Books on how to converse with Trumpers?

crawl back under the msm shit pile troll/you will fit in fine.

And that's a quote, complete with non-capitalization, disorienting syntax and an unintended double meaning — crawl back under the fetid pile or the troll? — straight from an outpost of Trumpers. I'll get back to it.

————

Before its reception in my inbox I was digging around amidst cyber-reams of analyses of international trade relations, the good, the bad and the ugly, and I ran across a David Leonhardt interview (NYT) with President Obama's chief economic adviser, Jason Furman. Leonhardt's umbrella subject: Trump is using tariffs to solve a problem that doesn't exist. The subtext is text: "A Harvard economist argues that a decline in manufacturing jobs is not what ails the United States." This, from Furman, was especially notable:

If you look at mass layoffs — back when we used to collect the data; we don’t anymore — about 2 or 3 percent of them were due to trade and outsourcing. Every year there’s 20 million American workers that lose their jobs, and just a tiny fraction of them are due to trade.

[But] we want to blame things on other countries and foreigners.

From there, Furman trailed off to related remarks, Leonhardt asked more questions, and I was left somewhat disappointed that the good professor failed to hammer his second point. About 2,500 words later, though, in the printed interview's final paragraph, Furman returned with a blow: "That is what autocrats, dictators, and even democratic demagogues do. [It's] a distraction from solving problems."

Some might complain, But he didn't name Trump. Did he need to?

At any rate, to circle back to the theme of this post, as suggested by its lovely introductory quote, Furman's economic and political assertions are similar to comments I've been leaving over the past few days on what has to be the Trumpiest website in the cosmos. It's helmed with great knowing authority by a "retired newspaperman" who resides, appropriately enough, in West Virginia. I necessarily subscribed to his site for one month* for the opportunity to conduct a sociological experiment: Is it possible, at all possible, however remotely, to have a two-way rational discussion with Trump supporters on such a website?

After typing those words I had this thought: Now I can either type 500 more words providing an answer in my most capable, lay sociological language, or, I can just post another sampling — this time, in ascending word count, a short array of my interlocutors' responses to a couple comments I left.

"Some one pissed in your lemonade and YOU drank it all."

"The trolls have arrived. Please move on and take your 10(!) followers with you."

"Forest Gump knows lefties//stupid is as stupid does, back under the bridge troll."

"Did you stumble your way in here from Bluesky or something? Nobody wants to hear anything more from TDS. We love Donald Trump, understand that it may take YEARS to fix the mess YOUR demonic party has made and we are willing to give him room to try."

"Many people seem to think that the cesspool that the Democratic Party … ie the Marxists, communists, whatever the hell they are- can be cleaned up in a month. It will take years to clean up and that’s only with the mercy and help of God. I have NO tolerance for idiots on the left any longer. They are enemy."

"Trump must walk away from the Nazis of Ukraine, get the hell out of the middle east, round up the Neocon war mongers, deport the millions of criminal invaders and somehow roll over 7 trillion in debt that comes due this year.

He has to rein in the corrupt judiciary, reform or disband the BATF, FBI, CIA and restore the rule of law. He has to end the voting fraud, reveal and punish the people behind the genocidal COVID scam and stop the climate hoax insanity.

He only has about six months to get it all done. If he doesn't then the communists will roar back into power at the mid terms and we will se this country burn."

Like that.

*The website addressed herein has 20,000 subscribers, 1,000 of them paid. That's 5 grand a month going to ... I won't even fill out that thought, it's too painful to elaborate on the ease with which abject bullshit, lies, distortions and even nakedly farcical propaganda prospers on the internet as dozens of reasoned, well-grounded websites wither, right along with American democracy, in hardship.