this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2025
267 points (98.9% liked)

politics

19857 readers
3229 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
all 37 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 hours ago

Because they are craven bitches?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Because our entire professional class in the USA has little backbone. People in my life with higher incomes still seem to think this will blow over.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago

I don't know why people think there is this upper crust of super smart or ultra hard working people. Intelligence really doesn't scale with pay or job type. Our own president is the ultimate proof of that.

It's kind of like when you become an adult and realize the adults never actually new what was going on and have just been winging it the entire time.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 hours ago

Because we're terrified that society is crumbling, so we try to follow rules to feel some kind of order.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 14 hours ago

Because he's letting them do what they've always wanted.

[–] [email protected] 71 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

Some are cowards even if they do care.

Some have always secretly agreed but were afraid to act on it.

Some are just apathetic as long as it doesn't directly affect them.

But the bigesst reason? Money.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 28 minutes ago

Some are

... poor spellers.

But also some people just can't be arsed to stick their neck out when they're barely keeping their own shit together amidst things that fucking DO also affect them, Tiffany, but they're silently trying to keep food on tables and kids in whatever half-assed school curricula still exists in the hope that when the heroes with the heroic ability to not only barely cope but also strive and also rebel are done, that their grown kids will be as free of generational trauma and smart enough to survive in the world they all hope will emerge.

It's not enough to be at every protest personally - gold star, you - but you take normal people whose personal covid tragedies still resonate on those long stretches of days when they're again not going to hit their goal of only one falling-down collapse in a parking lot as coping escapes them in the heat of the moment triggered by a full cart of bargain food, a wailing child and a lost set of car keys, and then you berate them for not being good enough like you?

Is their own trauma - which you may know nothing about - automatically not good enough that they're not doing enough for you? What kind of human rights crusader has no empathy?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Well, they just cut every research university in the country’s money by limiting facilities and administration funding on science grants to 15% (with a few exceptions possible, if approved, presumably by Elon Musk).

Basically, a $1,000,000 grant to a research scientist comes with a corresponding payment to the university to build whatever is needed and run the lab. It’s usually close to 50% because research labs aren’t cheap. And with few exceptions, private companies don’t really fund basic research labs like they used to. (There is, obviously, a lot of private sector R&D but nothing like back in the day when Bell Labs, Xerox PARC, etc. were doing revolutionary work.)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

So basically the Brain Drain towards the US will slow down, maybe China will take over

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

Slow down? Shit is going to start flowing the opposite way. The brain drain from the US has begun.

They want a stupid populace, they're going to get one. And it will probably end up killing us all.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 hours ago

The people who are smart enough to be able to get jobs else where are also smart enough to see the writing on the wall of an anti-intellectual admin. The us is only going to get dumber, which is the goal for the gop.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

Fear. But people need to realize that capitulation only makes this political terrorism stronger. The only solution is solidarity. United we are much stronger than this administration.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

Money. Real lives are affected by defunding and losing your job in this economy.

Over 50% voted for this. Because news and social media are controlled by the oligarchs. And the smartest sociopaths for hire are crafting the propaganda strategy. So you're not even going to get a majority to back you up. Sanity and morality is now in the minority.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 14 hours ago (5 children)

Please stop saying over 50% voted for this. A third of the electorate didn't vote. Yeah, fuck them, they could have stopped this, but it makes it sound like more than half of my country wants him to be president. More likely it's 30-40%

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

What’s the difference between voting for Trump and not voting at all?

The way I see it if you didn’t vote at all then not only do you not care about the outcome but you’re accepting Trump as the result.

If you didn’t vote then you are the problem. You’re the same problem as the people who voted for him.

So ya if you didn’t vote then you wanted this no different then those who voted. Over 50% of the country either voted for him or accepted him as the winner.

If you didn’t want him as president then you should have voted. You are just as much to blame for this happening. Stop trying to act like you’re innocent.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

I agree with you that an unused or third party vote is effectively a vote for Trump. I wouldn't say those people are the same, even though the outcome is. People who voted in 2020 and didn't this time around are probably feeling how badly they fucked up. And I hope they feel like shit.

Meanwhile MAGA is crowing from the rooftops about the dismantling of democracy. If you're not wealthy and you voted for Trump, you fucked up badly. Most will realize it at some point, but it's already too late. Even the midterms are two years away, and look what's been done in two weeks. That Constitution they claim to love more than life itself has been ripped up and thrown to the ground under fascist boots.

The ridiculous purity genocide Joe shit hit way harder than I thought it would. Yeah I wish he hadn't gone full bore on support for Palestinian genocide. Anyone with a conscience knows it was evil. But if you're a leftist or progressive of any stripe, you've been voting for the lesser of two evils your entire adult life. What made this one different really? Every US President causes innocent people to be killed.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 12 hours ago

More likely it's 30-40%

The same hitler got

[–] [email protected] 9 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

The ones that didn't vote accepted any outcome, they are complicit

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

But the strategy for dealing with them is different.
I understand that you're upset and scared, but we need solutions now, not squabbling.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 hour ago

I'm not scared, I couldn't care less, I have Nazis in my own country and are planning what to do if THEY come to power

[–] [email protected] 6 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

It was also less than 50% of voters

[–] [email protected] 0 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

That's true, but in the liberal mindset, the majority gives you the moral mandate (liberal as in capitalist democracy, not derogatory). That the news and social media is owned and controlled by the oligarchs doesn't matter to the liberal mindset. Even cheating like gerrymandering didn't trigger riots and hanging of the culprits. It doesn't matter that they promised one thing but lied, that has been accepted for decades also.

So within this mindset the majority spoke and has the mandate for this crap. Practically morality is determined by who has the most money / power. We accepted that greed is good. So it doesn't matter that the election was cheated, elections in the US have always been a farce, a spectacle. But it is effective to get those institutions in line.

So I agree with you and think all the US elections in the last 50 years were illegitimate. But those institutions don't, they simply follow this liberal mindset.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

What do you think of this? He lists his credentials at the end of the article.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 minutes ago

I'm inclined to believe it, but to know with enough confidence today you need academic sources and hindsight. But that would just be the natural progression of what the US has accepted for decades. In any case the mainstream doesn't dispute the election, because Trump was smart enough to do that first (projection). So the reason why institutions obey the new order is because there is no alternative, and no ideological imperative to resist.

BTW here is an interesting analysis of the ideology of the techbro's backing Trump, who actually do want to destroy the US. I'm kinda shocked how well this explains things, and haven't found a good written article yet (but haven't been looking).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

I thought blaming everyone but themselves was a conservative thing. People need to accept they voted for this, and need to do better next time (or now. Do better now).

[–] [email protected] 0 points 13 hours ago

Seems unlikely that there will be a next time.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 hours ago

Pretending that you lost because everyone else is too stupid to understand is counterproductive and will result in future losses. If your position is best for the majority of voters then you should be able to effectively convey that message to the masses. If you are unable to do that then obviously you are not as knowledgeable as you believe.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 15 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 19 points 18 hours ago

Because people haven't learned not to play Trump's games by Trump's rules. Appeasement not only makes him come back for more, he makes him believe that it's his by birthright.

Because Trump wields an inordinate amount of power and can have his decrees backed up by use of retaliatory executive action such as firings or pulling funding, retaliatory legislative action, or use of force.

Because Trump wields sizeable support in this country, up to and including militia groups that Trump has already pardoned once and lone-wolf actors willing to commit violence on his behalf, and they do not have support of equal measure willing to defend them.

Because they still have faith in what is left of our legislative and justice system and are still holding on to the hope that everybody will come to their senses and all of this can still be solved legislatively without having to resort to any kind of resistance or violence, no matter how increasingly fleeting that hope is.

Because the people that run these institutions are all just regular people with regular jobs and regular families who just want to go home at the end of the day, and have absolutely no desire to become the John Connor of the resistance movement.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 17 hours ago

Some of them couldn’t wait to lick his boots.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 16 hours ago

Because we're probably the least liked minority groups.