That Time I Had To #WalkAway
The year was 2016, the season was spring and the presidential race was heating up. I remember sitting in my friend’s car driving down the main thoroughfare in Palm Springs, talking about our mutual disdain for Hillary Clinton.
At the time Bernie Sanders was campaigning and my friend seemed to like Bernie. I was open to learning more him; all I knew was that a few of my friends were rabid Bernie fans and proclaimed their love for him like teenage girls crushing on a movie star.
That summer, I visited a friend on the east coast and noted her Trump stickers and signs. She was an early Trump supporter and never wavered.
“Hmmm,” I thought, still on the fence. Trump was someone I watched on The Apprentice and I usually skipped over the parts when he was talking. I thought he was pompous and over the top.
That fall, we moved from our house into an apartment while our new home was being built. I had sunk into a depression and spent a lot of time at home, reading about the upcoming election, anticipating Wikileaks drops and watching the debates.
It was eye-opening to learn how Donna Brazile slipped the debate questions to Hillary ahead of time. My mind was on the sad and strange death of Seth Rich. Reading Wikileaks offered so much “insider” information. There it was all in black and white, from their “pied piper” strategy to working with the media who sided with the Clinton campaign:
In April 2015, the Clinton campaign held a private dinner party with at least 65 journalists and pundits in attendance. Individuals from CNN, CBS, The New York Times, NBC, MSNBC and more came together under the campaign’s stated goal of “framing the race” to help Clinton win. Many of the above media outlets were indeed the Clinton campaign’s biggest surrogates throughout the 2016 presidential election.
I was pretty ‘red-pilled’ already but I began learning more and slowly I started seeing Trump as someone who was not a political insider, not bought and paid for by lobbyists. There was a lot about his “outsider” status and blunt demeanor that I responded to. Though at this time, I can’t say I liked him or was fully on board — yet.
When Trump responded to Hillary with the line, “…because you’d be in jail!” I jumped off the couch. I was well familiar with the many crimes of the Clintons going back to the late 80s, early 90s and wanted to see justice served. I will refer you to Charles Ortel for an in-depth look into the Clinton Foundation’s corruption.
I started watching Trump’s speeches and couldn’t believe how the news media edited them. In one speech, watching it in its entirety, he cleared said one thing, later watching a clip from CNN, it had been stealthily edited to show another. This happened numerous times.
I saw friends who were appalled by what Trump said. I tried to point out how his words had been edited, how they weren’t seeing the truth. I wanted people to know the video clips were completely edited to push a narrative. “Watch the real video!” I said. “You’re a racist!” was their collective response.
One acquaintance, I knew from my time as a beauty blogger, posted her disgust on Instagram, at how Trump made fun of a disabled reporter.
“That’s not what happened,” I commented, “Watch the video and see for yourself.”
“You can have him grab you by your pussy!” She wrote, then proceeded to block me across all social media. I was taken aback by her words and actions.
That seemed so…harsh.
I was trying to point out the truth, to share what I learned but she didn’t want to hear it. I felt terrible about the interaction so I wrote, asking if we could have a conversation about it, could she forgive me if she felt I was out of line? I am a sensitive person and hate arguing. I was crying, my heart raced as I typed out an email, apologizing again.
Her silence was deafening as the saying goes. Two years later, she still has me blocked everywhere.
Fast forward to election night. I was glued to the TV, watching the results. At one point, when it was looking like Trump was going to win, I texted my friend, the one who shared the opinion that Hillary was corrupt. “I’m sorry things aren’t going your way,” I typed. This was not sarcasm, he had made his hatred of Trump known and I genuinely felt bad that he was angry.
He had slowly come around to being pro-Hillary, buying into the lies and media narrative, somehow he forgot about her many crimes, but he had a right to his opinion.
“I don’t care!” My friend texted. “California is liberal!”
After the election, this friend who I adored, ended what I thought was a close friendship. Over time, I’d see his anti-Trump posts on Facebook and the clear disdain for anyone who supported the new president.
JUST ASK ME, I wanted to scream. Ask me if you want to know how I feel about certain topics, I’m still the same person as before. Don’t let this election come between our friendship! But he’d rather disown me than talk. Really, we all we want peace, safety, prosperity. Can’t we push the other stuff aside? I guess not.
On social media, I saw the same sentiment again and again. Trump supporters were racist, hateful, homophobic, and the list went on and on. I and my conservative friends were none of those things but broad assumptions were made.
When I spoke out, I was called names, bullied, friendships were lost. My mind went back to the blogger who blocked me and refused to answer my emails or accept my apology.
Why?
Can’t we have a difference of opinion? How boring would it be if we all thought the same way and didn’t have a variety of ideas?
From my own experiences, some people do not want to interact with others who have a different way of looking at things.
I had been reading about Operation Mockingbird (look into this and you will be shocked) and the propaganda in the news. Instead of mainstream media, who were clearly biased and pushing a narrative about Trump that didn’t accurately relay the facts, I started following independent media sources. I also learned that mainstream media broadcasts in a frequency which confuses the brain. Politicians use neurolinguistic programming as a sort of brainwashing technique.
NLP or Neuro-Linguistic Programming is one of the world’s most prevalent methods of mind control, used by everyone from sales callers to politicians to media pundits, and it’s nasty to the core.
I didn’t want to share anything political on Facebook for fear of insulting my liberal friends. I’m not interested in hurting feelings, I worried if I posted anything political, it might upset them.
For two years I scrolled past hateful comments and memes from my liberal friends and acquaintances. I was concerned with people getting offended by something I might share yet not one of them showed the least bit of concern for other people who might not subscribe to their way of thinking.
I saw the hatred of the left and each time I tried to share facts, I was met with more name calling. At one point, in a single post on Facebook, I had six people accusing me of things that were untrue. “You’re racist! Homophobic!” And my favorite, “You watch Fox news!”
I wasn’t cut out for speaking my mind and getting insults slung at me.
To this day, each time I attempt to have a dialogue or exchange thoughts with people on the left, I am treated in either a very condescending manner or have insults hurled at me.
Every single time.
Its baffling to me.
In reading people’s experiences in the #WalkAway movement, mine is not an isolated occurrence. Many have gone through exactly what I have and are disheartened by the intolerance, the “fake news” and the collective attitude that somehow Trump supporters are hateful monsters.
I wish I knew how to stop the division and bring everyone together. In my own little universe, I try to keep an open mind and respond with respect and kindness to the best of my ability.
And if I encounter hate, I am just going to #WalkAway.
