[kcplate]

I despise the man, but if you are shifting a long held position/opinion just because you don’t want to be in an opinion alignment with Donald Trump, that to me is irrational.

I saw a lot of folks do this over the last six years. I found that really strange.

[FieryTransition]

no that's not it, I have opinions as well, I didn't say I didn't have them. I wanted to hear a genuine opinion and tried to ask a stranger for it, is that so bad? For some people, maybe behind the hateful rhetoric some of them see and some of them do, there would be other reasons for their alignment, maybe good reasons which in actuality would have nothing to do with Trump, and could be debated as political issues on their own merit, and is it wrong to be curious about that?

The problem is that people immedietly put people into either against or with, and the whole rhetoric is so tribalistic since it always ends up being so emotional as well. Instead of talking about interesting issues, it's just these one dimensional soundbite opinions.

But what do you really mean? You think that hearing a person out without immedietly announcing my political stances is wrong? Could the issue be that you are tired of injustice and think of people as 'enablers' immedietly if they are not in opposition?

In the spirit of openness, I don't have problems admitting my politicals views, I never liked Trumps political agendas or the person himself. And I think what he did is not ok, and I'm bewildered that he hasn't been brought to court, or gone to jail. Doesn't mean I can't hear other people's opinions without shouting my alignemnts first, which seems unproductive tbh.

[kcplate]

Perhaps I wasn’t clear, but I think you may have personalized my generalized comment. Let me illustrate my perspective differently.

A person thinks the sky is blue. Then Trump publicly says “the sky is blue”. This person now makes the point to say “the sky is NOT blue” just because Trump agreed with their original opinion. What I find irrational about some people’s reaction to Trump is that they feel compelled to change because Trump might agree with them.

[FieryTransition]

Well, the whole reason for asking in the first place is to find something I could relate to which could stand on its own, whether Trump said it or not. I think you are reading too much into it, I'm mostly an outside observer interested in the whole situation and curious why there's such a divisive and emotional component to it. From what I gathered, talking about him in any way is greatly unproductive, because you have people making assumptions about what you do or don't do immediately, instead of just trying to understand where the other person is coming from with their argument to begin with. The whole thing just seems like a toxic subject, and I'm curious how the American people get out of all this in a few years, or if it will tear your country apart even more. But it will affect us all globally.

[kcplate]

My perspective is that Trump is as much a reaction to toxic politics as a cause of…although he definitely perpetuates and elevates them. For every elevation there seems to be a counter reaction from the other side that has to elevate it further. This is what is tearing the country apart.

I can only hope that the middle gets sick and tired of the extremes of both sides and starts voting in a way that makes the extremes reflective on their own behavior.