Honestly the racism I (sadly) understand. But to see the support for him not only continue but increase after violently trying to overthrow the government was truly a shock. For a brief moment it looked like he lost the support of Mitch McConnell and Lindsay Graham among other “traditional” Republicans but within days it was back to business as usual.
The people we are talking about are seeking simple answers, because they are overwhelmed by the complexity of our times. A strong man telling them what to think, an autocrat telling them that elections are unnecessary ballast, a führer telling them who to hate. Someone who leads them by their emotions, not by their intellect. The less educated the people are, the better this works, because the educated and those who have been in contact with other cultures know better than to fall for the simple path that demonizes an outgroup - they know it’s not a solution. The US education system has been under attack for a long time, while the economy did their best to modify higher education to their needs, warping higher education from something which offers critical thinking skills to a conveyor belt feeding the industry.
I agree with all you said, but I also think that “complexity of our times” is whitewashing what I would describe as an “intentionally stressful situation forced upon working class people by the wealthy”.
I believe that humanity has the technology and resources to make our times feel quite simple!
For the average person life is overwhelmingly more complex than 200 years ago. Industrialization and Globalization have created a whole host of issues that simply didn’t exist before - stuff like climate change and awareness of global issues weren’t a thing before, and there is a lot more pressure due to the increased complexity of our societies.
An average villager didn’t have to care about things like ethical consumption or conflicts half a globe away, our family networks were a lot larger and individualism lead to a much less homogeneous society than before. Even the reach of the wealthy was a lot more limited and the messaging was a lot simpler - you had to care about the local nobility, and we weren’t bombarded with the huge amount of information that technology has brought to our doorsteps. Propaganda was a lot less pervasive before the creation of mass media.
Conflicts and issues were a lot more concrete and clear-cut than they are today, because the average person was a lot more rooted in a slowly changing environment. Especially technology has created the exact opposite of what you are postulating.
Climate change is actually a great example of what I was getting at, because it has a relatively simple and known solution, and humanity has possessed the technology to implement that solution it for essentially as long as we have known about climate change itself.
To put it in context of this conversation: climate change has only increased the “complexity of our times” for working class people, because the people with power and money chose this path. They could have been building windmills, and nuclear power plants and hydroelectric dams to power our electric cars, but there was less profit in that.
The mental stress of “ethical consumption” doesn’t exist in a world of ethical production.
Because he wins elections. Once he dies and no Trump Jr. can get the same number of votes, they will turn their backs on the Trumps and denounce them.
I am telling you. This all falls apart without the one guy. Just you watch.
My conspiracy theory is that the Epstein stuff staying on the front pages of social media for long (despite tech CEOs all being strongly MAGA) was an attempt by the Peter Theil / Russel Vought faction to move on from Trump. Which if you think about it is even scarier if they feel they don’t need him any more.
the question is will the gop fall apart with him, most of the OLD guard republicans are gone, or neutered. i doubt putin will stop the propaganda for right wing on social media though.
mitch and lindsey lost control of trump, and jumped shipped after that. mitch was afraid of getting continually be the blame by the magas, so he had another patsy take his place, HE uses “his freezes” to avoid talking about anything.
I love how people in the fediverse have a finger ready to wag at all times. People like you cannot wait to go off half cocked and judge something incorrectly as long as it makes you feel morally superior.
Or trying to have 5 young brown children executed for a crime they were later proven to have not committed.
Honestly the racism I (sadly) understand. But to see the support for him not only continue but increase after violently trying to overthrow the government was truly a shock. For a brief moment it looked like he lost the support of Mitch McConnell and Lindsay Graham among other “traditional” Republicans but within days it was back to business as usual.
The people we are talking about are seeking simple answers, because they are overwhelmed by the complexity of our times. A strong man telling them what to think, an autocrat telling them that elections are unnecessary ballast, a führer telling them who to hate. Someone who leads them by their emotions, not by their intellect. The less educated the people are, the better this works, because the educated and those who have been in contact with other cultures know better than to fall for the simple path that demonizes an outgroup - they know it’s not a solution. The US education system has been under attack for a long time, while the economy did their best to modify higher education to their needs, warping higher education from something which offers critical thinking skills to a conveyor belt feeding the industry.
I agree with all you said, but I also think that “complexity of our times” is whitewashing what I would describe as an “intentionally stressful situation forced upon working class people by the wealthy”.
I believe that humanity has the technology and resources to make our times feel quite simple!
For the average person life is overwhelmingly more complex than 200 years ago. Industrialization and Globalization have created a whole host of issues that simply didn’t exist before - stuff like climate change and awareness of global issues weren’t a thing before, and there is a lot more pressure due to the increased complexity of our societies.
An average villager didn’t have to care about things like ethical consumption or conflicts half a globe away, our family networks were a lot larger and individualism lead to a much less homogeneous society than before. Even the reach of the wealthy was a lot more limited and the messaging was a lot simpler - you had to care about the local nobility, and we weren’t bombarded with the huge amount of information that technology has brought to our doorsteps. Propaganda was a lot less pervasive before the creation of mass media.
Conflicts and issues were a lot more concrete and clear-cut than they are today, because the average person was a lot more rooted in a slowly changing environment. Especially technology has created the exact opposite of what you are postulating.
Climate change is actually a great example of what I was getting at, because it has a relatively simple and known solution, and humanity has possessed the technology to implement that solution it for essentially as long as we have known about climate change itself.
To put it in context of this conversation: climate change has only increased the “complexity of our times” for working class people, because the people with power and money chose this path. They could have been building windmills, and nuclear power plants and hydroelectric dams to power our electric cars, but there was less profit in that.
The mental stress of “ethical consumption” doesn’t exist in a world of ethical production.
Because he wins elections. Once he dies and no Trump Jr. can get the same number of votes, they will turn their backs on the Trumps and denounce them.
I am telling you. This all falls apart without the one guy. Just you watch.
My conspiracy theory is that the Epstein stuff staying on the front pages of social media for long (despite tech CEOs all being strongly MAGA) was an attempt by the Peter Theil / Russel Vought faction to move on from Trump. Which if you think about it is even scarier if they feel they don’t need him any more.
the question is will the gop fall apart with him, most of the OLD guard republicans are gone, or neutered. i doubt putin will stop the propaganda for right wing on social media though.
Sadly, I don’t think it will soon even matter if the leader is unpopular.
vance is nothing more than wet noodle, he wont capture the maga, thiel thinks he can reign in maga through vance.
Only if there still will be elections when he dies…
mitch and lindsey lost control of trump, and jumped shipped after that. mitch was afraid of getting continually be the blame by the magas, so he had another patsy take his place, HE uses “his freezes” to avoid talking about anything.
You can excuse the racism?
Not my comment, but “understand” is not “excuse”.
I love how people in the fediverse have a finger ready to wag at all times. People like you cannot wait to go off half cocked and judge something incorrectly as long as it makes you feel morally superior.
It’s just a reference from Community, it’s not even a serious comment.
But it’s okay, it was ambiguous enough that people don’t pick up on that right away
Apologies. Yes, I didn’t get the reference.
Trump’s Full Page Newspaper Ad
Yes, exactly what I am referring to