Summary

Low-income voters who supported Donald Trump are expressing concerns over potential cuts to government benefits as his administration pushes for aggressive spending reductions.

Trump’s newly announced “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, is tasked with cutting programs, raising fears about impacts on social safety nets.

Trump also plans to shut down the Education Department, impose tariffs on imports from China, Mexico, and Canada, and has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health Secretary, signaling a focus on controversial health policies.

Voter anxieties about these shifts are growing.

Non-paywall link

  • ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one
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    19 hours ago

    Remember, those who are in poverty voted for Trump as these voters believed that Trump would cut other people’s benefits. Their own benefits are deserved and shouldn’t be touched.

    Alas, the leopard cares not for intent; it cares only for the face.

  • nifty@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Low income voters should demand taxing the wealthy, like multimillionaires and billionaires, more rather than just hoping for benefits

  • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Voter anxieties about these shifts are growing.

    Oh, NOW they’re concerned? Not when we were all beating the drum telling these morons that Trump was going to fuck the country again?

    God.

    • Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 days ago

      Yes but what about the trans people? Surely it will be worth losing their food stamps and Healthcare to ensure that trans people suffer, for some reason.

  • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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    2 days ago

    “He is more attuned to the needs of everyone instead of just the rich,” Mosura, 55, said on a recent afternoon. “I think he knows it’s the poor people that got him elected, so I think Trump is going to do more to help us.”

    Oh. My. God.

      • JTskulk@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        For real, the guy that just learned the word “groceries” is the hero of the common man.

      • WastingCommentSpace@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        Ive been saying in the distant past on both reddit and lemmy that most people are fundamentally stupid on a frightening level. Maybe i expressed it poorly. I take a george carlin perspective “think about the average person and how stupid they are and realize most of them are dumber than that”. I see soo much potential and it seems to often be squandered on things that make me very disappointed in humanity.

        I am of the opinion this is a nearly unsolvable issue now much like climate change. Id love to be proven wrong. But ive come to a personal conclusion we are reaching the start of a very slow extinction. Im not even trying to be doomer about this stuff or w.e. the reasoning i have is that i dont think you can solve the low intelligence problem easily at least without better education and education that incentivizes curiousity.

        But i think you cant fix the system without people being intelligent or aware enough to understand what they are voting for. So i think the only real path out is the populace at large gaining an interest in curiousity and learning. And always countering their own beliefs or something to such an effect.

        If one could influence the overall humand hivemind to make learning and curiousity cool again that might help too. Probably more than some government program or some such (id guess its “more natural” for people to accept)

        But i dont think such things are likely to happen. But it would be nice if i am wrong.

        For me i just need to take a long several years break. For everyone else. I leave it to them. Its a weird time to be alive. I dont know how best to process it. I guess “anyway you can”.

        • Xerxos@lemmy.ml
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          2 days ago

          There is has been a long campaign to make Americans dumber. Easier to control and more perceptive to propaganda.

          Look at the state of the education system. This happened not by chance but by design.

          • WastingCommentSpace@sh.itjust.works
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            1 day ago

            I agree but that doesnt really change anything. You still need to make people aware to fix that design and i just dont think enough ever care until it affects them. You cant force people to be interested in the world around them either. A lot of people are basically “zombie-slaves”. And they have no idea. And its… Just so depressing. Either way a conversation on this isnt going to result in answers i think. Which might be a little more depressing. But i try to avoid all social media to avoid depression because people are terrible and i do not like most if not all of them.

            Back to morrowind.

  • GeeDubHayduke@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    3 days ago

    “He’s not going to hurt the poor. He’s too smart for that.

    Oh, you infuriating fucking summer child. It’d be hilarious if I wasn’t stuck in this hellbound handbasket with the rest of you fucking mongoloids.

    • IninewCrow
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      3 days ago

      That’s their logic … they weren’t thinking “He’s not going to hurt the poor” …

      They were thinking “He’s not going to hurt ME! He’s going to hurt other people I don’t like.”

      • GeeDubHayduke@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 days ago

        I’ve actually heard Maga people admit they’ll get hurt by these policies, but immigrants and homos will get hurt MOAR!, y’know, like Jesus taught, so it’s cool.

        • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          2 days ago

          Yep. The GOP has worked tirelessly for decades to convince people that we are not capable of helping everyone. That it’s a zero-sum game, and someone else receiving something means that another more deserving person (AKA straight/white/cis/etc.) must be deprived of the thing.

          Therefore, since our government is incapable of providing for all, in their minds (because the Republicans have made sure of it), then the next best thing is making sure nobody gets the thing. Especially someone who doesn’t “deserve” it.

          Good ol American rugged individualism.

    • bitwise
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      3 days ago

      A friendly reminder that “mongoloid” is a racist pejorative, and that the government of Mongolia literally ran a campaign decades ago to get people to stop doing it.

    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      See…I don’t look at it that way. It’s not funny to me, even if I weren’t affected.

      It’s like watching a blind kitten running into a house that’s on fire. I don’t laugh at the soon to be burning kitten. I cry for the suffering that’s about to take place.

      Yes, the kitten chose to run into a burning house. Yes the kitten SHOULD HAVE known that’s a bad idea.

      …but they didn’t. They didn’t know what they were truely doing. And now it’s time to suffer from the obvious bad situation you just ran into.

      Only difference is, the kitten fire is now affecting the whole country.

      • GeeDubHayduke@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 days ago

        That’s a bad analogy. In this situation, the kittens voted to set the house in fire because there’s a puppy in a different room that they don’t like and it will get burned too. It’s hateful, willful ignorance and a desire to hurt others.

      • WatDabney@fedia.io
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        3 days ago

        Yeeeeaah… but see, your analogy not coincidentally fails, since the kitten is just ignorant.

        It would be more accurate if the kitten ran into the burning house because some fat, smelly old tom told it that if it did, the tom and his buddies would destroy the lives of everyone the kitten hates.

        So yeah - there’s a lot of ignorance there, but the foundation that makes that ignorance relevant and effective is bigotry and hatred and an utter and complete lack of empathy or integrity. If the kitten wasn’t so blinded by its hatred and cruelty, “run into this burning house to destroy someone else’s life” wouldn’t have been an effective appeal.

        • WastingCommentSpace@sh.itjust.works
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          2 days ago

          I have so many questions. Does the kitten understand what fire is? Does the kitten understand human language? Also because the kitten is blind are we sure it knowlingly went into the fire? If it doesnt understand what a fire is and cant see it. It only can smell and hear the fire and taste or touch (which would be bad, im fairly certain but im not an expert) did it have an experience with fire before and thats why its blind and knowlingly went in the fire?

  • hperrin
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    2 days ago

    Low income voters who supported Trump deserve what he does to them.

      • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Some people are more concerned about punishing the people they don’t think deserve things that they’ll let themselves get caught up in the same bullshit.

    • jeansburger@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      I hate how this is always on fucking point. These people don’t have empathy until it affects them in a personal way, then all of a sudden it’s “who let this happen?!”

      It was you, you fucking dipshits, by not having the emotional intelligence to be able to think for one second in another person’s shoes or think out the end conclusion to a piece of rhetoric.

    • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat
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      3 days ago

      Also, killing Mexicans and Palestinians is still fine. They’re just worried about their benefits.

      I don’t fully blame them. Our systems of news in this country are so bad that you can’t hold them responsible, because they’re in no way fully aware of what a nightmare Trump is going to be. But if their benefits is what wakes them up, with no other change happening in the news landscape, them fuck them and they deserve it.

      • solsangraal@lemmy.zip
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        3 days ago

        you can’t hold them responsible, because they’re in no way fully aware of what a nightmare Trump is going to be

        if people choose to ignore what’s right in front of their face, that’s a choice they made, and are 100% responsible for. i hold them entirely responsible for being so willfully ignorant and motivated by pure hate. i wouldn’t give a shit if their kindergarten-tier irresponsibility didn’t affect everyone and not just them

        • WaxiestSteam69@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          I can’t count how many times I saw posts on my Facebook feed that said things like “If you or a loved one relies on Social Security be careful who you vote for”. Knowing the people who posted I know they are Trump supporters. I guarantee that when benefits get cut they’ll find some way to blame it on Biden/Harris/Pelosi, etc. They either don’t see it or refuse to see it. Likewise the number of people in my life who expect an economic miracle by the end of February is unbelievable.

        • enkers@sh.itjust.works
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          3 days ago

          I think it’s best to only assign responsibility where it’s due. People can’t just flip a switch and have the education system and their peers no longer be a part of the problem. We’re not going to address systemic issues by only acknowledging individual’s responsibility, especially when they’re part of a system that promotes ignorance.

          That said, individuals still do have agency, so they’re certainly not blameless either. But to hold them fully responsible seems counterproductive.