Do you remember the old days when you could have a conversation with a friend and, if you disagreed, you knew it was because he didn’t have all the facts? So, you politely filled in the holes of his knowledge and expected him to agree with you wholeheartedly.

In the rare event that your wisdom didn’t sway his original opinion, you both ordered another drink and started talking about the weather.

Well, those days are gone.

Today, particularly if you swerve marginally towards reality, you need to be careful in what has become a dangerous minefield (or, as I like to think of it, “a mindfield.”)

A leftist friend regaled me today with the reasons Trump should be in jail and how his “criminal acts of unlawful activities and concealing damaging information from voters” almost a decade ago were reprehensible, all leading to the conclusion that the jailhouse key should be discarded forever.

So, how does a sensitive person respond to such a diatribe? You can’t say, “Where did you get your information?” That is too in-your-face for today’s leftists. They will immediately assume you are on the other side and, from that moment on start hyperventilating because they know you to be a bad person—irredeemable, ignorable, and cancelable.

I’ve found the safest route, though, and it’s a lot of fun: Feign ignorance and surprise that they are so well-informed. “Wow, how do you know so much?”

The real trick is not to let them know that you know more than they do. (This may be difficult, but complete silence seems to encourage them.) It is a monumental requirement but studied strategies can make the results worthwhile.

“So, what did he do?” will elicit hilarious responses. Often, its, “Well, it’s the man—he should be in jail for his lies and what he’s done to the people.”

“Really, tell me more, where did you find all this out?” (The occasional “you are so clever” never hurts.)

It is always good to agree with no-information idiots. They like it that way, and attempting to remedy their ignorance could induce an aneurysm (on either side). Technically, you are applying a symptom of mental illness called “mirroring,” but you are doing it ironically, so it is OK. You agree with everything they say, playing it back to them, confirming confirmation bias—it’s an ouroboros.

When you get tired of that, mention the weather. If, as seems inevitable, it starts to slide towards climate change, you know what to do. “Wow, how do you know so much?”

Nordog is a pseudonym.

Image by AI.