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The ones voting for him are listening. That's exactly what they think they want want. The average republican voter is simply too stupid to understand the long term implications of their choices. This is the same stupid push that led to Brexit.
They're being controlled by the smart republicans that are using it to enrich themselves at others expense.
While democrats do this kind of manipulation too, at least they aren't pushing straight up authoritarianism.
Came here to say this. How many times are we gonna watch one of them "accidentally" quote Hitler in a speech, or talk about the benefits of slavery, or talk about how they want to make women second-class citizens, then pretend that they didn't? They gathered under a banner at CPAC that said 'We are all domestic terrorists'. When someone tells you who they are, believe them.
I honestly don't know if I buy the "Republicans are all stoopid" argument entirely; there are plenty of relatively intelligent people that have supported him.
More than a lack of intelligence, I think it's more a radical lack of any empathy or concern for anyone they don't see as being on their same side. I mean, the Republican platform is essentially nothing more than "Own the Libs" at this point. It's not so much that they don't necessarily know the consequences of their actions; they don't care, and would rather prioritize hurting their enemies.
Having much of my family being republican, I think you are leaving out an important piece of the puzzle - fear.
Republicans are terrified all the time. Fear of the other, fear that how they grew up and the people they know are being called wrong for what they think and say. It manifests through anger.
If they can knock you down then you are weak and wrong and they are justified in doing it.
I can second this. Every time my parents have expressed a political view, it came from some shock-news spin of how America was a murderous wasteland on the brink of disaster (not because there are more guns than people, but because of all the non-white people who live here).
When I told my parents I was going to New Orleans for a weekend vacation, they were terrified I would get murdered because they had been barraged with news about it being a lawless Democrat-run warren. (Not to downplay the actual violence that has taken place in NO, but their response still made it clear they had seen some first-class fearmongering).
I would classify someone who hurts themselves to hurt others as stupid.
Last time I checked, the Democrats didn't put forth a candidate for office who they were busy planning to hold a vote for in Congress to erase their prior impeachments, and none who received two federal indictments with a third pending criminal charges... SMH
Truly, it boggles the mind that there are people in this world who think this is someone who is going to do good for the country when aside from the above, there are literally decades of legal and personal disasters that continue to follow him around. He is the Midas touch in reverse.
It really is a scorched earth mentality. They don't care if everything they love burns, as long as what they hate burns along with it.
It's been said numerous times that Republicans would let Trump shit in their mouths if it meant a Democrat had to smell it. And it never fails to be true.
I think they’re listening but not hearing. The majority of Americans, and even the majority of republicans, tend to support marriage equality and cannabis legalization, and even support things like a government health care program in significant numbers.
When polled on individual positions, Americans tend to fall well to the left of the republican politicians on most social issues. But that changes when you specifically identify a position as a democratic position. There has been a never-ending barrage of branding attacks on words like “democrat” and “liberal” to the extent that even democratic politicians felt like they had to avoid labels like that for a long time.
I think they have the ability to get people whipped up, because news canalization prevents people from hearing opposing viewpoints. They get away with saying they want to ban drag shows because they don’t want four year olds to watch open sex acts which a) is already illegal and b) has nothing to do with drag. But they don’t hear that - they hear the overblown and patently false rhetoric and that’s what will drive them in the near term.
I’m afraid we’re going to lose ground in both the legal sphere and in public opinion as homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, and racism become to be seen as more acceptable, but as of right now we still have made a significant amount of progress. But if the news media and politicians treat them as areas where multiple legitimate opinions exist, we’re absolutely going to backslide, and it’s going to take decades to just get back to where we are now.
Stop assuming they're stupid. They're not stupid. They're monsters, they know exactly what they're doing and they're doing it because they want people to suffer.
"The right people" to suffer. They never wanted themselves, their neighbors, or even the poor people down the road to suffer. They want all tge bad people Fox News tells them about to suffer and the fucking democrats just refuse to make the Fox News anchors happy!
Stupid? No. We are all much more susceptible to propaganda than we think.
This. There are A LOT of errors and fallacies which the brain makes, and oftentimes those can be used by bad actors to influence, nudge, and manipulate the person into doing something. While I understand there is a certain level of accountability that needs to be enforced, we should keep in mind the puppetmaster whom we often do not see in the background can do more harm because they are more deeply embedded and have more implicit power that needs to be uncovered and stopped.
Sadly this. I yelled at MIL when Roe was overturned and a 10 year old made headline news. Her response was "BUT THE MEXICANS!". They literally don't give a flying fuck about anyone but themselves and blaming absolutely EVERYONE else.
Trump can be both stupid and a monster, we just have to focus on the monster part more than the stupid.
Trump is very talented with one thing and one thing only: Making Everything About Him. (MEAH?)
It's the others in the party, whether it's legislators like McConnell, Green Margarine, Bobert, Cruz, or lobbyists for the capitalists like the Federalist Society, Koch brothers, O&G, health insurance that make sure things stay "good for business" (and shitty for your average person).
Labeling them stupid is part of the psyop. Ive found myself correcting so many people IRL when they say that trump is stupid. Like, yeah, he's a piece of shit but if he's so stupid then how did he convince so many people to believe everything he says.
Yeah I feel we had a less extreme example of this phenomenon in the UK with Boris Johnson. Lots of people took his bumbling blonde persona at face value but the reality is he’s a cunning political operator without any basic moral instincts.
Trump I believe is their perfect idiot. He's acting exactly how he has always acted, and there's just way too many times he's been super hype to admit to felonies on tape. If you want an example of playing stupid as a psyop, google George W Bush debating with Al Gore and doing wild shit like calling astronauts "spatial entrepreneurs", then google his debates with Ann Richards for the governorship of Texas. That man was playing stupid for the stupid.
Because he "owns the libs" and that makes them feel good. They have zero policy ideas or concerns, their only political stance is hurt the democrats feelings.
Hurt feelings isn't what we need to be watching out for. Literally by definition, to be a supporter of the Republican Party after the events of Jan. 6 is to be a supporter of and defender of domestic terrorism against American citizens.
Reading the article makes my blood run cold and starting to think about moving to Europe, and I'm not even that marginalized. White, male, gay, mostly cis. But then, if the US withdraws from NATO won't Russia run amok in Europe? Is this WWIII?
The US is far too large and powerful a nation to hide from. The consequences of four more years of Trump climate policy alone will find you anywhere on this planet. You cannot run away from the fallout of a second Trump term just by moving to a different continent. Only choice is to stay and help the fight against it.
There's a lot to worry about from a second Trump presidency, but Russia running amok in Europe isn't one of them. They're having enough trouble running amok on the eastern fringes of Ukraine.
Isn't a large part of their trouble that NATO is supplying Ukraine?
They didn't start that until the war was well underway, and Russia was already stopped in it's tracks.
Also: much of that hardware is coming from Europe, not the US. Also: if NATO disbanded, Europe would have to ramp up military spending: Trump's big complaint was that France and Germany aren't carrying their weight.
(ed: fix autocorrect error)
If the US were actually a democratic country, Republicans would barely exist.
They are listening, and they're eating it up.
Conservatives don't want democracy. They want a dictator they agree with. They want what he's selling. They are greedy, selfish, bigots who want to see others suffer and die to appease their twisted, hateful worldview.
It surprises me that, at this point, people still think others must be confused instead of knowing exactly what and who they're voting for.
OP, your problem is that you’re thinking rationally- his devoted minions don’t. They’ve been terrified into believing that they want- no…. NEED these things that only trump can provide. He’s the heroin to their junkie. Only, junkies are smarter than your average trump worshipper.
"Look man, I lost my house with that really smart, the market is only going up, interest only loan with the balloon payment. Then, the Libs elected a black President. I suffered. The WRONG people are suffering. And Trump will make sure the RIGHT people will suffer. I'm on that side. The leopards won't eat MY face again."
People are listening, you're watching too much corporate news - they are angling him as legitimate to "make a race" and get ratings. These cynical fucks aspire to be the announcers of the hunger games one day so they can wear the glitter makeup and be the center of attention.
Trump's base is a dwindling 25% of those who vote, he already lost last time and his indictments should add up to something. The problem with our gerrymandered kleptocracy is that the federal elections come down to Shirley in Ohio/Pennsylvania. Shirley did the right thing last time around but she's back at the prom now and everyone wants to dance with her - how will she vote? Suburban moms in the Midwest, mostly non-college educated, hold the fate of the future in their live, laugh, love scripting hands...
So when you say "people aren't facing up to" the people of not here are Shirley and her friends. I don't know if she's convinced that trump is a viable candidate after Jan 6, the stacking indictments, Biden's moderate centrist progresses, and the Florida nutjobs as a mock trial of what would come from a gop win in '24, but keep the pressure on until the election regardless.
Unfortunately the polling makes it clear that this is a close race
It's what they want.