Phone banking is a good investment of time. Swing Left and Moveon.org will have volunteering opportunities for that.

They may have you hand writing postcards too.

I did the phone banking thing California for Georgia. And as you know the race was close. So I felt I had an impact.

All the people on the list you will call are democratic voters and are almost always friendly. You are just there to remind them to vote and to give info on how and where to vote. And where to find more info etc. it’s all about voter turnout.

I'm sorry to hear that. Good on you for speaking up, but I feel your frustration.

When dealing with people like this you simply cannot tell them anything. You cannot tell them they are wrong, you cannot tell them facts, you cannot tell them logic. You don't share a common understanding of the world any longer.

The only thing I've found that might plant seeds of doubt in their mind is to ask them questions they can't answer. This involves a lot of listening to what they think and finding the holes in it.

The elections was stolen! The Democrats stuffed the ballot boxes! There are reams of evidence!

Oh wow! I didn't know that. What did Trump do to combat that? Did he go to court? Did he present the evidence? Can you show me the evidence? What did the lawyers say in court? (specifically Giuliani). Hmmm, you don't know, can we google it? etc. etc.

You don't have to be an expert on the topic, but knowing a few things helps. So listen to them one day, go collect your questions and wait for them to go on that rant again.

This is really important. I’ve had a number of in person interactions that have left people rethinking what they’ve been spoon fed on FB.

My favorite story was taking the kids to some birthday party at an ice skating rink during Covid. One of the mothers was going off on vaccines. I listened to her tirade until she said “who ever heard of getting multiple shots for something!” I looked at her and just said “the flu”. The look on her face was priceless.

It is important to speak up. People who only get their stuff online like that never experience the embarrassment of being wrong. It’s an important factor in keeping people from going off the rails. It keeps them thinking before they speak. Something so few people do anymore

Python is the answer. Automation has been integral to the job for awhile.

The bump stock decision showed that too. The intent of the law was to prevent people from getting weapons that fired 100s of rounds a minute. But the court decided to over think the text so they could get a results oriented outcome that had nothing to do with the original intent.

Edit spelling

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Dems need to fight harder but going full fascist/authoritarian doesn’t stop fascism. It only trades one fascist for another.

This is a good point. You only call Democrats. And they are almost universally friendly. Same when you go canvasing door to door. You do have a few unhappy/angry people, but you just walk away.

No politician is going to save us. It's going to be up to us. This time around its about beating Trump. I hope this engages enough people that next go around they stay involved and demand a better candidate.

If you live here you can help out with your local political club. Much as I describe in my above post you replied to. They’ll find you things to do.

Also, don’t be afraid to speak up when talking to other Americans. A big part of the problem today are the information silos people have self selected. They don’t get other people’s POV and opinions. So their own become more and more extreme.

There are people who feel disaffected and unheard. Normal politicians speak like they went to college (they did) but a huge amount of people have not and feel spoken down at. Trumps grammar and speaking is just like theirs so they connect.

American media also plays a huge role. It’s all owned by billionaire conservatives. So they control the narrative almost completely. Sinclair owns ALL the local TV news across the country and blatantly feeds lies to all the elderly folk that still watch TV.

And it goes on and on like that.

Because it increases their chances dramatically as per conventional wisdom. The incumbent always has a huge advantage and is almost never beaten.

I think anyone young would beat the pants off the other. Between Mitch McConnell, pelosi, Diane Feinstein and so many all around people are sick and tired of these old geriatrics holding onto power for so long.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m really a Biden fan for being the most effectual presidents in decades. And I think switching now really does invite chaos that would destroy democrats right now. I also think his slow talking to deal with his stutter is taken to be loss of mental aptitude that is simply false. But this is hardball and it doesn’t get any harder than this.

Crushing him is going to require a lot of grass root effort. Phone baking, canvassing, text banking etc. get in touch with your local democratic club. Or look up moveon.org or indivisible.

I phone banked from California for the presidential and following run offs in Georgia that gained democrats the senate. Super tight results. So I felt I had an impact afterwards.

And if not, what does it matter? He’ll just pardon them anyway.

Any person who has dreams of being president t is a premadona.

Better than donating, phone bank, write postcards.

I don't think Trump has an original thought in his head in regards to policy. The only thing he thinks about is himself and getting stuff for himself (transactional mind set). As such, he just does what he's told by people who get him what he wants. SCOTUS appointments? Just do what the Federalist Society tells him since everyone in his admin tells him to do so.

It’s ok to walk away. With some people they are so far gone there is no utility in engaging are interacting. It will just end up on screaming at her. These people have to decide on their own to make it back. I have friends and family in AA and listening to how they got it together they will all tell you it was they who had to make the choice. When I read stories like yours I think of them.

I’m a big advocate for engaging these people but in many cases it isn’t worth it and or may make things worse.

Walk away and hope she can find a way to choose to get out of her hateful fantasy world.

40s is still young enough. If you can keep the interactions calm and respectful you might have a chance.

Pick your battles. Choose the ones you can win. Don’t let them do gish gallops on you. When they do, just pick one point they tried to make. Sometimes I will ask them to pick the one. That way they, in theory, should have a harder time dumping another Gish Gallop on you. But they will and you have to bring them back. Maybe getting snarky with, oh, you concede this point we’re talking about then? I mean if you’re going to change the subject every two seconds I can only conclude you haven’t thought any one of these through.

Or maybe he's boasting that he got a 5x increase in parameter count without upgrading the inference computer?

Don't count on the courts saving America. It will be the people on the ground getting the vote out and talking to voters one at a time that will defeat Trump. There is no easy answer. It's going to be hard work.

If he's being love bombed I'm not sure how you would counter this. He needs family to counter that with more love than the cult can give.

My normal engagement strategy is to ask lots of questions to try and plant seeds of doubt and help them grow if possible. (Who is "they?!" Why do they want to do X? What do they get out of it? What is they are going to do with "power?" More of the same? That's just a circular argument, it leads no where. I want to know what their end goal is? Do you know? No, I don't know, that's why I'm asking you. You were the one that made the extraordinary claim, burden to provide evidence is on you). But with a love starved target of love bombs, getting the target to think rationally is not really going to go anywhere.

I suppose I'll end up reading up more on cults at some point. I'm really only versed in argumentation and things that require systematic thinking and understanding.

That is really hard. Are there any cracks in the armor (so to speak) is my first question. Otherwise you gotta crack it open the hard way with a barrage of questions. You'll have to judge whether to deliver them rapid fire to overwhelm her, or slowly to force her to ponder each one. Probably the latter... but that's a judgement call.

Talking to her I'd focus on things that will be difficult and could derail her plan. Mainly ask her what her plan is for different eventualities. Like the legal situation for the kid. How does her brother handle legal stuff in regards to her kids. Will she miss her kids? Will they miss her? What if she's hurt or worse, what will happen to her kids?

How is she paying for the storage? If she's off the grid, how is she doing her banking? Does the Storage place even take cash? And if so, how is she delivering it if she's hiding out in the woods?

Etc. etc.

The hope is to overwhelm her in her inability to answer the questions that she understands she needs help. Then have some plan ready to get her that help. I would normally think that would be therapy. But maybe some kind of social services are available up there that is appropriate. I don't know much about this. Maybe homeless shelters have people who can give pointers or advice. Have this kind of information at the ready when you start the questioning.

Also, do not tell her what she should do. Do not start off with "this is stupid, you shouldn't do this." etc. That will only shut her down and force her to flee. You need to be offering help, and the easiest way (IMO) is to start asking her questions she hasn't thought through. Once you get her to be receptive, then you can give advice.

So he is advocating for his own child die out because they colored their hair? Ask him WTAF is wrong with him in such a context. Is he so inhumane?!

The order of most to least impact is: 1 door to door canvassing 2 phone banking 3 text banking 4 postcards

2 and 3 are changing places for going young people.

For many of us who already live in blue states or districts all we can do is 2 through 4.

I did a bunch of phone banking in 2020 for Georgia because I live in the other side of the country. Those elections were so tight I can only assume I had an impact. I am really afraid this one will be the same despite all the blatant evidence Trump is such an unfit candidate and president.

Could these be decoy planes? I recall the US recently bought up a bunch of old Soviet non serviceable airframes from some back water place. Speculation was for spare parts and to put out as decoys.