I suppose I can't speak to that. My experience is overwhelmingly with poor, rural, religious conservative America.

My experience is varied. Some of the rural folk, but also the men who think they're above that, and think Trump will cut their taxes. Evangelicals too.

I've even gone off on some religious nut to "repent his following an Antichrist," which spooked him enough to make him leave.

1984 had it fucking right, man. The level of people to engage in doublethink is overwhelming.

Calling them on that outright rarely does anything, unless we can get someone else to follow up with the same until we wear them down. And they blow up every single time.

Alright, but many of them take a perverse pride in poverty, don't work three jobs, and quite explicitly love the elite. Like, the level of idolization of rich folk who share their dogwhistles that goes on is insane.

See, my first instinct is to call those elites they love? Manipulate Liberals. But that takes work and deep cultural access and context to discern, and I rarely have that.

Elite hate isn't a smokescreen for something more nefarious - step back, take in the full view of their position, and it is literally just that - hate for elites. The issue is that the 'elites' they despise are people who make them feel 'lesser' intellectually.

This is why I usually start with a frame of hating Liberals. Out loud. 5-10 minutes of "sounding like Tucker" to get them nodding along. Invite them to learn. Whether they do or don't, make them feel smart for even nodding along... And then switch the frame when we hit a natural pivot point. It doesn't work every time, but they at least walk away respecting me for not being an elitist Liberal.

And the worst part is, many of these people are not stupid, inherently. But they've been raised to see incuriosity about their preconceptions as a virtue. They will simultaneously express what a BADASS REBEL they are by meekly submitting to conservative social norms and what a GOOD UPSTANDING LAW-ABIDING CITIZEN they are for meekly submitting to conservative norms. And if you point it out, they see no contradiction. Which, in practice if not principle, to be fair, I suppose there isn't.

Crystalized as "conservative is the new punk rock" in more recent years. I see that.

This is where I talk about being good neighbors. When my neighbor hurts, it hurts me. And if I can look you in the eye? You're my neighbor. I owe you some basic respect simply for you being here. How can I help, neighbor?