• pressanykeynow@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    6 months ago

    As an outsider I see another problem with most of the US political discussions here. You all say that the republicans are obviously worse, make memes about them to your dudes to laugh at them. Yet half of your country active voters are likely to vote for them, would probably be more if they weren’t inherently apolitical.

    This whole American political discourse seems more fit for /r/im14andimsmart because it’s mostly shitting on your opponents despite the fact that after 12 of the 16 years(the whole generation) of the democrat presidents more people want to vote for the other party.

    I find it weird how you guys just laugh and meme at that like it’s non issue or just act as those people(hundreds of millions) are just stupid.

    • Krauerking@lemy.lol
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      6 months ago

      Everyone has picked their side and won’t hear a damned thing wrong about them since that would make them also wrong and every American is 100% right about things they feel, cause that is what our media makes us feel. And also is inherently needed for a class of wealthy elites to pretend they know or care at all for any other group of people when taking power over them.

      It’s somewhat wrong to say “more” people want one side or the other since we still actually make it quite hard to vote and the rules on victory is convoluted in allowing unpopular (not majority of votes) victory in a political race.

      Granted again there is lots of nuance in all of this and Republicans more sell a vibe than thought out ideas, that is usually based on a feeling of superiority that is not earned.

      It’s the end of an empire. We haven’t been tending to the stalk and the central pillar of what makes us strong so it’s coming down and things are just gonna be bad as people on all sides argue they know how to fly.

    • RunawayFixer@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      6 months ago

      That they managed to convince so many people to completely vote against their own interests is a testament to the power of propaganda. And you don’t have to be spiteful, stupid and/or uneducated to fall for propaganda, it helps a lot obviously, but there are still many progressive and/or smart people who fall for it as well.

      The combination of spreading “alternate” facts through complicit mass media AND indifferent addictive social media is something that Goebbels could have only dreamt about.

      To understand how people can become so misguided, I recommend reading or watching a few testimonies of people who lost a loved one to alternate fact rabbit holes. It’s similar to losing a loved one to a cult, only now it’s much more widespread than ever before. I did a quick search and found a testimony from an Irishman that is a good read: https://old.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/171w3kb/my_dad_is_falling_down_a_farright_rabbit_hole/

      And for people who did not fall for “alternate” facts propaganda, to put all this history and background into words is not easy, so it’s easier and especially quicker to call people who have joined the far right cult, stupid and hateful. The cultists are stupid because they have fallen for the lies, and they are spiteful/hateful because hate is a large part of the far right cult. The far right cultists might not always have been stupid and hateful, but they sure are now.