It comes down to a personality trait - conflict avoidance- that occurs more often in liberals than conservatives.

So the liberals amongst us that happen to be ok confronting conservatives should do it! It is valuable.

By the way, MOST of the Trump supporters I've had unpleasant encounters with in my town were women, so I'm not sure it's "mostly men" although that is the impression one gets watching the rallies. And it's impossible to generalize about age. One of the worst was in her late twenties/early thirties, the others tended to be over fifty, sixty.

It comes down to what kind of personality traits people have. First, to be a Trump supporter you must have a “rightwing authoritarian” personality. The opposite is “openness” — to diversity, to new ideas, to differences — which is what most liberals have.

Typically that authoritarian personality comes along with an aggressive, conflict-forward personality too.

And typically it is men that are more conflict-forward, but certainly women can be like this too.

As for the rightwing authoritarian personalities, I’m not sure if they’re more frequently women or men.

I figured out a long time ago that it's pointless to argue with them because they are completely illogical.

So I just shake my head and tell them I feel sorry for them because they're being played for fools by a third-rate conman who's spent his life looking down on and taking advantage of people just like them and who's laughing his ass off at them now. And I tell them I know they'll feel really ridiculous when they figure it out, whether or not they'll ever be willing to admit it.

They want to get a rise out of us and expend our energy making us dance around in ridiculous arguments with them, so I refuse to to that.

They DON'T like being pitied, thought of as stupid, and dismissed as not even worth engaging with. So that's what I do.

This is the KEY secret to engaging with Trumpers.

Liberals respond to persuasion and facts and data. But Trumpers are all about “winning” and losing. And if you say they’re stupid, you look like a winner and they look like a loser. Which works.

As for why saying “sucker” works— Trumpers have been told by Fox that Trump is helping them and hurting liberals. (They win, liberals lose.)
But the reality is that Trump and his billionaire friends are screwing THEM. (Ie Trump wins, but THEY lose.) They hate that. If you can introduce that idea, their support for Trump and Republicans will soften.

show them that really he looks down on them and laughs about them behind their backs. There has got to be a video/audio or something of him spewing that kind of crap at a fancy rich republican's event somewhere, right?

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-mar-a-lago-you-all-just-got-a-lot-richer-friends-tax-bill-2017-12



Trump reportedly told friends at Mar-a-Lago 'you all just got a lot richer' hours after signing tax bill


——

Edit: you have identified exactly the line of argument that works on Trumpers. Thanks!!

who can break Trumpsters' support is Donald Trump himself.

Had Nancy Pelosi been smart enough to appear to take Trump up on the request to not start an impeachment inquiry, she could have got him to agree to immigration reforms or a tax increase, and Trumpster support would have plunged.

As long as he remains exactly who he is today, he will have their undying support. That will enable him to win acquittal in the Senate. It will also leave many people on our side fully dispirited, and may lead to the GOP getting full control of Congress again, with a re-elected Trump.

but his support certainly won’t increase. The democratic base will be motivated, not dispirited as you say. He could get re-elected but every passing week makes that scenario more and more unlikely. He can’t win with a 40% approval rating.

but he still has a reasonable chance of dividing Democratic support. Go to any thread here where Warren folks are in battle with Biden folks, or vice-versa, and you'll see what I'm talking about. We're about four months away from primary/caucus voting, and things are getting tense already.

Yes, most all will unite under the eventual nominee, no matter how the selection process goes, but all it takes is enough disgruntled voters to make Trump a two-term president.

Should the Senate go for acquittal, which is the most likely scenario at this point, it will indeed dispirit a lot of folks on our side.

When you call someone a 'sucker', you're basically telling them that they were duped, and that they should have been smart enough not to be duped. You're essentially telling them that they are fools. Which, in the case of trumpsters is mostly true.

However, you don't really win folks over to your side by insulting them. That's pretty much true for any issue.

If you really want to go to the trouble of breaking one of them's support for trump you probably need to convince them that they really made a good decision based on the evidence that they had. They need to see that a lot of "really smart people" (just like them) made the same mistake. They need to see that the only mistake that they made was to trust someone that also fooled a lot of other smart people...like them.

You're not going to get anywhere by calling fools, 'fools'. You get there by treating them like fools. That's what trump did.

Showing them the cult leader broke trust with them is literally the main way to deprogram cultists.

Liberals have this strange idea that calling fools “fools” is ineffective. That’s bunk. It works.

I just think it's better to tell people that they were fooled, rather than to call them fools.

I think that’s largely right, yes.
For example when I see MAGA hats, I say “that’s a hat for suckers” rather than saying “you’re a sucker” for the same reason.

Good luck with that.

To have an ink stamp of that made and print it on some kind of paper items that are seen by people every day across the country. You know, like paper napkins in restaurants, toilet paper and paper towels in public restrooms.. The possibilities are endless with paper that is passed around in the public.
Just wondering. : )

Apparently, it is in my DNA. Respect is earned.

make him look weak and ridiculous. The He-men of his base will not want to be associated with him when he becomes nothing more than a clown and a laughingstock.

The more we ridicule him and make him look foolish, the less appealing he will be to them. Emphasize the fact that he is a loser in every way. Sooner or later they will not want to be associated with someone who most people see as a fool and a failure.

They like him because they think he is tough and "manly". If we can keep showing them what a weak, sycophantic ass-kisser he is for dictators who are playing him like a fiddle, I am pretty sure the bloom will be off the rose very quickly.