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this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2026
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Leopards Ate My Face
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Remember that we gain more traction by accepting that some people regret voting for Trump rather than hanging them out to dry. Yes, I she sounds stupid too, but calling people stupid won't make them join our team. "It's OK, we all make mistakes - let's talk about your feelings about trans-rights and why it scares you".
I have tried playing nice with these people - truly, I have. I've listened to their side of the issue, I've given them the benefit of the doubt, and I've engaged with them in good faith for years hoping that compassion and empathy along with facts and science have the capacity to change minds, albeit slowly.
The simple truth is that some people need to be bullied. They need to be ridiculed and made to feel foolish, because otherwise they have no motivation to better themselves.
We, as a collective, have gone too soft on these folk. We treat all of their worst ideas and base impulses as having the same merit as those of a well researched and educated political policy.
Because of that, we're stuck arguing the absurd with morons, desperately trying to convince them that the earth is round, those clouds in the sky are just vaporized water, and vaccines won't give you autism or make you gay, instead of approaching reasonable disagreement like "should we levy a 1% sales tax or issue a one-time bond to pay for necessary infrastructure repair?" and other such sleep-inducing matters you used to be able to find on C-SPAN.
As a bisexual autistic man, I no longer want political traction.
The reactionary proles and reactionary immigrants that voted with the native fascists and wealthy fascists deserve whatever comes to them. They deserve worse.
I hope everything fucking burns, even if I'm in the fire. I'm intensely disgusted.
I will never feel any authentic positive emotion towards strangers in the US again.
You don't get to tell people who are harmed, oppressed, and marginalized that they have to play nice with their oppressors. If you choose to take that task upon yourself, that's fine and noble but you don't tell a rape victim that they have to speak to their rapist after they realize they might have done something wrong. That's not how this works. That person wanted LGBTQ people harmed. Point blank. You don't tell LGBTQ people to play nice with them now.
Yes, I understand the political calculus at play. Yes, I'm an activist and organizer with over 20 years of experience in this. Yes, I know what's at stake.
Too bad. That's now how it works. My advice, keep people like her clear of people who will call her stupid (and worse), not the other way around.
And when she ACTUALLY understands why she's a horrid person, maybe then others will be willing to not attack her.
Until then, she's unrepentant, unreformed, and a repugnant human being and many will rightfully tell her that in no uncertain terms.
I’m not telling harmed or marginalized people how they should feel or behave. And you are right in that no one owes their oppressors patience, forgiveness, education. What I’m talking about is strategy, not morality. Also, I feel like you are overinterpretating the quote. Nowhere does she say that she wants to harm or hurt LGBTQ people. She might, but that's just us speculating.
If someone says “I regret voting for Trump,” that doesn’t make them redeemed, safe for criticism. But it does open a crack that can create an opportunity to make her shift position. If the response to that crack is only condemnation, then the crack closes and nothing changes.
You might be right in saying that LGBTQ people shouldn't be the ones doing this work. That burden shouldn’t be expected to fall on those already harmed. It can be done by people with enough distance to engage without being hurt.
Calling someone a “repugnant human being” may be emotionally justified. It may even be deserved. But it does not move them away from anti-trans politics. It hardens them or pushes them back to the people who tell them they’re right to be afraid. To me, this is mostly a matter of the unfortunate educational system that you have in the US (I'm from DK btw).
You’re right that remorse without understanding isn’t enough. But understanding rarely comes after social exile. It usually comes after conversation, friction, and discomfort. No one has to play nice. But if the goal is fewer people supporting policies that harm LGBTQ people, then writing off every regretful (stupid or uneducated, whatever works for you) voter as irredeemable is a losing tactic. Even if it feels righteous.
That’s the only point I’m making. But I understand your point of view.
She sounds like a bigot. I think it's okay to say that she's not just stupid.
She's stupid++
I agree but do you think that it will be easier to convince her of better ideas whilst also calling her stupid?
So so often right after having their faces eaten, and are shown compassion and alternatives, they shrug, and vote GOP all the same
I don't think I'll make any difference. I've known people like her my entire life and you always think that their most recent self-inflicted bad experience would encourage some introspection, but it never does.
The reason they think the way they do in the first place is because they desperately desperately want all of their failings and all of their insecurities to be the fault of someone else. Then all someone needs to come and hand them a convenient punching bag and they're happy. The problem is they'll never get better because all of their problems are self-inflicted, and it would require real introspection for them to realise that.
It's the paradox of tolerance all over again, if you hold back on these people because you feel that doing so would encourage them to change, you are denying them any incentive to change. Yet at the same time if you scold them for their beliefs they'll simply use that as reinforcement that they are the victims.
I would love to know what you feel the solution to that is. How many times in this community have you seen people say "Trump has destroyed my life, I'd still vote for him again though"?