I have a close friend that I’ve known 20 years who became obsessed with right-wing politics. even though I’m liberal, I don’t make it my entire personality and life. But anyway… I was talking to him this morning casually like friends do.

Me: “Hey man. Do you have off today for MLK day?” Friend: “No, I have to work today.” Me: “Damn, sorry to hear. I have off today since it’s a company holiday.” Friend: “Yeah, I work for a living. Guess that’s the difference me and people who live in an ivory tower.” Me: “Uhh I work for a living too. Idk why you’re acting like I don’t?” Friend: “I didn’t mean you specifically. But you’re off and I’m not so it shows that you get to relax at least. You should be able to handle the truth lol. There’s no shame in admitting that I’m a harder worker than everyone else. you shouldn’t be so sensitive”

Honestly, he’s not unique, either. I’ve met so many people who are conservative, obsessed with right-wing stuff, and they’re all like this. They act like they’re special and the whole world is lazy, “no one wants to work anymore” attitude.

  • Skyline969@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    If you’ve known him for 20 years he should respect you enough that you can tell him he’s being a cunt. Coming from you it should mean something, and maybe he’ll take a look at himself. I’m friends with some right wingers who are decent people but folks like that need to be called out.

      • Skyline969@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        In North America it’s like domestic violence in a word. Cunt doesn’t really have a positive connotation here.

        • SouthEndSunset@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          More seriously in the U.K. it matters whether the people you’re talking to are posh or working class, and also context.

          To be fair though, I think it’s a sexist term, and I shouldn’t have said it.

    • go $fsck yourself@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I’m friends with some right wingers who are decent people.

      ?

      “right wingers” or “decent people”

      Choose one, because they are mutually exclusive.

      • JayDee@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        You can still be charismatic, a good neighbor, someone who stands up for friends when things start getting rough, a caring person that worries about those around them, and still hold the most batshit insane political ideas. I happen to know multiple people like this.

        People are complex, and plenty are good people who have been led to believe the most outlandish shit. They are gullible and don’t put enough thought into what they accept as truth. It is just as attractive to people on our side of the fence to paint everyone else with broad assumptions. It is the nature of Evil, because evil is ultimately a boring thing that we all do every day without thinking about it.

  • Dizzy Devil Ducky@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    The funniest thing about conservatives is how they’ll complain the left are a bunch of snowflakes, but you say a single word like trans and they’ll probably explode into a million pieces because you said a bad word that scares them.

    • DuckWrangler9000@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 months ago

      Lol this same person once told me that he doesn’t support LGBT or Black lives matter or any of that because he doesn’t agree with those communities and thinks that they are hateful

    • hperrin@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      It’s cause they never know what trans people are packing, and a penis scares them more than a gun.

      • Whateley@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        I love telling transphobes that they’re only mad because the ladies’ dick’s are bigger than theirs.

  • originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com
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    2 months ago

    its the propaganda they ingest. they are constantly told that everyone brown or poor does nothing but live off the government teat. constantly . despite this being demonstrably not true.

    • BossDj@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      This one sounds more like the “real man” propaganda.

      A real man behaves a certain way and can only wear certain clothes and do certain jobs and is respected by women.

  • Asafum@feddit.nl
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    2 months ago

    The conservative people that run my job think they’re funny or something. We get a the standard holidays off but if the 4th of July or whatever falls near a weekend they’ll swap another holiday to make it a 4 day weekend.

    The only holidays they “trade away” are MLK day and Juneteenth… Funny that.

    • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      Same, though I’ve never had Juneteenth off (AT best there’s a Juneteenth BBQ that… no one but management gets to attend because we don’t have to day off to do so) and we traded MLK Day away for… I think Black Friday? I don’t remember… I just know that I work on it.

  • Lumelore (She/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    2 months ago

    Hate, insecurity, intolerance, and ignorance are the foundation of their ideology. I’m not proud of myself at all for this, but I got sucked into the pipeline when I was a young teen. However I am proud to say that I did fortunately manage to pull myself out of it and I’m now a socialist.

    While I hate that I got sucked in, it does give me a lot of insight into why they are the way they are. They start by targeting common insecurities which they use to lure people in, and then they feed them lies while appealing to those insecurities. For example, I remember being a lonely teen and watching mgtow 🤮 videos and the gist of the videos was that if you joined their “movement” that you would get laid all the time, and of course that video was ridden with a shitload of misogyny and lies. Then from there it snowballs into more and more hatred and lies.

    Conservatives are just sad, narcissistic losers who are incapable of understanding that people need to lift each other up rather than putting each other down. That’s why conservatives like to brag, because they think putting others down is how they get lifted up.

    Being knowledgeable is a good defence against their tactics since their lies become obvious and it quickly becomes evident that they are fools.

    • morrowind@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      Yeah OP, it just sounds like an unhealthy coping mechanism. He might just need some empathy

  • phughes@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    My brother, a right winger, brought his kids up to visit me last summer.

    It was at the end of the week that he told me that I hardly work at all. I’m like: Yeah, I have fucking guests in my house. I was still at my desk when I wasn’t trying to keep 2 teenaged girls entertained.

    He moved his family 1000 miles away and 20 years later is lamenting that they have no relationship with the people he moved away from. (I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that this lines up with the rise of “Family” talk from right wingers.) This same guy calls other people “Sheeple”.

    • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
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      2 months ago

      Why is an adutl man concerned about how much another person works…

      Also working hard is not a virtue, it is an indicator of poor management

  • شاهد على إبادة@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    He is exploited and dumb enough to think being exploited makes him better.

    Their bitterness comes from being exploited. The stupidity is in deluding themselves that they are hard workers instead of Luiging their boss.

  • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    Yeah, conservatives like to randomly plug phrases of propaganda like unfunny inside jokes. Depending on my relationship with them I do one of the following.

    1. Ignore if I’m not that close. Maybe roll my eyes a bit.
    2. Push back on it if we’re in the context of world events/news/politics.
    3. If we’re close enough, re-direct the culture war bullshit interjections with interjections of class war. If your friend sees it fit to just randomly call society lazy, you can also randomly call the upper capitalist class lazy government-teat sucking hoarders.
  • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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    2 months ago

    You’ve got it backwards. Toxic and aggressive people become conservatives (in Anglo countries) because it serves them emotionally.

    Occasionally one is too queer to successfully do that, and have to find an alternate outlet, like stanning for North Korea or something.

  • I Cast Fist@programming.dev
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    2 months ago

    Friend doesn’t get a day off, complains about the “ivory tower” of those that get a holiday, instead of blaming his boss and/or company for being a souless machine grinding his bones to dust for 3 extra pennies that quarter.

    • rumba@lemmy.zip
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      2 months ago

      Then proceeds to vote for the side that’s telling them they’re not working hard enough.

    • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 months ago

      i feel like these people really have a “don’t look up” mentality. whatever you do, don’t look directly into the sun, don’t look directly at your king, don’t ever talk about what the people in power are doing. rather, blame yourself and your friends/family /everybody else in society, rather than blame the politics of those in power.

  • SatanClaus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 months ago

    What a loser. I hate people like this. We are all working hard you fucking dunce. Get your head out of your ass.

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    2 months ago

    It’s not “why are they like this?” but rather “who has made them like this?”

    Who has a vested interest in creating a generation of people who take a perverse personal pride in working themselves to death so somebody else can get rich? Hmm, tough one…

    I wouldn’t even mind if the ultra rich were doing something with that money, but they just hoard it. Elon Musk could have a giant fortress in the shape of a skull, but instead he just goes home and cheats at videogames. I can do that for next to nothing!

    • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      The people who did it are the same wealthy anti-progressive, anti-New Dealers who hated how the government did so many programs that didn’t just work, but worked brilliantly. I need to mention that not all New Deal programs survived, but most of the ones that were cut were done so due to early concerted opposition to them and nothing organic.

      No joke, it is a combination of old ideas and opposition to new ideas.

    • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 months ago

      I wouldn’t even mind if the ultra rich were doing something with that money, but they just hoard it. Elon Musk could have a giant fortress in the shape of a skull, but instead he just goes home and cheats at videogames. I can do that for next to nothing!

      That’s exactly the “Make America Great Again” attitude. You can kill your own population and mistreat your workers, as long as you spend the money in a lavish lifestyle. That’s exactly what the rich are doing, and that’s exactly what people (rightfully) complain about.