politics

Heck, between the media, The Donald on Reddit and the whole pandemic, people were rightfully getting burned out on everything. I don’t really have any active memories between march 2020 and early 2023. That whole time period feels like a big blur. And that’s just me as a European. I can imagine it’s way worse for people in the US…

Someone needs to compile a list of all the heinous shit this idiot has done. Make it a website or something.

Many people are kind of stupid. Not ignorant. But like, incapable or unwilling to evaluate what's a good source and what's nonsense. Also incapable of drawing plausible conclusions even when given good sources. It's all emotional. It's how you can have stuff like "the outgroup have all the money and power, but they're also poor and taking all our welfare" at the same time. Feels truthy. Anti-vaxxers get the high of bonding with their anti-vax friends and feeling like they're part of the in-group.

There's not really an answer. Invest in public education for 100 years, maybe. But we're going always going to have authoritarians shitting life up for everyone.

Recency bias. Peak-end rule. Low media literacy. Take your pick.

One of the biggest things I remember about his presidency was the fucking embarrassment. Other countries were mocking us and for good reason.

I recently got back from visiting my in-laws in rural Appalachia. All the bad things that happened during the Trump presidency happened under Biden to them.

I just assumed that they forget the horrid shit because of some twisted confirmation bias.

Everyone keeps pointing it out, and they keep telling themselves about the "good" things he's done. Reinforcing their own confirmation bias.

I first heard about this phenomenon in "how to win friends and influence people"... It's a book, crazy, right? It's about human nature, and how arguing with someone often results in them arguing for their point, further entrenching them in their opinion. While they don't convince you with their arguments, they convince themselves and that makes arguing with someone a difficult thing to do, and "win" at (by convincing the opposing person of your viewpoint).

The fact is, the more we argue with them about Trump, the more they have to argue for him being someone that's going to "make America great again", and the further they get entrenched into that viewpoint.

The sooner more people realize that this is a viscous cycle of mental violence and simply decide not to continue, the better. Obviously that's hard to do when you are faced with the very real possibility of him being reelected, and essentially bringing back the Nazi party with him....

Idk what's the right thing to do, but clearly, nobody is going to change the minds of the deranged "MAGA" crowd anytime soon.

Waking up everyday wondering what batshit crazy thing he had either just said or was going to say that day. It was exhausting. And then the pandemic hit and he was suggesting the most batshit crazy things about that. And then he somehow was able to politicize the most common sense things we could do. It was absolutely the most stressed I’ve ever been for that extended period of time.

I rarely completely disagree with people and I’m pretty good at empathizing and putting myself in their shoes. I may not agree with them but I can see where they’re coming from and can see some good in them. That is to say I usually don’t hate people. I hate this man. I will be glad when he’s not around to spread the chaos and just outright stupidity he spouts and surrounds himself with. This planet will be better off without him in it.

Is it just me, or I thought it's a general consensus long ago that voters have the memory of a goldfish? Why would forgetting the worst of the Trump presidency be any different? Even people have somehow rehabilitated George W. Bush in spite of deliberate lying by his administration, and dragging the United States into a needless conflict for 23 years that cost $1 trillion.

This is such a condescending form of analysis that totally misses the mark. It's basically just, "Trump was bad, but some people still like him. Why? Must be because they're just too dumb to remember things." There's no actual evidence that people have forgotten any of the stuff they mention, it's purely just that.

To attribute the issue to memory would imply that there was widespread agreement while he was in office that he was bad, which has faded over time. But Trump's approval rating for most of his time in office hovered around 40%, similar to Biden's. So what's actually happening is not that people were on the same page about Trump being bad when the events of his presidency were fresh in their minds, but rather, that his supporters never agreed with/cared about the things the article is saying in the first place. Framing it around memory is nonsense.

A) I remember.

B) I wish I didn't.

C) I wish the insanity never happened.

D) Anyone have a Neuralyzer from MIB that I could borrow?

The most sinister part of the chaos that Trump brews, honestly, is the deep apathy and antipathy towards politics that seems pervasive in society. Everyone was already tired by capitalism, but post-COVID the grind and the demand has spun ever higher while Trump keeps orchestrating chaos from, well, not even the fucking shadows but more like the toilet at Mar-a-Lago.

It breaks a lot of people, and its fair, they're just scraping by, worrying about their own. They have their own serious problems, medical issues, sorrow, loss, you name it, people are suffering. It's validly hard for anyone to find the time for it and they become disconnected and disoriented.

It's fucking maddening that it works. It feels like humanity never actually left the dark ages.

Anyway, quality Mother Jones article, good breakdown on why a lot of people's memory of the past seems to forget the worst excesses. Explains a lot about the Bush administration, too, really.

I wish I had amnesia about it.

Anyone looking for a reminder can check out Robert Reich's video he just put out