this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2025
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Seriously, they are both former military, my dad was in for like 30 years, how do they like the drunk secretary? I get that he saw combat, but being in combat doesn't automatically make you qualified for... well anything except therapy and medical care.

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[–] Gloria@sh.itjust.works 72 points 9 months ago

Your parents might lack empathy and are cruel, therefore they are looking for other cruel people to confirm their cruel behavior: The cruelty is the point

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/the-cruelty-is-the-point/572104/

[–] stardust@lemmy.ca 45 points 9 months ago

Sorry to tell you this but the racism really resonated with them.

[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 36 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Your parents are not nice people. It happens, my parents were not nice people.

[–] vladmech@lemmy.world 35 points 9 months ago (3 children)

My parents care on the micro level, where it applies to people they directly know, but have no ability to show empathy on the macro level and it breaks my heart.

[–] baggachipz@sh.itjust.works 9 points 9 months ago

The modern “conservative”. So self-centered that they only give a shit about something when it affects them. They wear this lack of empathy as a badge of honor.

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[–] blarghly@lemmy.world 31 points 9 months ago (7 children)

The comments here are wild. So much judgement about people we literally know one single thing about.

There should really only be one answer to this question: "I dunno. Why don't you ask them?"

Just because your parents like some guy that they've never met doesnt mean they are evil, sociopathic, racist monsters. The most likely explaination is that they got walked down the right wing media rabbithole by some network of acquaintences, and now they are trapped in a fairy tale depiction of the world designed to appeal to their baser emotions.

People believe in bigfoot and the flat earth. Why? Mostly because they feel lonely and powerless, and want to feel like they are part of a group that is united in their knowledge of The Truth.

[–] prex@aussie.zone 12 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Yours is the best answer but my kneejerk gut feeling is:

.

Edit: The 'you' in this image refers to OP's parents.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 7 points 9 months ago

Most reasonable answer. Propaganda is insidious. It is subtle, it can latch onto anything. It could be racism, that's one thing sure. It could be that they wanted lower taxes and over time it slowly convinced them it was all of the others. It could be anything. To assume like this, well, it's exactly why the right has so much just reasoning when saying we're quick to throw the racism card. Because, well just look at this thread.

[–] trslim@pawb.social 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I think their just trapped in a bubble of bad info and are influenced by racism subconsciously. I KNOW my parents aren't bad people, but they sure as hell arent talking like good people or even well thought-out people.

I guess I just thought my parents were smarter, that they could see through this admins BS. They seriously claim that Trump is doing much better than Biden, but I talk to everyone I know, and they are all having money problems, food insecurity and housing problems, all being made worse under Trump.

I think my parents are just selfish. And it breaks my heart that they are betraying everything I thought I learned from them. I guess maybe they didnt influence me as much as I thought.

It was kind of funny though, because my husband was like, "Now you know how I feel." At least they are a-okay with me and my husband, though, at this rate, I'm worried that wont be the case in a couple years.

[–] baggachipz@sh.itjust.works 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I’m getting pretty convinced that as people get older, they get more selfish. The evidence is all anecdotal for me, but perhaps the mentality of “I don’t have much time left, better get mine” creeps in for those who aren’t satisfied with what they have. (Which, of course, is doubly so for those who were already selfish)

But yeah that propaganda “news” is a powerful bitch.

[–] Part4@infosec.pub 4 points 9 months ago

Recently I have been looking at how ai is likely to impact my job. There are things I would do career-wise, if I were in my twenties, that are not realistic at my age.

Ageism exists, so does the simple fact that an employee in their twenties can put in much longer hours (at least until they burn out) than I (who was worked to burnout in my 20's/30's).

I have to think carefully about what I am going to be able to do as I get older and weaker, in what I am sure is going to be a more economically constrained time.

That "I don't have much time left, better get mine" can be driven by fear, or legitimate concern, rather than selfishness, at least in some cases. Yeah others just want to pull up the drawbridge when they get economically secure. Capitalism pits us against each other, join a union, vote for genuine socialists or similar, or read a few books and try and change things.

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Right, and those who supported Hitler were just poor misinformed good people.

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[–] salacious_coaster@infosec.pub 29 points 9 months ago

I'm guessing they consume a lot of Fox News or similar? Propaganda works.

[–] KingGimpicus@sh.itjust.works 28 points 9 months ago (3 children)

I've got a former military buddy who is all about Pete because "he's not gonna let the fatties and the faggots fuck up our military anymore."

Nevermind that the navy has been called gay since their inception, or that muhreens have zero self discipline outside of a military situation, or that the air force has run more drug than most cartels, it's the "fatties and faggots" that are the problem.

I always knew my buddy was dumb, but it took that conversation for me to figure out that it went all the way down to the core of who he was as a person.

[–] stardust@lemmy.ca 5 points 9 months ago

Yeah, lot of bigots are self aware enough to try to hide their hatred and point to other things when it comes to making what they support more palatable to those who might not be. They aren't complete idiots like some immediately assume which is why they have been underestimated by the opposite side and gained such huge traction and seen increasing success.

Even the dumb ones don't try to show the full extent of the bigotry, since they know there are still some in society who resist such ideologies despite growing embracement of it.

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[–] village604@adultswim.fan 25 points 9 months ago (13 children)

Your parents are bad people

[–] Puddinghelmet@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Not bad per se, more very misinformed and very influenced dare I say manipulated, just sad yeah

[–] BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I don’t make a distinction between the two. If you make a mistake, you made a mistake. If you keep making mistakes, and never learn from them, and insist that you don’t make mistakes then you are a bad person.

These are not children without life experience, they are adults who have seen, and experienced, and learned, and been corrected, and have still chosen evil.

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[–] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 21 points 9 months ago (1 children)
  1. Decades of propaganda

  2. I'm not trying to insult here, but your parents aren't that smart. One of mine fell for it too.

Bottom line is if you fall for extremely obvious propaganda you are not, and never were, very intelligent.

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[–] FistingEnthusiast@lemmynsfw.com 20 points 9 months ago (1 children)

There's a good chance that they're stupid and hateful

Two character traits that are often celebrated in 'Murica rather than being condemned

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[–] boolean_sledgehammer@lemmy.world 19 points 9 months ago

It's easy to win over weak people.

[–] mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 12 points 9 months ago

they're selfish and dumb and choose to be ignorant

simple as that. they might be nice people in some respects, but the above still holds true

[–] ohulancutash@feddit.uk 12 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

It takes a certain type of fundamentally fucked-up personality to consider that killing and maiming is an acceptable career. The military then spends vast sums on further brutalising those people until they kill on command without question. Violence and cruelty stalk their lives. He is One of Us, therefore he is better than One of Them.

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[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 12 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I mean how does theoreticallyconservative small government folk support a real estate trust fund baby who openly take bribes, is building himself a castle, and floods the streets with masked, unmarked, paramilitary. Oh and constantly breaks the laws of the land put out by the forefathers along with a whole ton of other laws?

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[–] Flickerby@lemmy.zip 12 points 9 months ago

You can't reason people out of a position they didn't reason themselves into.

[–] 1984@lemmy.today 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I know America thinks being in the military is an amazing thing, but if we tune back to reality, soldiers are not excellent human beings.

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

being a soldier does not make you an excellent human being.

much like existing doesn't make you a good person.

[–] SereneSadie@lemmy.myserv.one 11 points 9 months ago

Party of suckers and losers.

[–] FerretyFever0@fedia.io 9 points 9 months ago

They're dumb and/or terrible people. It happens.

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 8 points 9 months ago

What do they say about him?

I can fully understand somebody having no opinion, but actively liking him? There must be positive stories about him on the far right news networks that I am not familiar with.

[–] spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works 7 points 9 months ago
[–] slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org 7 points 9 months ago

30 years in the military and a shitty person? Man that is so weird, how could it be?

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago

Judge someone by the company they keep.

[–] Bwaz@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago

They watched him on FOXnews, thought he was "cute", about like a Sajak or a Kardashian. So why not put him in charge of the world's most lethal military?

[–] Bunbury@feddit.nl 4 points 9 months ago

I think my best guess is the “mere exposure effect”. The guy and his ego strikes me as something that’s probably fairly common in the military (as far as I can tell from the outside). Being exposed to a lot of men like him probably makes him feel comfortably familiar.

[–] Nutteman@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

The military and drinking are like peas and carrots

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