Could someone please explain to me the value of having TFGP in its current form? The participants get in there and say the dumbest shit you've ever heard in your entire life, and then Sarah and a centrist cohost try to ascribe intellect and world consciousness to these rubes.
I genuinely have no interest in listening to Jessica Tarlov, someone whose entire job is to have arguments with people who are paid to be dickish contrarians, tell me how to argue with actual Trump supporters who really believe all the bullshit. Greg Gutfield tells Jessica Tarlov that NYC is an unlivable shithole, then leaves the Fox News Manhattan building, gets into an Escalade, and gets driven to his Manhattan apartment. Having some made-for-TV back and forth with him is not the same as trying to convince a real MAGA that Haitians are not eating household pets.
I'm going to approach some quotes from the most recent Podcast, which featured 2020 and 2024 Trump voters, and instead of coddling and putting an arm around the quoted participants, I'll treat them with the same respect that they treat reality with - none.
Midwestern, mid 70s sounding-woman: "My husband and I have lost friends, um, my stepmother, her niece didn't even go to her, uh, didn't even invite her own parents to her wedding, and when her father died she never even went to say goodbye to him or even went to the funeral. Um, that's a lot of TDS if you ask me, and, um, its a shame that it would tearm families apart like because, um, I feel the Democrats are more, they vote with emotions, they feel with emotions, they don't kinda use their brain and think hard on things."
Think hard on this one, lady: consider the friend who tells you that every roommate or every partner of theirs turns out awful. Something is keeping them from realizing that they are the common denominator. Your entire family is leaving you behind and you're blaming TDS? No, that's you, lady.
Literally the next person, an old-sounding man: "The predominant theme of the division, in my opinion, is the media. The media controls most of the narrative, and the uh, the belief, um, and the lean of the way society goes, and our president, and, and, and, and social media is driving the division."
Another woman, younger, expresses concerns with media control: "If any of the main networks, um, such as ABC, CBS, all the nightly things, um, social media said that, uh, I believe a lot of the main networks control the media and control what is being said, those are the ones that still people can get with antenna, and sadly those are the ones everyone watches."
CBS-Paramount is owned by the Ellison family, Trump donors and loyalists. Fox and WSJ are owned by Rupert Murdoch, conservative culture-mover. ABC settled lawsuits with Trump to gain favor. Every major social media and AI company is owned by a different Trump ally. Every company that is a major seller of mobile devices is Trump-friendly. Where exactly is the supposed anti-Trump media agenda coming from? But if you ask these focus group participants, they will tell you that the media is run by the woke left. What am I supposed to do with that?
A younger man: "I have a sister who's very far left and, um, it's next to impossible to have a decent conversation with her cause its just like, I feel like its, um, there's no common sense I feel like, and no, um, worldly experience, I guess. That bothers me, and um, I feel like a lot of the far left are like that too, its just, they're just like very angry, a lot of not taking responsibility for themselves, and there's a lot of, of, of blaming their actions on other people."
First of all, I guarantee his sister is not "far left." She's probably a raging centrist, maybe even an old-school Republican, who had the gall to tell him that we shouldn't be warehousing brown children or gutting Social Security. Super duper far left ideology right there. Second, I'm sure you sir, as a Trump supporter, have never blamed your problems on someone else. Third, and most importantly, its not the "far left" that are "very angry." Trump is sitting at an aggregate approval of 34%. My brother in Christ, the overwhelming majority of the country is "very angry." Please rejoin reality.
During the Democratic voter portion, a woman says: "I have a really good friend who, um, went through breast cancer, but she's quite young as well, went through breast cancer a few years ago and uh, she's a big, big supporter of Trump and doesn't believe he's taking away funding for cancer research, like, how can you not believe that?"
Ma'am, you seem very sweet, now please surgically remove this "friend" from your life like yesterday. That is a person who could watch someone wearing a white dude in a MAGA hat run straight at them and punch them in the nose, and then blame their broken nose on illegal immigration. Trump IS pulling funding for cancer research. Its an independently researchable fact. Your friend's inability to reckon with that leads me to believe she has serious shortcomings in other ways. Cut her off.
I truly feel that the best use of TFGP is episodes like JVL's appearances, where we get an opportunity to see how stupid all of the group participants are and simply riff and rant on their stupidity for an hour and change. The participants aren't going back to these episodes to gain information to spread throughout their communities, so why should we? Just play us their stupid quotes and make fun of them. It'll be just as productive and less infuriating than trying to ascribe intellect to them.
Rant over.