A Trumpist Last Night Attacked Me and Challenged Me to a Fight
He became enraged when I mentioned that Putin was a monster.
The rage many, including me, sometimes experience when engaging our fellow humans in the virtual space of social media is, in many ways, faux rage. Sure, we feel “all fired up,” and maybe we even storm around the house yelling and kicking things — I have never done this — but it’s still anger for words on a screen sent to us by an avatar that sometimes is as cute as a button. The frightening thing about this rage is when it leaks out into real life.
Like what happened to me last night at a friend’s house with a guy I have known for over 30 years.
Leisurely sipping some beers in my buddy’s basement, (it is the ultimate man cave), we commiserated over the horrific Rutgers football loss to Illinois. Look it up; it was the most boneheaded loss in college football history, and the head coach caused it. I can’t write about it because I fear my virtual rage could leak into the backyard, and I will start breaking bottles.
My friend’s brother-in-law immigrated to the U.S. 40 years ago from Lebanon. Before that, he lived briefly in Moscow and attended the university there. Back then, Lebanon was allied with the Soviet Union, and many Arabs took advantage of the relationship and studied there; some stayed and raised families, and others left but always maintained an affinity for Russia. My friend, who we will call Mo, fell in love with the United States despite being aware of Americans’ lack of knowledge about how our nation’s policies affect the world, and not always in a positive way.
Mo absorbed everything about the culture and doesn’t miss a football, basketball, or baseball game. Before last night’s attack, I always liked him. He married into a good Irish Catholic family, and they raised four kids. Mo, though, does have a hot streak, so everyone knows not to discuss politics. Mo also took to Trumpism, but not MAGA, and because of that, the discussion of politics is strictly forbidden in the man cave.
I knew nothing about Mo’s political leanings, so I told him when he asked me how I had ended up in Portugal. It started out innocently enough. We left Russia on vacation on February 26th and couldn’t get back. The planes, trains, and buses were canceled. It took more than 8 weeks before planes could be added to the routes between Turkey and Moscow, so anyone abroad was stuck there. By the time regular flights were going back to Moscow, the prices were exorbitant. In addition, as I explained to Mo and my friends last night, I had started writing articles against Putin and the war in Ukraine.
“I feared that if I returned and they checked my social media, I would get arrested.”
“Oh, that’s bullshit! No one is getting arrested. Don’t be so stupid.”
It was as if Mo was a piece of flash paper. He went from zero to 120 in minutes and was calling me a liar and a fake, and said I should be ashamed of myself for being so unfair to the Russians.
“Mo, I lived in Russia for 28 years. I left two years ago. We lost our apartment, and I lost all my belongings. I can’t go back now because I will be arrested for what I write.”
Mo exploded. “You know nothing about Russia!”
Feeling challenged, I switched to Russian to demonstrate that his year there in 1983–84 could not be compared to my 28 years there from 1994 to 2022. He lived in a country and society that no longer exists and claimed to be a Russian opinion and culture expert.
“Trump will soon be in, and he will put Ukraine in the place where it belongs, and all of you idiots will be put to shame for believing this sick propaganda.”
His Russian was very good, but he could understand my cursing. Russian is a language that thrives on profanity, and thanks to a couple of short curse words, a simple sentence can contain 15 guest appearances — “Blyad, na khoy, pizdetz, polnaya khunya, shto ti blyad nesyosh, pizdet eto voobshe khunya, ti shto yobnulsya?” (Please don’t say these words to a Russian.)
After about ten minutes of back-and-forth while everyone else tried to pretend everything was normal, he just yelled, “One more word, and I will smash you in the mouth.”
“Cowardly little Putinist,” I said in Russia.
“You’re damn right. I am a Putinist! He’s a real leader. And now, thank God, we have Trump, and you cowards will be put into your place.”
He moved closer as if to prepare to fight me. I would have wiped the floor with Mo, but it was utter lunacy that this whole exchange devolved into a near fistfight. Mo is 61. No one was going to fight, but he was as ready as I had ever seen anyone. Realizing that one more word would have meant fisticuffs, I shut my mouth.
The tension reluctantly passed, and Mo sat with his back to me. We relived the Rutgers loss and drank our beer with a bit more urgency. Mo eventually left without looking at me.
As I awoke today on my birthday, the sediment of that argument remained. I am heading back to Portugal today and leaving with much of the same attitude I had when I arrived: What the f*** is going on in this world?
Sorry that you almost got in a fist fight with the durak over Putin. But Happy Birthday anyway.
You know I think the world of your writing and analysis! But, hope we don't get into a fight--haha--living all those years in Russia had a trade-off, you haven't witnessed the changes in U.S. Opportunity for most people since 2008. Then many were hit again in 2020-2023 when all government workers and the "tech/professional" elite kept their income (reduced expenses--increased savings) while everyone else sucked wind. You imagine the U.S. to be something it no longer is.
You won't notice that the bottom fell out in Manhattan, on the East or West Coast. You need to move into the heart of the country. OR, you need to listen to what they're saying. You need to understand why THEY like Trump. Not what you think everyone should think if they think about it "rationally."
The difference between you and Mo is you write, it gives you status, you consult. What does Mo have? What opportunity is there for him. I bet he is NOT doing better than he was 10 years ago. You tell me.
Tens of millions of Americans (and Europeans) feel completely and truly f*ckd. And they blame Democrats or liberals. They see all attention paid to LGBQ, etc. "Wokeness". I'm not defending them, but they're not all wrong to be upset by it. Anyway, they have to blame someone, right? And who can they blame, even if they were completely rational? And who can they turn to for a fix when those who can fix it just will NOT share.
Harris raised $1 billion, a lot from poor people, do they get the money back? No. Come back to the U.S. Travel around. Listen with an open mind. Trump is only a lightning rod. The problems are wide and deep.