Long story. So bear with me but I think it's interesting.
I'm from Australia. So who the fuck cares about US politics right?
Well back in 2016 the media had me. I was a headline reader and would commonly say to people the likes of "Imagine if Trump wins! How fucked would the world be".
One day a guy from work sort of red pilled me in a weird way... He was a Pakistani and he told me "Who cares... We're not from the US. And they deserve it". It made me laugh (sorry pedes).
Now obviously he had an axe to grind from a Pakistani point of view but he sort of burst my bubble. Why the fuck would I care or stress being from Australia about Trump being president. I never cared before. That's when I realised the media had fucked me.
Anyway a couple of months later some barrister friend (had been having dinner once a week every week for several years) started ranting to me at dinner about Trump being president ending the world. I thought I could maybe help him and calm him down. Try and make him see that it doesn't matter that much. Long story short... We have never caught up socially since then. I've got lots of friends. And he was sort of a "single" friend and I'd just met my wife so while I was disappointed... It didn't stress me too much but it was an eye opener.
Anyway started becoming a Trump fan. Bet on him winning. He won but I learned for years to just shut up about it because people still really hate him here. And basically buy into the fact that anyone who likes him (or even doesn't hate him) is a racist degenerate.
Earlier this year lost another friend. Called her up during Covid to make sure she was alright because she is at high risk (cancer survivor). She started ranting about how fucking stupid Trump was. I backed off and was like "yeah he's got a hard job and who knows what the right decision is" and tried to be non chalant. She basically pushed me until she called me a "fucking idiot" and I told her that I'm not here to listen to her bullshit and to fuck off. She was a little bit of a "pity" friend of mine so was happy to fuck her off at this point.
Anyway feel I almost lost another friend lately. He's a good one who I don't want to lose.
Hes a smart guy. Professional, very educated and wealthy. He HATES Trump. But basically acts like he doesn't care.
So he'll send me "Trump is shit" articles or videos and then when I argue back he's like... "Ah I don't really care". But you know he does. At one point I basically confronted him about his attitude and said that his attitude was confrontational but it's not worth ruining our friendship. He backed down and apologised but I can tell he still HATES Trump and a part of that hates projects onto me.
It's crazy that the media machine is so powerful. That people in Australia lose friends over it.
Imagine being in the US and losing a friend over who the Prime Minister of Germany is.
Just remember that becoming a conservative is the natural progression of life. When you are young and foolish, you tend to vote Democrat. When you get older and start understanding the world and the way it works, start understanding human behavior, own property, and start thinking about the future of you children, you become a conservative.
Conservatism correlates with wisdom. Even old Democrats have decency and conservative values, and the disagreements aren't about "tearing down the system" but smaller things that used to separate the parties. It's the millennial Democrat psychos - 30s, no family, ruined life - who are looking for a reason to exist and therefore take up the mantle of this leftist cult.
I have an old childhood friend who has totally gone TDS. Lost friends over it, etc. 43 years old. Lives with his mom. No job. Being an activist is his way of giving meaning to his life. Without it, what is his purpose? His biggest dream in life would be to be the commissar going door to door making sure everyone is following the "rules" for the "greater good". Nothing would make him happier than having a big, custodial key ring that jangles as he walks, each key affirming his perceived importance. Narcissism which hasn't been nurtured turns bitter and looks to blame everything and everyone else for its lack of success in life.
The dude also has more ticks than a timex watch. Bizarre behavior shit. He'll do this fake yawn when he's socially nervous or feels inadequate. I see him about once a year, and the other day I went back to the old neighborhood to ask if he wanted to grab some lunch with me and my young son (I'm buying, of course). He eats his burger in about 2 minutes, just totally wolfs is down like a homeless person (he looks homeless, too. Totally unkempt, bad hygiene, etc.) It's impossible to talk about anything with this guy either besides video games, because any mention of anything "adult" will make him feel inadequate, and he kind of drops out of the conversation, or if it's something esoteric he's read about, he'll go full pedant. The guy has always been smart, but he's a fool and missing just the plain simple horse-sense of someone with experience. And while he is smart in the sense of having sometimes wikipedic knowledge of a certain subject, I wouldn't say he's "bright" or "sharp". He'll miss the obvious in favor of the complex, and is often unable of drawing rational conclusions, despite having all of this knowledge. Whatever the opposite of astute is, he's it.
Anyway, I don't mean to go on about this but about ten minutes into lunch he's finished, and starts cleaning up the table. Even so far as cleaning up my fries that I'm still eating, so much that I had to tell him that I was still eating. To which he responds, "Sorry, that's just my inner food service instincts coming out." What it really is, is that this dude is in full fight or flight and wants to get the hell out of here because he feels threatened by my presence. Not violently threatened, but me being around him forces him to face his own inadequacy and failure. I'm sitting here with my son, I have a wife and a family, I've got my shit together, I've accomplished some extraordinary things in my life that most would consider impressive. And here is this dude, living at home at 43 years old and waiting on his mother to die to inherit property.
And he'll tell you exactly why Trump is bad, and how we're all "bootlickers" for supporting law and order. A revolution is his last hope to make something of himself. And this is the case with all Marxists. Marxism is their revenge against a society which they believe has shut them out, when it's really their own failures. They don't hate you. They hate themselves. You are their proxy. This is who we're dealing with.