A little of both. The catalyst for me was when the first impeachment failed. Before that I was fully on board with the media Russian collusion narratives and thought "Well if it's in the news then they must actually have some legit evidence and thus reason for making these allegations against Trump".
I was in support of impeaching Trump and figured he ought to go to prison for trying to play Manchurian candidate.
But lo and behold, the Mueller probe completed and found no real evidence, the Steele Dossier was discredited and Trump was acquitted.
Once that occurred, I was in awe. For this series of events could only mean one thing. If the media and big tech and many prominent politicians were willing to lie, and obfuscate truth, perpetuate false narratives and weaponize the DOJ and FBI to try and remove Trump under false pretenses, it could only mean that Trump must be seen as an enormous threat to the status quo power structure that had ruled over the working class for generations.
The amount of hate he was receiving was directly equivalent to the amount of fear these people (I'd later learn was the deep state) had of the power being returned to the working class.
From then on, the media was completely discredited in my eyes and I pledged my allegiance to Donald J Trump and a few months later would vote in my first election 👍
Yeah the whole friends and family thing was definitely a big curve ball once I became politically aware for the first time. I remember first hearing about how much hate and criticism people had for Trump supporters and I remember thinking "What??? No way my friends would actually ever act like that. That's ridiculous to consider".
And I sought to disprove this to myself by publicly announcing on Facebook that I was going to be voting for Donald Trump and that he embodies everything America should want in a leader and alpha male role model.
Having come from a very liberal college just a few years prior to this, I ended up receiving an outrageous amount of backlash and had several old friends criticize me and even a few who flew off the handle, called me a misogynistic, racist, white supremacist, and then unfriended me lol.
I'll always remember how stunning it was to have been shown all at once hiw tribalist all my old "friends", were, despite having been really close with most of them for 5 years.
When it comes to how I dealt with it though, I would say that since I was already in that "post college" transition period where most of my peers moved back home for work or grad school, I was already in a sort of limbo of having left my previous community of friends anyway, so it didn't feel like I lost as many friends as it would have if I was still in college.
But it definitely was still kind of a bummer to have even furthered that distance between many friends I initially thought I wanted to keep in touch with. I've always been good at making friends though so it didn't bother me too too much.
As for the family element, my family is pretty apolitical for the most part although they definitely still listen to the media passively and consider them to be trustworthy. But only my younger brother is brainwashed and anti Trump. The my parents listen to me when I told them about how great Trump was so that was at least okay.
When the switch flipped, it didn't cause me panic at all. In fact, I think the reason I was redpilled so naturally and easily once I started paying attention was because everything I was suddenly figuring out made so much sense and lined up perfectly with suspicions I had about the world for a very long time. I was always into conspiracies and loved researching for fun so seeing the media agenda unfold in front of my eyes served as a puzzle piece that I never knew I was looking for but fit perfectly into a slot on my board that had the exact shape of the piece.
It definitely did resonate with me regarding wondering even more so than ever about what else I had been conditioned to believe might end up having been a big lie as well. But it wasn't mind boggling, it kind of felt exciting to set forth into the world with a new set of eyes.
A little of both. The catalyst for me was when the first impeachment failed. Before that I was fully on board with the media Russian collusion narratives and thought "Well if it's in the news then they must actually have some legit evidence and thus reason for making these allegations against Trump".
I was in support of impeaching Trump and figured he ought to go to prison for trying to play Manchurian candidate.
But lo and behold, the Mueller probe completed and found no real evidence, the Steele Dossier was discredited and Trump was acquitted.
Once that occurred, I was in awe. For this series of events could only mean one thing. If the media and big tech and many prominent politicians were willing to lie, and obfuscate truth, perpetuate false narratives and weaponize the DOJ and FBI to try and remove Trump under false pretenses, it could only mean that Trump must be seen as an enormous threat to the status quo power structure that had ruled over the working class for generations.
The amount of hate he was receiving was directly equivalent to the amount of fear these people (I'd later learn was the deep state) had of the power being returned to the working class.
From then on, the media was completely discredited in my eyes and I pledged my allegiance to Donald J Trump and a few months later would vote in my first election 👍
And I sought to disprove this to myself by publicly announcing on Facebook that I was going to be voting for Donald Trump and that he embodies everything America should want in a leader and alpha male role model.
Having come from a very liberal college just a few years prior to this, I ended up receiving an outrageous amount of backlash and had several old friends criticize me and even a few who flew off the handle, called me a misogynistic, racist, white supremacist, and then unfriended me lol.
I'll always remember how stunning it was to have been shown all at once hiw tribalist all my old "friends", were, despite having been really close with most of them for 5 years.
When it comes to how I dealt with it though, I would say that since I was already in that "post college" transition period where most of my peers moved back home for work or grad school, I was already in a sort of limbo of having left my previous community of friends anyway, so it didn't feel like I lost as many friends as it would have if I was still in college.
But it definitely was still kind of a bummer to have even furthered that distance between many friends I initially thought I wanted to keep in touch with. I've always been good at making friends though so it didn't bother me too too much.
As for the family element, my family is pretty apolitical for the most part although they definitely still listen to the media passively and consider them to be trustworthy. But only my younger brother is brainwashed and anti Trump. The my parents listen to me when I told them about how great Trump was so that was at least okay.
It definitely did resonate with me regarding wondering even more so than ever about what else I had been conditioned to believe might end up having been a big lie as well. But it wasn't mind boggling, it kind of felt exciting to set forth into the world with a new set of eyes.