Most of you know this already, this isn’t really for you here at DKos. This is part of a series of diaries (in my mind, that I never actually write) where I think about what I might say to my Trump-loving family and neighbors.
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So, friend who needs to hear it, what should you do when you hear the voice of Donald Trump?
Don’t listen to him. Ever. Stop listening to him now if you do.
Ignore everything he says.
Tell yourself, whenever you hear his voice… he is poison for my mind fed directly through my ears.
Nothing he says is true at it’s core, even if it is wrapped in what seems reasonable.
No matter how outraged he is, block out his voice. It’s all a ploy designed to play on your emotions.
Every word that he utters is designed to manipulate.
He’s preying on your biases, those reflexive thoughts you try to keep in check. He says them out in the open. He normalizes racism, sexism, xenophobia, transphobia and more by saying intentionally ignorant things, and gives you permission to be your worst self.
He does not want you to be a good person. He wants you to give in to your darkest instincts.
He is a monster. He is a bully. And he wants you to do his dirty work for him.
Being a good citizen is hard. Being a responsible adult is hard. Being a caring neighbor is hard. It takes a lifetime of effort.
But Trump doesn’t want you to realize that. It’s all just black and white, both literally and figuratively. He wants you to have an adversarial us vs. them mindset. He wants you to be afraid of unfamiliar people and things. He wants you to hate being wrong and feel like victims if your point of view is ever challenged. He is emotionally disabling you, and you are letting him. You are sucking down the proverbial kool-aid with a defiant grimace on your face and the flame of Trump’s narcissistic rage reflected in your eyes.
Why? Why is Trump trying to make you mad? Make you less neighborly and compromising, more strident and angry?
Because. It makes you easier to control.
And look what he did. He and his gang of criminals organized, infiltrated and incited Americans into attacking the US Capitol building to try to stop the electoral college certification. Five people died, including a police officer, and his own Vice President was on the hit list of the angry mob that day. This is America.
And he grifts you again and again and again and again. Tens of millions of donations had to be returned after the general election due to his deceptive fundraising web forms that by default doubled your initial payment and then made it weekly. WEEKLY!?!? And don’t do any of that blame the intern crap, this flows down from the top. It was by-design deception. By the time those overcharges were reversed, the election was over. It was a gigantic, interest free loan to his campaign.
But it didn’t matter, because now he was on to fundraising off the big lie, that the election was stolen. So, he went on to raise hundreds of millions more to fight recounts and court cases that were practically laughed out of court and so toxic that most respectable lawyers didn’t want to be associated with them.
You know this. Think brother, think sister.
You heard all the news about how he stiffed contractors as a standard business practice. You’ve heard about the Vets in Iowa he used as a campaign prop. You’ve heard about TrumpU and the lawsuits, his charity being dissolved due to self-dealing.
Damnit people, you heard him promise… this will all just go away, like a miracle… and instead what went away were half a million American lives from COVID.
And you’ve watched for years as more than half a dozen campaign and Trump org henchmen were convicted of serious crimes, only to be pardoned by Trump himself.
You’ve heard all you need to know. Now take the next step.
The only way to beat someone like the twice-impeached, disgraced former President is to tune him out completely. You cannot listen to or believe a word he says because it is all designed to benefit him. You cannot do business with him, because he will always stiff you in in the end. The only way to win is to not play his game.
He must be cast out of your lives and minds completely, because he sells only snake oil. And it is poison. So, no matter what you did in the past, friends, family, old classmates. Maybe you voted for him once or even twice, I don’t care. What I care about now is that you liberate your mind from this parasite who is controlling you. Stop listening to him. Now. Please.