Serious answers only. For over a year I was told that trump “doesn’t have anything to do with that”.

I honestly need to know from an actual Republican who believed trumps words and is now witnessing p2025 almost hit 50% completion with the department of education getting dismantled.

And with that; how do these people feel that public schools, daycare centers and tech schools all going to cost 3-6x as much as it does now for tuition?

  • Caffeinated_Sloth@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Just for some perspective: in 2009 I was a Christian nationalist and I thought Obama was going to use FEMA to imprison conservative dissenters and would turn the US into a communist dictatorship. I hoped and prayed for an explicitly Christian government and an end to most federal programs. If I had the same worldview now, I would be orgasmically happy with the way things are going.

      • AbsoluteChicagoDog@lemm.ee
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        13 hours ago

        Not the person you replied to but I also used to be a hardcore Christian conservative.

        Honestly just talking to people with different viewpoints than me. Back when Reddit was decent I would troll with conservative BS to get a rise out of commenters, but occasionally people would reply with points I couldn’t refute. Making IRL friends helped a lot too. I realized people actually have nuance in their opinions and there’s a lot more gray area than I realized. Leaving religion was the last step for me. Once my identity was no longer my beliefs I was able to change them.

        Its part of what scares me about the internet now, we all get locked in little echo chambers. Nobody’s viewpoints get challanged and there’s no honest debate any more. Defederated social media will only make it worse as there will be 10,000 different Lemmys, each one for an exactly specific set of beliefs that will never be questioned.

    • Machinist@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      What denomination, primarily, were you? Did you manage to get anyone out with you? (I was unable.)

      • madsjchic@lemm.ee
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        1 day ago

        Not even trying to be mean but probably themself or someone they know personally got hurt.

          • Machinist@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            Oh, hey. That whole mind expanding thing really isn’t a joke. I look back, sometimes, on who I used to be.

          • Caffeinated_Sloth@lemmy.world
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            24 hours ago

            You do see that quite a bit in “ex” subreddits. Personal experience can shake anyone’s views, not just “that crowd.” Spiritual abuse played a role in pushing me away from religious fundamentalism, but there were other factors that laid the groundwork. The process took years and key elements involved a mind-expanding book, two compassionate friends, a podcast, and a local news story that showed me God was quite a bit different than I thought he was. I’ll write the book about it under another comment.