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What I Heard from Trump Supporters

blog.samaltman.com

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Re: What I Heard from Trump Supporters

#401

Post by SmellTheGlove »

ComradeTaco wrote: post #311
SmellTheGlove wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. That's really funny, actually, as long as it didn't lead to you being fired or marginalized at work. You can give each other a hard time while still getting along. 2. Was the picture frame any good? Worst case, free frame! 3. OK, serious this time, who brought up politics at work - you or the bosses? I work at a big company and people generally avoid politics and religion, and people do seem to actively pretend th…

1. I thought it was funny too. But they also legitimately believed and expressed that anyone who believed in social welfare was a communist. 2. They took the frame back. 3. They did. I was working at the store as an hourly employee. The customers were generally middle to upper middle class.

1. Shoulda taught them a lesson about self-fulfilling prophecy and commandeered the means of production. By that I mean taking the cash register and feeding the homeless out front.

2. That's the real crime here. That frame was a gift.

3. OK, seriously again, that's very lame. If management brings up politics, they damn well better be receptive to the response. I know small businesses can be "different" but it has little bearing on you working in their store.

Re: What I Heard from Trump Supporters

#402

Post by azrazalea »

web007 wrote: post #344

> I have defended him and said things I really didn't believe or support because I was put in a defensive position. This is amazing cognitive dissonance. This is the reason "they" are "idiots" - not because they believe what they are saying, but because they can't argue properly. You don't have to be defensive if your position is correct, you can counter with facts. If you can't counter with facts, maybe your positio…

Emotion is a valid reason to hold an opinion. It may not be a good reason in many cases, but it isn't invalid.

Having facts to back up your position is good thing, but not having facts backing it up doesn't automatically mean it is an incorrect position to hold.

Re: What I Heard from Trump Supporters

#404

Post by justinsaccount »

mrkurt wrote: post #381
justinsaccount wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would feel 10x more comfortable sharing my liberal viewpoints in a small, deeply-red town I'm sure I'd feel comfortable sharing liberal viewpoints in a small, deeply-red town as well, but I'm also a straight white male. You're worry about being ostracized. People in Kansas have to worry that radical christian terrorists are going to murder them [1]. [1]: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/kansas-crusaders-arrest…

What's the purpose of devaluing someone's opinion / level of comfort like that? This is exactly how you get people to disengage and destroy any chance you have of persuading them of ... whatever you want to persuade them of.

"I don't understand what you are complaining about, I have no problem finding a seat on the bus"

- Some white guy in 1955.

Re: What I Heard from Trump Supporters

#405

Post by jstimpfle »

freehunter wrote: post #338
Cookingboy wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I"m sorry, if you think it's black and white about abortion then you are as close minded as the worst Trump supporters. Do you think abortion for no reason at all 3 days before birth is the same as abortion within 30 days of pregnancy for the health reason of the mother? Is it black and white or different shades of gray?

There is a black and white defining line that is very commonly used and everyone can accept exists: birth. There is before the moment of birth and there is after the moment of birth. Termination before that date is called abortion, termination after that date is called murder. Very clear defining line. To put it another, slightly less controversial way: do you agree that a 17 year and 11 month old teenager is the sam…

You are confusing what the current law is, with what the law could, or should be, based on accepted moral values.

Re: What I Heard from Trump Supporters

#406

Post by pklausler »

A useful technique from "street epistemology" is to ask a person with whom you disagree on facts this question: "what information, if it were true, would cause you to change your opinion?"

If their response, after discussion, ends up being basically "there is nothing that could change my mind," then you are wasting your time. Otherwise, you can have an interesting discussion of epistemology, objectivity, and critical thinking in general, and can learn something from one another.

Re: What I Heard from Trump Supporters

#407

Post by naravara »

phkahler wrote: post #250
spinlock wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm one of the few people I know who is an enthusiastic supporter of Hillary. I like her because of her track record on children's issues, 9-11 and the Iran deal (among others). I'm also conservative so I like that the last time she lived at 1400 Pensilvania Ave the government was running a surplus.

>> I'm also conservative so I like that the last time she lived at 1400 Pensilvania Ave the government was running a surplus. I was scared when Bill Clinton won, but he is now one of my favorite ex-presidents precisely because he didn't make things worse. And yes, the budget was briefly balanced. Too bad that's not actually a core principle of the democratic party - see what happened under Obama, and see how little o…

>Too bad that's not actually a core principle of the democratic party - see what happened under Obama,

See what? That he reduced the deficit during his tenure?

>and see how little one of their biggest fiscal mouth pieces (Paul Krugman) cares about debt or deficits.

Obama took office during an economic depression. This is how macroeconomics works. You spend to goose demand when the economy is down and you tax for the down times when the economy is up. The largest depression since the Great one isn't the time to be worrying about anything but getting us out of it.

Re: What I Heard from Trump Supporters

#408

Post by [deleted] »

ajross wrote: post #11

This one (from the "What don't you like about him?" section) I thought was the most striking: > “I, too, worry about the dishonesty. His relationship with Russia, his relationship with women. His relationship with questionable financial matters. These all worry me and were they to continue I would lose all respect.” All that stuff was covered extensively during the election. There's no reason for it to be a different…

[deleted]

Re: What I Heard from Trump Supporters

#409

Post by DashRattlesnake »

rpearl wrote: post #180
shklnrj wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well there were widespread calls by people to push even Peter Thiel out of silicon valley positions which he holds just because he supported a candidate. His fault - He supported a guy publicly! Even he was seen as criminal. Forget about the average Joe. That's why people wanted confidentiality agreements!

> He supported a guy publicly! ...You can't just talk about the abstract notion of "supporting" "a guy". A specific thing happened, not the generalized notion of "publicly supporting a candidate". Is he not subject to criticism for his political positions? Where exactly is the line? How should someone be challenged to change their positions?

> Where exactly is the line? How should someone be challenged to change their positions?

The line is the one that divides their politics from the rest of their life. You challenge their ideas, you don't harass them or try to get them fired.

Re: What I Heard from Trump Supporters

#410

Post by hkmurakami »

rdl wrote: post #357
austenallred wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved to San Francisco from a rural town, and I would feel 10x more comfortable sharing my liberal viewpoints in a small, deeply-red town than I would insinuating something anything less than 100% left-leaning at work here. People disagree in small town Utah, and it would be uncomfortable. In San Francisco you're ostracized. It even makes me nervous to leave my name attached to a comment like this, knowing that my…

It wasn't always like this. Silicon Valley was a lot more diverse/tolerant in the first dotcom boom and until ~2006 or so than since. It really went off the deep end circa the Brendan Eich incident (2014), and then the most recent Presidential election cycle. The "Ex-communicate Peter Thiel" movement was the point of no return, and when I decided to flee permanently. It doesn't seem to be as bad even in other equally…

Both the Eich and Thiel situations were downright appalling in how they mirrored the exact kind of Witch hunt and ostracizing that liberalism historically and morally should be against.

The fact that people didn't seem to grasp the hypocrisy and danger of their actions made it even more chilling.

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