We are in the dumbest possible timeline.
this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2024
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I'm sorry, but, as a group, Americans have got to be the dumbest bunch out there. You elected Trump and you get Matt Gaetz as the AG. Lol. I hope you learn from all this. Not holding my breath.
No one will learn from this. I have spent my adult life fighting this brand of stupid here in Texas and you can see how that's going. Nope, we will keep blaming others for the puddle of piss we wake up in every morning even though we sleep alone.
It's not about smart versus dumb, it's even simpler than that. The majority of Americans don't have the time to stay up to date on events and politics. They're too busy working dead end jobs with stagnant wages living paycheck to paycheck worrying about everything else.
Then, the little bit of politics they see here and there comprises one party saying "things are bad, we'll fix it" (never explaining what that means and never intending to follow through) while the other party saying "it's not that bad actually" (which is technically true, in context).
So if you're living paycheck to paycheck, maybe working multiple jobs to get by, with no visible career opportunities and maybe getting an annual raise just below inflation, being told "it's not that bad" is a slap in the face, even if it really isn't in comparison to where it could be.
Look at the actual number of votes, Trump didn't actually get any more popular, 14 Million Dem voters just didn't vote this time. All the Dem talked about was how bad Trump would be, and that it wasn't that bad. They didn't say they would try to make it better.
I'm sorry but I just don't buy that. They don't have time to talk to anyone who's actually paying attention? They can't take ten minutes over the course of several months (for Harris) or years (for Trump) to listen to the candidates speak and see which one can speak in coherent sentences?
No, they're just too stubborn to listen to anyone who tells them anything other than what they want to hear. Or too racist to vote for a Black person, too sexist to vote for a woman, too brainwashed to ever vote for a Democrat, etc.
You assume people WANT to talk or even think about politics at all. Most people DON'T GIVE A SHIT. They actively try to AVOID politics. They don't think it affects their daily lives. And to be honest, they're right. 90% of government changes have no direct affect on their lives, nearly all effects are indirect. Unless the government is directly giving individual tax breaks, or stimulus payments, the effect of policy is hidden behind companies making changes in response.
They think various parts of the government have either a lot more, or a lot less power than they actually do. Many for whatever reason seem to think the President has ANY control on gas prices at all because that bullshit is repeated every time gas prices go up, a commodity with a price based almost exclusively on worldwide trading price. Very few Americans are able to see more than a year or so into the future because they're too hyper-focused on getting through each week or month. It's why Republican tax cuts work so well, they give a small tax cut to individuals that will expire in 3-4 years when might not be in power, and if they are, they just pass another. Meanwhile permanent cuts to those most able to afford it, are hidden behind that, and inflate the tax cut number so it looks like the tiny cut the average person sees is actually a lot larger.
And all of this is reinforced by a propaganda network through a nearly unregulated media landscape. The regulation is on old broadcast channels, regulated under the FCC, as little as that regulation is now. And even then, most of those shows now are opinion shows, not actual "news" segments, so the regulation is even lower. Cable channels, don't have those regulations, and never have. Fox News for instance, not a broadcast network, it is a separate channel from Fox. Even then, Fox News only has "news" segments for an hour or two each day. Everything else is opinion shows, on a "news" channel. So it makes it seem like everything on the channel is news, which should theoretically not be an inherent lie. And every time they're called out, they point to the actual hour or two of actual news as a cover. They try to hide any required apologies or corrections they couldn't snake their way out of into a tiny sliver of time within in that hour with fewer viewers instead of the same show it happened.
There are the people you're talking about, but they're still a minority. Voter turnout in the US was only about 63.5% of the eligible population in 2024. Of that, Trump got about 50.2% of the votes. So that's 31.8% of voting eligible Americans voting for Trump. That is a minority no matter how you cut it, regardless of reasons or individual issues. American politics is regularly decided by less than 1/3rd of the population because of how our election system operates.
Nah they just dumb. It takes zero time to look at trump since the 80s and see what he is. Don't make excuses face reality or else you are as much to blame as them.
Don't make excuses face reality or else you are as much to blame as them.
Get off your high horse. Attitudes like yours are part of the reason many of those people have decided to just go with the opposite viewpoint. There are a lot of Trump supporters that vote only out of spite, to "get back" at people expressing that type of attitude.
The Republicans just being obstructionists that do the exact opposite of whatever the Democrats plan didn't come out of nowhere. It got them votes. A lot of them.
Attitudes like yours are part of the reason many of those people have decided to just go with the opposite viewpoint.
You're right, but if they were good people they wouldn't be evil just because someone pointed it out. Learning from people who don't like what you're doing is a fundamentally important skill.
Lol I'm just jaded. Keep doing what you always have done don't be surprised when you get the same results. Someday you might realize Democrats are just grifting the same scam Republicans did ten years ago while whispering they love you in your ear.
The venn diagram of those of us who can learn from this and those of us who voted for Trump is two distinct circles.
Americans have got to be the dumbest bunch out there.
Of the countries that score above a 0.9 on the human development index, the US is definitely among the stupidest, if not the stupidest. But, that's kind of misleading. The US shouldn't be compared to places like Switzerland or Norway, nations that have populations of less than 10 million. The US is more comparable to the EU as a whole. We should be seen as a union of nations rather than a single nation, and like the EU we have some states that are much more developed than others.
So, we're not one "bunch" of people, anymore than Europe is one "bunch" of people.
The EU is nothing like the US. The EU is made of individual, sovereign nations with each their own language and culture and political system and laws and regulations. Most of these countries have very little in common except the fact that they happen to be on the same continent. The only thing that keeps them from being at war with each other is trade. And that's where the EU comes in.
The EU is made of individual, sovereign nations with each their own language and culture and political system and laws and regulations.
So are US States. The language is generally going to be the same, but culture, politics, laws and regulations all vary dramatically between US States. Most laws that people deal with in their daily lives are State laws, not Federal.
Most of these countries have very little in common except the fact that they happen to be on the same continent.
You could say the same about a lot of US States. Texas and California are dramatically different and likely wouldn't be in the same grouping if things were being built today.
The only thing that keeps them from being at war with each other is trade. And that's where the EU comes in.
Have you seen the divide between the various US States? Texas 100% would go to war with California if given the chance.
You're so close to getting it.
No, he's right. There is far more in common between someone from Seattle and someone from Lafayette than there is between two people from almost any two EU countries. Even in two countries that touch each other like France and Germany, they have radically different people in terms of language, customs, political priorities, etc.
It's more complex than that. For one, there were many nations of people on the North American continent before European contact, each with distinct languages, cultures, traditions, etc. Then, people from many different nations immigrated to the United States, again, each bringing with them their own language, culture, traditions, etc. And then of course there were the African slaves, brought here against their will, once again, bringing with them their own cultures, etc, etc. Over time, each district culture, language, and tradition was eliminated and replaced by a singular, dominant cultural hegemony, that of English speaking protestants of almost exclusively northern European ancestry. That hegemonic order was maintained through force, repression, violence, and in some cases literal genocide.
That hegemony had been maintained for several generations, but it has been weakening over recent decades, as groups seek emancipation and autonomy. African Americans, indigenous Americans, Spanish speaking Americans who are recent immigrants or descendents of recent immigrants, all these groups (and more) are slowly eroding the dominant hegemony of English speaking people of European ancestry. As the hegemony erodes, distinct cultures will be able to emerge/reemerge, and/or many distinct groups of people will organically evolve along different paths, due to different geography and climate, economic conditions, history, etc.
It's true that the differences between us aren't nearly as significant as the differences between the various nations of Europe - YET - but that is because of the hegemony that has been in place, that had made the United States relatively culturally homogeneous. That will change. It already is changing. The hegemony is slowly (or maybe not so slowly) breaking down, and that will lead to ever increasing cultural and ethnic diversity. New, distinct nations of people will emerge, existing nations that had been violently repressed and forced to assimilate will reassert their autonomy, and this fiction about the United States being one nation of people will be exposed. It's already happening.
You're talking about the future, we're talking about right now.
Right now, the statement was accurate.
Ok, but even if the person living in Seattle and the person living in Lafayette are (at this moment in time) not as different as a person living in Zurich is to a person living in Lisbon, they might be different enough in their conception of what America is, or should be, that is ridiculous to act like they are each a part of a singular American consensus. The folly is not on all of us, because there is no "us."
As an American, I think you're spot on. I keep thinking how America is portrayed in the series "Years and Years" might happen this time around.
Documentary.
Our brand, coming to a town near you, unfortunately.
Don't be sorry.
Shouldn't this dude be in prison for sex trafficking?
And sex with a minor.
and my axe!
Milquetoast would never! It's too political
On a random note, not sure how many Monkey Island fans there are around here, but I can't see Matt Gaetz without seeing Stan the used boat salesman.
How dare you compare that iconic character to Gaetz. Ugh.
I know! I hate myself for it but I can't unsee it. I think it's the chin that does it for me. That and the sleaziness...
Rape was back on the table when Trump was elected.
This puts child rape back.
God damnit, he's hit so many crimes I can't remember all of them.
Turns out trump actually is smarter than Biden... He picked an AG that will do what he wants.
That or Biden knew that appointing Garland would lead to a wasted four years and American voters turning their back on his party.
I just wish trump was dumb enough to "reach across the aisle" as much as Joe did.