What 'Conversations with MAGA' Taught Me — And What We Can All Learn from Susan Daniel

What one blue-collar liberal learned by working alongside MAGA coworkers — and why it matters more than ever.

For months now, I’ve been quietly devouring Susan Daniel’s stories on Threads about what it’s like to be a blue dot in a very red state and workplace.

Her tales are part heartbreak, part dark comedy, and all deeply human.

She doesn’t just observe her MAGA coworkers — she engages them, listens, and, when the moment is right, challenges them with compassion and clarity.

I’ve learned so much from her. I mean it.

As someone who oscillates between white-hot rage over the attacks on my LGBTQ+ loved ones, deep grief over our crumbling democracy, and occasional empathy for a group of Americans I genuinely believe have been used and discarded by the powerful — Susan’s approach has given me hope.

She models what it looks like to hold boundaries and curiosity, to stand firm, and stay human.

It’s not easy. But her stories remind me that transformation is still possible, even in the unlikeliest places — and that every real conversations matter.

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If you’ve been moved by the kind of work I do — amplifying voices like Susan’s, challenging disinformation, and standing up for the vulnerable — thank you.

This work doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

If you haven’t yet, I’d love for you to subscribe and be part of this growing community of truth-tellers, bridge-builders, and Pathfinders. Let’s keep lifting up voices that shine light in the darkness.

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And please, if you’re not already following Susan, you should be. She’s a rare voice of clarity and grit:

• 🧵 Threads

• 🌤️ Bluesky

• ✍️ Substack

The Interview: Susan Daniel on Life Among MAGA Coworkers

Here’s the raw, unedited interview with Susan.

1. What are the most common justifications you hear from your MAGA coworkers?

That they saw it on Fox News! Or heard it on Joe Rogan with a couple of the younger ones.

I know it sounds like the stereotypical MAGA trope, so I'd like to explain why these particular MAGAs watch Fox News, because it gives much needed context.

Down here in the south, watching the 6:00 o’clock news is a tradition coming down from my great grandparents generation (GenX’er here) and it's still a very prevalent cultural habit amongst most blue collar southerners to this day.

And in my personal experience with the majority of blue collar southerners I know — liberal or MAGA — they tend to let that 30 minutes suffice as keeping up with current events.

For middle Tennessee people of the late Boomer, GenX and Millennial persuasions, our local Fox affiliate had most of the cool TV shows we regularly watched, so its news also became the default news show watched at 6pm for all three generations.

Once it started veering right about 20-25 years ago, a lot of us switched to other news stations like ABC, NBC or CBS, but the majority of conservatives apparently didn’t.

Combine that with the culturally low consumption of news content, and the default majority news station preference being Fox, and you had the proverbial “perfect storm”.

Also, by extension, the influencers on Fox also become known to — and popular with — those of them who consume content on platforms other than TV, like podcasts, social media, etc. So the messaging gets even more amplified.

I think it basically boils down to being a cultural habit in conservative families mixed with a disinterest in politics, unless it’s entertaining them, because they generally find it confusing and/or boring.

But that’s just my opinion from growing up in a family that morphed from conservatives to MAGA supporters in just this way.

2. Any patterns in how they argue their points?

The prevalent go-to argument pattern is to call anything I say “liberal propaganda”...I shit you not, lol.

Again, stereotypical, but again, it’s somewhat cultural in that blue collar southerners are big sports fans and they often have that rabid “‘reppin’ my team” mentality.

They’re going to default to using whatever terminology they hear from their beloved “coach” and teammates. And we all know Mango Mussolini says it regularly.

Their go-to tactic is generally just getting irritated and shutting down, or agreeing to disagree if they're raised old school to be polite.

My take on why these are the go-to tactics is that because they are low information voters due to limited news intake from generally a single source, they don’t want to argue facts and provide sources because their arsenal of either is practically bare.

They are allergic to feeling “less than”, so they like to avoid situations where that’s a distinct possibility and they know it.

It’s that stereotypical southern pride in play, and by avoiding revealing their lack of understanding they're maintaining theirs.

3. What talking points do they repeat most often?

As mentioned earlier, “liberal propaganda” as well as “woke lib”, “libtard”, “woke left”, and “radical left” are all very popular descriptive phrases around here.

The most common talking points I hear are “They’re getting rid of waste and fraud!”, “He’s gonna fix the economy!”, and “He’s giving the rights back to the states!”

When I ask for specific examples, they usually avoid the subject and repeat the talking point with different wording, and/or just disengage with alacrity.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, again, I think it all comes from the limited and insular quantity of news consumed, and it is straight from Fox News and soundbites from right wing influencers.

4. What happens when you hit them with facts?

Generally, it’s a dig in the heels situation for me, but I occasionally get lucky and peak one’s curiosity and concern and they actually listen, engage, and ask questions.

That’s when I show them proof from the pages of Project 2025, or a couple of neutral, factual articles from a trustworthy neutral MSM publications....whichever is called for in that particular conversation.

I live for those glimmers of open mindedness, lol.

5. Have you ever seen someone shift their thinking?

I actually have had it happen a handful of times out of scores of conversations, and I'm not gonna lie, it’s exhilarating!

Dusty is what I call “MAGA lite” which just means he’s a reasonable MAGA who is not so deeply invested in being MAGA as he is in being a conservative voter.

He’s a team player kinda guy, so he rolls with the team in power with conservatives...but he’s also an independent thinker willing to reject the policies from team leadership he doesn’t feel fits his personal code of ethics.

He’s actually not even (a) bit racist, and he’s good friends with several of our immigrant coworkers.

In point of fact, he’s in favor of giving current undocumented immigrants in the states a pathway to legal status...but he also believes that we should set much stricter limits on current and future immigration.

He also thinks Elon Musk is as “full of shit as a Christmas turkey” and “sticking his South African nose into American’s business that he has no rights to be in” and those are actual quotes, lol.

I’m going to have to assume that his opinions on those issues are based on his personal values and being a somewhat higher information voter than our other MAGA coworkers, as well as a true financial conservative, with a big spoonful of distaste for oligarchs sprinkled on top.

He’s expressed a definite awareness of the wealthy/working class divide and it’s affect on working class people like us to me several times. He’s also definitely not a fan of FOTUS, he considers him a 4 more year cross to bear.

I have serious hope in Dusty switching sides at some point — probably sooner rather than later — but we shall see.

6. Do they really believe what they say, or is it about group identity?

There’s definitely a pack mentality, no doubt it.

Also, a combination of fear of looking/ feeling ignorant on issues, mixed with actually being ignorant on said issues due to the quality of the information consumed in the limited news they choose to ingest, is a primary factor.

I’ve yet to figure out how they can't see they’re actually highlighting the political ignorance they’re trying to hide though, smh.

If I could just figure that out, I could become a billionaire myself, lol.

7. What approaches work best for actually getting through?

My most effective approach is to use my fears about how what x, y or z policy will affect us, and our friends and family in the blue collar working class, and to have solid data available on my phone to show them while explaining my concerns.

It usually causes them to actually listen on friendlier terms and thus generally absorb the facts with a more sympathetic and open minded ear.

But we are actually friendly coworkers, so that weighs in my favor with them.

8. What do people in deep blue areas misunderstand most about MAGA folks?

Despite the stereotypical MAGA trope, they’re not all truly racist, or inherently cruel at their core.

They’re often speaking out of fear of slowly losing everything they have, or not getting opportunities to have (a) better future along with not understanding politics enough to figure out how to avoid that, so they just cede that responsibility and parrot what they’re hearing from their party, President and his administration.

It allows them to feel engaged, yet not have to learn about things they don’t understand well enough to form an informed opinion, without having to admit to themselves they're uninformed.

In a nutshell, I personally think the decline of education in schools on civics and history as well as education in general is bearing rotten fruit in this country, and especially so in the south.

Otherwise, they would not be so easily duped into voting against their best interests, and being so incapable of recognizing that fact.

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If this gave you new insight into the MAGA mindset, please share it.

The more we understand what we’re up against — and who we’re dealing with — the better we can protect our democracy and find paths forward.