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This is going to be a thread about @BridgetPhetasy doing one of those articles where Trump supporters say they are forced to self-censor to avoid being shunned by their friends and associates.
Now this sort of thing – “I’m being shunned for my conservative views” – can generally be summed up as follows: 
But according to Bridget's lament, people are being shunned by their liberal friends for merely admitting they’re a conservative. To which I say:
But of course, some maintain it’s only a few rotten apples in the GOP barrel, pretending the entire factory isn’t being aggressively marketed to sell rotten apples.
And naturally I was asked, “What if the racism is true though?”
Now you may say, “Hey that’s not fair, he’s probably just interested in a good faith scientific discussion about IQ, like Sam Harris.” And yeah, you’re probably right, but just to be sure let’s go check his timeline and…….yikes.
But there’s room for the full spectrum of eager cruelty and idiosyncratic racism in the MAGA movement, a flavor for every personal prejudice from vanilla “own the libs” contrarianism to a Richard Spencer ethnostate. It’s one big extended family of assholes.
“And some, I assume, are good people.” (credit @realdonaldtrump)
But it’s openly marketed using every crudely racist conservative grievance fantasy packed within an off-the-rack exterminate the brutes/back the blue authoritarianism along with whatever other rightwing tabloid bullshit helps keep the carnival going. (adapted from @david_j_roth)
That’s it. That’s the only game in town. There is no GOP happening right now, there is only MAGA.
So in 2019, if you’re invested enough in all of this to self-identify as “a conservative” or “a Trump supporter” -- if you don’t even have enough to shame to call yourself “independent” -- then you’ve willingly put yourself in close proximity to this garbage.
And people may claim “Well I’m not there for the tinpot reactionary bullshit,” but it’s pretty hard to avoid that stigma with the political equivalent of saying you only read Playboy for the articles.
So yeah, you’re going to pay some social cost right now in certain circles, because MAGA is a bull-in-a-china-shop political movement and you knew that when you bought the red hat.
These articles usually act like we're seeing some radical new form of social pressure, but what do you imagine life is like for a gender non-conforming 17-year-old in Boone, Iowa? Deep in the cornfields of Steve King country. You think they do much self-censorship?
So Bridget, if you’re going to do one of these articles, you should try to reconcile your premise with the things said in this thread by @JuliusGoat, who understands this stuff better than anyone on this website:
And when you’re done, also read this one. I’m eager to see what you ultimately come up with.
