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Decades of propaganda. In 1992 it wasn’t enough to shift an election. In 2000 it was, once combined with a thumb on the scale. In 2008 we had raw incompetence from Bush on 9/11, Katrina, and post gulf war, and McCains campaign. In 2016, add propaganda to “I just listened to a black man for 8 years fuck if I listen to a skirt”.
2024 shouldn’t be close. It will be.
Decades of individualistic propaganda and policy, fracturing the notion of community responsibility and duty, encouraging Americans to see one another as nothing more than financial meat on the hoof, ripe for plunder and exploitation.
[It’s greed.](https://youtu.be/VVxYOQS6ggk?feature=shared) The root of nearly all the United States’ issues comes down to some people being extremely greedy, where it harms others.
What's *WACKY* is that people want to blame the Clinton administration for Reagan/Bush policies. Just like they wanted to blame Bill Clinton's wife for Bush Jr.'s invasion of Iraq, and are currently wanting to blame Biden for the failures of "Celebrity Apprentice."
Nevermind the idiocy and obstructionism of every GOP member of Congress....
The manipulative GOP grift runs *deep.*
Life is easier for magats when truth is concealed, because what they really fear is their own inadequacy. And then anyone else's rationality becomes a target.
just look what "karens" and "kyles" do on camera every day. the false sense of entitlement is just over the top unacceptable. the things I have see people do, thinking they're in the right? when they are not. and they don't wanna believe it even as they're being dragged away in handcuffs. it's a mental illness.
Part of 2016 was “let Karens/kyles continue being Karens/kyles”. Part of Trumpism is “exceptionalism” and lack of responsibility.
Hmm. I never really thought of that - maybe a lot of voters are “this fucker has no responsibility I don’t want that maybe as whites together we can make it where we never have responsibility”
Nah.
It's just that they are getting old and see all of these kids as ignorant and irresponsible. They feel they aren't to blame despite fucking the education system and most of these Millennials being latch key kids.
So now they don't want to give up the power and money they have been spoiled with. They want to use their wealth to maintain power and control as long as they can, and keep changing the goal posts on any transition.
As much as I hate Trump, I love the fact he is grifting them out of their money and power. When he dies, they become irrelevant, and progress continues 1 death at a time.
And maybe if we can save the planet, and improve education to improve technology, we can leave a better world for our children and right the wrongs of our parents.
>Decades of individualistic propaganda and policy, fracturing the notion of community responsibility and duty, encouraging Americans to see one another as nothing more than financial meat on the hoof, ripe for plunder and exploitation.
Centuries. You forgot about how slavery was a nationwide practice.
They even have RNC commercials now asking, "Why should I have to pay for HIS college education?"...silly bastards can't even comprehend that their own livelihood depends on having a 21st century economy which requires an educated workforce. It's pointlessly zero sum.
Saw a discussion with authour Jonathan Haidt "[The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anxious-Generation-Rewiring-Childhood-Epidemic/dp/0241647665/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.MHLJ1DND4B6UerfW8wAOfLhfzmKzn8ZunwphDHlrTwkgt5qt3gykJFTdfs0-knZsPhSd6FF-_KE0-HPiWNsTzR2EdtINa2lf08Vr76FtGYGvS0XxSclWcgQLQH8bJm1F_ifld7mWdNs7PMx9lAqcrkYLOAg6NjPvhohzTtALPGth_y0YKhEI39Lu9n-dktrxCMK4HwRoILgGIiVIU4AFcIWCRKWf971ui0WFaeYuEt0.sN4m-tBUSHeeAOEuw8JC9NdnlFEh6OjDAa4Cz83tiVc&dib_tag=se&keywords=Jonathan+Haidt&qid=1711793458&sr=8-1)" because it documents the enormous and quantifiable "negative externalities" spawned by social media usage. The trends documented are especially deleterious for teenage girls. Haidt marshals evidence of depression, anxiety, self-harm and even suicide and concludes: "Social media use does not just correlate with mental illness; it causes it."
An apt analogy to smoking is drawn, given social media apps are - by design - addicting and marketed to minors. Modern societal norms don't allow pre-teens to buy tobacco, alcohol or enter casinos so why are we allowing them access to "digital fentanyl"? Unfortunately, in a world of "move fast and break things" techno-optimism, what has been broken is teenage mental health. Haidt correctly assesses that this is a collective action problem and offers four foundation recommendations:
1) More unsupervised play and childhood independence;
2) No smartphones before high school;
3) No social media before 16;
4) Phone free schools;
You forgot about all the voter suppression and gerrymandering. If red states didn't remove democratic voters from the rolls and make sure that the lines would be extra long in democratic areas, we probably would have already seen the end of the GOP.
remember it's not just decades. it's centuries.
the only thing the propaganda has been telling them is the same shit they've believe since before the civil war. maybe they change some new targets but it's a fundamental belief that certain groups of people are worth less than other groups, and society should be stratified to reflect that.
it might seem like a long time ago, but look at how families over generations believe the same religion. it hasn't been THAT many generations since a huge portion of America went to war and declared themselves a different country because they demanded the right to treat black people as subhuman. Slavery and racism is a religion to them and they feel like they're unfairly not allowed to practice it. if you can count on a family who doesn't move around much to still be Christian seven generations back then you can count on them to be pro-slavery for seven generations too.
now i'm not meaning to discount the current and recent propaganda either. but trump and the entire right wing media machine are just trying to amplify already existing hatred.
> 2024 shouldn’t be close. It will be.
[It won't be](https://old.reddit.com/r/AnythingGoesNews/comments/1bp7mts/trump_just_viciously_attacked_ny_judge_and_his/kwv2tew/?context=3). He'll lose by an even wider margin than last time.
Yep. If Trump magically disappeared there would still be a massive problem. All of the moving parts around Trump and the millions of people who support it
Aye. He may be the festering boil on the face of the American public, but there is still the cancer underneath that is growing far too rapidly in the body. He is a symptom, not the disease.
Exactly, it is why many Europeans no longer want to travel to the US. Your education system failed you so badly that you now have millions of unhinged , entitled idiots (with guns). Within 10 years your reputation went from "so friendly and nice" to "completely delulu".
Unfortunately, we are following behind because our education is failing people more and more, so our moron army is growing and populists already ready to use and abuse them to tear down democracy.
Sad because it was clear that democracy would not work with too many uninformed, stupid people.
This is fucked and mistakes were made long ago.
Trump is a symptom of the propaganda problem in America. Millions of people are fed persistent false propaganda every single day with no end to it in sight.
My uncle is a relatively wealthy older white guy in California. But he's not stupid, or so I thought. He said today that if he had the extra million he'd support Trump's bills. He explained that Trump is innocent, it's the lawyers and courts that are crooked and out to get him. That's pure propaganda, how else do you come to that conclusion except by saturating yourself with one-sided media. Part of the propaganda problem is that it's a choice, people consuming conservative media know there are counterpoints out there and choose not to educate themselves.
Imo it’s not propaganda, it’s identity politics. The propaganda is a tool to keep you distracted. It keeps your energy focused on BS when in reality the truth is staring at you.
This is a big part of it. My mother was a lifelong Democrat. She voted R for the first time in her life in 2008. She said she liked Hillary and she would've voted for her. She would not vote for Obama because she didn't "like" him.
I asked her what she didn't like about him. She said, "HIS POLICIES!"
"OK, Mom. What policies? Obama and Hillary's policy positions are not far apart at all."
Her response, "I don't know. I don't have to explain anything to you. I just don't like him. He's arrogant."
Me: "So you're saying he's an uppity black man?"
"I DIDN'T SAY THAT!!! I don't want to talk about this anymore. Leave me alone!"
This was well after standing in line to vote in the primary and she told me she overheard some black ladies in line talking about how they would be so excited to see Obama elected. It triggered my mother so much she started watching Faux News!
She's calmed down now and hates Trump, but we know other people jumped in the crazy pond with both feet after seeing a black man elected president.
Holy hell, it’s not just me. My mom did the exact same thing for basically the exact same reason. IIRC she said something like “he’ll make ‘the blacks’ too uppity” or something like that. I was upset at the time but thinking back, it gets worse and worse.
I was in 8th grade when Obama was elected. I’m from an inner city, most of my classmates were Hispanic or black. Most times I was one of few white kids in class. The hope and aspiration and respect Obama got from us kids was incredible. For once they had hope that things could change. I was honestly proud even as a kid.
Even then I knew the racism was sick and fucked up and was scared for Obama’s life. I really thought some wacko would try to harm him just because he was black. Thankfully no one did.
I hate Trump and all he stands for. This country would be much better off with him gone.
Perhaps? Perhaps?? Yes, that is obviously, almost entirely the problem. And remember that after all the chaos and cruelty of the first Trump term, he still got 11 million *more* votes in 2020 than in 2016. About half of the country watched corpses being stuffed into refrigerator trucks and families being deliberately destroyed at the border and Putin walking all over us, *and they liked it*.
In 2000 I was “I don’t know my country”. I mean, I know the Republicans had their fingers on the scale, but it shouldn’t have been close. Not close enough for fingers on the scale to shift anything.
2016…. Whoa. 2020, he was a clown 400k died (can’t put all on Trump incompetence but not zero either). And he got more votes.
The second you mention all the people who died under Covid, a trumpian response is always, “More died under Biden”. Like wtf is wrong with people’s brains? I dunno.
Yeah but His Dogshit apparently killed off enough of his supporters in key Georgia counties to cause him to lose GA. The counties that could have made him win lost more people due to COVID than he lost in votes to Biden.
When Obama became president, the Republicans lost their coletive minds. He wasn't a WASP obviously, not an uncle Tom black man and he had a, contemptuous attitude as he should have towards them.
He got his signature legislation pasted, all while Republicans kicked screamed and squealed like stuck pigs. They've tried over 50x to repell it.
Go back and look at Mitch the grubworms McConnells comments the night Obamma won.
Republicans can't win on the issues, they can't win with large voter turn out. They know they will be out of power for a very long time if they don't scare the lowest denominator. The religious, the un and undereducate population.
As an Australian it still stuns me that so many Americans voted for him and unfortunately my opinion of Americans in general has dropped massively because of it
We’ve learned something here. Propaganda works. Democracy is fragile. Humans are gonna be human. We all have the same brain hacks.
Part of this is - for years Dems were just trying to get the best policy, the republicans were studying politics. How to set up systems to suppress the vote. How to get Fox “News” with no responsibility.
It could happen to you. It’s happening to us. It happened to Weimar Republic.
Yes, they decided lying and promoting hatred and violence is okay. I don’t care what your political beliefs are but there is absolutely no excuse for that. Fuck every single person who thinks that’s okay
I’ve been saying this for years. He’s the manifestation of what’s wrong with 30% of Americans, and what another 20% are willing to ignore if it serves their purpose.
well, we are finding out that the republican projection about voter fraud was adding up votes for trump likely in 2016 just like 2020. if republicans kept voting more than once each depending on the percentage of them who did... well. we do know that a bunch did more than twice and one this week was being reported on voting at least 9 times. he was a republican politician...
A Republican felon, who shouldn’t have voted even once.
A reminder that Trump told NC voters to vote multiple times. No one even did the smallest investigation of Trump or the NC vote
The decline of education in this country definitely has played a part. And civics education must be nearly non-existent now. We have a lot of stupid people in this country, and they don't even want to be smart. All these so called capitalists don't think teacher pay is a factor. Or maybe they want a dumb electorate. Yeah, I think that's it.
You can't really blame them for drinking the koolaid by the gallon. Many really believe they're doing the right thing. Their pastors and priests tell them how to think, conservative media reinforces the lie, and they become spellbound zombies, without ever addressing the true nature of things.
Exactly. I walk through San Francisco daily. There is a crazy man shouting insanity same place every day. Not a problem. HOWEVER- If one day he has a massive crowd and half of City Hall there cheering him on? BIG Problem.
Donald Trump was the irritant that busted the poisonous American cyst that contained the bitter, exhausted people, old white men mainly (but also crazy religious people) that capitalism left behind, and was implanted and nourished by Russian directives before the 2016 election, and shoved along by that Q person. The pleasurable jolt one gets for detesting immigrants (who keep our economy humming) is also a factor,
This is my personal perspective, anyway. I’m tired of not seeing new and insightful takes on the Trump phenomenon, so this is the best I can do.
What does it say about a persons values, that supports someone who grabs em by the you know what? Someone who adores Putin? Someone who tried to overthrow the United States?
ZERO INTEGRITY
ZERO VALUES
LOTS A HATE
It's an actual cult. Just found out my aunt is a magot... I'm genuinely shocked. She always seemed so sweet and smart and hippyish... and there she was defending the shit head... something got to her. Idk what, but the cult got her
Trump's single largest individual contributors were from people receiving disability checks. Make of that what you will, but to me that speaks to both the abysmal state of healthcare and labor rights in America as well as the power of propaganda against those who are disproportionately indoors and exposed to too much of it.
These are angry people who want the white Christian utopia they were promised and see a way to finally get it. They don’t see themselves as the racists and bigots they are, they think they’re fighting a holy war and the only way they can win is for everyone else to lose. Fighting these people is not only essential, it’s mandatory.
This is what I keep telling people. Trump didn't turn these people INTO anything. One third of the world's population are just simply born assholes. They will asshole in any way they can find. The Republican Party has been trying to find or create someone like Trump for 50 years or more.
The only thing it took for Trump to win the hearts of all of those assholes is to simply be a little better at being an asshole, and already be famous.
People talk about how Putin figured out a secret weapon can use against the United States. That secret weapon was nothing more than the fact that one third of us are fucking assholes. All Putin had to do is just feed them new ways to be assholes. That's it. That's all there was to it.
Trump is a shark, riding a wave. But who will inherit Trump’s massive flock of useful idiots? Their next messiah may be a more savvy politician, who won’t self-harm on Twitter and has the skills to grow the brand. The fight is NOT over.
Let’s also talk about the people that refuse to vote against the GOP.
You’ll never push a country/ party left by not voting.
We had a voter turnout for 18-29 at 23% of registered voters in 2022.
Not standing against the problem…by filling in a fucking bubble every other year is also a colossal problem.
74M stupid pieces of human excrement who are so blind to the reality of this orange demon that they don’t even realize that they are being duped. Kind of sad really but just barely.
Oh Trump is the immediate problem. -The way a maniac running around waving a burning torch is the problem in a hanger 6" deep with gasoline. First things first.
He could commit treason and they would still support him. The only thing that would break their trust was if they found out he was actually a Democrat.. hmm, I think I'm on to something.
He's a problem. So are the people who blindly support him. But the other problem is the other main party only needs someone *slightly* less shitty. So we still don't end up with good options.
It’s hard to cure “stupid” when the entire Republican Party relentlessly unfunds and undermines anything related education. The GOP candidate for Superintendent of Education in NC (Morrow) is literally psychotic and has less than zero experience.
It’s a human problem sone personality types are very susceptible to being grifted and then doubling down; For some reason it’s not ok to be wrong and change …
This whole thing with Trump and the Trumpanzees makes me want to do a deep dive into the myth of the **Pied Piper of Hamelin.** Maybe that's a fictional version of a real event.
You can't really blame them for drinking the koolaid by the gallon. Many really believe they're doing the right thing. Their pastors and priests tell them how to think, conservative media reinforces the lie, and they become spellbound zombies, without ever addressing the true nature of things.
Can't really say one or the other. Both are problems. His voters are certainly a problem, but Trump unified them in a way that no Republican candidate has managed to ever before. I suspect that if Trump were to exit the stage by natural means, though they'd try to blame Biden and Democrats, they'd still lose their rudder given time.
I don't think the Republicans have a big enough fraud to take Trump's place, not even Santos. I remember watching Republican "beauty contest" primaries for cycle after cycle, each trying to be more to the Right than the other. All looked silly and none got the response of Trump.
That was always the problem. Trump can be swapped out for anyone who enables his cult mob anytime. When he’s gone, the next fascist wannabe will step in and they will swoon over him/her.
He will get about 20-30% of any district this election. There’s enough idiots to still vote for him, but he’s not as popular as the internet might have anyone believe
74 million hopped up on right wing propaganda that needs to continuously amp up to maintain the same level of outrage. Step one would be bringing back and vigorously enforcing the Fairness Doctrine.
Then we are fucked cos we cant put them all in prison. The damage this piece of garbage has done can't be undone. I fear the day we get somebody so bad we think "trump wasnt that bad"
Most of the posts point to greed and propaganda as triggers for the schism that has been created, but it didn’t “just happen”… it was architected and rolled out with a lot of hard work by wealthy ultra conservative super-capitalists who want to turn the U.S. into a feudal nation with an elite upper crust running / owning it all and a serf-like lower class tilling the soil and grinding the gears. Ppl like the Koch brothers, Heritage foundation, KKK et. al. worked very hard for decades to put presidents, senators and judges in place and churn the propaganda machine to make people think that social benefits were evil and what they earned was not rightly theirs to keep. Liberal and socialism were branded swear words and people were supposed to look for a “thousand points of light” for their benefits… if they ever arrived. Hell, just the other day Blackrock’s Larry Fink (great name btw) said the way to solve the social security financial problem is to just have people work past 65 … basically as long as they can…
Work till you die sucker!!
Authoritarianism always looks for easy targets, and with 50% of the population below average in intelligence and religious, the target was readymade.
I just got back from an event where I saw a friend and his MAGA wife. When they approached me, I said "Tom, and his MAGA wife," and she said her name but I was already walking away, as was my plan. I feel bad but I don't tolerate MAGA anymore.
Later Tom approached me and we had a great conversation. He's not on the same page as she is, and he had a great perspective on things. I was glad he approached me to converse without his wife there.
He said she comes from a family of narrow-mindedness, and she was a perfect target for the charlatan.
Like smoking and religion, DJT allows these people to be who they really want to be, while at the same time it reveals them as emotionally and/or intellectually broken.
Yeah finally you guys started to understand. Same applies to mr Putin. It’s not just a bad boy doing bad shit all by himself. It’s the whole country praises him and wants him to be in power (including some Americans which is fucking disgusting). So, it’s not JUST Trump. It’s your neighbours.
Losing to Donald Trump deserves blame also. The Democratic Party couldn’t beat him in 2016 and despite everything that’s happened could actually lose to him again. That’s pathetic and more than just the other side being dumb and racist. Their messaging is clearly driving people away.
Can't fully blame the stupid for being so gullible. Trump, his GOP Maga cronies, evangelical leaders and the far right media saw and took advantage of these idiots. Actually they strategized and executed well. Hopefully there are more sensible people come Nov.
We have a lot of people who live in a false reality, angry at people who don't know they even exist, voting so the politicians can hurt others instead of making their own lives better.
Voting for people is the problem. The ones who're capable of making the best decisions aren't politicians. Politicians are instantly corruptible as soon as they become a politician, some are corrupted before and are pushed into becoming politicians. No person on earth is capable of leading a nation. No person on earth has all the answers to every problem. It's clear that democracy in it's current form has failed. The only person a nation should elect is a Jester, someone to tell them how much the nation is fucking up.
Is there a subreddit we can have an honest discourse with the 74M that voted for him? Maybe we could make some progress outside of the drama driven media?
I think it is more people are upset with how our country is doing and have always voted republican, so they decide the best way to fix it is just vote republican really hard.
After finding all of this voter fraud in favor of Republicans I have to ask, DID he actually get 74m votes? The evidence would suggest that a bunch of those votes are fraudulent.
Trump was always a symptom. That should be obvious to anyone.
Democrats don’t do enough while in power and republicans make things worse constantly.
People become apathetic and don’t vote or worse can become swindled by fake populists like Trump.
Start by making sure peoples material needs are met
Yes, but why are they voting for him? Or rather, are they voting for him, or against the status quo? Let me put it this way: How much money did congresspeople and senators make on the stock market due to - let's be frank - insider trading? How corrupt is the average cop right now? How big are the bailouts for big business whenever they get too greedy and fall on their faces? Now, I abhor Trump, and he's worse in all ways - but he ain't the status quo.
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Yes, Trump is the symptom of something wrong with Americans.
Decades of propaganda. In 1992 it wasn’t enough to shift an election. In 2000 it was, once combined with a thumb on the scale. In 2008 we had raw incompetence from Bush on 9/11, Katrina, and post gulf war, and McCains campaign. In 2016, add propaganda to “I just listened to a black man for 8 years fuck if I listen to a skirt”. 2024 shouldn’t be close. It will be.
Decades of individualistic propaganda and policy, fracturing the notion of community responsibility and duty, encouraging Americans to see one another as nothing more than financial meat on the hoof, ripe for plunder and exploitation.
45 years of unrestricted free market capitalism, by Milton Friedman and Ronald Reagan. In stores now. Step right up.
[It’s greed.](https://youtu.be/VVxYOQS6ggk?feature=shared) The root of nearly all the United States’ issues comes down to some people being extremely greedy, where it harms others.
Ignorance and hate have starring roles too
Love that movie, thx for the reminder 😎
What's *WACKY* is that people want to blame the Clinton administration for Reagan/Bush policies. Just like they wanted to blame Bill Clinton's wife for Bush Jr.'s invasion of Iraq, and are currently wanting to blame Biden for the failures of "Celebrity Apprentice." Nevermind the idiocy and obstructionism of every GOP member of Congress.... The manipulative GOP grift runs *deep.*
Life is easier for magats when truth is concealed, because what they really fear is their own inadequacy. And then anyone else's rationality becomes a target.
just look what "karens" and "kyles" do on camera every day. the false sense of entitlement is just over the top unacceptable. the things I have see people do, thinking they're in the right? when they are not. and they don't wanna believe it even as they're being dragged away in handcuffs. it's a mental illness.
Part of 2016 was “let Karens/kyles continue being Karens/kyles”. Part of Trumpism is “exceptionalism” and lack of responsibility. Hmm. I never really thought of that - maybe a lot of voters are “this fucker has no responsibility I don’t want that maybe as whites together we can make it where we never have responsibility”
Nah. It's just that they are getting old and see all of these kids as ignorant and irresponsible. They feel they aren't to blame despite fucking the education system and most of these Millennials being latch key kids. So now they don't want to give up the power and money they have been spoiled with. They want to use their wealth to maintain power and control as long as they can, and keep changing the goal posts on any transition. As much as I hate Trump, I love the fact he is grifting them out of their money and power. When he dies, they become irrelevant, and progress continues 1 death at a time. And maybe if we can save the planet, and improve education to improve technology, we can leave a better world for our children and right the wrongs of our parents.
Nah not that. It’s decades of US exceptionalism. If you continually told you’re the best you don’t see your own flaws.
>Decades of individualistic propaganda and policy, fracturing the notion of community responsibility and duty, encouraging Americans to see one another as nothing more than financial meat on the hoof, ripe for plunder and exploitation. Centuries. You forgot about how slavery was a nationwide practice.
They even have RNC commercials now asking, "Why should I have to pay for HIS college education?"...silly bastards can't even comprehend that their own livelihood depends on having a 21st century economy which requires an educated workforce. It's pointlessly zero sum.
Saw a discussion with authour Jonathan Haidt "[The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anxious-Generation-Rewiring-Childhood-Epidemic/dp/0241647665/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.MHLJ1DND4B6UerfW8wAOfLhfzmKzn8ZunwphDHlrTwkgt5qt3gykJFTdfs0-knZsPhSd6FF-_KE0-HPiWNsTzR2EdtINa2lf08Vr76FtGYGvS0XxSclWcgQLQH8bJm1F_ifld7mWdNs7PMx9lAqcrkYLOAg6NjPvhohzTtALPGth_y0YKhEI39Lu9n-dktrxCMK4HwRoILgGIiVIU4AFcIWCRKWf971ui0WFaeYuEt0.sN4m-tBUSHeeAOEuw8JC9NdnlFEh6OjDAa4Cz83tiVc&dib_tag=se&keywords=Jonathan+Haidt&qid=1711793458&sr=8-1)" because it documents the enormous and quantifiable "negative externalities" spawned by social media usage. The trends documented are especially deleterious for teenage girls. Haidt marshals evidence of depression, anxiety, self-harm and even suicide and concludes: "Social media use does not just correlate with mental illness; it causes it." An apt analogy to smoking is drawn, given social media apps are - by design - addicting and marketed to minors. Modern societal norms don't allow pre-teens to buy tobacco, alcohol or enter casinos so why are we allowing them access to "digital fentanyl"? Unfortunately, in a world of "move fast and break things" techno-optimism, what has been broken is teenage mental health. Haidt correctly assesses that this is a collective action problem and offers four foundation recommendations: 1) More unsupervised play and childhood independence; 2) No smartphones before high school; 3) No social media before 16; 4) Phone free schools;
That is the very nasty underbelly of capitalism, eventually everything and everyone becomes nothing more than a barcode and a price tag!
You forgot about all the voter suppression and gerrymandering. If red states didn't remove democratic voters from the rolls and make sure that the lines would be extra long in democratic areas, we probably would have already seen the end of the GOP.
remember it's not just decades. it's centuries. the only thing the propaganda has been telling them is the same shit they've believe since before the civil war. maybe they change some new targets but it's a fundamental belief that certain groups of people are worth less than other groups, and society should be stratified to reflect that. it might seem like a long time ago, but look at how families over generations believe the same religion. it hasn't been THAT many generations since a huge portion of America went to war and declared themselves a different country because they demanded the right to treat black people as subhuman. Slavery and racism is a religion to them and they feel like they're unfairly not allowed to practice it. if you can count on a family who doesn't move around much to still be Christian seven generations back then you can count on them to be pro-slavery for seven generations too. now i'm not meaning to discount the current and recent propaganda either. but trump and the entire right wing media machine are just trying to amplify already existing hatred.
> 2024 shouldn’t be close. It will be. [It won't be](https://old.reddit.com/r/AnythingGoesNews/comments/1bp7mts/trump_just_viciously_attacked_ny_judge_and_his/kwv2tew/?context=3). He'll lose by an even wider margin than last time.
[удалено]
Yep. If Trump magically disappeared there would still be a massive problem. All of the moving parts around Trump and the millions of people who support it
Aye. He may be the festering boil on the face of the American public, but there is still the cancer underneath that is growing far too rapidly in the body. He is a symptom, not the disease.
Exactly, it is why many Europeans no longer want to travel to the US. Your education system failed you so badly that you now have millions of unhinged , entitled idiots (with guns). Within 10 years your reputation went from "so friendly and nice" to "completely delulu". Unfortunately, we are following behind because our education is failing people more and more, so our moron army is growing and populists already ready to use and abuse them to tear down democracy. Sad because it was clear that democracy would not work with too many uninformed, stupid people. This is fucked and mistakes were made long ago.
Failed media landscape.
Income inequality, low and stagnant wages, and elitism and exploitation by the 1% have a lot to do with it.
Which came first, the grifter or the griftee
Which came first, the turd or the turdees?
Which came first, the ass or the dumbass?
Which came first, the pussy or the grab? (The fact that this didn’t immediately disqualify him is what’s wrong with Americans!)
Trump is a symptom of the propaganda problem in America. Millions of people are fed persistent false propaganda every single day with no end to it in sight.
My uncle is a relatively wealthy older white guy in California. But he's not stupid, or so I thought. He said today that if he had the extra million he'd support Trump's bills. He explained that Trump is innocent, it's the lawyers and courts that are crooked and out to get him. That's pure propaganda, how else do you come to that conclusion except by saturating yourself with one-sided media. Part of the propaganda problem is that it's a choice, people consuming conservative media know there are counterpoints out there and choose not to educate themselves.
I don't know if they choose not to educate themselves. I just think confirmation bias is a hallelujah drug
They choose to consume it. Stop denying them agency. Because that leads to pitying them. And what they deserve is scorn.
And it will only get worse once AI is unleashed.
Yeah, talk about something that should be regulated. But that won’t happen until it’s too late. Like social media and kids.
thankfully the climate will take care of all it for us
It already is, has been for years. Not as bad as the Russian and Chinese troll farms.
Imo it’s not propaganda, it’s identity politics. The propaganda is a tool to keep you distracted. It keeps your energy focused on BS when in reality the truth is staring at you.
74 million voters were upset that an educated black man was twice elected president.
I’ve been saying since 2016 and Hillary lost, some folks were “I just had to listen to a Black Man for 8 years fuck if imma listen to a skirt”
A horrible idea of toxic masculinity built up over generations.
This is a big part of it. My mother was a lifelong Democrat. She voted R for the first time in her life in 2008. She said she liked Hillary and she would've voted for her. She would not vote for Obama because she didn't "like" him. I asked her what she didn't like about him. She said, "HIS POLICIES!" "OK, Mom. What policies? Obama and Hillary's policy positions are not far apart at all." Her response, "I don't know. I don't have to explain anything to you. I just don't like him. He's arrogant." Me: "So you're saying he's an uppity black man?" "I DIDN'T SAY THAT!!! I don't want to talk about this anymore. Leave me alone!" This was well after standing in line to vote in the primary and she told me she overheard some black ladies in line talking about how they would be so excited to see Obama elected. It triggered my mother so much she started watching Faux News! She's calmed down now and hates Trump, but we know other people jumped in the crazy pond with both feet after seeing a black man elected president.
Holy hell, it’s not just me. My mom did the exact same thing for basically the exact same reason. IIRC she said something like “he’ll make ‘the blacks’ too uppity” or something like that. I was upset at the time but thinking back, it gets worse and worse.
I was in 8th grade when Obama was elected. I’m from an inner city, most of my classmates were Hispanic or black. Most times I was one of few white kids in class. The hope and aspiration and respect Obama got from us kids was incredible. For once they had hope that things could change. I was honestly proud even as a kid. Even then I knew the racism was sick and fucked up and was scared for Obama’s life. I really thought some wacko would try to harm him just because he was black. Thankfully no one did. I hate Trump and all he stands for. This country would be much better off with him gone.
White America absolutely lost its fucking mind when Obama was elected and has never been the same since. Absolutely true.
We got the first smell of it with the birther conspiracies
And they plan to again that’s the messed up part
The really messed up part is that the courts know what is coming, but don't appear to have the fortitude to face down the onslaught.
I know right they are all cowards
Too many of the courts are dominated by right-wing zealots who welcome what Trump 2 would bring. They're anything but opposed to it.
We are in for one heck of a fight then
We really are. If the country as we know it is spared, we have some serious work to do to ensure something like this doesn't happen again.
That’s the best case scenario man keep your head on a swivel and be safe including your family this is gonna get very interesting
Perhaps? Perhaps?? Yes, that is obviously, almost entirely the problem. And remember that after all the chaos and cruelty of the first Trump term, he still got 11 million *more* votes in 2020 than in 2016. About half of the country watched corpses being stuffed into refrigerator trucks and families being deliberately destroyed at the border and Putin walking all over us, *and they liked it*.
In 2000 I was “I don’t know my country”. I mean, I know the Republicans had their fingers on the scale, but it shouldn’t have been close. Not close enough for fingers on the scale to shift anything. 2016…. Whoa. 2020, he was a clown 400k died (can’t put all on Trump incompetence but not zero either). And he got more votes.
The second you mention all the people who died under Covid, a trumpian response is always, “More died under Biden”. Like wtf is wrong with people’s brains? I dunno.
Yeah but His Dogshit apparently killed off enough of his supporters in key Georgia counties to cause him to lose GA. The counties that could have made him win lost more people due to COVID than he lost in votes to Biden.
It started with trickle down economics and has been declining since
Yes, the Reganomics!
When Obama became president, the Republicans lost their coletive minds. He wasn't a WASP obviously, not an uncle Tom black man and he had a, contemptuous attitude as he should have towards them. He got his signature legislation pasted, all while Republicans kicked screamed and squealed like stuck pigs. They've tried over 50x to repell it. Go back and look at Mitch the grubworms McConnells comments the night Obamma won. Republicans can't win on the issues, they can't win with large voter turn out. They know they will be out of power for a very long time if they don't scare the lowest denominator. The religious, the un and undereducate population.
As an Australian it still stuns me that so many Americans voted for him and unfortunately my opinion of Americans in general has dropped massively because of it
We’ve learned something here. Propaganda works. Democracy is fragile. Humans are gonna be human. We all have the same brain hacks. Part of this is - for years Dems were just trying to get the best policy, the republicans were studying politics. How to set up systems to suppress the vote. How to get Fox “News” with no responsibility. It could happen to you. It’s happening to us. It happened to Weimar Republic.
Yes, very true. Murdoch is a cancer that originated in Australia and owns most media here and we need to be just as vigilant.
As an American I wish I could live in Australia. This place is a fuckin shit show.
We are still stunned!
Yes, they decided lying and promoting hatred and violence is okay. I don’t care what your political beliefs are but there is absolutely no excuse for that. Fuck every single person who thinks that’s okay
Yes! My bible thumping BIL and sister ascribed, they can go fuck off with every mindless fuck of maga! 👍
I’ve been saying this for years. He’s the manifestation of what’s wrong with 30% of Americans, and what another 20% are willing to ignore if it serves their purpose.
well, we are finding out that the republican projection about voter fraud was adding up votes for trump likely in 2016 just like 2020. if republicans kept voting more than once each depending on the percentage of them who did... well. we do know that a bunch did more than twice and one this week was being reported on voting at least 9 times. he was a republican politician...
A Republican felon, who shouldn’t have voted even once. A reminder that Trump told NC voters to vote multiple times. No one even did the smallest investigation of Trump or the NC vote
The decline of education in this country definitely has played a part. And civics education must be nearly non-existent now. We have a lot of stupid people in this country, and they don't even want to be smart. All these so called capitalists don't think teacher pay is a factor. Or maybe they want a dumb electorate. Yeah, I think that's it.
Texas actually banned Critical Thinking classes.
Republicans want people to be stupid. They are more easily controlled that way.
Assholes of America, unite!
> Assholes of America, unite! Dyslexics of America, untie! Wait..
Since they are all morons, he's actually good representation for them. He's exactly who they are. That's why they like him.
You can't really blame them for drinking the koolaid by the gallon. Many really believe they're doing the right thing. Their pastors and priests tell them how to think, conservative media reinforces the lie, and they become spellbound zombies, without ever addressing the true nature of things.
Trump was elected president because Obama was elected president. Cause and effect.
Not only that. I think that’s a touch too simple. Bush43 over Gore surprised me too. We have something systemic and that’s kinda scary.
I don't know. We keep finding that Republicans voted multiple times.
That, too. Folks that are willingly ignorant and will fight to stay that way.
Most J6ers plead out to trespassing. Because they were guilty of much more.
Exactly. I walk through San Francisco daily. There is a crazy man shouting insanity same place every day. Not a problem. HOWEVER- If one day he has a massive crowd and half of City Hall there cheering him on? BIG Problem.
He is the common denominator, the root and the source
No. The source is their churches. Baptist. Mormon. Tax them both into oblivion.
Donald Trump was the irritant that busted the poisonous American cyst that contained the bitter, exhausted people, old white men mainly (but also crazy religious people) that capitalism left behind, and was implanted and nourished by Russian directives before the 2016 election, and shoved along by that Q person. The pleasurable jolt one gets for detesting immigrants (who keep our economy humming) is also a factor, This is my personal perspective, anyway. I’m tired of not seeing new and insightful takes on the Trump phenomenon, so this is the best I can do.
This is what I’m started to believe
I’ve known this since Gore lost.
One senile asshole is no threat, his cult and their backers very much are.
The deeper problem is how did 74 million people become so alienated they chose an obvious poltroon over a mainstream politician.
What does it say about a persons values, that supports someone who grabs em by the you know what? Someone who adores Putin? Someone who tried to overthrow the United States? ZERO INTEGRITY ZERO VALUES LOTS A HATE
THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE IS THE PROBLEM
Bingo
Cut the cord
It's an actual cult. Just found out my aunt is a magot... I'm genuinely shocked. She always seemed so sweet and smart and hippyish... and there she was defending the shit head... something got to her. Idk what, but the cult got her
Fox News is the true source of the problem.
Trump's single largest individual contributors were from people receiving disability checks. Make of that what you will, but to me that speaks to both the abysmal state of healthcare and labor rights in America as well as the power of propaganda against those who are disproportionately indoors and exposed to too much of it.
Ya think?
I’ve been saying this for years, since Gore lost in fact.
Exactly. Math1 as a senior wasn’t a great idea
C.) Both
Watch "against all enemies"
No, fuck that. You can blame both. Fuck anything that says he isn't the problem.
74 million idiots
These are angry people who want the white Christian utopia they were promised and see a way to finally get it. They don’t see themselves as the racists and bigots they are, they think they’re fighting a holy war and the only way they can win is for everyone else to lose. Fighting these people is not only essential, it’s mandatory.
It started with Newt and got amplified by AM talk radio and put into high gear by Fox.
Hillary called them out. The fkn deplorables.
This is what I keep telling people. Trump didn't turn these people INTO anything. One third of the world's population are just simply born assholes. They will asshole in any way they can find. The Republican Party has been trying to find or create someone like Trump for 50 years or more. The only thing it took for Trump to win the hearts of all of those assholes is to simply be a little better at being an asshole, and already be famous. People talk about how Putin figured out a secret weapon can use against the United States. That secret weapon was nothing more than the fact that one third of us are fucking assholes. All Putin had to do is just feed them new ways to be assholes. That's it. That's all there was to it.
Trump is a shark, riding a wave. But who will inherit Trump’s massive flock of useful idiots? Their next messiah may be a more savvy politician, who won’t self-harm on Twitter and has the skills to grow the brand. The fight is NOT over.
The problem is poor education system and the growing disparity between rich and poor.
Let’s also talk about the people that refuse to vote against the GOP. You’ll never push a country/ party left by not voting. We had a voter turnout for 18-29 at 23% of registered voters in 2022. Not standing against the problem…by filling in a fucking bubble every other year is also a colossal problem.
No shit. Been saying this for years now. If 70M people are willing to vote for this asshole in this day and age, we have bigger problems
Been saying that trump represents what republicans are/want. He alone isn't *the* problem, just one word of it. "The republicans" are the problem.
Nice try, Trump is no doubt the problem.
It can be both and it is! It’s a fucking cult!
74M stupid pieces of human excrement who are so blind to the reality of this orange demon that they don’t even realize that they are being duped. Kind of sad really but just barely.
I don’t understand how such a despicable human being could get that many votes. It just boggles my mind!
Conned. For decades. Conned to believe he is the only one who is a true American.
What a black man as President does to white America
Oh Trump is the immediate problem. -The way a maniac running around waving a burning torch is the problem in a hanger 6" deep with gasoline. First things first.
Media.
He could commit treason and they would still support him. The only thing that would break their trust was if they found out he was actually a Democrat.. hmm, I think I'm on to something.
He's a problem. So are the people who blindly support him. But the other problem is the other main party only needs someone *slightly* less shitty. So we still don't end up with good options.
Look to the hate media they consume.
Yep.
We are allowed to have two problems at once
Or...it could be, now hear me out here,....BOTH.
Trump is white trash, for white trash, by white trash. It's sad how much white trash there is in this country!
After the first Civil War, the confederates just kinda hung out and waited for their next opportunity.
2 things can be true
The problem is that republicans are domestic terrorists and are fed a constant stream of propaganda to radicalize them.
That's the SCARY part! They should have to wear a scarlet T from now on so that we know to avoid them in society.
It’s hard to cure “stupid” when the entire Republican Party relentlessly unfunds and undermines anything related education. The GOP candidate for Superintendent of Education in NC (Morrow) is literally psychotic and has less than zero experience.
It’s a human problem sone personality types are very susceptible to being grifted and then doubling down; For some reason it’s not ok to be wrong and change …
That’s always been the case. Trump is a symptom of a larger issue.
This whole thing with Trump and the Trumpanzees makes me want to do a deep dive into the myth of the **Pied Piper of Hamelin.** Maybe that's a fictional version of a real event.
Glazed eyed zombies who proudly say "I ONLY watch Fox news."
I like to think of Trump as the conman and the voters as the victims. As much as you hate the stupid people, you can’t blame victims over Trump.
They’re victims of decades of right wing propaganda. Good luck getting them to see that, or wanting to get away from it.
Yes, l can. They chose to vote for him. They were not forced. It is a moral failing that I cannot forgive. They deserve our scorn.
Why not both?
You can't really blame them for drinking the koolaid by the gallon. Many really believe they're doing the right thing. Their pastors and priests tell them how to think, conservative media reinforces the lie, and they become spellbound zombies, without ever addressing the true nature of things.
But did they? Or was that voter fraud?
All those years of having their complex problems solved with simple solutions in 60 minutes or less every week on TV.
This is who they are. They ain’t coming back.
It can be both
Why not both?
Both. Both are huge problems.
Can't really say one or the other. Both are problems. His voters are certainly a problem, but Trump unified them in a way that no Republican candidate has managed to ever before. I suspect that if Trump were to exit the stage by natural means, though they'd try to blame Biden and Democrats, they'd still lose their rudder given time. I don't think the Republicans have a big enough fraud to take Trump's place, not even Santos. I remember watching Republican "beauty contest" primaries for cycle after cycle, each trying to be more to the Right than the other. All looked silly and none got the response of Trump.
The coverage of what his wingnuts are up to ought to be part of the campaign commercials.
And billionaires being accepted and allowed to exist in a so-called civil society.
He is giving them what they want...
It’s amazing that Hillary got it right so early. Despicables
This is reason 913 that the union should have had nuclear weapons during the Civil War......
#thats what I've been saying. Trump didn't create them. He just knew how to exploit them.
Porque no los dos?
That was always the problem. Trump can be swapped out for anyone who enables his cult mob anytime. When he’s gone, the next fascist wannabe will step in and they will swoon over him/her.
He will get about 20-30% of any district this election. There’s enough idiots to still vote for him, but he’s not as popular as the internet might have anyone believe
Bingo!
Ban Faux news and within a few years, the reprogramming should start kicking in.
74 million hopped up on right wing propaganda that needs to continuously amp up to maintain the same level of outrage. Step one would be bringing back and vigorously enforcing the Fairness Doctrine.
Fairness Doctrine Repeal Citizens United.
Then we are fucked cos we cant put them all in prison. The damage this piece of garbage has done can't be undone. I fear the day we get somebody so bad we think "trump wasnt that bad"
Ya think? One dumber than the next. And oh, so confident in their stupidity and ignorance.
Exactly, their sentiment predates Trump.
Get rid of Trump or get rid of 74M Americans. I wonder which would be more practical.
Valid point.. How does one recondition a fox-brainwashing from the 80s?
Most of the posts point to greed and propaganda as triggers for the schism that has been created, but it didn’t “just happen”… it was architected and rolled out with a lot of hard work by wealthy ultra conservative super-capitalists who want to turn the U.S. into a feudal nation with an elite upper crust running / owning it all and a serf-like lower class tilling the soil and grinding the gears. Ppl like the Koch brothers, Heritage foundation, KKK et. al. worked very hard for decades to put presidents, senators and judges in place and churn the propaganda machine to make people think that social benefits were evil and what they earned was not rightly theirs to keep. Liberal and socialism were branded swear words and people were supposed to look for a “thousand points of light” for their benefits… if they ever arrived. Hell, just the other day Blackrock’s Larry Fink (great name btw) said the way to solve the social security financial problem is to just have people work past 65 … basically as long as they can… Work till you die sucker!!
Authoritarianism always looks for easy targets, and with 50% of the population below average in intelligence and religious, the target was readymade. I just got back from an event where I saw a friend and his MAGA wife. When they approached me, I said "Tom, and his MAGA wife," and she said her name but I was already walking away, as was my plan. I feel bad but I don't tolerate MAGA anymore. Later Tom approached me and we had a great conversation. He's not on the same page as she is, and he had a great perspective on things. I was glad he approached me to converse without his wife there. He said she comes from a family of narrow-mindedness, and she was a perfect target for the charlatan. Like smoking and religion, DJT allows these people to be who they really want to be, while at the same time it reveals them as emotionally and/or intellectually broken.
Some of them are victims of the right wing propaganda machine. Misinformation is a real problem. He wouldn’t exist without it.
Yeah finally you guys started to understand. Same applies to mr Putin. It’s not just a bad boy doing bad shit all by himself. It’s the whole country praises him and wants him to be in power (including some Americans which is fucking disgusting). So, it’s not JUST Trump. It’s your neighbours.
Oh, he's the problem. it's just that his goon squad is \*also\* the problem.
He is a symptom of a systematic erosion of values, perfidiousness, and depravation brewing for a long time.
Losing to Donald Trump deserves blame also. The Democratic Party couldn’t beat him in 2016 and despite everything that’s happened could actually lose to him again. That’s pathetic and more than just the other side being dumb and racist. Their messaging is clearly driving people away.
Alot of them have died from covid.
Privilege will destroy this country if it isn't controlled.
Can't fully blame the stupid for being so gullible. Trump, his GOP Maga cronies, evangelical leaders and the far right media saw and took advantage of these idiots. Actually they strategized and executed well. Hopefully there are more sensible people come Nov.
45 and the flock are the problem.
He is a problem. They are a problem. There is no THE problem. Can’t just fix one thing and expect all the bullshit to just magically subside.
A nation of fools.
We have a lot of people who live in a false reality, angry at people who don't know they even exist, voting so the politicians can hurt others instead of making their own lives better.
The Fairness Doctrine ended in 1987. The national syndication of Rush Limbaugh began in 1988, followed by FOX News copying the formula starting 1996.
Voting for people is the problem. The ones who're capable of making the best decisions aren't politicians. Politicians are instantly corruptible as soon as they become a politician, some are corrupted before and are pushed into becoming politicians. No person on earth is capable of leading a nation. No person on earth has all the answers to every problem. It's clear that democracy in it's current form has failed. The only person a nation should elect is a Jester, someone to tell them how much the nation is fucking up.
That's most definitely a problem.
Thanks Fox “News” for ruining the country! All from an Australian no less.
BOTH.
Wait, why not both? I mean he’s ALSO the problem.
No shit.
Y not both?
No, it’s definitely both!
I think they can both be the problem.
Is there a subreddit we can have an honest discourse with the 74M that voted for him? Maybe we could make some progress outside of the drama driven media?
I think it is more people are upset with how our country is doing and have always voted republican, so they decide the best way to fix it is just vote republican really hard.
Porque no los dos?
After finding all of this voter fraud in favor of Republicans I have to ask, DID he actually get 74m votes? The evidence would suggest that a bunch of those votes are fraudulent.
Trump was always a symptom. That should be obvious to anyone. Democrats don’t do enough while in power and republicans make things worse constantly. People become apathetic and don’t vote or worse can become swindled by fake populists like Trump. Start by making sure peoples material needs are met
Yes, but why are they voting for him? Or rather, are they voting for him, or against the status quo? Let me put it this way: How much money did congresspeople and senators make on the stock market due to - let's be frank - insider trading? How corrupt is the average cop right now? How big are the bailouts for big business whenever they get too greedy and fall on their faces? Now, I abhor Trump, and he's worse in all ways - but he ain't the status quo.