From 2008/2009 until 2015/2016, hate crimes in the US were trending down. From 2016 until today, they have trended up. To me, the best explanation for this is the rightwing radicalization (and empowerment of the already radicalized) of many by the first trump campaign and subsequent presidency.

Outside of hate crimes, we can also see general increases in rightwing violence during this same period (at least according to the feds, not sure that we should even trust any of this data). I’m not saying electing a Dem fixes anything, I’m saying Trump being elected makes it worse because the people doing the hate crimes feel empowered.

Obama being elected also made it worse, but because the racists felt attacked by the very idea of a black person being prez and were reacting to that, which is why it slowly died down over time. Trump is still here and still actively engaging his base, he never stopped so the radicalization didn’t stop either.

Yes, it’s almost like trump winning the first time around made things worse and then those people who became more radicalized didn’t just vanish when trump lost round 2

Look up hate crime stats. There are plenty of articles about hate crimes increasing after Trump’s first win. I’ll never understand why leftists downplay Trump and his impact.

I must just be really used to this behavior because it doesn’t bother me at all, but it’s been happening my entire life (I’m over 40). Usually I just agree that it’s boring and move on. Sometimes I just keep going anyway because it’s not boring to me and in exchange I listen to their boring stuff.

I’m autistic, so my experience/interpretation is likely very different from the average person. I generally prefer a person to tell me if they’re bored because I’m not going to pick it up any other way (when I try I usually just misinterpret something)

However, the person you’re describing here seems like someone I would avoid. Anyone who gets defensive when you tell them they are hurting your feelings probably does feel attacked or blamed. Likely because they’re used to being attacked and blamed by their family or whatnot. Self-esteem can also play a big role in this kind of defensiveness.

Basically, they gotta deal with their own shit before they’ll ever stop this kind of behavior. You don’t have to put up with it, but you probably won’t get them to change either. The best thing you can do is communicate as clearly as you can why they’re hurting you and then just stop interacting with them. They’ll either learn or they won’t. If that’s difficult for you, then don’t even bother explaining yourself because you don’t owe them anything. I think explaining it can help people in the long-term, especially if you’re not the only one saying it.

people love getting a check of free money.

I thought this too, but Oregon just overwhelmingly voted against (almost 80%) removing the cap on corporate sales tax and redistributing the money to individuals.

only a democrat would have your pet squirrel killed

We rent a small place on an old farm that still has a little orchard that’s fenced off from the deer. We throw fruit over the fence all year.

If it is, they don’t make it obvious anywhere

No, but only the person can really do anything about it. Also in some cases it’s perfectly legal, like if you use a photo that’s in the public domain. I think any official government photos/paintings would be considered public domain. Satire and parody of political figures are protected by the 1st amendment, so caricatures are probably always legal. Really tho what politician is gonna be mad about this? Free publicity and all

Do you actually think the Biden admin caused inflation (and the non-inflation increases as well) and that voting for trump will reduce inflation or is this a bit pretending to be the average US voter?