Intelligence Has Been Set Aside!

My faith that intelligence will maintain its hold on the vast majority of the population and overcome the growing divisional hate within the population has taken another major hit recently.

A friend whom I consider a very intelligent person and a moderately left leaning independent has recently been consumed by the anti-Trump resistance propaganda. This is a person that, until now, has been very deliberate about being analytical and using critical thinking to help form their political opinions, that has changed in recent weeks and this person now seems to be irretrievably broken from analytical and critical thinking and now it’s all about parroting anti-Trump propaganda.

My perception of this change is that it has taken place rather quickly, the change has been very dramatic, and the change has driven the person to what appears to be the more hateful side of things, things are coming out of this person’s mouth that I never would have never expected from a person like this.  I’ve talked with this person a couple of times a week for years and I can honestly say that I don’t think I can point to anything that would lead me to believe that this person was beginning to lean this way.  I’m sure this didn’t take place overnight but what the heck was the straw that broke the camels back for a person like this; I have no clue and I’ll likely never find out because this person appears to be only actively communicating with those of like anti-Trump minds and inquiring only leads to some pretty hateful outburst of incivility. Based on my perception, what has taken place “overnight” is the transformation of a reasonable civil person to an unreasonable political hack that is consumed by the anti-Trump resistance. Intelligence has been set aside.

I’ve tried to recall if I have done or said something to have earned me the levels of incivility I’m now seeing and I honestly can’t think of a thing, we enjoyed bantering about with critical thinking and now there is a wall and I didn’t put it there.  I’ve read that the anti-Trump resistance is cult-like, I’m really beginning to think that is true.

This is not the first time some of my friends have become consumed and pretty much ended our friendship, it’s sad.  I can recall some other friends that have gone through similar anti-this or anti-that transitions in the last 10 years, some have transitioned just since the emergence of Trump on the political scene, and there are certainly more that have transitioned since November 2016.  I’m seeing a pattern of people being consumed by the propaganda of the day.  If this can completely consume a person that has been so dedicated to analytical and critical thinking in the past there is likely no reasonable hope of the divisional hate subsiding within the United States anytime soon.