“What was he convicted of?” someone asked.
“He had tattoos on his body,” she replied triumphantly.
“Hey, smartass!” shouted a woman in her sixties, jumping to her feet. “You want to see my tattoo?”
“Lady,” the Trump supporter said. “You don’t know what a tattoo is.”
“Yes I do, I’ve got one!” the woman shouted, tapping her chest.
The Trump supporter dismissed her with a wave of one hand. “I’ve had enough of you Democrats,” she said.
i found some of the quotes interesting with regards to the pieces that people in different areas pick up on, what they care about and what they think is happening. Like the farmer guy who is being harmed by the tariffs but thinks Trump must be “asking for a lot to hopefully get half”
i don’t think these people are stupid, just propagandized and situated in cultural echochambers just like libs are (all of us are). They (we) all have blind spots and denial. how do we reach them? if it’s possible at all, the only way is through genuine authentic connection with people who may very well hold ideas we find abhorrent.
i had a really interesting experience this weekend. i stopped at a Diner in Queens on my way home from the airport and overheard a conversation about Trump and the tariffs between two older gentlemen. I think they were both white but one might not have been idk. It was clear they frequent this place and are neighborly acquaintances. The one guy came over and started out saying “you know l don’t like to talk about politics” (honestly i doubt that lol)
it was not clear to me the whole time which “side” either of them were on. when the first guy got up to leave, i caught eyes with the one still sitting and he started to apologize for the subject matter and i said i appreciated their conversation bc i feel like the biggest problem in this country is we don’t talk to each other and that’s why everything is so out of whack.
they both appreciated that and we briefly talked about how “They” want us divided etc. I said i thought we all had a lot more in common than we would think, and they both agreed.
After the first guy left, i continued to chat with the seated man who was a 75yo Jewish man who grew up in that neighborhood and taught political science for his career. He identified as a centrist, taking things from Republicans and Democrats, and gets his news from a variety of sources mostly mainstream tv but also newspapers and magazines- he was reading the economist and said it was a conservative magazine but they don’t agree with trump on the tarriffs.
we had a really amazing conversation because i was very polite and phrased my disagreements carefully, he was not agitated at all by anything i said, he was calm and confident in his knowledge.
he had some seriously wrong information.
whenever i tried to push back on something he said, i would generally say that i can never tell what to trust anymore but that the information I’ve seen said xyz. i acknowledged living in an echo chamber because i can’t read or listen to republican news, and i was vulnerable about how upset i am all the time and we transitioned out of politics talk and into hobbies and maintaining mental health.
honestly, i can’t stop thinking about the experience and want to go back there and talk with him more. it was a hugely positive experience for me and I would love to have more of those. Perhaps he was a rare bird able to talk without getting upset, that’s why i was able to remain emotionally regulated (i did almost start to cry lmao just acknowledging how upset I am generally, I’m just a hair trigger these days)
I heard one of them was about to pen a strongly worded letter!
The stupidity of some people in that article is jaw dropping.
Also, if they shout at each other now, just wait for the SSA, Medicare, and Medicaid cuts that make hearing aids too expensive for rural boomers.
Grew up near Iowa, can confirm a lot of stupid people who think they’re smart.
And they all vote. (credit to George Carlin)
EDIT: As fate would have it…
I just got back from a PT appointment.
… The driver (local charity service for the broken and broke)…
Yep. She was from Iowa.
We got to talkin’, I told her about my (former, before being goddamned maimed) line of work.
I had to… spend most of the conversation explaining that software development… and IT… generally refer to completely different things and require significantly different skill sets.
But uh, she was very cheerful and upbeat, with meaningless folksy aphorisms applied wildly out of context, to go along with a bafflingly out of touch assesment of how easy it will be for such a bright young man to find a job. (I am 35.)
… What a world.
Idiots Out Wandering Around
Was heading up 35 to the Cities last fall and came up behind an old pickup with Iowa plates. Guy was poking along 5 under the limit. I was just getting ready to pass him when all the sudden he veered hard off the road and into the ditch. I quickly pulled over to check on him. “Are you okay? What the heck happened,” I asked. “No, I’m fine,” he answered, “I was on my way up to the Fair, you know, and I was just thinkin’ about whether to go to the Dairy Building or the 4-H building first. But then I looked down and noticed my turn signal was on.”
Is this a true story? Sounds to me like the gut may have fallen asleep or had some kind of mental short-circuit or something. I honestly can’t believe someone can survive to adulthood if they were actually just this dumb…
Spoken like someone who’s never met an Iowan.
Forgive me if I’m just unknowledgable here, but it appears from the downvotes that there might indeed exist adults as dumb as the one described. I’m honestly dumbfounded if that’s actually the case.
I wish it wasn’t true but those guys aren’t even that dumb compared to some people I know in real life
iowegian
I couldn’t swear to every detail but it’s certainly true that it’s a story.
He was sorta funny lookin’, though. And when he got out of the truck to check the tires, he wasn’t wearing shoes, which was strange. So l said to him, “You know your socks don’t match? You have one black sock and one yellow sock.” And he replied, “Yup I know. Funny thing is l got another pair just like it back home.”
Lord almighty… I’m truly baffled. It’s a funny story, but I’m a bit conflicted regarding whether it becomes more funny or just sad by being true…
Studies show that two out of every three Trump voters are just as stupid as the third one.
Just a matter of time before conservative media finds a suitable scapegoat. They’ll get a wall of “Transgender Mexican ISIS stole the last bits of New Deal social contract” news articles for six months and come out more rabid than when they started.
This isn’t merely “Iowans are uniquely gullible”, either. The toxic nature of modern media is everywhere. And it produces as many Eric Adams Democrats as Donald Trump Republicans.
Most Americans aren’t smart enough to connect the disappearance of Medicaid and stuff to anything.
They’ll just see it disappear, be angry for a little while and write things like “make it make sense”, “a suit without a man” or whatever the buzzwords are then.
Then the next outrage thing comes along and they’ll bite, forgetting what they used to have.
As if MAGAts are sufficiently self-aware to admit they need hearing aids.
Specifically boycotting anything that comes from Iowa would be a great trade policy for our former allies to adopt
I’m still just going to boycott everything American TBH
Boycotting stupidity? How would that even work?!?
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This is almost exactly word for word what happened at work today.
Do you live in Iowa? If so, I feel for you - I escaped years ago.
No, the people’s republic of Massachusetts. We’re not immune.
Ignorant people in Mass are way more annoying too, because they speak of themselves as above ignorant people in the south or midwest even though they believe the exact same dumb shit
Of all the places Ive lived in the US, the worst ignorance was probably in Mass, because its ignorance with an extra dose of superiority complex
It’s funny seeing other Massholes in here with all too similar experiences. I was literally just describing in another post an experience I had with a coworker the other week ranting in circles for 2 hours straight about how rational and centrist he is while spewing Fox News nonsense about “basic biology” and talking about how liberals never back their arguments up with facts and logic (unlike the Republican grifters he sees online, because they’d clearly never edit their videos to only make themselves look good).
Just because Mass benefits from being one of the most liberal states and 80% of Boston has a college degree doesn’t mean that their shit don’t stink.
The spirit of Massachusetts is the spirit of America….
Im trying in my head to make that response of “he had tattoos on his body” less stupid than it is, but cannot come up with a scenario where someone would get tattoos anywhere else.
There are no more dangerous gang tattoos than the ankle dolphin or butterfly tramp stamp
Surely he’d be more of a criminal if he had tattoos on someone else’s skin
You’re focused on the word, “body”, when the one that makes the difference is “on”.
If he had tattoos in his body, it would be ok.
It’s just a bit more difficult to find a tattoo artist who is willing to work on the inside.
That can’t have been a enjoyable experience getting that done.
Trying to get into magas heads is a bit like entering the Kaiju minds: dangerous with extensive psychological side effects, and to be avoided
Tattoos are basically body mutilation or improvement, depending on who you ask. beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
I wonder what she thinks of body mutilation like hair cut, nail cutting, plastic surgery and circumcision.
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“Everyone that disagrees with me is a Democrat”
Not only that, but Democrats by default do not matter and shouldn’t be considered at all.
“Everrything is woke”.
I have always loved how perfect the phrasing of “Basic Dickheads” is for the type of goobers it’s referring to.
You’d think farmers at least would understand the relationship between what you sow and what you reap.
They never have to think about because they use migrant labor
Maybe they have been paid to not grow crops for too long.
I’m sick of you democrats and your *checks notes* due process under the law.
I’m sick of you democrats
The utterance of someone so desperately grasping at straws because she can’t make an actual argument about the things she’s parroting from the TV so she relies on logical fallacies to shut down the argument completely.
And tattoos, didn’t forget the tattoos.
And not any tattoos. On his body, of all places!
Iowa was improving in the 90s, improving in the 2000s. They were blue then.
Now I hate going back, it’s not the same state I grew up in. Abortion billboards and porn stores, same as the bible belt now.
The state is not improving but they don’t care anymore, long as the right people (like me) get hurt.
Jesus Died For Your SINS
Right next to…
Cum on down to the Dildo Motel! Behind the truck stop on State 30, we got every kind, color and flavor of fake dicks and porno DVDs.
Disgusting
Also someone or my friend is wondering which truck stop
All of them.
😆
^^^
This country is so fucked.
They never should have shot that gorilla.
That’s when we entered the worst timeline.
It is out.
Right? I.swear this is all some butterfly effect, parallel universe, quantum leap bs from that exact moment.
Yeah and has been since Trump laughed off stage in 2015
Edit: I guess people knew what I meant. I meant since he wasnt laughed off stage in 2015
Yup.
Even if Trump ceases to exist tomorrow, we’re still fucked. He’s opened the door for copycat politicians for the rest of our lives. Our electoral system is comically corrupt and non-representative. Our entire political system is comically corrupt with way fewer safeguards than we all assumed. Our justice system is incapable of enforcing the law on the wealthy. And there are simply too many stupids in this country.
No party will ever have the massive majority required to make the fundamental changes required to fix all this. Only one party is even somewhat interested in doing so. Short of a revolution and complete wipe and reset of our government and how it functions, the only way this country is going is down.
Tbh the people are not educated properly, too enslaved to debt service and bills, and so brain conditioned to individual greed that forming a cohesive army to restore democracy is a laugh.
Not to mention tbe 50%+ casuality rate from heart attacks if a civil war broke out.
Tbh the people are not educated properly, too enslaved to debt service and bills, and so brain conditioned to individual greed that forming a cohesive army to restore democracy is a laugh.
That’s very true. Our problems don’t only exist at the top. We have fundamental, critical problems at every strata: top, bottom, and middle.
He’s opened the door for copycat politicians for the rest of our lives.
I don’t think so, I think Trump will be often replicated but never duplicated.
Take someone not as allegedly wealthy, insert Putin cash, we fucked then?
PLEASE let you be right please
Imagine believing that the best days of the US are ahead of you…
I’m sure improvements will be made, but the United States is dying, thanks in large part due to the cancer that’s rightwing propaganda networks
Honestly, I don’t want the United states to be a thing anymore. It is time for the nation to break up, so that people can choose what sort of government they want to live in. In my case, I would like something modeled after European socialism. I am sick of Fascist America dragging down my state with its evil and stupidity.
Uncapping the House would go a long way towards rebalancing.
The problem with that plan is that you get an outwardly fascist neighbor with no guardrails at all. Yes it will burn itself out eventually but before that it’s going to be just as much of a problem as when it was states.
Better to fight an enemy that is outside, rather than a foe within. We also don’t have sturdy guardrails - just ask federal employees, and the American citizens who have been trafficked to Honduras.
But the foes would always be within. This isn’t just red vs blue, it’s rural vs urban. Oregon goes Blue every time, but you drive 30 minutes out of the city and it’s Trump Central.
Agreed. Even in Minnesota we have the MAGAs in rural areas. Just as bad as any other state.
Feels like the guardrails are falling off regardless.
Good luck with that. Honestly.
That about sums it up. There are no obviously good options for the situation, so we are all left to gamble on a guess and a prayer that things work out.
Not sure what you mean by European socialism, but you do NOT want the socialism that was attempted in eastern European countries.
my brother in christ, all western european countries are socialist welfare states with a capitalistic market. Media wants you to believe that, what we have is communism, but socialism is so far off Marxism / Communism, as Turbo-capitalism is off of socialism. Beat the red scare and don’t carry on their dumb talking points. Socialism is the way to go
While I agree that socialism is a good ideology, we are definitely far away from actual socialism in Europe. We have social welfare states, yes. They have socialist elements, and many other elements that contradict it. They are not socialist. Whats the point in pretending they already are?
My point was, when you say things like “European Socialism”, that would be interpreted as what countries like Romania, Poland, Czechoslowakia or East Germany were like until around 1990. It was catastrophic.
what do all of these countries you just listed have in common? They were all under the rule of the Soviet Union. This was not european socialism, this was soviet socialism, european socialism means a mixture of both socialist welfare and capitalistic markets, aka social-democracies
European Socialism? Come on, we are supposed to be better than “socialism is when health care”.
I know what you want to say, but last time I checked, every EU country had millionaires and beggars, a market economy, most companies were in the hand of private citizens or shareholders, and guaranteed private property (with the usual legal exceptions).
Don’t be like the populists. Words have meanings and meanings matter. It is social market economy at most.
If I ever get diagnosed with a terminal disease. I know what I’m doing before I go out.
Finishing lunch with two friends at a diner in Osage, Dixie Bowman, 88, a retired welder, said she liked what Trump was doing. Her two friends, when asked, said they preferred not to speak of it.
Dixie Bowman: Trump is “a very kind, very generous person”
Sounds exactly like what one would expect from someone with a name like “Dixie”
Here, let me translate for you:
Dixie Bowman, 88, a retired welder, said she liked what Trump was doing.
“I like how he’s getting rid of all the brown people.”
Dixie Bowman: Trump is “a very kind, very generous person”
“He’s doing things I like. That means he’s a good person. Good people are kind and generous.”
It’s the same concept as when Nazis do Nazi things and claim they’re not Nazis. Nazi = bad, and they’re not bad, so they’re not Nazis.
Yeah. Ego, in the sense of the story about yourself that you tell yourself, is an extremely potent concept. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people get called out on their extremely shitty and deliberate choices and react with “I won’t take this, this isn’t fair, I’m a good person.” They actually believe that they are a good person, and good people don’t do bad things, so they’re being misunderstood and unfairly attacked. When the mirror is held up that attacks that narrative about themselves, it’s like an actual psychic pain, and people react almost like they’ve been physically attacked.
These people have been taught their whole lives that being good is something you are, not something you do.
Given her age, I think it’s more likely that she’s just being fed nothing but pro-Trump propaganda in her Facebook feed. She scrolls through Facebook on her sticky phone covered in food crumbs liking boomer memes and pictures of grandchildren. If anyone knows her, the easy solution to save her from the propaganda is to sign her out of her account since she definitely doesn’t remember her password (and probably has like 3 accounts she’s made by accident)
Everybody on the right “likes what Trump is doing” or “Likes what DOGE is doing”, but when you ask them to articulate, specifically, what actions or policies they like, they will generalize to something the administration has claimed without evidence to be true but is difficult to prove or disprove (“He’s making the border safer”, “He’s getting rid of taxpayer waste”, etc.) or they will retreat from the question by attacking you personally or just saying that the vibes are generally better (“The tariffs will fix the economy”, “America is respected again”, etc.).
I’ve never once had a debate with a Republican who came prepared with sources to back up their claims. That’s because as soon as they try to dig and find evidence of the insane stuff Trump and Musk are peddling, the lie unravels itself and it just becomes easier to accept things at face value rather than think critically.
Crazy that would be the case when 75% of the people on this planet already do belief without evidence with religion. Who could’ve seen this coming.
Editor’s note: This sarcasm is intended to be read in the voice of Jon Stewart with a false look of bewilderment.
Careful, your r/atheism is showing
Pointing out reality typically pisses dishonest people off yeah.
They say welding fumes can cause neurological damage…
I was told masturbating too much causes brain damage. Maybe thats what it was for all of us.
The leopard’s are gonna be obese by the summer.
The leopards are already obese. I suspect by summer they’ll die by cardiovascular diseases.
Magas can do one thing right, even saving the leopards is too hard for them
This will only escalate… And, across the country…
And I’m here for it.
(How is it possible to have a “Food and Drink” emoji section that has no popcorn emoji*) 🤷♂️ 🤡
🍿
🍿?
🌽 + 🔥= 🍿
🍿
Let them rip and tear each other apart until it’s done…
My mobile keyboard has it. 🍿 Does your keyboard bring up a search bar when you go to emoji mode? You can also try searching online for “XYZ emoji” and if one exists you could copy+paste from there
Yeah, my mobile has popcorn emoji but this silly assed laptop doesn’t… 🤷♂️
One of the nice things about MAGAts being stupid is when they get mad they get real mad. So as they get more and more mad about the situation under their own leadership, they may be stupid enough to take things into their own hands. And I’m here for that. Let them do the dirty work and end up pushing up daisies or in a prison cell.
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I hope they rip each other apart trying to justify their own ignorance and his madness.
Unfortunately their disproportionately overvalued federal representation and votes due to the electoral college they are dragging the rest of us down with them
He had tattoos on his body? I keep mine in a drawer in the shed.
Ok, hear me out.
David Beckham has tattoos on his body AND is an immigrant. Therefore he must be a part of the ms13 gang and should be deported. It’s the only thing that makes sense!!!I’ve also heard Dolly Parton has tattoos…
They stopped liking Dolly Parton after they found out that she’s gives books to kids.
She also sang a song about getting the COVID vaccine iirc.
How many cops have gang tattoos in 'murica? The internet tells me a good deal of them do.
Yes, they often take the form of shields, seven pointed stars, and Punisher skulls. These things identify them as street-roaming gang bangers and armed thugs.
Nobody better fuck with my girl Dolly. That’s how you get the metalheads all riled up.
I heard Beckham was part of Bend de Aragua
I’ve also heard Dolly Parton has tattoos…
Tattoos or ta-tas?
Why not both?
