Talking to everyday chuds

Recently I ended up talking "politics" at work a few times. I have a coworker who is, like, okay on the surface but then ends up explaning to you how Ben Shapiro is so smart and something something woke.

Now, I live in a mid-sized town in Poland, and it's not a secret that Europe is preeeeetty xenophobic, so I'm not surprised that I have coworkers that are cryptochuds. But the fact that it's specifically American-republican chuddery is, on the one hand, kind of annoying? But also because I'm terminally online, it's the kind I'm best prepared for.

We went through several topics ("black people in video games are ahistorical and kill the vibe", "LGBT movements are bad because they neglect the silent majority of gays who aren't degenerates", "immigration is bad because you don't know which of those arabs are terrorists"^[1], "the olympics are political now"), and each of them ended the same way: With them being unable to substantiate any claim that the supposed problems they're "fighting" actually are problems. Eventually, they even retreated into "I don't actually care enough to keep track of these things and provide examples because we can't change anything anyway".

Meanwhile as we were having the discussion, the world was just constantly providing me with ammo.

This coworker is not so far gone that they didn't see that Imane Khelif's treatment was straightup just wrong; and they felt uncomfortable about sharing beliefs with the people who wrecked Southport for no reason. So that's good at least. And when I pointed out that that's what happens when something is a real problem, you don't have to go looking for good examples, they couldn't say anything.

Certain dunks like this I maneuvred them into felt really good to execute. And that's just a flaw in myself I'll have to deal with, lmao, and it's also probably why I don't feel like I really changed their mind in the moment. Not that I think you can usually expect that at the best of times.

No, the real immediate result is that another, very quiet, coworker eventually started supporting things I said, and later revealed to be much more sympathetic to the idea of trans people than I'd expect, despite a lack of experience with the topic in general (again: Polish town.)

And simply representing that there are other opinions, that the "silent majority" is a lie, must have value in and of itself; especially in a smaller, more homogenous place like this. I kind of have to believe that.