Another Pointless Exchange With a Trump Fan

Not sure why I even bother ever trying to debate with enthusiastic Trump supporters. I have tried in the past, but each attempt meets with the same inevitable fate: complete futility, and a little bit less faith in humanity, collectively.

Yesterday, I posted something about how Trump was booed when he attended the World Series Game Five in Washington. Uncharacteristically, I also posted something about it on my personal Facebook page, even though politics is something I rarely discuss or post about on that page, since again, it seems largely pointless.

But that trend was bucked, and this was what was written by me in accompaniment to an article about how loudly Trump was booed, and how the chants of "Lock him up!" reverberated loudly throughout the stadium:

Not a big baseball fan, admittedly. But I wish I had been watching this game to see this MAGAlomaniac King Con Don get booed. Absolutely no one deserves it more.

So, first of all, while there are some Trump fans who number among my Facebook friends, they are not, by and large, the enthusiastic supporters. There are some who post about this man, or about the issues that he screams about, over and over again, but most of my Facebook friends who "like" Trump are, by and large, quiet on a day to day basis about it. But there are a few exceptions.

One of them was this guy who is a decorated military veteran, and who continually reminds anyone who will listen that he is an Oathkeeper. 

Who are the Oathkeepers? Well, perhaps I will get into that a little bit more in some later blog, when I have both more time and energy. But suffice to say, they are a group - this guy claimed that there are ten million of them, which seems a bit of an exaggeration  - who are vehemently supportive of their president. Recent articles have pointed out just how far their loyalty goes: they have taken seriously Trump's insinuations and hints of some kind of civil war brewing within the United States today.

Anyway, this guy saw the post, and clearly took exception to it. Typically, he was as charming and articulate as most Trump supporters tend to be - which is to say, not at all. Here is what he said in response:

Pack your 💩 go back to where you hail from probably France with that last name , go home froggy ! We’ll keep our President for another 5 years ty toad

Charming, right?

Just in case anyone reading this is not familiar, "froggy" is a derogatory term meant to imply French people. Some people are not familiar with it, as a friend of mine just a few years ago laughingly made clear when another person - this was before Trump, but surely the guy became a Trump supporter - had referred to French people in that same way.

This comment annoyed me a little bit, as did his knee-jerk expectations of a historical election win to come for Trump, which seemed almost laughable. But my response should be more reserved than to engage in some pointless finger-pointing and/or an exchange of childish insults or name-calling. So I took a step back. Instead of responding immediately and angrily, the extra time allowed me to think of a way where, hopefully, the guy might understand the paradoxes of his own response. Eventually, maybe an hour or so later, this was my response:

Let me guess: you consider yourself a patriotic American who loves freedoms, except when someone actually exercises the freedom to disagree with you and your opinions, right? Then, the whiny inner melting snowflake comes pouring out, just like with Trump himself. Thanks for the suggestion about packing up and moving to another country. I might suggest the same to you, since you clearly mistook this for a banana republic, which it is not. You want one so badly, go move to one yourself.

Of course, he responded back, as well:

yeah right that’s what a 5th generation highly decorated Marine Recon Officer an Oathkeepers and a III%er , someone who’s bled to protect this republic from trash like you that wish to sells us out to the globalists . Snowflake my ass . You’ll never find me or mine hiding in a basement , I’ll be out their with my ppl leading them to take back our nation along with Trump and 100 million others who stand for what he’s trying against all odds to restore . Spare me your diatribe about Trump , since my men and I have known him and his family personally since introduced to him by RW Reagan in 1983 and we still communicate . You have no clue basement dweller ...traitor

Now, what I wanted to respond was with real sarcasm, to suggest that in a battle of wits, he should have brought more to a showdown at high noon than a dull plastic one-use knife. But in an effort to try and remain diplomatic on this, one of the few occasions when I have bothered to try and engage Trump supporters, my response was more measured:

Hey, you commented on my link, buddy. Again, this is a free country. Sure, thanks for your service, but that does not mean that anyone who disagrees with you should simply remain quiet. You don't like what I have to say? How about this: ignore it? Recognize that people - a hell of a lot of people, since there are more people who oppose Trump than support him - actually might disagree with you on issues. Then, you can move on with your life, instead of getting stuck with your anger that somebody dare not like your president. After all, I probably would not care for much of the stuff on your own FB page. You try and act like your some sophisticated "real" man, rubbing elbows with leaders of the world, but you go onto other people's Facebook pages & troll them in the wee hours of the night to not even argue, but threaten and insult them for political differences of opinion? Like some self-important, self-appointed Trump version of politically correct police. Then, you take yourself so seriously, as some superior sort of creature. Really? Over the years, I've seen a lot of opinions that I disagree with from numerous people. But I just shrug & recognize that as reality, and go on with my life. Go on with yours, and stop being so surprised when someone responds to your petty, childish little insults.

Him:  guess we’ll see in 2020 over 104 million will vote for him in 2020 that’s 40 million more then he had last time , so we’ll see

Me: Fake News.

He responded with a comment calling me an asswipe, and promising that I was going to be stunned when Trump received over 100 million votes in the 2020 election, and that he was blocking me, but he deleted that post. I might have pointed out to him that, in fact, he had been trolling my Facebook post, not the other way around, and that I was not interested in visiting his Facebook page or engaging him in any more conversations, one way or another. But again, there was no point. It was time to let it go.

So, the conversation seemed to end there, until another Trump supporter decided to engage in a one-sided conversation. I say that, because he somehow disabled any ability to respond to his comment, even though the post was originally mine. Here is what this new genius said:

Trump 2020!. He has more support than ever before. Lowest unemployment! Economy is incredible and you want to get rid of him for your own selfish reasons. Disgraceful!

Now, I could have responded by telling him that it was ironic that he was suggesting that I wanted Trump out for selfish reasons, since Trump is legendary for his astonishing levels of greed and selfishness. He even admitted to it when he announced that he was running for the presidency:

"My whole life I've been greedy, greedy, greedy. I've grabbed all the money I could get. I'm so greedy. But now I want to be greedy for the United States."

And yes, Trump has succeeded in making greed absolutely thrive in the United States, thanks largely in part to blind supporters like these two guys commenting on my Facebook post. 

Sure, I could have pointed all of that out, but fatigue was getting to me, as was the pointlessness of this exercise in futility. So, I just gave him the laughing response, and left it at that. Finally, the conversation ended, at least on my end on Facebook. But a lot of people are talking about this, and revealing how Trump was initially beaming when he was introduced, clearly expecting an enthusiastic response. when a chorus of boos rained down on him instead, his facial gesture completely changed, and he looked downright distraught, as if that was the last place he wanted to be. 

We can hope that maybe this was a message to him. But since he never listens to what anyone else has to say - unless it is exaggerated praise for him - this seems doubtful. Besides, he clearly seems to live in his own little world, one in which even bad news is converted into his greatest personal triumph. When the Syria situation turns into disaster because of his ridiculous policies, to the point where even a majority of his fellow Republicans blast his policies, he suggests it was a huge, historical level success. Surely, he will find a way to turn this into one of those delusional triumphs of his. 

Almost everyone else - the Oathkeepers and Trump cult supporters aside - could clearly see that he was humiliated, much like he was when he was literally laughed at before the United Nations, and thus, the world. But even if he and Fox News spin this into some kind of triumph for him that only they believe in, we can see the truth. The images of his initial, involuntary response when the realization finally dawned that he was not being cheered, but booed loudly - and on the day that he believed his triumphant declaration of the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi would win him universal prise, to boot! - was more revealing than any of his empty, meaningless words ever could be.

Here are some video clips from that priceless evening. The first one shows some of the actual reactions, and then has a clip where the "Seventh Inning Stretch" tune become an anti-Trump song. That one is not real, but it should be. And it is hilarious. Anyway, here are some of the videos of this particularly memorable moment that should be one of the defining moments of the Trump presidency: