What scares me the most about the US election is the tribalism. The fact that people have stopped caring about what politicians do or say, because it all comes down to “our candidate good, their candidate bad”.
This way of thinking is what has opened the door to dictators throughout history. And the problem is, people do not regret their vote until the dictator wins and starts taking away their freedoms — THEN they suddenly complain, THEN they “never supported the guy”, and then it is too late.
You have to understand ... what looks like weird shifting justifications for voting for the racist guy is actually just common knowledge among racists that you aren't supposed to say aloud the real reason why you support the racist guy.
If you go by what they say, you might think that they will regret their vote later on when the racist guy goes against what they said they wanted. But in truth, they won't regret it. They never believed what they said in the first place.
@isaackuo @randahl I was just going to post a similar reply. DJT has subsumed the GOP, which is mostly authoritarian personalities. Even the weakest supporters of DJT go along because he's still their current authority figure.
But DJT the man and machine are patriarchal white supremacy made manifest. Its followers subscribed to some if not all of patriarchal white supremacy. Call it a tribe if it's easier to identify them.
They only peel away when DJT's authority fails them in some way. 1/2
@isaackuo @randahl 2/2 The opposition has been more fragile because it is composed not of authoritarians who unite under a single authority, but smaller factions which are driven by single issues. This has been the topic of books like Crashing the Gate (2005) by Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsos. It's been easy for the right-wing wing and foreign adversaries to fragment this "big tent" by working on schisms between factions.
Until now, when the largest voting blocs are unified.
What makes you think “tribalism” is occurring in a population other than djt supporters?
They comprise 17% of our population.
Do you see the rest of us waving giant flags or banners the size of a barn?
If you don’t agree that extremism can be measured by the size of one’s banners perhaps I should take pictures of some HUGE barns in my rural Pennsylvania area.
Their entire sides have been painted with “TRUMP 2024” on them.
Of course I’d probably get shot, but anything to prove a point, eh?
My purple hair kinda screams *liberal commie* to those sorts.
@Pagan_Animist @randahl there are in fact people driving around pickup trucks with giant flags that look exactly like trumpers except their flags say harris/walz. Not sure why but they exist.
(I’m 100% voting for the non-felon)
I’ll let you know when I see a barn painted Harris/Walz. ☺️
Here’s how each Pa county voted in 2020. Red for djt, Blue for Biden. I’m the center blue county, Centre County. We have State College with Penn State, that’s about the only reason we are blue.
@reiterator @Pagan_Animist @randahl
Around election time, this shows enthusiasm.
Trump supporters have done it for years which looks cultish.
@randahl I mean... You just described exactly how I feel and in this case especially I just don't see it as a bad thing. Harris would have had to be really horrible for me to change my mind, she eased it. Same with Waltz. Every single republican or "undecided" at this point I can honestly say I have no reason to respect or hear their opinion on political matters at the least.
I'll put $1000 down that you cannot come up with a rational reason I SHOULD change my mind.
Trump still thinks fondly of Hitler.
@randahlthese
These people are called republicans in the United States. They are less than half the population, but they are determined to take power by force.
US politics are entirely driven by hate
Where are you going to go with that?
https://medium.com/@colingajewski/american-politics-viewed-from-the-outside-17303a88d2b3
@randahl
In the U. S. There are a number of factors pressuring our politics.
Now and always the conservative party has been idealistic. Their solutions to a problem may be good or not, but the solutions are not from in depth analysis but from age old beliefs.
There was a time when politicians were mostly truthful, and when not they spoke half-truths. Like saying their opponent has voted 4 times against education, when the truth was some elements of education were riders on a major part of a bill the opponent didn't like.
And the information age is something our society and government hasn't figured out. Lies spread like wildfire through the press and social media. Truth in that maelstrom of lies is like flotsam in a river.
And sadly corporate ownership of major media, a self but purposefully inflicted wound no longer presents news dedicated to providing truth.
It's a tough environment in which to be gullible, which most of us are.
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