view the rest of the comments
politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
There are certainly very dumb people that support trump. There seems to be a willful ignorance amongst his base. That said, dismissing them all as "dummies" hides the really scary problem: they aren't necessarily dumb; they are brainwashed.
Imagine if all you heard was how great Trump was, how much he's accomplished, how badly Democrats want to bring him down, how they are setting him up,that Biden is the reason for these prosecutions, and never hearing any of the facts about the cases or anything remotely negative about Trump.
If you lived your entire life main-lining conservative talk radio, YouTube conservative conspiracy theorists, Fox News, news Maxx...and then have social media magnifying those views by feeding you all the things you already want to Believe (because you've been listening to this shit for years). Now Facebook is saying all of your friends think this way too.
Then you have republican "leadership" lying to you or misrepresenting almost everything because they can't afford to lose their clicks or have news Maxx call them a Democrat plant. They are doing everything they can to stay in power even if it means they have no ethics or values. So they'll sit there and weasel out of having any sort of backbone against obvious corruption or criminal activity.
And because of all that, people who grew up believing the news wouldn't straight up lie or that their party has integrity, ethics, and values...they end up believing what they hear. It's what their friends say on Facebook. It's a massive groupthink.
When people say it's like a cult, it truly is. They need to be deprogrammed. You know how hard it is to break people from their religion? That's how hard it's going to be to reel back Maga people.
But from their absolutely misguided, misinformed foundation, they are acting rationally. If everything they hear on a daily basis is true, of course they are fired up.
This trick is: how do we reach them? How can we even start reeling them back in?
We need things like this guilty verdict. We need actual leadership in the Republican party to stand up for what's right and admonish his behavior. A group of them need to do it together so they can't be picked off like injured gazelle by news outlets whose business is outrage.
I agree with you. I recognize my choice of words didn't hit the nail on the head and I failed to take the time to find the right word(s).
Whatever the word is for people who are easily brainwashed and find comfort in their echo chamber despite being informed of the facts by historically reputable organizations - those people.
Because despite liberals also living in their own echo chambers, most of them can still observe reality and accept that Biden also has his shortcomings. They can also look at what's going on with Hunter and agree with the reasonable Republicans and say whatever wrongs he did, he should be held accountable. They can judge him for what he's doing / not doing in Gaza and protest him (as they should). If Joe Biden did one percent of what Trump has done in his life, Democrats would turn on him, not defend him. I'm still not forgiving him for the 1994 crime bill and don't think he should ever have been elected president. I was excited to discover a progressive voice in TYT in the mid 2010s but I've kept a level head and realized they were turning into extremists.
Brainwashing, propaganda, advertising; I don't understand how they work. I worked as an art director in advertising and I had to quit because of all the manipulation. They all treat people like rats hanging a big chunk of stinky cheese in front of them.
I'm a pretty dumb person but I vividly recall, as an eight year old in catechism class, thinking all religions claim to be the "true" religion and realizing that there was no such thing as god and it was ll bullshit. How was I, as an eight year old, able to break free from the cult while most grown adults fail to see through it all? That's the part I don't get and I wrongly chose "dummy" to describe these people.
Yea, I definitely understand what you are saying. I dont get those people either. Its frustrating and even heartbreaking because they are so misled--but are also so easily "misleadable". Its hard to not fault them for it; its hard not to call them dumb.
I guess historically we called those people "suckers" or "rubes" -- which still may not accurately reflect that they can be very smart people (or even critical thinkers) in most other aspects.
In related news, TheConversation promoted this 2018 article on Bluesky yesterday https://theconversation.com/the-slippery-slope-of-dehumanizing-language-97512
My question to them was: How does “dehumanizing” work to begin with? If we’re wired to be social empathetic creatures, what is so powerful about these statements to unwire us?
The entire story is missing right between these two paragraphs.