The varieties of Trump-hatred
Commenter “physicsguy” writes:
I have a good friend from grad school who is a typical democratic liberal, bordering on left, with a mild case of TDS. Generally he is a good guy except his politics blinds him to some obvious facts. I follow his FB page just to see what’s up, and also it’s a great way to monitor the thoughts of the more looney left as many of his friends fall into that category.
Things were quiet after the election, but have burst forth since Monday. On Tuesday there was much anguish about how we’re all going to die and the country will descend into Nazism, and how RFK is going make everyone drink bleach, etc etc. No rational thought at all, just complete mental breakdowns. Today, lot’s of reposts from left social workers and psychologists about how the flurry of executive orders is intentionally designed to keep all these poor people in a state of disequilibrium. …
Just wondering if Neo has seen similar reactions from here lib friends. It really is fascinating to watch.
My answer is yes and no. There’s been a lot of variety in responses, and I’ve come to think of it as the three varieties of Trump-hatred.
The first type probably shouldn’t even be called “hatred”; more like intense dislike and disapproval. These people never vote for Republicans or even consider it, but they’re not especially political animals. They follow politics somewhat but not obsessively, and it doesn’t dominate their lives or even come close. That doesn’t mean they don’t have firm political opinions, but their emotional investment in those opinions isn’t extremely high, and in particular their tolerance of their political wishes being thwarted is also relatively high.
The second group does hate Trump. They talk about him more, and when they do it’s with a bitter biting tone of extreme contempt. He’s stupid, he’s coarse, he’s a misogynist, he’s racist, he’s corrupt, he’s a sexual predator. They think the next four years are going to be awful but they aren’t living in significant fear.
Members of the third group are the ones physicsguy is describing. In their regular lives, they’re intelligent, thoughtful, and kind. But they believe some or even all of the following: Trump’s tenure means that there will never be another fair election and that the GOP will rig things somehow (method unspecified) to make it the case, Trump will try to run again in 2028, Trump will ban abortion on a national level, Trump will give Ukraine to Russia rather than just make some concessions to Russia, Trump will try to imprison his enemies and opponents with unfair charges, Trump will harm black people and gay people and trans people (perhaps by putting them in concentration camps), Trump will censor speech including the speech of the TDS sufferer, Trump will cause the death of millions including the TDS sufferer. How he will kill those people is left unspecified: will it be a war? A failure to deal properly with an epidemic? Global warming? Starvation? Gulags? Concentration camps and gas chambers? I don’t know, but it’s apparently some or all of the above.
In my circle of friends and acquaintances, groups one and two are rather large and group three is fortunately quite small. But it exists, and I know two people who fall into that category, one more rational than the other. I probably actually know more than two, but I’m not necessarily in close enough touch to know the details of each person’s thoughts on the matter.
It’s very sobering.
Trump 2028… let’s make it happen.
Pretty sure you mean “The Varieties of TDS Experience”…
As demonstrated by all those fanatical lovers—and upholders—of Democracy (and good judgment), especially that most imaginative—Don’t You DARE Raise Yer Arm, Not Even to Sniff Yer Armpit—AOC…as well as the illustrious Democratic Party’s state legislators in the State of Minnesota….
https://nypost.com/2025/01/22/opinion/sore-loser-democrats-obstructing-democracy-now-in-minnesota/
It strikes me as odd that if such people actually truly believed that Trump is indeed this horrific monster that they imagine him to be that they wouldn’t in fact live in fear for themselves. I’m guessing they’re able to avoid painful cognitive dissonances through the simple fact that they may (perhaps subconciously) understand that Trump really isn’t everything that they imagine him to be.
Nonapod:
That second group doesn’t think he’s a monster, just a bad bad president and a bad man. It’s only the third group that thinks he’s a monster of Hitleresque proportions.
I think my daughter’s mother-in-law falls into the second group. She’s willing to believe anything negative about Trump that she hears. She used to watch CNN exclusively and seems to have downgraded to watching MSNBC. Recently she called her son, and after discussing the difficulties of caring for her beloved husband in his dementia, she said, “Boy, all those LGBTQ people who voted for Trump are going to be really sorry because he says there are only two genders.” My son-in-law replied, “Well, there are only two.” She was flabbergasted and unable to reply. He used to be a liberal and we’re proud of him. He’s coming along.
From time to time I’ve checked back in on NeverTrump bastions where I’m familiar with the commenting community there, and really what they have is a different filter and weighting for facts.
For example, the J6 pardons are beyond the pale, a slap in the face to the dedicated professionals in the FBI and Capitol Police as well as a signal that Trump rewards political violence on his behalf. The Biden pardons are a sensible precaution against Trump’s vindictiveness. The executive orders are the sign of incipient dictatorship. The Trump memecoin is a con and a sign of how Trump plans to use his office to enrich himself (further) by picking the pockets of the chumps who voted for him. Trump’s verbal softness when speaking of Putin is a sign that Trump worships dictators, intends to be one, and will let Russia have whatever Putin wants. Etc. Everything is interpreted in the worst possible light.
Now, if we want, we can look at folks like this, and check our own thinking for these kinds of filters and weighting, and try to correct our views to reality. Alternatively, we just dismiss these other people as broken-brained and carry on doing and saying as we do, assuming that we already have reality all figured out.
I feel we (Americans overall) dodged a big bullet by electing Trump. Can you imagine 4 years of Harris? (would have been worse IMO actually than the 4 years of Biden). Having dodged that bullet we need to proceed full force with the conservative agenda with disregard for what the left thinks or does. No Mercy. In time most of those liberals will see the error of their ways. And if they don’t so what. All we did was get to the starting line of this left/right conflict. The left has not faced pushback before. Now they will, and it will be good overall.
I suspect the common denominator for all three types is getting their “news” from the NYT, WaPo, CNN, etc.
My experience has been similar to physicsguy- I have a few Facebook friends with TDS (some old high school friends and a cousin). They were initially quiet for a few days after Trump’s election but are now blasting out all kinds of crazy predictions. What I wonder is if there would be a point where they will back off and admit that they were wrong- say if none of their fears come to pass and Trump turns out to be a great president. Peace in the Middle East, an end to the war in Ukraine, a great economy, etc.. Just curious.
I know several people in the third group. They are intelligent, sensible, likeable people–except on the subject of politics. Then they’re just…I don’t think crazed is too strong a word. It’s not simple disagreement, it’s not even a case of being informed by a completely different set of data or quasi-data. It’s the displacement of thought by very intense and unbalanced emotion and fantasy.
Current example: they all truly believe, as far as I can tell, as of three days ago, that Elon Musk is in actual fact an actual Nazi. When they talk about any of this stuff, it’s like a Jekyll-Hyde transformation. Any disagreement results not in “I disagree” but “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?!?”
Chris B: “What I wonder is if there would be a point where they will back off and admit that they were wrong- say if none of their fears come to pass ”
I can testify to a couple of instances where I can say that there doesn’t seem to be such a point. I know a couple of people who, when Trump won in 2016, claimed to be certain that Trump would implement concentration camps, at least, and probably death camps. The fact that none of that happened does not seem to have fazed them in the least. They’re still saying that kind of thing.
The hysteria from anti-Trump types won’t stop. Trump’s trolling doubles as confirmation of their priors.
We’re watching a mass psychotic break in real time based on what I am seeing in my Facebook feed and in various Reddit forums. There is a shocking inability to think critically. I’m tempted to engage, but have decided to keep a low profile at this point. It’s like when you’re on the NYC subway – don’t make eye contact (or otherwise engage) with the crazy people.
oops