@TiarePalau Thank you for sharing this. ❤️

I hope, someday, she comes finds her way out of that bubble.

It's good for her to have someone like you, who keeps trying.

@The757Progressive I don't know if you believe in God or not, and it's okay if you don't.

But we are in a war for the souls of people, whether real or metaphorical.

It's the same end, we want to save people from something evil that is gripping our country and taking our family and friends from us.

Are we people who are just going to throw up our hands and give up because it's hard or feels impossible?

Or are we going fight and keep trying to save them, and us?

Who are we if we give up?

@The757Progressive This is why I don't believe we should be attacking and hating everyone who is a Republican, or forcefully trying to tell them how wrong or ignorant they are just by a party label.

We can't make them aware if we are pushing them away at the same time.

Politicians, especially, need to reach out to the daily Republican and give them something.

And if they don't relate, then try again. And again. And keep trying.

When we stop reaching, we've already lost.

@NancySmith Hi, thank you!

I have said so much, and there will be so much more to say!

I might be out, but my family isn't. I'm in a daily battle for the soul of my family.

@The757Progressive This what scares me too.

And I see it, pretty directly.

@The757Progressive And more on this, I think it's easier for unscrupulous people to take advantage of the moderate Republican and that lack of political awareness.

It's easier to manipulate a group of people who are spread out in rural areas, who are less likely to have other sources of information than it is larger groups of people with more diverse sources of information.

The most dangerous voter is the uninformed one, and it's easy to keep rural areas uninformed.

@The757Progressive And there will never be a big moderate Republican movement.

And that saddens me.

There are so many loving, friendly, and caring people inside the Republican party who are not a part of MAGA and who are just not aware of what's happening in the greater political sphere.

And here's the reason it's invisible. Cities are, mostly, Democrat. Rural is mostly Republican.

It's hard to be a critical mass when you're spread so far apart from each other.

@The757Progressive Thanks, and I like to hope so.

I'll always be more aware of who I'm voting for, anyway, and what I'm voting for.

I look at Congress website before I vote now and see who is voting for what policies.

I will only vote for politicians who are "for" things that benefit people, never vote for any politician who spend their time in Congress voting against things.

@The757Progressive I think this might be one of the big differences between Republicans and Democrats.

I don't know how accurate it is yet, because I only personally know a few Democrats.

But Democrats seem heavily involved and invested in their politics, and very informed about the good and the bad.

On the Republican side. It's not like that. They vote, they see the mailers, etc, but they're not really involved politically. It's more habit, more traditional.

@The757Progressive This may seem weird, but most Republicans I know do support sensible abortion.

But right now the MAGA crowd are crowing the loudest about it.

And it is really hard to separate MAGA and the average Republican and the hard right Republican when all you see are the shouters and haters.

Most Republicans are moderate and sensible. They're just...... oblivious and not politically involved. They wake up, do their job, vote Republican, go back to sleep.

@The757Progressive Yes, I tried reaching out and apologizing for it.

But they said it was too late I already caused so much harm with my hate to their friends they can never forgive me.

I didn't ask for forgiveness though. I live with the hate I had in me every day. I feel it all the time.

@The757Progressive Between my friends brave enough to keep trying to reach me and Trump himself.

I saw and heard things about Trump, through my friends, I would have not seen myself. It made a dent in my bubble. My first reaction was "nobody is perfect" and other rationalizations.

But I did start paying attention more because of the things he said.

It was enough to put a small crack in my bubble.

The abortion thing shattered my bubble entirely.

@forrcaho I wish I was smart enough to have an answer for this.

@The757Progressive Oh I get it from both sides really hard sometimes.

I am a traitor to my MAGA family because I left the party.

I am stupid to some former friends who are Democrats because I was "too dumb and stupid" to see what was happening.

There are days I just want to scream.

There are days I just spend crying because of my family.

@The757Progressive This is the question I would propose, "How can you believe there are Nazi's in your party if you're never seeing the Nazi's in your party?"

You see it, because you're not in the bubble of core Republicanism. I see it, now, because I got out of the bubble. Many of my non-MAGA Republican family don't see it because they are still in the bubble.

@The757Progressive It was really hard for me to leave the Republican party, so I can tell you why, I had a hard time.

First, because of the bubble, you only think it's a small fraction of people. Bad apples in a batch kind of thing.

Second, our whole families are probably traditionally Republican. Everyone we know. Family is a powerful motivator to stay.

Third, a lot of Republicans don't see the bad shit. The algorithm at work. I didn't see it, at all...... until I did.

@desbearado I feel like that lack of understanding is what will allow us to create an artificial intelligence without comprehending the consequences.

If we don't understand what intelligence really is and can barely understand our own.

What happens when/if we do give intelligence to AI? It will be so different and alien to our own will we even be able to recognize it as alive?

There's a real danger there.

@The757Progressive I think what I've learned through my own experience as a Republican who got pulled into MAGA and managed to get out.

People really are people. The hateful side of things is really amplified.

But when you can step outside of the politics everyone wants the same thing. Home. Comfort. Family. And cats.

How I've been connecting with my MAGA family or friends every time they go on a rant with me is to talk about something mundane.

Anything to relate and humanize the hate.

@The757Progressive This is a part of why I think the average Republican feels like Democrats can't be a part of their solution.

They feel abandoned and discarded by the left in the march of progress.

@The757Progressive Oh, don't get me wrong.

I see the danger of what's happening. Oblivious people are the people who stand by while atrocities happen.

When I say "not at Republicans" I'm not saying "they don't have any fault" in the march of hate.

What I'm saying is maybe if we spent more time reaching the average Republican without the hate for them, and just telling them how we can make their lives better through policy... then there can be less "all Republicans" and more informed voters.