Originally Posted By BillofRights:


Great question.   It's by far, the most destructive and polarizing issue to hit the Republican party, since WW-II.

Here's my observations, based on reading nearly all the threads.  

First,
There are a handful of actual Russian trolls*.    They are easily able manipulate unsuspecting members, because there are a great many people on the Right, who are scared, disenfranchised, anti-government, and burnt out on war.  The grievances they have are 100% legitimate and rational.  The hatred they have for Biden and company, is righteous and true.
Thus, they are highly susceptible to skilled propaganda.  
Propaganda which has been wielded for decades.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1EA2ohrt5Q


On the other side, you have traditional Reagan Republicans who see America's global responsibilities as essential to maintaining a measure of order and justice in the world.   In addition, maintaining the status-quo of the world is understood to be not only a moral issue, but also an economic necessity.  

There are other factions of course.  

- Arfcom has always had a big Libertarian population, who will be dedicated Isolationists by default.  

- In addition, we've always been home to the Prepper/Survivalist types, who are terrified at the prospect of Nuclear Armageddon.  

- There are two generations now, who never even considered the fact that Russia was still a threat.   It's kinda silly in retrospect, because the prospect of accidental Nuclear annihilation was always there, but we all preferred to ignore it.     We see a version of this in almost every thread:  "You cold war boomers have gotta get over it, the USSR is gone, Russia is our Friend ".

- There are some who have family ties to Russia, and many more who were taken in by Putin's carefully crafted image as a strong leader, and defender of traditional Christian Morality.    (Which is an obvious and blatant lie of course), but the people co-opted by this fantasy can not let go of it.   Their hatred and fear of the NWO, WEF, etc, is just too great.  
For them to realize that their savior is actually an evil megalomaniac, as bad as Soros with Nukes, would remove all hope.    

To sum it up; every Conservative minded American is justifiably scared and angry.   The Kremlin message is very seductive.  It resonates with all of us:   "We are your friends!   The real enemy is Your Own Government!   Why risk everything, for the corrupt and degenerate Ukraine?    Just give us what we want, and all will be right with the world again ".    

Essentially, many of us are so desperate to hang onto any shred of hope, that we would happily jettison Ukraine and all of our Allies, in the forlorn hope, that it would magically fix 70 years of deficit spending.  

The mathematical fact that it wouldn't help at all, is a concept which is literally too terrible to contemplate.  

Hope it helps. It's a phenomenon which has been as interesting, as it is disturbing.

Originally Posted By Sketti:


Yeah guys, like BillofRights says, you're just susceptible to sneaky Russian trolls who have been manipulating you into not supporting WWIII and giving endless tax payer monies to good guy Zelensky.

Remember, its "mathematical fact" that American tax payer children's children's children should bare the burden of protecting European countries from the onslaught of Russian aggression.