{"id":37707,"date":"2025-01-24T02:52:19","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T08:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=37707"},"modified":"2025-01-24T02:52:19","modified_gmt":"2025-01-24T08:52:19","slug":"to-save-my-own-sanity-its-time-for-me-to-shut-up-about-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=37707","title":{"rendered":"To save my own sanity, it\u2019s time for me to shut up about Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One of my biggest problems in life is constantly falling for the delusion that I can get people with wildly divergent views \u2014 people who hate each other \u2014 to see things differently. I have the delusional belief that I can help people find common ground by giving both sides a third way of looking at a problem.<\/p>\n

Objectively, I know that I\u2019m wrong to believe I can change the way others see things, but I spend too much time trying to play this unintentional \u201cmediator\u201d role.<\/p>\n

And it often takes an emotional toll on me. That\u2019s what it\u2019s doing right now.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to really try to step back from commenting on anything around Donald Trump right now, simply because his supporters and his most dishonest detractors are upsetting me equally. I find that there\u2019s no way to deal with all of the dishonesty coming from both sides about Trump.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve made it very clear \u2014 for years \u2014 that I think Trump is a lying narcissist who is uniquely dangerous. He is an evil man. Nobody could confuse me for someone who has any support for him, but I\u2019m also infuriated by people who base their attacks against him on irrational and dishonest arguments.<\/p>\n

I feel the need to explain to some of those people why they\u2019re being dishonest and unfair, but I also feel the need to explain to his supporters why he\u2019s dangerous and doesn\u2019t deserve their support and adulation. Especially given the intensity of arguments during the early part of his new administration, I can\u2019t emotionally keep up with the need to fill this irrational \u201cmediator-wannabe\u201d role.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m going to try very hard right now to pull back from commenting on any of the Trump idiocy, whether it\u2019s some new outrage that he does or if it\u2019s an outrage being perpetrated by his fans or his detractors. Since I had quit writing articles about him long ago, this is mostly going to be an attempt to get myself to shut up about anything Trump-related on social media.<\/p>\n

Given the fact that I\u2019m not going to change any views on these subjects \u2014 and given the fact that it takes too much out of me to try \u2014 I think this is the sanest thing I can do to protect myself. So if you see me ignoring things that I might have otherwise talked about, this is why.<\/p>\n

I need to live an emotionally healthy life \u2014 and I don\u2019t think I can live that way while also allowing myself to be pulled into the cesspool of Trump commentary. I’d really like to believe that I could give both extremes a new way of looking at things \u2014 and a way to stop hating each other so badly \u2014 but I know better. Nothing I say is helping others. And my attempts are hurting me.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a part of me that wishes that enough people cared about my perspective to be disappointed by this semi-withdrawal from commentary on the subject, I\u2019m also realistic enough to realize that almost nobody cares and even fewer will notice.<\/p>\n

So keep shouting right past the people you don\u2019t understand \u2014 those of you on both sides. I hope this sort of constant self-righteous confrontation isn\u2019t as toxic to you as it is to me.<\/p>\n

I desperately wish I could change minds on both sides of this hateful and toxic public shouting match, because I really do care about all of you, even though who I think are badly deluded in one way or another. But since I know I can’t, the best thing I can do is shut up and look away from the painful hate and idiocy and dishonesty all around me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my biggest problems in life is constantly falling for the delusion that I can get people with wildly divergent views \u2014 people who hate each other \u2014 to see things differently. I have the delusional belief that I can help people find common ground by giving both sides a third way of looking Keep Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-37707","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1x9iR-9Ob","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37707"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37715,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37707\/revisions\/37715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}