askchapo

I think its how they protect their cognitive dissonance

This rings very true for me. It's much easier to outright dismiss an idea that contradicts what they already believe than it is to grapple with the consequences of "Well what if that's actually true?"

I'll give an example. I was talking/debating with some libs about the war in Ukraine (my first mistake) and I'll mention that I am Canadian - we are HEAVILY INVESTED in that war (and also have a huge number of ethnic Ukranians that live here). My point was that Ukraine joining NATO is a red line for Russia, and it shouldn't have surprised anybody that things went the way they did.

"Well Ukraine is a soverign country they can do what they please!"

Ok, what if Canada wanted to ally with Beijing and have DongFeng missiles pointed directly at Washington DC? We're a sovereign country, surely we can do that if we want to too, right? But how could we possibly not expect there to be dire consequences for doing something so reckless and stupid?

I thought that was an extremely straightforward and reasonable comparison, but it was met with eye rolls and immediately dismissed out of hand.