FEBRUARY 4, 2020 – I’m a “patterns” guy. You might call it “confirmation bias.” Nevertheless, after enough confirmation of a perceived pattern, I begin to form an opinion . . . er . . . bias.
I note specifically the pattern of responses I observe among Trump supporters.
The start of the pattern came over five years ago when a certain extended family member posted a pro-Trump meme on Facebook. I was shocked but let it ride. Eventually, however, I had to say something. I forget what the “something” was exactly, but I can assure you that (a) it contained no expletives; and (b) was not personally demeaning of the family member who, by the time of my Facebook comment, had been posting a regular stream of pro-Trump stuff. (I believe it was something to the effect that I did not share his enthusiasm for Trump’s nomination.) The reaction to my brief (for me, anyway) comment was the ultimate in ego-bashing: I was summarily “de-friended.”
More recently, I was given similar treatment by three high-school friends. None had been a particularly close friend, but we’d become Facebook friends a few years back, and I began to notice regular postings by them that were very conservative and—in many ways, inconsistently pro-Trump. I challenged their opinions, but observed my strict personal rules: no expletives, no personal attacks, no “conclusory blasts,” nothing I would be embarrassed to see on a billboard near my neighborhood, and no simplistic, demeaning meme. After posting several comments, I was informed by each “friend” in more or less the same fashion: “I used to respect you and liked your writing, but I find your views offensive. I’m no longer interested in them and no longer interested in seeing you on Facebook.”
Again, since these people had never been close friends, I wasn’t hurt in the way I would’ve been had we been close friends. But I was shocked, nonetheless. Were they so insecure in their opinions—yet so committed to them—that they couldn’t simply ignore my comments? Had they been so brainwashed by FoxGoebbels that they had to make me vanish from Facebook?!
But now for the pattern. As my readers will recall, last October I attended the anti-Trump rally outside the Trump rally in downtown Minneapolis. I purposefully approached numerous Trump supporters who’d been unable to gain entry to the rally but stood on the periphery of the anti-Trump demonstrators. I was polite and respectful; wholly non-threatening. I asked in a non-judgmental tone, “So, can you give me your top three reasons for supporting the president?” What I got in response was an utter lack of substance. Most common was, “He’s trying to make America great.” In second place was, “The Democrats are so corrupt.”
Say what?! These struck me as shockingly vacant answers. In posing my question, I’d not intended to start an argument or convince anyone to change his/her mind. I was simply trying to identify substantive reasons people had for supporting Trump. I learned of . . . none.
(Cont.)
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© 2020 by Eric Nilsson
