Alot of people definitely wanted evil stuff to happen when they voted for Trump but it’s worth keeping in mind that *most* people viewed him as being as moderate as Kamala Harris because the entire media apparatus in America is a joke.
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Way more important to gauge the precise number of degrees Harris was going to distance herself from Biden than to point out that Trump had been found responsible for 400,000 unnecessary American deaths due to COVID.
Considering that every Trump supporter interviewed since the election has been drooling like a rabid jackal over the promise of crushing minorities beneath their boot, I'm not sure I can agree with "most"
I'm torn between thinking the media succeeded in finalizing the GOP's 50 year project to craft the perfect Moron Electorate, and thinking that's just cope on my part to avoid the possible reality that Americans, in general, are fascist.
And a lot of leftists convinced themselves that despite all evidence to the contrary it was better to burn it all down rather than vote for a centrist. Because of an issue they are now utterly silent on.
I don't even think they thought Trump was a moderate. They just thought Harris was a socialist, & Americans are conditioned at birth to fear socialism so much even open incompetence & fascism is preferable. Not just the media's fault but they share a lot of the blame for that.
Also she's a black woman, that's usually enough for humans stupid enough to vote for Trump, that just automatically disqualifies anything she says or does. Media is also to blame but racist messaging since the civil war made that possible.
We are currently in the finding out portion of fucking around. We knew it was coming; everyone else is learning the hard way. Our goal should be minimizing the damage to vulnerable and marginalized people and resist the fascism with every decision every day.
Maybe if Biden wasn't sunning down by 12 pm every day, the democrats could have some kind of message. Most Americans only heard from fox news and Rogan.
Much as I detest the term “sane washing”, I truly believe that the media did a great job of making Trump look like a regular candidate rather than the evil scumbag that he actually is.
As long as they showed him talking about how bad the economy was, then the average voter was voting for him.
i feel like a lot of people assume every trump voter is evil when actually most of them are just horrendously misinformed. I had to watch Fox News when I visited my grandparents and seeing the info they're being fed has given me a great deal of patience for people I would otherwise write off.
I think media diet is a huge part of the problem. If you're only listening to news that says Democrats are evil incarnate, then that's what you're going to believe. And there is a metric fuckton of that stuff. I really don't know how to fix this problem.
Not just that but “everyone is saying so” given that they are locked into a conservative media ecosystem - their radio, social media, and television tell them the same things, and the MSM headlines sure seem similar, so it must be true. That many people couldn’t lie right (yes, they could and are)
Any time you break things down into issue polling (other than immigration lately) I just have to look at it and go “oh a lot of you are just unbelievably fucking dumb about Trump specifically, huh”
partially but dems have not done themselves any favors, and the machine was fully spinning by the time obama came around and they never managed to sink him with this
There's a huge rhetoric factor at play here, like Republicans who never realized they were on "Obamacare" because their states rebranded it. A lot of polling asks things in plain language - "Do you support deporting American citizens?" - which Trumpists heard at rallies as "vermin infest our cities"
Also in this camp are people who are fundamentally out of the loop on political stuff, to an unimaginable degree. You assume some stuff seeps through just by osmosis, but it really doesn't. People with medical degrees who, as of July 2024, didn't believe me that Trump was even running.
I’ve been thinking lately about how many people are out of the loop and how many people think talking about politics is “impolite.” For every very online poster (me) or MAGA lunatic there’s 3 people who are like “I don’t know enough to comment, besides it’s rude”
That's its own kind of social ill, I guess, but I think it must explain the discrepancy between policy polls and voting. They miss the development of the narrative and see the last week of headlines (Harris and Trump in deadlocked race, "Trump for good economy", "Harris for progressivism") & vote.
I will never be able to fathom people who have no interest in politics and fundamentally don't think it affects their lives, but there are *millions* of these fucking people
I can fathom them, I just don't know why they want to vote. "I have no interest in politics, and know absolutely nothing about it, or any of the candidates or issues, but I make sure to cast my vote".
IME, it's usually straight up exhaustion. Lots of folks, and parents especially, are just white knuckling it through each day and trying not to get derailed by a health crisis and/or bankruptcy. That's part of why this admin is doing chaos manufacturing - it wants to be exhausting and overwhelming.
In my experience, there’s an element of conflict avoidance to it (they “hate” politics), but also a lack of curiosity for how this domain of things work. They assume things will keep going, laws are background noise about naming post offices and stuff, they’re still in control of important things.
It really doesn't help that Trump has a built in decade of PR advantage with people who otherwise aren't engaged with political media as the big deals guy. Americans may have the memory of goldfish when it comes to government actions, but that's simply not the case for pop culture!
Not pointing this out to excuse voters as much as to encourage you to continue hating the NYT/Bezos/Zuck/Elon/LA Times billionaire with the power of a hundred suns
as much as I grit my teeth every time liberals blame the media for why everyone thinks Biden didn't do enough for Palestine, there is definitely a wrecker element at play when democrats announcing policy is "controversial, expensive" and when Trump does it it's "unconventional"
With any luck a seething meaningful and impactful hatred of the elites is the most positive outcome from this already utterly predictably horrific regime. Trump must be included as one of them by his ow supporters though, which might be tricky
This is what sane washing did. The media was busy explaining what he meant while he was telling everyone exactly what he meant. Too many people listened to the media instead of him.
Well they should have done their due diligence. I give no one a pass for laziness but I totally understand and appreciate your comment on the media. You are correct.
The online left have spent a significant amount of effort in a sort of electoral nihilism where they view both parties as interchangeable and thats despite a deep mistrust of the media.
“unprecedented” it’s been almost 10 years since Trump came down the escalator and started running for president by making a speech calling immigrants rapists and murderers. Nothing about this is unprecedented!
I appreciate other people saying this. I've switched my messaging to try to reduce infighting rather than get my side to see the other as human beings, we often dehumanize and abuse each other over disagreements I think that's the most important thing to fix first.
A lot of it is that the media covers politics like it does sports. And many people just aren’t that interested in sports. Sure, they’ll tune into the Super Bowl (or vote for president) but they’re picking sides based on vibes or uniform color or whatever.
Suspect a lot of the people who wanted evil things to happen forgot that said evil things could happen to them. When they do, it will be *such* a shock
It was wild to me he was gone for four years and got to completely reinvent himself as an unknown instead of the guy who had dropped the ball on the response to covid.
He left office at 35% approval and is entering office at 55%. Roughly 20% of US voters lack object permanence.
The only differences between Trump in 2021 and 2025 is that his revenge list has gotten longer and his brain has gotten slower. But people want to pretend he's metamorphized into a leader.
Fair. I was referencing a pre-inauguration poll that found "Most Americans expect President-elect Donald Trump to do a good job upon his return to the White House next month (54%)"
Not precisely apples-to-apples, but enough to suggest millions of Americans have somehow forgotten this guy sucks.
I try to forgive, but I recently found out my Trump-voting brother-in-law seemed more concerned about "dick-swinging" trans women in bathrooms being "shoved down (his) throat" (imagery!) than he did about how Harris would have allegedly destroyed his not-so-small business, as I was told.
Exactly. I have some slim hope that these freaks are so badly overplaying their hand that they will fail spectacularly sooner rather than later. Would help if there was some kind of an opposition party, though.
The next four years will be punishing for the mainstream media.
The announcement by the WH press secretary, made it clear that non-traditional media would have access.
And less for MSM.
Deserved.
The quote I remember from Trump Round 1 was a woman in the Midwest who was upset because Trump “wasn’t hurting the people he was supposed to be hurting.” The original Leopards Eating Faces joke made real because this timeline is viciously silly.
Yeah, I’ve got nothing against the Midwest…that’s just where I remember that particular woman being from. But man, Florida? It makes my home state of Alabama look well-adjusted.
Oh don’t get me wrong-i’m from the midwest. I got things against it lol. But at least we’re not florida (jk florida you are lovely in many ways, just batshit in many others)
Yep, this is squarely on the shoulders of the dishonest media that pushed Biden out, ignored Trump's clear dementia (who could forget the 39-minute sway to the music?) and hyped the concept of a sputtering economy, all because Trump and Co are great for ratings. Ratfuckers, all of them.
Well I think we can all share a little blame, even if only that we could have done more or been more patient with people who disagree. We can't make others be better, but we can learn from our own mistakes and set a better example for others. :)
Even those people who wanted evil things to happen wanted them to happen to *other* people and may find that some of the evil things end up happening to themselves. And boy wouldn’t that be a shame
Also as an anti establishment choice versus an establishment choice.
I think that plays a lot into it.
Lotta people are mad and want to throw rocks, and the blood dripping media seemed more than happy to breathlessly praise “a rock” instead of pointing out he was literally the entire brick wall.
I have a relative who persists in believing Trump a thin-skinned but morally-neutral bumbler, because they don't like the people, including me, who vilify him.
Keeps saying we haven't PROVEN that anybody INTENDED the harmful effects of Trump's policies.
When the media is motivated by the Almighty Dollar it is definitely NOT a joke.
It's the corporate entity and it's Executives that are the problem. When they surrender their morals in favour of money, it's a short road to tyranny .
"At this point I hate Trump and wish he wasn't running, but you have to realize that Kamala Harris is the worst presidential candidate of all time. We'll lose everything if she's elected!" actual depth of the average 3-time Trump voter's reasoning
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As long as they showed him talking about how bad the economy was, then the average voter was voting for him.
There's also the systemic biases introduced by our Electoral system.
These people are by and large caring and compassionate. Not at all what I'd describe as evil. They just consume media that tells them Trump is great.
This was Obama's silver bullet -- he never once looked like he doubted himself or his decisions even when he was dead fucking wrong.
Drives me crazy. I told him that when gas goes up to $5 a gallon...he'll care 🙄
But our resident journalist apologist says that they are doing their best and aren't giving in or giving up!
The only differences between Trump in 2021 and 2025 is that his revenge list has gotten longer and his brain has gotten slower. But people want to pretend he's metamorphized into a leader.
Not precisely apples-to-apples, but enough to suggest millions of Americans have somehow forgotten this guy sucks.
*smoke bomb*
Fuck him.
The announcement by the WH press secretary, made it clear that non-traditional media would have access.
And less for MSM.
Deserved.
Americans are as fucking stupid as they are fucking lazy.
We deserve this.
As Shakespeare would put it: 'All are punished.'
And rightly so.
I think that plays a lot into it.
Lotta people are mad and want to throw rocks, and the blood dripping media seemed more than happy to breathlessly praise “a rock” instead of pointing out he was literally the entire brick wall.
Keeps saying we haven't PROVEN that anybody INTENDED the harmful effects of Trump's policies.
What a warm, cozy little world they live in.
It's the corporate entity and it's Executives that are the problem. When they surrender their morals in favour of money, it's a short road to tyranny .