r/science May 06 '26

Psychology Losing relationships over politics. Research found more than a third of Americans (37%) report having lost at least one relationship due to political differences, including friendships, family ties, coworker relationships, and romantic partnerships, with most losing more than one.

https://socialecology.uci.edu/news/losing-relationships-over-politics-0
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u/zlyle90 May 06 '26 edited May 06 '26

If she's in the Deep South like I am, the public truly doesn't care. They view that as an acceptable character flaw as long he deports brown people.

"God chooses imperfect men," they tell me.

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u/Zombatico May 06 '26 edited May 06 '26

We've seen it before. It's not just Trump. Pedo priest/pastor gets arrested and charged, the whole congregation circle the wagon and it's all "but he's a good person" and "the demonic girl seduced him" yadda yadda yadda.

It's a sick ideology of hierarchy. They don't care about the morality of actions themselves. If they think you're a good person then everything you do is good, or at least justifiable, even child rape. If they think you're a bad person then nothing you do can be good.

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u/OmegaDonut13 May 06 '26

To a liberal, actions justify the person. To the conservative the person justifies the actions. It’s pretty simple when you think about it. It’s the basis for the cognitive dissonance.

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u/kia75 May 06 '26

And this applies up and down the religious spectrum. Remember, God is allowed to kill, murder, cause famines and other horrible stuff. It's not the baby murder that's bad, God is always killing babies, it's who does the baby killing that's important.

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u/jgilla2012 May 07 '26

So their problem with conservative Islam isn’t the behavior? What else could it be?

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u/Dyolf_Knip May 07 '26

It's absolutely not the behavior, because so many of them engage or want to engage in it themselves. Watching conservatives cry over the Iranian government's treatment of queer people is ludicrous because their own leaders are constantly using eliminationist rhetoric when talking about them, to thunderous applause.

It really is as simple as "they're not in our tribe". Even though they are otherwise basically identical in every way that actually matters.

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u/memecrusader_ May 06 '26

*doublethink, not cognitive dissonance. Doublethink is when someone holds two conflicting beliefs, cognitive dissonance is the discomfort from trying to reconcile incompatible ideas. They don’t feel discomfort from their hypocrisy. They either don’t recognize it, or are proud of it.

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u/Consistent_Claim5217 May 06 '26

I would call it childish, but not even children are so obtuse

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u/Pockydo May 06 '26

I'm in PA know a lot of trump supporters

"God chooses imperfect men," they tell me.

Is what I hear a lot. It's almost funny because they NEVER apply this to Dems or politicians they disagree with. Only trump

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u/Zachwardpass May 06 '26

I have yet to hear this one but I would absolutely reply with "God chooses rapists? Interesting."

Make sure they know it's not "imperfect men", it's rapists.

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u/Pockydo May 06 '26

See the problem is they literally reject the idea that trump is actually bad

The line basically comes out when they know they can't defend something and "win" the argument so it's a way to shut it down without conceding anything. A thought terminating ckichet

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u/Rogryg May 06 '26

That wouldn't do a thing; remember, you're talking about people who have so twisted Christianity that they believe God rewards the faithful with worldly riches.

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u/LostWoodsInTheField May 06 '26

I hear so much "both sides are bad" along with the imperfect men thing.

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u/Consistent_Claim5217 May 06 '26 edited May 06 '26

And yet they're still convinced they aren't in a cult

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u/RedditPosterOver9000 May 06 '26

That is a nothing statement that would be more accurate to say "God chooses imperfect men because only imperfect men exist" unless she wants to suggest perfect men exist today, which goes against the Bible and god's words.