• Lanthanae@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 year ago

    Honest question, how can we ever get out of this? Is it just human nature for most of the population to not have critical thinking skills? Is it possible to reach a world where the majority of people have even just a little empathy?

    It’s just so sad. It’s so clear to anyone even kinda paying attention that we possess the technical capacity as a society to meet everyone’s needs and eliminate so much human-caused suffering at the detriment to absolutely nobody. We could be working toward a society where everyone has community, safety, security, opportunity. We could do so much if all we did was kind of give a shit about each other.

    But no. Let’s elect the guy who mocked a disabled reporter, encourages white supremacy, committed treason, etc.

    Donald Trump is just a guy. A shitty guy, but just a guy. He’s not what is ruining the world, but the fact that so many Americans want to vote for that shitty guy as president shows that a massive portion of the population is also just some shitty person, and fuck if that doesn’t just burn up all my hope for this world.

    • SulaymanF@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Education is the only way to overcome this tsunami of stupidity and misinformation. But it’s slow and costly.

      • yesman@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Conservatives with a capital “c” are not brainwashed; they’re not tricked; they’re not progressives who’ve been misinformed. Trump is who they are and what they want.

        The Dominion discovery documents demonstrate that Fox News opinion hacks changed their coverage to appease the deplorables. In the case of the big lie, it was the viewers who radicalized right media, not the other way round. Maybe it’s been that way the whole time?

        The deplorables number in the millions. We need a plan to defeat and marginalize them in our democracy, not fantasies about changing what they are.

        • PupBiru@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          i’m not so sure it’s just evil people being evil

          i think it’s just us vs them, which basically has roots in greed, power over others, etc

          i think you could probably overturn those things with better instilled skills of long term planning, understanding of things like game theory (sometimes giving something to someone helps both of you! it’s not rewarding laziness: it can be selfish and humane)

          i just think the reasoning here doesn’t go further than the initial emotion… there’s been no reinforcement that maybe your first reaction isn’t the right one

    • FrankFrankson@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      the fact that so many Americans want to vote for that shitty guy as president shows that a massive portion of the population is also just some shitty person

      They are scared and have been convinced that he is the only one that can help them. They are not just “shitty people voting for a shitty person” they really believe that the deep state is out to get Donald and these charges are overblown and that Donald will really save America. They won’t realize that Trump only cares about Trump; even if Trump gets another term and burns down the government and fucks everyone they still will think Donald is just one week away from unveiling his plan to fix it all.

      • Lanthanae@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        1 year ago

        That ignorance makes them pretty shitty.

        I’m not saying they’re fundamentally and permanently shitty, but they are being shitty. Refusing to become a more aware person is shitty.

    • SCB@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Nationalism and nativism pops up every few generations. Always has. We beat it every time and it shuts up and the world dramatically improves for a while. As it improves, some people become nativists and nationalists, and the cycle repeats.

      Google the “Know-Nothing Party.” Trump isn’t anything new at all.

      Only problem is, just like a super hero, we have to win every time, and they only have to win once.

    • Screwthehole@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’m left of centre, and here’s my take - the “left” is fucking up so badly that the right is going to win.

      Ever play a sport and you just trounce your opponent, but the coach says “you weren’t that good! They were just that bad tonight.”

      This is the same thing. Trump and the GOP aren’t doing some amazing job of campaigning and manipulating, they’re just up against the weakest opponent who can’t stop scoring on their own fucking net.

        • Screwthehole@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I do. Where is the good Dem candidate with the platform attacking high cost of living, corporate takeover of housing, backing unions, and looking at funding education, ubi, etc?

          It’s be pretty easy to break this wide open and runaway with the election. If they wanted to.

          • Reptorian
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            1 year ago

            Downballot Democratic candidates? That’s where.

      • Dark_Blade@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        This is certainly a part of it. In a time when Democrats should be uniting and putting forward their strongest faces to protect democracy from the GOP, they keep engaging in political gamesmanship because ‘c’mon look at this clown, there’s no way anyone will vote for him!’

        Only problem is that people have, and people could once more, put this guy in the White House. And if it happens…well, everything’s fucked.

      • cannacatman@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        That is the farthest thing from a good article that I’ve read in some time. I suppose that it does give some insights to why trumpers act the way they do, however trying to align their actions with some sort of ‘we the elitists need to do a better job at not being elitist’ mentality is rather dumb at first glance, and a bit insidious upon closer examination.

      • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        The ideal that “we’re all in this together” was replaced with the reality that the educated class lives in a world up here, and everybody else is forced into a world down there. Members of our class are always publicly speaking out for the marginalized, but somehow we always end up building systems that serve ourselves.

        I love how Brooks can talk about class without bringing labor into it. Just a great example of liberals missing the damn point.

        Then he goes on to talk about “open immigration” like that’s even close to what we have.