very present—that when people become comfortable with authoritarianism and comply with it, they are complicit, period.
There is no way to support or excuse complicity without sacrificing core values and the moral framework that holds society together. This is how Europe descended into one of the darkest periods in its history during the 20th century. Resistance to authoritarianism is not just a virtue—it is an obligation. Civility and social connection are important, but they cannot override the necessity to resist ideologies that threaten the very fabric of a free and moral society.
I’ve lived in the United States for over 30 years now, and I see echoes of this dangerous tolerance here. It is essential to recognize that while relationships with others—neighbors, friends, even family—may feel civil, we cannot allow that civility to blind us to what compliance with authoritarian tendencies leads to.
Resistance must come early and with determination. Compliance, even when it feels polite or necessary for harmony, is dangerous because it allows such ideologies to fester and grow until they become an existential threat. And when that happens, the fight to restore freedom and democracy is far harder and often literal.
This isn’t about creating division for the sake of it, but about standing firm for what is right before the cost of resistance becomes unbearable.
When evaluating a relationship, I think you need to ask yourself if you are unsafe or uncomfortable.
If you are unsafe, cut the relationship. Full stop. Not a question.
If you are uncomfortable, that might be your signal to step up and advocate for those who would be unsafe in relationship with that person.
I can be cordial with Trump voters. I have to be because many are my neighbors, and for as long as I live here, life is easier for all involved if we’re civil. And if they need a cup of sugar, I’ll give it to them, because I know they’ll give it to me.
But *friend* friends? I don’t think so. I can’t sustain a friendship avoiding the elephant in the room. It’s not that our values are always out of line, but our realities are out of line. And when I attempt to align our realities back together, I’m elitist or naive or misled.
First, half the people in America did not vote for trump. Less than half of the voting public did, and that represents about 21% of the total US population.
Second, I didn’t give a shit of someone voted Romney, or even Bush Jr. Breaking relationships with someone over those votes is pure politics. I cannot fathom how someone could watch trump and his supporters behavior the last eight years and still side with it. It’s not a political question it’s a moral one.
Third, apologies but you don’t get to roar for eight years about Fuck your Feelings, Fuck You, and You’re an enemy of the State. Then after say “why can’t we be friends.”
I am a BARELY holding on to family members because I still love them too much but it’s getting awfully close. But all the morals and values they allegedly raised me with have been exposed as bullshit. Like I don’t even know them.
They voted for this. Let then enjoy it.
I am struggling with this exact same sentiment. To me it’s not about politics but morality and what you’re okay with. I will be watching the comments with curiosity.
Why is it always on us to be the sane one? Why is the expectation not on the neighbour to be the sane one?
People are free to associate with whom they want. Some people don’t like associating with rapist clowns or supporters of said clown. Live with your choices.
My body, my choice (of who I spend my time with)
Intolerance should never be tolerated period. that’s how you end up watching your neighbors be dragged off or vice versa. we do not owe people who voted for themselves above all the rest anything at all. we now must survive despite them. don’t waste energy on selfish cowards. take care of the people who will take care of you back. I’m sure this nice old man would be nice to the people come to drag this family away as well. after all that’s what he voted for. owning the libs.
200% evil by ignorance. No excuses. In gnostic Christianity this is what sin actually is.
Respectfully disagree. You have freedom of choice, not freedom from consequences. You embrace hate, be ready be disliked.
Voting for Trump is endorsing what he’s done, as president and before. Being friends with a Trump supporter is saying that endorsement is acceptable. I don’t rub shoulders with people who think rape is acceptable. And that’s just the top of the list.
My wife is an immigrant, and my brother and mom voted for trump. The ability to rationalize away all of it is a window into their decision making processes. They are not dumb, they don’t fly trump flags, they think of themselves as good responsible members of society, and they just really do at the end of the day accept this victimized mentality that whatever it takes to defeat the socialist left.
The decision to continue to watch fox news after lying to their face for years and posting a $700m settlement is baffling to me
We’ll see how thanksgiving goes, but if it’s clear that it’s inevitable to boil over, then that will be a sad day of coming to terms with who they are now, the state of the world, and who I am. Values matter and it shows up in daily life, so it’s a strange time
I stopped having thanksgiving with people who disagree politically with me a WHILE ago. My entire family is deep red, I’m a democrat. My mom is moreso centrist, but agrees with whoever she needs to to get them to shut up. 2021, they said vaccines don’t work, and it turned into a full-on argument, so my mom has started declining their invitations to thanksgiving every other year, and making excuses for me the rest of the time, so she doesn’t have to deal with the politics
They also live in a different reality than I do. These voters threw away my kids futures due to willful ignorance, racism, misogyny and stupidity. I have zero sympathy for them. They won’t think twice about crying to the government about deporting my ass, why am I expected to be nice about it?
I can reason and try to understand why they voted for Trump and Project 2025. That just comes after I watch these same people get punished harshly for their poor decision. All of Project 2025 was out there. All of Trump’s worst tendencies were on full display his 1st term in office and from his rally speeches. If they still votes for a twice impeached, 34 times convicted felon and rapist who staged a coup on our Democracy than they are either willfully of ignorant and misinformed or they are the problem.
This isn’t really about politics. It’s about how low people will go to achieve what they want/think they want/a weird sports win.
If they’ll vote for Trump, there’s no one they won’t vote for. No one. There is no bottom.
They might win elections the rest of our lives. They will be our neighbors. I’ll be nice and pleasant. I’ll help them when they need it and change their flat tire. but they aren’t good people. I’m not talking to em when I don’t have to.
Don’t trump won not because 50% of people are evil. He won’t because 10% are very stupid and low information voters and don’t understand how inflation or economics works. In 4 years when gas is $5 a gallon and a happy meal costs $12 then will be mad again and vote for any Democrat who is running.
People in MAGA land have made it absolutely clear that they don’t want to share the world with anyone. Trump promised to build a wall, get Christianity enshrined in our government, kick transgender people out of bathrooms, etc.
They need to see the consequences of that mindset or things are going to get worse.
it’s not about politics- it’s about not wanting to hang out with people who actively voted to remove my rights from me.
What are people on the side of common sense and decency supposed to do? They won they have unilateral power to destroy the lives of immigrant trans people and others
Asking people to “chill out about it and focus on something other than politics” is ignorant and tone deaf..
What can vulnerable minorities supposed do when they become disenfranchised and persecuted??
Half of America voted for an evil president and fascist government, until they UNDERSTAND that or even if they NEVER can things will never be the same again
You think cutting off maga families is the end?? We are only just beginning this bloody movie
~22% of the American population voted for Trump, nowhere near half. I’m so sick of this line from his cult members.
1. Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity. Whether Trump voters are evil is irrelevant; they’re all idiots.
2. Yes, shun them, scorn them, disown them. Either they knew exactly what they were voting for or they didn’t and voted anyway. Either way, their stupidity contributes to worldwide societal breakdown and the suffering and deaths of millions. They deserve to suffer consequences for their actions and you deserve to associate with better people.
I am partisan, but I have values.
I would never be friends with a convicted felon/rapist who shows no remorse for their actions. The fact that someone is ok with this type of person being president, shows me the type of values they have, and it does not align with my values. We have nothing in common. I would be happy to vote Republican if I thought the candidate was a decent person who actually cared about this country, and aligned with me on the issues I cared about.
It’s not “politics”, it’s right and wrong, good and evil, us or them. They have chosen to hate other races, nationalities, religions, cultures, LGBTQ, to attack and demonize, I can’t be friends with them, with that, and I don’t. It’s a bastardized version of Christianity with none of the love, only hate and greed.
Yeah no, human rights are not up to debate
76 million people is not half the country. It’s not even half of the eligible voters. I’m tired of these people thinking they are in the majority. And I’m going to be honest, if most of those who cannot or did not vote actually do agree with them, and they really are the majority, this country is fucked.
I hate when they say “half the country voted for him” no they didn’t a QUARTER of the country did and another quarter voted for Harris. Half the country didn’t vote
I’m optimistic cutting them out of my life has been making it better.
Ultimately, the people who are deported, enslaved, or killed under the Trump administration won’t get to choose whether to “sacrifice their personal relationships for politics.” Neither should the perpetrators.
Find the Trump voters. Make them watch. Remind them, at every turn, that what is coming is their fault. They voted for this. They support this. They own this.
A vote for Trump over the price of eggs is still a vote for Russian assets controlling our intelligence services.
A vote for Trump because Democrats aren’t pro-worker enough is still a vote for kids in cages.
A vote for Trump to be edgy and cool because the podcasts said so is still a vote to sell our country to billionaires.
If we want this country to be sane again, make voting for Republicans a shame they can never forget or escape. Don’t hire them, don’t date them, don’t help them. Shun them. Shun their friends. Shun their children. Be the reason they are miserable. Hurt their feelings. Keep calling them weird. Shout over them. If they get angry enough to get physical, shut them down to the legal limit of self-defense.
See, just refusing to engage them shuts down all their excuses. Reluctant Trump voters still aren’t coming to Thanksgiving. Fiscal conservatives who are socially liberal still get shut out. Talk at them, not to them.
We are not going back. They are not coming back. This ends when no Republican politician gets a single vote anywhere. Not before. If they don’t like that, they can canvas for us and make it happen faster.
I struggle to understand the mentality that people shouldn’t be personally responsible for their politics. It’s an extension of your morals & fundamental belief system.
Your political affiliation says a lot about you as a person.
Because Trump is trying to go after my brother’s disability, I dont fuck with those people anymore. I don’t like people who vote against his interest.
Not half. Less than half of turnout voted for Trump. About 22% of Americans.
I personally do not feel that maga individuals share my core beliefs or morality. This isn’t an issue of a political difference, it is a core difference in how to treat humans.
Oh, a white man who is lease affected by Trump policies is telling me to stay in an abusive relationship because it hurts Trumper feelings. I should def do what he says and pour a bunch of emotional labor into my lonely neighbor who can’t be held accountable or else he might vote to kill me harder.
This is an optimist subreddit, and I always appreciate it for that, but… Graham definitely voted for Trump. It is understandable to remove people from your life if they support something that would hurt you.
Also, “half the people in America voted for Trump” is simply a lie.
I used to be a conservative. I don’t need to spend time listening to the same shitty news sources that filled my head with lies for the first 8 years of my adulthood.
Yeah, no. I dropped all of my maga voting friends and family. I won’t be talking to them ever again. You can’t vote my rights away and still love and respect me as a human. I’m not taking the time to listen to their crap anymore. If this sub is ok with human rights being taken away then it’s not as optimistic as i thought. People deserve to be treated as equals FULL STOP!
So here’s the thing 1. I think if you’re a trump supporter and your opposition is willing to cut you off just for voting for him and you aren’t MAYBE you should take a second look at your guy. TWO. I personally wouldn’t do this. I think a lot of Trump voters are either just stupid or uninformed, not evil.
The issue is a lot of people who voted for Trump are very dismissive that he could actually take away anyone’s rights.
1) They don’t believe anything about Project 2025
2) They say “Well Trump didn’t do Roe V Wade, that was the courts”(most people don’t understand that he staked the courts to get rid of Roe V Wade)
3) They say “He says he like IVF. He’s not homophobic or racist!”
I mean, yes there are his cult followers who are racist, who want Project 2025, who want rights restricted. But there are so many people I’ve argued with who are just like “oh no, that’s fake news! He won’t do anything like that at all!”
They think he’s harmless, that’ he just talks like an asshole and that’s it! The rest is just fakeness.
It’s what happens when you only watch Fox News. They live in their own world.
“politics is not nearly as important as you may think it is.”
unless you’re in the military, or disabled, or not straight, or not christian, or middle class, or in a union, or working minimum wage, or a woman, or ….
Not half, more like a quarter of all Americans. That’s my optimism.
But yeah, if you voted for him, especially this time around with all we knew, I consider you completely lacking in morals, ie evil.
I’m torn.
I’m naturally quite optimistic. I want to believe that most people aren’t evil. So even if someone voted for Trump, I want to believe that they’re not evil, that they’re just…misguided or misinformed. But then again, he’s very loud about what he wants.
I dunno…personally, I’ve chosen not to associate with anyone like that, but I’m also not going to insult or ridicule people just for who they voted for. I believe I’m well within my rights to not be around them, but I’m not going to stoop down. Hate may fuel them, but it lessens me.
I also reccomend people to at the very least do the same. At best, try and understand them. Maybe they only voted Trump for the economy? Maybe they felt betrayed by the DNC? Or maybe they are just an asshole. No one was ever hurt by learning to understand someone’s viewpoint.
I think it is very complicated. I don’t think people are necessarily evil. I think we’re all a mix of good and bad honestly. I think good people do bad things sometimes. In Buddhism there’s a concept of suffering people make others suffer. If you’re hurt or scared you might behave in a way that hurts and scares others. The goal is to stop the suffering at yourself.
However, Buddhism also teaches that you cannot go with a fool and not share their karma. So you can wish them well, you can have compassion, you can be kind, but if you feel that the relationship is no longer beneficial or good for you you certainly don’t have to continue it.
So, personally, I leave it to the individual to decide. Every relationship is different.
100% do this. Why sit at a table with an evil person who votes for an even more evil person? I’ve cut all my MAGAt friends off and told them why. They voted for an evil person. They should know why I kinda hate them.
I’m not saying that they are evil. They’re not evil. They’re just simply stupid.
Most of the Germans supported hitler so people with a conscience and a moral compass should not have ostracized them. lol…this fascist sympathizer is pathetically weak.