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Seriously, what the f*** is keeping Donald Trump in this presidential race?

Kamala Harris running a damn near flawless campaign, with just a month 1/2 of campaigning. She’s been holding rallies nonstop with Tim Walz & not making her talking points about her race or gender like Hillary. She’s offering expanded healthcare, reinvestments back into public housing, wants to take on corporate greed, protect reproductive rights and chose a pro labor, pro education running mate.

Yet, she’s either barely leading or ties in most polls with a guy that:

Is a convicted felon.

Liable Sexual Predator.

Gets sentenced in November.

Has several more pending cases.

Increased Drone Strikes by 300%. (Joe Biden dosent use drones anymore).

Illegally killed an Iranian General unprovoked with a missle strike.

Increased tensions in Israel/Palestine with the Abraham Accords.

Wants war with Mexico (his words).

Tried to coup Venezuela.

Will bend the knee for Netanyahu’s potential war with Iran.

Lowered the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% (lowest in history).

Obvious tax cuts for the rich.

Told people to drink bleach during the pandemic.

Is the main driving force for America’s current division.

Constantly attacks marginalized groups.

Tried to steal the 2020 election (Find Me 11,000 votes in GA).

Did Fake Elector Slates to pressure Mike Pence to not certify the 2020 election.

Caused a riot on the capitol that lead to his OWN supporters dying.

Just got washed by Harris in the last debate, was completely unprepared on anything but immigration (“I have concepts of a plan”).

And so much more. So seriously what is it? Is it just the attraction to bigotry/racism? Is it to end “wokeness”. Is it because Kamala is a woman of color? You can’t use the both sides argument like Hilary or Biden, Kamala is the obvious better choice. Could you imagine if Kamala had as much baggage as Trump? The media would lose their minds.

Seriously, how the f*** is this guy still in the race?

tiefling , (edited )

It’s simple. Bigotry and greed. Trump plays to people’s fears that “others” will soon have the same rights they do while also assuring his rich handlers that he will make them richer. He’s convinced the poor to cut off their nose to spite their face.

Conservatism is a mental illness, it can’t be defeated with logic and reasoning

InternetCitizen2 ,

it can’t be defeated with logic and reasoning

YouTube channel Knowing Better made a video about the Seventh Day Adventist. Basically the same conclusion.

BackOnMyBS ,
@BackOnMyBS@lemmy.autism.place avatar

Found it! It’s almost 3 hrs long, so you know what that means: a glass of wine, your favorite easy chair, and of course, this YouTube video streaming on your home system. So, go on, and indulge yourself. That’s right, kick off your shoes, put your feet up, lean back and just enjoy the rational documentary. After all, knowledge soothes even the savage lemming.

Banichan ,
@Banichan@dormi.zone avatar

Offspring?

BackOnMyBS ,
@BackOnMyBS@lemmy.autism.place avatar

Yeppers, peppers! 🫑

tburkhol ,

Have an updoot, Offspring-fan.

Zachariah ,
@Zachariah@lemmy.world avatar

Have an updoot, recognizer of Offspring-fans.

DogPeePoo , (edited )

FOX “News” has effectively divided, conditioned and massaged Republicans for decades to regurgitate the message disseminated by Rupert Murdoch through their favorite flavor talking heads (Bill O’Reilly, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and more recently Greg Gutfeld and Jesse Watters).

They went from ‘Russia bad’ in the 1980’s to ‘Russia good’ and ‘America had it wrong’. The viewers lack critical thought under scrutiny and regurgitate the talking points of their favorite broadcasters.

shalafi , (edited )

Yep, I lay the majority of our political insanity on Fox’s door. Look, we all know they’re the GOP’s propaganda arm, but how many of you have actually watched a good bit?

I was stuck with a week of it during the Snowden revelations. In the space of an entire week, I didn’t hear a single word on what was worldwide news. Stunning, and I still can’t explain it, but it happened. Point being, a lot of the lies are in what they don’t say. Early afternoon of 01/06, not a blip on the website. (Which BTW, is far more sane than the TV version.) I checked the wayback machine and FOx reported nothing until hours after kick off. I presume they prayed it would blow over or at least die down. Imagine the spin control behind the scenes! Hell, even Tucker Carlson pleased with Trump to make a sane statement and cut it off.

After hearing “Obama” thousands of times, over and over and over, I was sick of him! The whole time my friend’s step-mom was screaming at the screen, “The KKK ought to do their got damned JOB!” These people sat in their armchairs 24/7 (never saw them go to their bedroom), smoking weed and watching nothing but Fox. We tried to put on a movie or another show exactly twice and it promptly got switched back.

One time I was stuck with Fox at the doctor’s office, some kind of round-table show going on. A metric showing black people doing better under the Obama administration came up, something about pay I think. One of the hosts slams his fist of the table and shouted, “Obama’s a RACIST!” Constantly listen to crap like that and you are, eventually, getting brainwashed.

DarkCloud ,

It’s not conservativism, conservativism has been captured by think tanks funded by oil and banking billionaires. They’re framed conservativism, gutted it, and replaced its insides with Libertarianism (and sometimes technocratic fascism), as that’s what gives them the lowest taxes, the most corporate welfare, union busting capabilities, and defends their wealth accumulation most efficiently.

They’re not good members of society, this is demonstrated in Trump’s fascism (which is based on Roy Cohn’s fascism). It seeks to destroy society, the nation, and government.

radix ,
@radix@lemmy.world avatar

If the race were between The Literal Devil ® and Jesus Christ (D), the vote total would be 45%-55% just based on the letter they choose to run after their name.

Policy doesn’t matter when people base their entire personality on their political party identification.

dhork ,

Jesus was a socialist Jew. We had one of those run for President, too, but couldn’t make it past the Democratic primary.

MeekerThanBeaker ,

But see how evil he looks…

/s

Birdy Sanders

I_Has_A_Hat ,

If you completely forget everything about Bernie; who he is, what he’s done, how he speaks, everything; he does look like a CEO who would lay off half his staff for a discount on a sandwich. But thats more because he’s an old white guy in a suit and they all look like that

Feathercrown ,

He has joyful eyes

OpenStars ,
@OpenStars@discuss.online avatar

Wanting us to become fiscally responsible, like not get into new wars into we’ve paid off previous ones? i.e. pay less money to the rich via the Military Industrial complex?

Wanting to tax the wealthy?

Wanting to redistribute money to take care of the poor?

Yeah, obviously evil indeed 😂 (from the POV of “I got mine, now I’m pulling up the ladder🪜”).

HeyThisIsntTheYMCA ,
@HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world avatar

needs more puppies and rainbows

vaxhax ,

He got my first D primary vote… but NOT MY LAST.

mister_brown ,

Amen, preach it!

lath ,

Jesus is a Mexican name. Check mate.

dwemthy ,

Like the real Jesus would run as a Democrat. At least with the Devil you know where you stand! /s

OlinOfTheHillPeople ,

Closer to 50/50 with the electoral college.

Today ,

And it pisses me off that people will vote for the dipshit because he’s an R, but i would vote for a half-dead horny toad on the other side.

shalafi ,

Nothing I’ve read has ever explained Trump’s appeal like this article.

cracked.com/…/6-reasons-trumps-rise-that-no-one-t…

Nothing in there makes a cute soundbite. “They’re racist!”, is far easier than having to digest what the author lays down.

Seriously, read it. It’s important.

SnotFlickerman ,
@SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Honestly, hadn’t read this one and it’s got some seriously solid points in it.

AwesomeLowlander ,

That was an amazing read.

rustydomino ,
@rustydomino@lemmy.world avatar

It’s a good article. It explains rural America. It doesn’t explain the well off assholes living in Huntington Beach CA. It doesn’t explain the well off assholes living in suburban Inland SoCal. It doesn’t explain rich privileged shitheads like Musk and Thiel.

magnetosphere ,
@magnetosphere@fedia.io avatar

It doesn’t explain them because that’s who the author assumes he’s speaking to.

roscoe ,

Exactly. I get the frustrations of the son and grandson of factory workers that finds it hard to imagine anything more than working at Walmart wanting to tear it all down. What I don’t understand is my neighbor in Dana Point.

kbal ,
@kbal@fedia.io avatar

Is it a good article? I don't know. There's some truth in there, but I'm pretty sure there are a hell of a lot more suburban Trump voters than there are rural Trump voters. And in my experience of it the people who live in small towns, medium-sized cities, suburbs, edge city, and even actual rural areas are in general not nearly as monolithic and politically unified as they're portrayed there. Even if it's always clear which party is going to get the majority of votes, they most often don't get all the votes. Perhaps like the writer of that article many of them like to romanticize the idea of being "rural" because they mow their own lawn and could drive to a farm in half an hour if they wanted to, but although there's some truth in there I think it's mostly foolish rationalizations. Big cities are alien to me too, that's not a real reason to buy into all that cheap right-wing mythology that gets used to explain why we should vote against our own interests.

Telodzrum ,

Of course there are more of them in the suburbs, the plurality of the population lives in suburban census tracts and the race is a tossup.

DelightfullyDivisive ,

People like Musk are cynical, attention-seeking manipulators and narcissists. They aren’t afraid that their way of life is being threatened, they’re using the fears of others to further their own ends, and consider themselves above it all.

That article was the most cogent take I have seen on this subject. I have a similar cultural background (rednecks and urban, religious Polish-Americans), but see myself as a science-literate atheist. I have seen this first-hand, but wasn’t able to articulate it as well.

Today ,

Good read. Thanks!

TheLoneMinon ,

Good. Read, Thanks!

Wav_function ,

Good read thanks

tacosanonymous ,

I remember reading this and thinking it had some points. Then I remembered that despite having some of the same issues, we have vastly different responses. When I’m lied to and beaten, I don’t look to the person that did it for help.

For instance, the church being the only social space. They could have a community center or a library. Sure funds are hard to come by but what kind of political party would even consider that? The answer is probably further left than democrats but fifty years of red scare won’t let anyone accept that.

The “writing them off” part comes from their willingness to not ostracize evil people when they get something they want. We can all be bullheaded or blinded by bias from time to time but accountability and decency shouldn’t be political.

gamermanh ,
@gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

They could have a community center or a library. Sure funds are hard to come by but what kind of political party would even consider that?

Funny enough here in the rural parts of CA I’ve seen Raleys and Holiday Markets putting in large community areas with amenities like cheap (sometimes free) printers, office space, children’s areas, etc.

They’re not perfect or anything but its wild to see capitalist behemoths pull off something actually close to what the ideal would be, even if it’s likely to manipulate people somehow

Make it law that communities with a dollar general or fuck it any grocery store we all have to eat have a community center of halfway decent quality in it like those places have done willingly and you’ll have an improvement, guaranteed

DarkCloud , (edited )

This explains a demographic analysis without explaining anything meaningful or unique. The article could be about any post-Regan Republican campaign (such demographic analysis is used by all modern campaigns, on bith sides), so it wasn’t a satisfying article. Combined with all the pop culture references, it comes off as quite immature and an unextraordinary explanation. Mediocre.

danciestlobster ,

I mean it’s definitely an interesting read. I’m just not sure what to actually do with this information. The fundamental problem feels like a generally small bubble, and at times a specific disinterest in venturing outside of it. If anyone’s whole worldview is shaped entirely by their tiny rural hometown, it’s easy to understand why others with radically different backgrounds feel scary.

But at the end of the day, it doesn’t feel like a good enough reason to drag the rest of the country through rigid christofacist moral dogmas and support the industries that prop up those small towns at the expense of the planet as a whole. But as long as those people aren’t interested in venturing outside their communities and meeting other different people, im not sure how to convince them of this.

Maybe if the cost of living becomes too untenable in major cities and work from home continues in certain industries rural areas will see more growth and this will improve somewhat? Idk

BigDiction ,

Great read. There’s 70+ million people out there choosing to vote for Trump, why? Even if the answer is complicated you can’t dismiss them all outright.

I see a decent amount of comments painting all republics with one brush. I think it’s low effort and unproductive.

Waldowal ,
@Waldowal@lemmy.world avatar

I feel like this is just gift wrapping being a dumb racist hick in prettier paper. They are scared of cities because their full of black people, gays, and Mexicans. They like assholes who show the same level of hate as they do - who will keep the black people, gays, and Mexicans away. And they like someone who justifies hiding behind religion so they can tell themselves that God made them this dumb and rascist. So they can delude themselves into thinking they are really the good guy.

jjjalljs ,

Low density places are always going to kind of suck on a lot of metrics. You just don’t have the people to support a lot of stuff. I’m sorry that small towns are dying but like there’s not really a reason they’d thrive.

Cities have been important since like the dawn of history. At least farms grow food. Suburban sprawl is the worst.

Cost of living needs to go down and wages up, but no one should be vying for low density.

tanisnikana ,

Jason Pargin is a goddamn hero.

Cornelius_Wangenheim ,

The problem with that argument is that 80% of people live in cities. There are not enough rural people for them to be a majority of the Republican party.

Pandantic ,
@Pandantic@midwest.social avatar

That was an amazing read. My hometown was really similar, though maybe not as desolate. Lucky there was a college town close by so we could shop at some place that wasn’t Walmart. This really does sum it up, though, the appeal of Trump out of these smaller rural communities. I like the message at the end, too. Thanks for sharing. 🙏

aesthelete , (edited )

I remember the summer of 2016, when I was playing Pokemon Go in the parks and people I had never talked to and that lived nearby were playing it next to me. We were all celebrating when we caught a pokemon when we were after, and comparing which ones we’d caught with each other.

At the time I thought…who would buy Trump’s conman routine? Who actually thinks that the country is in a terrible enough place that we need to elect this person who seems to actively hate the country and seemed to want to set the entire thing on fire?

I left my Californian home and went back to my original state to visit my family. We went to several different areas of the state in fall of 2016 because my wife was from a rural area and I originally grew up in a slightly more suburban area. I saw the signs in the yards, I saw the discontent, and I saw how people did not seem to be reacting the same way to his craziness. I saw how casually they would put on his rants in the background while talking about other issues. I saw how some of them were amused by his antics. It had been a couple of years since I had last been back and it once again struck me how much worse the area appeared to be from the last time I was there. I was in a rural area when the “Access Hollywood” tape dropped. People seemed to visibly shrink at even the mention of the news. I thought he was done for, and that this was a bridge too far for his supporters to cross. That people would vote third party, or not vote at all. I did not get the sense that my thoughts were shared by those around me.

When I came back to California, people were talking about the debates. It was sunny and nice out, and people would talk about the projects they had going on in their houses, or they’d talk about work related affairs. People were sometimes amused by Trump’s antics, but everyone uniformly thought it was impossible for him to win the election. Having seen what I had seen in the weeks prior, I was no longer one of these people. “They’ll never let him win”, one of my co-workers said. I was stunned…who are “they”? Does the rest of the country actually believe this?

It turns out quite a few of them did. Many people thought there was just simply no way that Trump would win, because either the system was already rigged against him and would not allow him to win, or because the country was just not in dire enough straits to elect such a madman (as I once thought).

Hindsight is 20/20 but when I thought it was bizarre that he was even a viable candidate at one point in 2016, and I saw the decaying state where I grew up, I thought “if he wins the election, then we are in a much worse state as a country than I thought”. And we undoubtedly are.

Of course he won, but the reason that I have this somewhat rambling response to this question is that the answer to “why is he still in the race?” ultimately comes down to the overall state of this country.

He is in this race because this is where we are as a country: barely able to imagine a possible future that is brighter than the present, because we are still caught up in degenerative non-sense that keeps us thinking that our broken down towns, and our poor social bonds are caused by some horde of “others” instead of their true causes: our ever-widening wealth inequality, our ever-decaying moral responsibilities to each other, and our national instinct to absolve ourselves of our responsibilities by claiming that not only is it correct to be forever self-serving, but that even the idea of altruism is a lie.

half_built_pyramids ,

even the idea of altruism is a lie.

Wow. You’re right. Helping others is as politicized as abortion. One of the tribes can’t even fathom uplifting their neighbors because that could be equated to socialism and it would get them kicked out of their in-group.

explodicle ,

That explains the “virtue signaling” accusations.

MissJinx ,
@MissJinx@lemmy.world avatar

I rmember stephen colbert’s face lol

dhork ,

Many Conservatives have been conditioned to stop looking for facts and believe what the TV tells them. Trump admitted as much during the debate. When challenged on the cat thing, he dismissed the reporter’s research and said that he believes it because he saw it on TV. His voters will, too.

Roger Ailes was Nixon’s media consultant during Watergate, and the lesson he learned was that if the media was on Nixon’s side, he could have gotten away with it. Ailes went on to run Fox News. That is no accident.

MimicJar ,

It’s honestly madness.

The former President, running a multi-million dollar campaign, with access to the best information in the world, has nothing to say but rambling “but the TV said, but the TV said!”

Just an absolute fool.

dhork ,

But he’s always been like this. He had the world’s largest intelligence apparatus at its service, but didn’t believe what they said when it contradicted what his buddies Vlad and MBS told him.

MimicJar ,

Oh I agree, you just want to believe that even the world’s stupidest person could eventually learn something. It’s not like this is a case of him being deliberately obtuse, which we often see, he truly believes his own nonsense.

Aviandelight ,
@Aviandelight@mander.xyz avatar

My mother in law who’s a staunch Republican told my husband that she shouldn’t have to learn anything new at her age. This is the type of people we’re dealing with. They are willfully and spitefully ignorant.

QuarterSwede , (edited )
@QuarterSwede@lemmy.world avatar

My older neighbor is like that. He was pouting off some BS he heard on Fox News and I called him on it, that it was lies. When I asked him what he didn’t like about Harris he couldn’t give me an answer. He’s not even going outside his sphere to see if what Fox is saying isn’t true. It’s pathetic and shameful.

ShepherdPie , (edited )

People eat that shit up because it’s they same way they’re fed all their propaganda too. They think Trump is just like them and not some NY socialite.

DarkCloud ,

Conservatives who are capable of good quality research, and honest self-reflection barely exist because those two qualities often destroy their affiliations to modern conservativism as it stands today.

So some become neocon-neoliberal hybrids, others become economic Libertarians or Fascists in sheeps clothing, but most, are just as they seem - people who feel betrayed and shut out by the prevailing liberalisms of the day (often personified in the form of an ex-wife, ex-boss, or minority on the street), and it’s something they don’t want to investigate or research honestly.

In fact, most conservatives of this “follower” ilk, are deeply and psychologically invested in their sickness, in maintaining their “honest dogma” as it explains past traumas and the state of their lives in easy and convenient ways.

Get them together in groups and it becomes a self-reenforcing system. Self-propagating. It’s a self-sustaining set of problems and problem mindsets.

Some for conspiracy theorists, gets to be a real problem when they get a platform too.

SnotFlickerman , (edited )
@SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Seriously, how the f*** is this guy still in the race?

Some very deep pockets.

People want to say it’s just racism, but we have to stop ignoring how much of this is happening because of obscenely wealthy media moguls who don’t give a damn about the future of the country and are only worried about ratings, and holy shit, Trump brings in ratings. The crazy fucks who vote for him are deeply influenced by this media, like Trump, they believe everything they see on TV.

It May Not Be Good for America, but It’s Damn Good for CBS

-Leslie Moonves, CBS CEO in 2016, on Trump

I worked in local television news from 2000-2010ish. I watched it spin out of control during the Bush years. I remember the President of Dinsey-ABC (waaaaaaaay prior to Disney+) claiming she would https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/04/business/media/04hulu.html

“You’re going to have a television if I have to nail it to your wall,” she told her daughter, according to comments she made at a Reuters event this week. “You have to have one.”

-Anne Sweeney, President of Disney-ABC in 2009

These fucking dinosaurs did fuck nothing for twenty fucking years while the internet ate their lunch. The only idea they ever had was doubling down on insane shit to grab views. They never once considered becoming a better source of news or providing any kind of real local value to communities.

It’s the money, especially the money in traditional radio and television media, that is propping him up. He’s truly the last gasp of a dying generation, desperate to keep control over people who are way more informed than ever before and the only tool they have in their toolchest to fight that is misinformation and disinformation.

The same deep pockets that were able to kick Joe Biden off the ticket. They didn’t give a fuck when people like you and I said Biden was too old, but once the folks with the money started talking about it being an issue, Biden got curbed.

Unlike Biden, conservatives are in a cult and losing Trump would lose their voters. They’re attached at the hip and they can’t dump him in the same way without essentially just admitting they will lose hard this year.

Rhaedas ,

This is the right answer. Money. There's plenty of the rest of the stuff mentioned, but cults of any sort are useful tools for the powerful. And actually, it's not even money, it's POWER.

SnotFlickerman , (edited )
@SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

It’s about power and pursuit of power, yes. That’s why there’s so much racism and xenophobia, because those who desire power need people to lord their power over, or they don’t feel powerful.

The money is just a path to that power.

There’s a reason plenty of them are legitimate rapists, because rape is also about power. Power is literally the only thing that means anything to them. That’s why you get freaks like Weinstein who can’t even use their fucking dick raping people. Because at the end of the day it all boils down to these freaks getting off on using power over others.

It’s also why they lean so hard on misogyny, racism, anti-lgbtq and general xenophobia, because all of them are rooted in having power over other groups.

spankmonkey ,

Republicans have been taught to ignore reality and give in to their hatred.

Eldritch ,

I would say that all Americans were. Republicans/conservatives overachieved however.

SnotFlickerman , (edited )
@SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

People really underestimate how violently angry “liberals” can be, too.

Just the other day in my city I had some violently unhinged liberals comparing a drug addict who tried to run from cops, failed, and killed someone in the process to mass shooters. Right, because someone with serious mental health and addiction issues who wasn’t trying to kill anyone but rather escape the cops is totally the same as a mass shooter. They were all but calling for her death and doing the good old FOX News of digging up her entire criminal history to show how terrible she is and how much she deserves death.

I’m in an extremely “progressive” city deep in the Northwest.

The US is absolutely filled to the brim with unhinged violent freaks.

OpenStars ,
@OpenStars@discuss.online avatar

We are told to be angry, and that spills out in every possible way.

HostilePasta ,

I think you’re correct. We were taught about manifest destiny but not the genocide of Native Americans, and that’s just one instance of the institutionalized racism we were taught was good. SO MANY PEOPLE never grew out of that or tried to be better.

Eldritch ,

Well we were taught about the trail of tears as a thing that happened a long time ago. But it’s all good now. But my family having strong tribal connections. Tribal leader on my father’s side a couple of generations back. We’re all on the official tribal rolls. And I was old enough to have gotten the reparations doled out in the 1980s for what happened to my great great great ancestors. A whole $10,000. Which is better than a kick in the teeth. But definitely not any sort of compensation for what was stolen.

So I knew about the Indian schools and some of the other heinous shit that Canada and the United States had pulled unlike so many others. But even I was surprised to learn that they were still current and operating well within my lifetime. People treated as if it’s a long ago solved problem. There are people still alive and well today that have families destroyed or lost family because of it. And there’s plenty of other shenanigans. Probably the most depressing part is that United States and Canada weren’t all that alone. Heck China is more or less doing it today. To cultural groups whose identity differs from the Vanguard parties chosen monoculture.

HostilePasta ,

Fuck dude, it’s all so goddamned depressing. The only sliver of hope I have is that I can pass my knowledge to my kids and teach them better much younger. Hopefully enough people do this sort of thing that we might finally pull ourselves out of our bullshit ignorance. I know it’s worth nothing, but I’m sorry all the same.

Asidonhopo ,

Despair is also a key party platform. The more hopeless someone is, the more likely they are to invite catastrophic change like Trump promises.

pearable ,

You’re in a media bubble. It feels like there’s no way anyone could see it differently. The people who disagree with you are also in a media bubble and don’t understand how you could believe what you do.

For everything you said they

  • don’t believe happened
  • think it was a deep state plot
  • believe it’s good actually and believing anything else means you want to kill babies or destroy the economy
  • have never heard of it

Reality may have a leftist bias but most people don’t live in reality. Most people live in a reality constructed by corporate media. Social media is largely derivative of it.

dudinax ,

There’s some truth to this, but if you take the effort to break out of your media bubble, to find original sources, to read documentary evidence, indictments, transcripts.

To go the other direction and track down evidence for Trumps accusations against others,

the guy comes off even worse.

JusticeForPorygon , (edited )
@JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world avatar

Something a lot of people tend to forget is that reality doesn’t have inherent biases. The facts are the facts, no matter how cartoonishly evil those facts might make one side look.

Presenting “both sides” as equally valid doesn’t mean you’re unbiased. It means you’re giving the Nazis what they want.

pearable ,

That doesn’t help you understand his supporters though. You have to wade in the shit they call news. You have to hear what they say to begin to understand them.

jaschen ,

I live in Taiwan and met a guy yesterday who is moving to Taiwan because Austin is a “liberal hell hole”.

When pressed on any issues about Trump, his answer was that Biden is worse than Trump. When I asked about Harris, he just mentioned she will just copy Biden.

The funny thing is that Taiwan is by far more liberal and more progressive than Austin Texas. He seemed to like the universal healthcare and the many social services. He didn’t mind the high corporate taxes companies have to pay.

My assessment is that he is only basing his vote on vibes and feels alone. Judging from the conversation, he is more of a Bernie supporter.

DragonTypeWyvern ,

Have you considered that you actually found a tankie in the wild?

KillingTimeItself ,

i feel like a tankie would just refer to joe as genocide joe, but maybe i’m too internet pilled?

JusticeForPorygon ,
@JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world avatar

I know they say don’t judge a book by its cover but your friend sounds like he ate glue sticks in elementary.

EtnaAtsume ,

他會說中文嗎？

fine_sandy_bottom ,

My take:

Americans are either republican or democrat.

If you’re a republican then you’re going to vote for your guy. They see everything he does as just bullshit and bluster. “He says things to rile up the lefties but that’s just his brand.” They see the legal issues as politically motivated, or “maybe he’s a bit dirty, but all politicians are”.

I think it really is that simple. The vast majority of the population is not making a decision of whom to vote for based on their research regarding each party’s policies. They will just always vote the way they’ve always voted.

LifeInMultipleChoice , (edited )

I’d say most Americans aren’t Republicans/Democrats, just like most Americans aren’t Christians.

Registering as an independent is a stupid idea in most states, it just means you get less say in the government that rules you. So many people register just because they would rather have the ability to say, “nah not that person” in the primaries.

As for the religion part, if Americans got taxed annually like they do in other countries and had to pay the church out of their incomes or check a box that says they aren’t religious, the number of religious people listed would drop by a fuck ton. Not a single person I know would pay 4% or something to their church, many would lie and say they do, but they would take the money every time. Especially when they realized everyone else was going it, so poof they no longer would feel bad about doing it.

I would bet we would drop to 25% after 2 years, 10% after 5, and 3% after 10, which is where it would stay. Especially if donations to church’s didn’t grant tax deductions, which they shouldnt be.

How did I get here? Oh, Fuck the party system.

mm_maybe ,

It’s 100% this. Politics is treated like a sport in the USA; the only thing that matters is your side winning, and which side you root for is largely dictated by location and family history. This is encouraged by the private news media, who intentionally report on election campaigns in this manner in order to increase ratings and ad revenue. Social media only made it worse because it made a lot of abstract identity dimensions, such as political affiliation, feel stronger to people than their everyday lives.

tacosplease ,

Democrats are a varied group. If Republicans weren’t so bat shit crazy, it would be nearly impossible to get all the Democrats to support the same person or set of policy preferences.

I think built into the question is - how can there still be so many Republicans? The 30% - 40% of voters who support him know what he’s about. That’s a fuck ton of spiteful adults in America. Seems like Canada, UK, and others in Europe aren’t so different either. Fuck.

psycho_driver ,

Who knew the world was so full of terrible people?

psycho_driver ,

I’m a socialist and I’ll vote D for as long as the GOP is the other option.

Sundial ,

A cult of fanatics who worship him due to his ability to let them display their complete lack of empathy as well as their extremely racist and misogynistic views.

Mr_Blott ,

Know how yous get upset when people say “Americans are stupid”

Literally a third of you have demonstrated that you’d eat gravel if someone said it’d cure immigrants

A third. So lets just say only half of the other two thirds are stupid

That’s quite a few. Almost a quarter pounder

SnotFlickerman ,
@SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Do you mean a Royale with Cheese?

Zink ,

I think they mean that 2/3 is close to but still not quite as big as 1/4 since 4 is bigger than 2 or 3.

astanix ,

Brainwashing most simply.

Rentlar ,

If you can believe it, Trump supporters will accept the Ohio immigrant pet eating story as true.

Somehow media is pitching the “moderate position” as halfway between anywhere within the normal range of political positions and the crazy positions.

Chocrates ,

Why is he still in the race or why are his supporters?

For him I think it’s obvious. Narcissism and the fact that he has a lot of federal crimes in the courts that he can stop when he is elected.

His supporters are more complicated. He pretty decently still owns the GOP so even if they are getting cold feet, they don’t seem to have a plan to overthrow him. I feel like they are planning on just stonewalling for 4 more years and then try to win the next one and cut the checks to the billionaires then.

I got nothing on his base though. I haven’t understood them for 10 years now. Not sure I ever will.

DarkCloud ,

Part of the checks cut get reinvested in the propaganda that gets more checks cut. It’s a whole corrupt system, as attested to by this list of think tanks backing someone like a Jordan Peterson:

reddit.com/…/jordan_peterson_and_the_think_tanks/

…you can research most rightwing media and personalities and make lists and connections (some if Trump’s for instance run through Roy Cohn, the original red scare and the mafia for instance).

It’s likely the same for some leftwing individuals to. It’s the reproduction of this culture, and the economic loops that perpetuate the toxicities of the current systems.

…and it will keep going long after Trump is gone.

AA5B , (edited )

I’m not buying it this time around. Sure, that was the explanation for 2016, and I’m sure a bunch of people who thought like that got some good laughs. But surely they could see what happened. Surely they lived through the following four years. Surely they can see that breaking glass might be cathartic but now they’re surrounded by broken windows

Surely they saw our liberal outrage was directed at how easily they were manipulated into making their own lives worse? Surely they saw further divisiveness as “liberal elites” just shook their heads in sadness and started giving up on their brethren in less successful places. Surely they see those same cities they wanted to wreck are doing better than ever while they’re stuck with the consequences of their votes?

DarkCloud ,

The billionaires behind the think tanks are doing better than ever, that’s the point of the think tanks. None of this is going away even if ut lulls. It’s a sustained effort.

Tim Pool, David Rubin, Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro (whose daily wire was started with fracking money from Dan and Ferris wilks), Andy Gno, (whose post-millenial was started by an Israeli real estate billionaire)… They all made money, huge amounts of money. Tim Pool was making $400,000 an episode twice a month for years… And these are thevlow level defenders of the billionaire Libertarian think tanks.

Trump officials probably made so much more.

So it doesn’t really matter what happens, we can be sure efforts will not go away. Dwindle, but this is what they know how to do, and they’ve been handed massive wealth in the process… They’ll use that wealth to continue thier efforts.

You can “not buy” that viewers would be that dumb (many are) but that’s not the point. The machine has been paid, the political apparatus to produce the far right media will continue in many different forms.

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