My Twitter debate with a Trump supporter.

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debate

I had an interesting evening on Twitter last night.  I’d tweeted to Bernie Sanders about something he had said about single payer healthcare, and soon got into it with a Trump supporter, who seemed belligerent at first.  It started off with this comment:

Medicaid is evil. It takes money from some who rightfully earned it to give to someone who didn’t. #freemarket#FullRepeal#capitalism

I refuted this tweet hotly, and before long, me and this guy were engaged in a heated debate that went on for over two hours and ran into hundreds of tweets.

I rarely enjoy debate, and I’m not the type to try to convince people to change their views.   I’ve never liked confrontation.  Perhaps that’s due to my lack of self-confidence.  I’d rather try to change minds by writing a blog post, even though it’s more likely all my anti-Trump posts fall into an echo chamber of other people who agree with me.   Many people who disagree with my political beliefs on my blogs tend to be too aggressive, so I usually either delete their comments if they resort to personal attacks or general abusiveness, or just let them stand without replying if I do approve them.  The safe echo chamber of yea-sayers is a lot more comfortable for me than a pitchfork-carrying army of scary nay-sayers.

Verbal political discourse and debate just aren’t my thing and I feel like it’s not what I’m strong at, even when I’m sure I have my facts straight and am certain my view is the correct one.  I’m the sort of person who likes to “live and let live.”  If you support Trump and his policies, I’m far more likely to accept that and ignore you than to argue with you.

But last night was different.  I stepped out of character and engaged in a heated debate with this Trump supporter for two hours.  Not only that, but I also had fun doing it.   Although the conversation was heated, neither of us resorted to name-calling or personal attacks.    I felt like my brain was working at its highest capacity and I was able to come back at him with snappy and factual refutations to all of his (what I thought of as) lame excuses for his wrongheaded beliefs.

Engaging with this Trump supporter was fun, but still exhausting.    His tweets came faster than I could keep up with and finally my brain began to slow down.   He wasn’t going to change his mind; he just wanted a debate, which is something I find unusual in Trump supporters.   He wasn’t a complete idiot, but for moral reasons I disagree with his no-government libertarian viewpoints, even if his rationale made a type of sense, and I told him this.  He seemed to respect my right to feel morally offended by his beliefs but he stuck by his guns.

What I did find interesting was that after awhile, there were long silences from him before he’d tweet his next refutation to something I’d said.  I took those silences to mean he was thinking about what I’d said, especially since his arguments became weaker over time (or at least it seemed that way).   I don’t know whether I planted a seed in his mind or not, but I decided at that point I’d had enough and told him I had to run.  I also thanked him for his time, saying I appreciated the fact he engaged in real debate without resorting to insults or aggressive rhetoric.   He responded in kind and said he looked forward to a future debate.

When I checked my Twitter account this morning, there were several more tweets from him, replying to other things I had said.  Seems like he wants more, but I’m not sure I’m ready right now.

This was a lesson to me that not all Trump supporters are idiots who can’t engage in intelligent debate or don’t want to have their minds challenged.    It’s never a good idea to resort to stereotype, because there are always exceptions.

The last thing he said to me last night was to suggest a conservative book he had read that he thinks will change my mind (I doubt I’ll read it).   Hey, at least he reads.  I told him I hoped he’d think about some of the things I’d said.   Who knows, maybe he will.

I feel like this experience was a boost to my self esteem.

21 thoughts on “My Twitter debate with a Trump supporter.”

  1. That’s awesome, Otter. Thanks for representing us, over here on the anti-Trump, pro-Bernie side, with grace and civility! You’ve got them coming back for more! 😉

    Liked by 2 people

  2. It is always good to have a healthy debate with someone who is logical and balanced. Who knows both the sides might be missing on something valuable.?

    Isn’t life all about learning?

    Keep doing such small stuff, anything healthy which is good for our confidence should always be welcomed.

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Awesome you got out of your comfort zone! I know how difficult that is to do. I know what you mean about confrontation and debate. I’m always worried about the personal attacks too. And sometimes I get so angry that it’s difficult for me to not go in that direction as well.

    Liked by 2 people

    • One of the reasons I avoid face to face debate (besides confidence) is BECAUSE I get so angry…and I just don’t want to to there.
      It’s hard to stay mindful. It’s easier for me online. Although I get just as angry, I can think out what I am going to say before I say it.

      Liked by 1 person

      • Yeah, I know what you mean. Like texting is the same thing. It can work like that too instead of talking on the phone. And I understand you’re not a phone person anyway…at least you weren’t last I read. 🙂

        I get really angry too. I see some nasty comments on Youtube and I try to remember that’s exactly what those are supposed to do on YT. Get you worked up. But yeah, I totally understand that anger thing. The flooding is hell.

        Liked by 1 person

        • Every few days, I have to take breaks from the news sites and the endless hate filled commentary. I get so immersed and it gets to be too much. I need those breaks of escape for my sanity.

          Liked by 1 person

          • I’m getting my news from you. Lol…I won’t watch or read it anymore. I’m not burying my head in the sand, it’s for my health. My adrenals have taken such a huge hit over the years and has been a huge factor in my depression and other healthy issues.

            So I am in need of taking out as many stressors as I possibly can.

            We already don’t have a TV and of course it’s not totally unavoidable on the internet, but I do have a bit more semblance of control on my own laptop.

            So I totally get that sanity thing. It’s a fucked up world out there. That is for sure!

            Liked by 1 person

            • It sure is a fucked up world right now and I completely get why you prefer to avoid the triggers of the news, Internet posts, etc. I hope my occasional posts aren’t too triggering. I feel like I’m doing something about the situation by posting about it, somehow. If I can change one mind, then that’s a good thing…right? But I need those breaks too.

              Liked by 1 person

  5. Congratulations! Political debates and verbal disagreements are very hard for me, too. So I know what a milestone this is for you.

    Like you, I avoid confrontation as much as possible. However, when my stepdaughter told me recently that the pastor of the church we have attended for over 6 years, had called her on the phone late one night, waking her up, and asked her to do a favor for him — a favor that would amount to her committing a federal felony on the military base where she works — I did NOT shy away from telling that pastor exactly what I thought!!

    And now, we are looking for another church. Preferably one where the minister is a law abiding citizen, and isn’t overly fond of guns and other military paraphernalia.

    Liked by 2 people

    • PS: Of course, that authoritarian narcissistic law-skirting pastor, is a Trump man.

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    • I read that post. I’m sorry about what happened. Your pastor definitely sounds unethical at best, and possibly a criminal. I’m glad you stood up for what was right.

      Liked by 1 person

      • Thank you. It has been a shock to all 3 of us, my husband, his daughter, and me. We have been visiting different churches since then and we like 2 of them, but it still hurts. A lot. We didn’t even go to church anywhere, today.

        Before I wrote that blog post, people from that church had started ignoring our texts, so the pastor must have told them all some kind of lies about us, after he unfriended my husband and stepdaughter on FB. And they didn’t say anything to him, I am the only one that had words with him, that day when he called my husband’s phone while my husband was asleep! And basically all I said to the pastor was, “What the hell are you doing, asking our daughter to buy a gun without a safety on the military base where she works, and give it to you as a gift, when you couldn’t even pass a background check 2 years ago to do prison ministry — which we know about, because the associate pastor told us this at the time. And a quick search of your unique name online today reveals that you’ve had 5 criminal arrests since 2002! And not only did you ask her to buy you a gun, telling her that ‘somebody with a name like yours got into trouble with the law’ — you also asked my stepdaughter to buy you a restricted military camouflage uniform and a matching backpack, and do it while her boss was gone and she was working alone! I know by your wife’s recent prayer requests that you guys are in trouble with child protection right now, and you are being audited by the IRS. What the hell are you planning to do??”

        He had no answer for me, he just asked me to come outside right then and talk face to face. He was calling from outside our house! I told him no, I ended the call, then he goes and unfriends my family on FB — he couldn’t unfriend me, because I am not on FB — and immediately after that, people from that church are shunning all 3 of us.

        This man was our pastor, and that was our church, for almost 7 years. It’s scary now, trying to find another church!

        Like

        • I hate to say this, but it sounds like your pastor is a narcissist or a sociopath. Of course you must already know this. That doesn’t make it less painful though, discoverng such a thing about someone you thought you trusted is always shocking and devastating. Hugs!

          Liked by 1 person

  6. The ‘war of all against all’ can look altogether attractive (to some) ***as long as they are deluded enough to think they have a chance of ascending to the very top.*** (which your correspondent seems to be advocating.)

    The reality is that – under current conditions, social and economic – one must not be merely smarter than S. Vaknin – but also, one must have a yet-greater intensity of ‘predatory instincts’. V has *something* of a conscience; it may well be fully as learned as my current comprehension of the social world – but the person I’m thinking of must not have even a particle of the same, as well as supreme predatory abilities, e.g. psychological manipulation, superficial charm, etc.

    Think ‘real life Nosferatu, only worse – and INHABITED, also.’ Not just one or two spooks, either.

    Swarms of them, even. A mere ***Legion*** of evil spirits is not enough to do that kind of ***game***.

    It takes ***diabolical*** levels of delusion to think oneself to have the power of deity, i.e. “full and complete control of all facets of life, from conception to decomposition,” and that means being inhabited in vast measure.

    Liked by 1 person

    • For all your (often valid) concerns about SV, his own self awareness of his narcissism made him able to call out Trump as the malignant narcissisti he is even before any psychologists were saying so. Say what you will about Sam, he was 100% correct about this. And he hates Donald Trump.

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  7. I was not ***knocking*** him – not in the slightest.

    Any *pred* who can look at himself ‘in the mirror’ and see himself ‘as he really is’ and then acknowledge the matter is doing a hard thing indeed – and that earns my respect in spades.

    My own thoughts regarding ‘trying to join the gang (of society)’ and recognizing just *what* that would take – becoming a full-fledged *diagnosable-level* %arch-predator% (so as to deal with the entitlement on the part of the Normal world, etc. common to being seen as a lesser being) – has not been at all pleasant.

    It has meant looking in *my* mirror and admitting that “I am ***totally screwed***; that Normdom is altogether correct in its apprehension of my being ‘a social liability’, in relation to its own notions of *rank and reputation*; and that I cannot change the situation in any way.”

    Normdom is not interested in giving up its exalted state of power; and while autists are at or near the bottom (of that pile of dung) – that smelly mound has a *lot* of people in and on it.

    In my case, that cost is but a fraction of what V is paying; which makes him a better (more moral) person than I.

    Liked by 1 person

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