They sort of touch on what I think is the reason, but I think they dance around it: The systems by which people make sense of the world around them, and understand what is going on in the country factually, and what are right and wrong things or how “everyone” feels about things, are being hijacked more and more effectively by propaganda. Trump is genuinely popular now, at least enough so to win the election, because they were fed a diet of extremely professional fake news which was designed to create the impression that he should be popular.
In person, almost everyone I know who doesn’t get their news from TikTok is at least left-leaning. Some of the people who get their whole picture of the world from social media are rabidly right-leaning, and their picture of the world is also a huge chaotic mess. I do not think that is coincidence.
This doesn’t affect your point, but I just want to point out that he’s NOT genuinely popular right now. He’s still got a terrible approval rating. He’s starting at somewhere around 47 approve, 48 disapprove. Biden was 53-30. And this is his honeymoon, he was at a similar level at the start of his first term.
This was more of a rejection of Biden/status quo than people coming around to actually like Trump.
Trump is genuinely popular now, at least enough so to win the election, because they were fed a diet of extremely professional fake news which was designed to create the impression that he should be popular.
I must register my disagreement. America, as a whole, is fine with a Trump presidency, knowing full well what that represents. People have agency, and shifting responsibility to “propaganda” ignores that agency and relieves people of responsibility.
No, the American electorate as a whole is responsible here.
Some of them, yes. And some of them, once the real horrors start in their neighborhood, will be too complacent to do anything or even say a word against it, but just keep going with the herd. My point is that I think a huge number of them have no idea what’s actually going on.
I’ve talked with them. They really think Trump is a genius, and that he’s finally going to start fighting for the working man, after decades of the Democrats’ betrayal (which that part is, kind of, pretty accurate). All this stuff you and I talk about, the reality of what he represents and what he plans to do, they have absolutely no idea about. It’s not in their media landscape, and their media landscape includes deliberately designed features to make sure they won’t be able to accept it when they are occasionally exposed to it. It’s really hard to wrap your head around how little of an idea they have about what’s going on.
I’m not saying you are completely wrong. Some of them really want mass deportations and a Muslim ban, even if they don’t know that he plans to do much worse than that. And some will go along with it as it starts happening, and fuck them. But I think the level of ignorance is really vital to keep in mind, in particular because it means that a lot of these people who are about to start taking part in atrocities are not really “bad people,” in the way it would mean that they were if they completely understood it.
There’s also the factor of “people tend to gravitate towards media outlets that tell them what they already want to hear.” Yes, propaganda works, but it works best on people who already want to believe it.
They sort of touch on what I think is the reason, but I think they dance around it: The systems by which people make sense of the world around them, and understand what is going on in the country factually, and what are right and wrong things or how “everyone” feels about things, are being hijacked more and more effectively by propaganda. Trump is genuinely popular now, at least enough so to win the election, because they were fed a diet of extremely professional fake news which was designed to create the impression that he should be popular.
In person, almost everyone I know who doesn’t get their news from TikTok is at least left-leaning. Some of the people who get their whole picture of the world from social media are rabidly right-leaning, and their picture of the world is also a huge chaotic mess. I do not think that is coincidence.
This doesn’t affect your point, but I just want to point out that he’s NOT genuinely popular right now. He’s still got a terrible approval rating. He’s starting at somewhere around 47 approve, 48 disapprove. Biden was 53-30. And this is his honeymoon, he was at a similar level at the start of his first term.
This was more of a rejection of Biden/status quo than people coming around to actually like Trump.
I must register my disagreement. America, as a whole, is fine with a Trump presidency, knowing full well what that represents. People have agency, and shifting responsibility to “propaganda” ignores that agency and relieves people of responsibility.
No, the American electorate as a whole is responsible here.
Some of them, yes. And some of them, once the real horrors start in their neighborhood, will be too complacent to do anything or even say a word against it, but just keep going with the herd. My point is that I think a huge number of them have no idea what’s actually going on.
I’ve talked with them. They really think Trump is a genius, and that he’s finally going to start fighting for the working man, after decades of the Democrats’ betrayal (which that part is, kind of, pretty accurate). All this stuff you and I talk about, the reality of what he represents and what he plans to do, they have absolutely no idea about. It’s not in their media landscape, and their media landscape includes deliberately designed features to make sure they won’t be able to accept it when they are occasionally exposed to it. It’s really hard to wrap your head around how little of an idea they have about what’s going on.
I’m not saying you are completely wrong. Some of them really want mass deportations and a Muslim ban, even if they don’t know that he plans to do much worse than that. And some will go along with it as it starts happening, and fuck them. But I think the level of ignorance is really vital to keep in mind, in particular because it means that a lot of these people who are about to start taking part in atrocities are not really “bad people,” in the way it would mean that they were if they completely understood it.
There’s also the factor of “people tend to gravitate towards media outlets that tell them what they already want to hear.” Yes, propaganda works, but it works best on people who already want to believe it.