Liberals, why don't you like Conservatives?

Just in the past few months, people on Quora identifying as conservatives have responded to my comments by calling Democrats, and myself in particular, “scumbags,” “hacks,” “foreigners,” “children,” “man child(ren),” “cucks,” “pussies,” “NPCs,” “degenerates,” “bed wetters,” “moonbats,” “losers,” “insane,” “loonies,” “lunatics,” “nut jobs,” “scum,” “disturbed,” “twisted,” “lazy,” “fatties,” “delusional,” “conspiracy theorists,” “poorly educated,” “feeble minded,” “stupid,” “useful idiots,” “morons,” “low IQ,” “retards,” “dolts,” “fucktards,” “libtards,” “libturds,” “butt-hurt,” “jackasses,” “Dumba$$es,” “assholes,” “asswits,” “sensitive,” “snowflakes,” “Kunta Kinte,” “comrades,” “pro-Hamas,” “pro October 7,” “Nazis,” “Demo-Nazis,” “Dimwitocrats,” “DUMBocrats,” “Demo-lunatics,” “demokkkrats,” “DemocraTicks,” “democraps,” “demoncraps,” “Demafucks,” “bitches,” and “Bidenbitches.” They’ve gone on and on about the “plandemic,” told me that I “hate America,” that I have “TDS,” that I “belong in a jail cell with [my] new boyfriend, sticking it in [their] butt” and “don’t know what the fuck [I am] talking about,” and to “go play with [my] dildo” and “eat shit” and “drop dead.”

I pointed this out to the “moderate” conservative.

About five or six comments into the exchange, after this gentleman asked me what I don’t like about Donald Trump, I said that I don’t like Trump’s tendency to promote malicious lies about other people, and his tendency to build policy around these lies. He asked for an example, and I cited Trump’s false claim that Haitian immigrants are eating their neighbors’ pets.

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He doubled down again, saying “this isn’t the only example of media gaslighting the public.” Never mind that the original example he provided was an example of him lying, not an example of the media gaslighting the public. He then cited several more lies: vaccines cause autism and death, unnamed “elites” are steering the path of hurricanes to punish conservatives, FEMA ran out of disaster relief money because it gave it all to undocumented immigrants, Democrats are importing immigrants to vote for them illegally and “replace” white Americans, and of course, Donald Trump won the 2020 election. In short, he responded to being called out for promoting a malicious and dangerous lie with a flood of more outrageous lies. Anthropologists refer to this tactic as the Gish gallop: a rhetorical technique in which a person attempts to overwhelm an opponent by presenting an excessive number of arguments, with no regard for their accuracy or strength, with a rapidity that makes it impossible for the opponent to address them all.

It’s not that I “don’t like” conservatives.

I have encountered a small number of conservative-minded people on Quora who have kept their language toward me mostly respectful, and who have insisted that they are “reasonable moderates” who are open-minded and willing to engage in constructive dialogue. I had an extended back-and-forth on Quora with one such individual yesterday.

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I calmly and patiently pointed this out.

I want to emphasize that this is what a self-proclaimed “reasonable” and “moderate” Trump supporter did. He didn’t resort to cursing or name calling, but it would be a stretch to credit him with intellectual honesty, information literacy, consistent logic, or even-handed beliefs about other people. His logic was riddled with faulty assumptions, poisoned with lies, and backed by wild conspiracy theories.

I have inferred that such people don’t like me. So I’m not going to expend a lot of my energy trying to make myself more likeable to them. I’m certainly not going to try to placate them.

Hi everybody! I have been looking at posts on narcs and narc abuse on here and if has really helped me out a lot. I am currently struggling with my situation and need some advice/support. I met a narc last year, everything seemed to good to be true. Love bombing, always texting calling and taking me on dates. Everything changed when someone warned me about him out in public in front of him and who he is. This caused a conflict with us and the love bombing seized. he would tell me that everything is okay and i can come and talk. He would set a time limit on me and kick me out after that. he would then text me like everything was fine and we hung out again and after that he completely ghosted me for one week. He came back and texted me a week later laughing about the ghosting and acting like nothing had happened. he continued to text me ( not like in the beginning) make plans with me, then on the day of the plans he would just ghost me. One day he would act interested the next silence. i contacted him a month later and he acted like nothing happened. He was on a vacation and sent me a picture of another woman ( someone he allegedly met on the trip) to strike a reaction but i never gave him one. After the trip he came to my place and was extremely rude, accusing me of going on dates with a bunch of men. The next day he accused me of being an alcoholic and that he wanted nothing to do with me but said well maybe we can be "friends" then ghosted me i assumed at this point it was over and i would never hear from him again. He contacted me on the holiday a month later acting like everything was great. We ended up hanging out a month or so later and when we hung out it went well, i thought things were going in the right direction. after we hung out.. silence. I would try to text him and if he replied it would be very short then he just stopped replying. He ghosted me for almost three months. I thought he was done this time and of course he popped up again like nothing happened. At this point i was getting sick of if so i questioned him as to why he dissapeared and always does this. Of course he had some sob story about a injury and family member dying of cancer. I felt pity for him and he gave me an apology.. so i took him back stupidly. things seemed to be going smooth for a couple months, of course until his family member died and his injury got better he never contacted me and was distant. Menawhile, i was there for him during the difficult time for him. He lied to me about the funeral and never wanted to chat. I was chasing him and he would always claim nothing was wrong but when i said i thought he used me when he was down he could not handle it and would always tell me he didnt care and to go away. I would get so upset i would try texting him to work it out he would barelt respond and if he did he would not be nice about it. we did hang out a couple times after that, he would ignore me after. One day i was like hey i think you are seeing someone else, and i was like well ixam seeing someone so no problem if you are he said " buy bye good luck with your new guy stop contacting me" i was devastated and tried to get into contact with him for weeks then i just gave up and accepted it was over. He ended up contacting me a month later acting like everything was fine. He wanted to go out and have drinks i told him i would. He and i both seemed to have a great time. He ends up ignoring me again. I kept texting him trying to figure out what was wrong. He kept saying everything was fine and i said ok can we hang out again? He said maybe i was like why? He just kept saying maybe … our last conversation we had… i said what is wrong ? He said nothing is wrong everything is fine. I asked him why he keeps saying maybe. He said " maybe but i dont want to see you right now" i said why? He saix " im just not feeling it, if i wanted to date i would" i said why did you contact me less then a week ago wanting to go out? He said i didnt.. even though he did. So i said should i just move on or what? He said whatever you want to do. So i said that he was really confusing me and asked him if he had anything more to say before i move on? My messages were turning green so i panicked he blocked me and reacted irrationally. I said " omg did you block me? My messages are not going through. Even texted him on my work phone asking what was up. And called him twice ( please dont judge me i know it is pathetic i never was this type of girl before him) so he replied and said " Ok I'll block you now" then immedietly blocked me. He has never blocked me before since I have met him he will just ghost. Is this ths final discard aka " grand finale? Did i just push him too far? this has upset me so much its hard to even function.

At this point the “moderate” conservative became angry and defensive, accused me of being “condescending,” told me I obviously think I’m the sole owner of the truth, and insisted that people like me are the reason Democrats will never win another election. Apparently people like me hurt his feelings, and he’ll vote for a rapist, liar, grifter, and convicted felon to punish me.

It’s worth noting, too, that if you support Donald Trump, you’re saying, at a minimum, that’s it’s not a deal breaker for you that Trump mocks disabled reporters, insults Gold Star families, says he doesn’t like soldiers who were captured because they aren’t real heroes, brags about grabbing women “by the pussy,” calls the Chinese “motherfuckers,” calls NFL players who protest police brutality “sons of bitches,” illegally paid hush money to a porn star to help him win an election, and refers to majority-black nations in Africa and the Caribbean as “shithole countries.”

Here’s what actually happened.

Why is the mainstream media, traditionally liberal except for Fox, not reporting on Trump like he's a traditional candidate who has ideas, values, and a concern for the common good?

Rather than acknowledging Trump’s claim as an obvious and ridiculous lie, this “moderate” conservative doubled down on Trump’s lie, claiming, falsely, that there is “video” of a Haitian immigrant walking off with someone’s dead pet in Springfield, Ohio. He claimed that the “mainstream media” suppressed the story because the media wants to “destroy Trump” and wants “open borders.” He had a lengthy conspiracy theory that I’m not going to get into here.

Back in July 2024, a user on Reddit posted a photo depicting a person carrying a dead goose down Cleveland Avenue in Columbus, Ohio. A Google Street View of the photo's background shows the photo was taken in Columbus, not Springfield as numerous right-wing accounts have claimed. A month later, users on X began reposting the image, claiming falsely that the photo depicts a Haitian immigrant who had stolen and killed a pet goose from someone’s yard. Everything about this is wrong. The image is a Canada goose, not someone’s pet goose. It was roadkill. There is no evidence the man planned to eat it, no evidence that he was Haitian, and no evidence that he was an immigrant. Finally, and perhaps least consequentially, the original post was a photo, not a video. The entire narrative was invented. The man who took the photo said, “"I wish I never took it, for sure. And I hate that the picture that I took is being weaponized to use against immigrants, or really, any other group. They always have to have somebody to use as a weapon. Some group to be the bad guy.”

So, back to your original question. It’s not that I don’t “like” conservatives. It’s that we don’t exist within a shared reality.

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