346
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2024
346 points (97.0% liked)
politics
19120 readers
1999 users here now
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
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
That sounds nice and all but I’ve routinely noticed that the “lesser of two evils” crowd always manages to pick the meanest, dumbest, and most comically disasterous evil between the two.
When you break something down like that to give grace it still has to fit that aspect worth giving grace to. In this case sure “everyone lies” but why, in this quite honestly misleading hypothetical, do they choose the one whose baseline, out-in-the-open promises are so fucking awful? Why do they choose the one whose lies aren’t even consistent enough to pretend like they’re able to string two thoughts together? And then they pile onto the people who aren’t even fucking lying or whose lies/miscommunications are so much less significant.
Honest to god, and I know it doesn’t feel good, but I think they may just be fucking stupid as hell. It doesn’t mean I would support any kind of fucked up testing, stripping of rights, or any lack of basic respect for their humanity but my god are they dumb.
—
Sidenote: Maybe I’m more intelligent than I feel comfortable saying but it really seems like so many people are stupid. Like, really stupid. It feels wrong to say that I’m special when I see so many examples of people being far more clever than I am yet I still can’t help but wonder if there are simply hordes of people out there who are basically just head-empty and so easily manipulated they may as well- well that’s a path I don’t want to explore much further but you get the point.
I think that's another side to this - many of these people are just plain mean. They want to see pain inflicted on those they dislike and they want to be a part of the in group meting out the punishment.
Several studies have examined brain scans and tried to detect differences between those on the right and left and there does seem to be evidence that people who identify as right wing have an over-developed response to fear stimuli. While not evidence of stupidity, such a response can make these people take decisions which seem bizarre to those who don't react in that way.
This explains the success of the fear-based messaging that is far more common in right wing media and politics. Someone is always coming to take your guns. Caravans of migrants are coming to rape your daughters and murder your sons.
Anyway, I'm just spitballing. I think there's a whole lot more to this than them simply being stupid.
A lot of people are very stupid. Remember the quote by the late, great George Carlin:
If we talk about Trump in particular I think part of it is identification: they see in his persona somebody they recognise from their mirror. Simple minded, loud, rambunctious. They feel alienated by the classic "coastal elites" - lawyers and dyed-in-the-wool career politicians who use big words. Trump's persona speaks to their core identity (note the use of the word persona - he is of course in actuality a multimillionaire, as far abstracted from them as anyone in Washington).
There is also an aspirational aspect I think - and I'm not only talking about money or fame. He doesn't "play by the rules", he says whatever he wants - whenever he wants. He has no respect for anyone. He flies around in a private jet and lives on a golf course. He grabs celebrity women by the pussy. They wish they could also be like that, it speaks to something deep inside them, a hidden, rotten part of American culture that for once has been let out in the open.