That's fun to say, but where they balk is they think you draw too big of a circle around groups to label them "nazis."

So to them, you may as well think anyone who likes guns is a nazi.

Depends on the person. I've been told to my face without a hint of irony that "you're so open minded all your brains fell out".

And, their views typically do not include the things that most of the people I know hate the most about the platform that they ascribe to.

They just think being Republican will make them wealthier or fix problems in the country or make the world a better place.

The single issue voters have an opinion on a single issue and everything else doesn't matter compared to that one thing.

They don't care about all of the bad as long as the single bit of good can be accomplished, and they don't care if you think that single bit of good is a bad thing.

They don't care to talk to or be dissuaded by their family members who are not approaching them with a spirit of love and care for them.

Beside that, it's not mentally or emotionally healthy to live spring-loaded with ontological traps that can be fired off with a single phrase to bring down judgment and the fires of hell on the people you meet.

They're not going to want to hear you if that's what you're bringing to the table.

Hi!

A while back I myself made the sometimes painful journey from a conservative to the progressive I consider myself now. I know you didn’t ask, but here’s some stuff to keep in mind.

The internet has no place for subtlety. People desperately want the dopamine rush that comes from righteous fury, defending one’s viewpoint and crushing those who disagree. It’s true of a lot of people, and I’ll be honest, I’m guilty of it on occasion. It just feels so damn good to be right.

But in my experience, most people in life don’t really act that way. I mean, in high school I occasionally got shit on by people who were “lefties,” but I was usually asking for it. More generally, people were much more likely to ask me questions and discuss our differences. They may have been judging me, but I never got that vibe. It’s just easier to see the person you’re talking to as a fellow human in person. And those people were integral in helping me realize that a lot of the stuff I was seeing online about feminazis and whatnot was simply more rage product, designed to get that part of the brain pumping and let me feel good and superior to someone else.

Removed from the left vs right rage online, I found that it became increasingly difficult to call myself “conservative.” Not because I was worried about how people would think of me, but rather because the more people I met and the more I learned about the world, the harder it was to reconcile what I knew with the views I had held. And when I would try to provide context or data to my fellow conservatives, they refused to listen. Anything that didn’t reinforce the views they held, they didn’t want to hear.

So much of what I thought I knew about “lefties” was from online takes and screenshots that others shared, but none of that matched my experience with real people in real life. And I’ve been so grateful I had the chance to spend time with people with significantly different lived experiences from my own who didn’t shun me for my views but were friendly and helped me become a more empathetic person.

Of course, this goes both ways. The average conservative doesn’t want to kill gay people or black people. They aren’t represented by the extremes either. Generally speaking, people just want to live their lives. I truly think one of the biggest differences between progressive and conservative mindsets is about how many people whose lives are different from your own you’ve gotten to know. It helps us be less afraid of one another. It’s part of why densely populated areas tend to be more progressive, I think.

Anyway, I wish you luck in your journey. Hope you didn’t mind my musing here!

Here's my problem with the "not all conservatives" mind frame: Nazis and maga have security attached themselves onto conservatives, and conservatives who "aren't those guys" aren't doing anything to eradicate those parasites.

If you have 10 conservatives and 1 Nazi at the dinner table, you have 11 Nazis.

that's why the word was invented, to replace the obvious intolerance for openness

I still haven't looked into what "woke" actually means, but from what I can tell, it seems to mean anything far-right people don't like.

Your grandma sounds like a wonderful human who lived a wonderful life. I hope you are doing well.

He always stays sober and doesn't join in the violent and racist tirade

Nm, what’s a klerb with you?