this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2024
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politics

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[–] halcyoncmdr 25 points 1 day ago (2 children)

It's not about smart versus dumb, it's even simpler than that. The majority of Americans don't have the time to stay up to date on events and politics. They're too busy working dead end jobs with stagnant wages living paycheck to paycheck worrying about everything else.

Then, the little bit of politics they see here and there comprises one party saying "things are bad, we'll fix it" (never explaining what that means and never intending to follow through) while the other party saying "it's not that bad actually" (which is technically true, in context).

So if you're living paycheck to paycheck, maybe working multiple jobs to get by, with no visible career opportunities and maybe getting an annual raise just below inflation, being told "it's not that bad" is a slap in the face, even if it really isn't in comparison to where it could be.

Look at the actual number of votes, Trump didn't actually get any more popular, 14 Million Dem voters just didn't vote this time. All the Dem talked about was how bad Trump would be, and that it wasn't that bad. They didn't say they would try to make it better.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm sorry but I just don't buy that. They don't have time to talk to anyone who's actually paying attention? They can't take ten minutes over the course of several months (for Harris) or years (for Trump) to listen to the candidates speak and see which one can speak in coherent sentences?

No, they're just too stubborn to listen to anyone who tells them anything other than what they want to hear. Or too racist to vote for a Black person, too sexist to vote for a woman, too brainwashed to ever vote for a Democrat, etc.

[–] halcyoncmdr 8 points 1 day ago

You assume people WANT to talk or even think about politics at all. Most people DON'T GIVE A SHIT. They actively try to AVOID politics. They don't think it affects their daily lives. And to be honest, they're right. 90% of government changes have no direct affect on their lives, nearly all effects are indirect. Unless the government is directly giving individual tax breaks, or stimulus payments, the effect of policy is hidden behind companies making changes in response.

They think various parts of the government have either a lot more, or a lot less power than they actually do. Many for whatever reason seem to think the President has ANY control on gas prices at all because that bullshit is repeated every time gas prices go up, a commodity with a price based almost exclusively on worldwide trading price. Very few Americans are able to see more than a year or so into the future because they're too hyper-focused on getting through each week or month. It's why Republican tax cuts work so well, they give a small tax cut to individuals that will expire in 3-4 years when might not be in power, and if they are, they just pass another. Meanwhile permanent cuts to those most able to afford it, are hidden behind that, and inflate the tax cut number so it looks like the tiny cut the average person sees is actually a lot larger.

And all of this is reinforced by a propaganda network through a nearly unregulated media landscape. The regulation is on old broadcast channels, regulated under the FCC, as little as that regulation is now. And even then, most of those shows now are opinion shows, not actual "news" segments, so the regulation is even lower. Cable channels, don't have those regulations, and never have. Fox News for instance, not a broadcast network, it is a separate channel from Fox. Even then, Fox News only has "news" segments for an hour or two each day. Everything else is opinion shows, on a "news" channel. So it makes it seem like everything on the channel is news, which should theoretically not be an inherent lie. And every time they're called out, they point to the actual hour or two of actual news as a cover. They try to hide any required apologies or corrections they couldn't snake their way out of into a tiny sliver of time within in that hour with fewer viewers instead of the same show it happened.

There are the people you're talking about, but they're still a minority. Voter turnout in the US was only about 63.5% of the eligible population in 2024. Of that, Trump got about 50.2% of the votes. So that's 31.8% of voting eligible Americans voting for Trump. That is a minority no matter how you cut it, regardless of reasons or individual issues. American politics is regularly decided by less than 1/3rd of the population because of how our election system operates.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Nah they just dumb. It takes zero time to look at trump since the 80s and see what he is. Don't make excuses face reality or else you are as much to blame as them.

[–] halcyoncmdr 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Don't make excuses face reality or else you are as much to blame as them.

Get off your high horse. Attitudes like yours are part of the reason many of those people have decided to just go with the opposite viewpoint. There are a lot of Trump supporters that vote only out of spite, to "get back" at people expressing that type of attitude.

The Republicans just being obstructionists that do the exact opposite of whatever the Democrats plan didn't come out of nowhere. It got them votes. A lot of them.

[–] Feathercrown 1 points 17 hours ago

Attitudes like yours are part of the reason many of those people have decided to just go with the opposite viewpoint.

You're right, but if they were good people they wouldn't be evil just because someone pointed it out. Learning from people who don't like what you're doing is a fundamentally important skill.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 22 hours ago

Lol I'm just jaded. Keep doing what you always have done don't be surprised when you get the same results. Someday you might realize Democrats are just grifting the same scam Republicans did ten years ago while whispering they love you in your ear.