5 ms·
I think it's worse. It's not that the government doesn't care that the public hates it; it's more like the government is doing whatever it wants and half the p
by yongjik 29d ago
I think it's worse. It's not that the government doesn't care that the public hates it; it's more like the government is doing whatever it wants and half the public is going wild absolutely loving it.
Well, maybe a bit less than half these days.
- Loughla 29d agoThe half that supports this nonsense genuinely believes this level of corruption has always existed. They're just happy it's their team this time. I simply do not understand American politics.
- esafak 29d agoIt's a very banana republicy thing and not uniquely American.
- subarctic 29d agoWell, banana republics are run by American companies from what i understand
- Sl1mb0 29d agoLol do you know how the term "Banana Republic" originated
- esafak 29d agoYes, of course. There's a whole wikipedia article on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_republic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_republic Modern usage is not about fruit companies.
- irishcoffee 29d agoNobody does. The amount of teenage angst posted in this forum about the current admin is amusingly pathetic. None of it matters. Congress constantly gets a free pass while we focus on a figurehead largely enabled by a passive and embarrassing congressional electorate. “We found the scapegoat, blame that guy!” It’s really embarrassing
- conception 29d agoThis is greatly because most congressional elections are not competitive.
- magicalist 29d ago> “We found the scapegoat, blame that guy!” Yeah, that's not what an scapegoat is.
- hackernud3s 29d agoWhat's a scapegoat then?
- bluGill 29d agoIt is from the Bible and the old testiment law. A goat were prepared for sacrifice (part of a much more complex ritual that I'm skipping), but then lead out in the wilderness and released instead of killed.
- hackernud3s 28d agoIt's someone that gets blamed despite not being responsible, Do you agree?
- ThunderSizzle 29d agoCorruption has been rampant under multiple administrations. I actually had hoped Trump might root out more corruption in his 2nd term, but two things happened: Congress wouldn't go afraid the corruption that was being found, and Charlie Kirk was assassinated in broad daylight...after 2-3 assassination attempts on Trump himself too. It's easier to start looking the other way when bullets start flying. Having said that, I'm not saying Trump was a saint, but it seems this board forgets we just had Obama and Biden running their corruption rings for 2 decades too...
- michaelhoney 29d ago
- rapind 29d agoIf Trump tomorrow says communism is great, then every Fox news host, MAGA content creator, and MAGA bot would be extolling the virtues of communism. The republican house and senate would enable it, maybe with a small bribe here and there. There is no line. There is no integrity. It's just looting.
- Petersipoi 29d ago[flagged]
- amanaplanacanal 29d agoI think you missed their point entirely.
- mjmsmith 29d agoTo be intellectually honest, please name a few open communists infiltrating the other party.
- sbseitz 29d agoTroll or pure clown.
- deleted 29d ago[deleted]
- budman1 29d agolook what they did for Russia. Mortal enemy of the US to closest friend in 2 weeks.
- rootusrootus 29d ago> I simply do not understand American politics. You are in good company with most Americans in that regard. It seems like the whole "we just blame the other side for everything we want to do, and then use that as justification when we actually do it" strategy must be well orchestrated, but the voters themselves legitimately seem to believe it is actually how things work. I am darkly impressed at the skillful manipulation.
- tstrimple 29d agoImagine there had been no Nuremberg trials. The Nazis just got a slap on the wrist and almost immediately let back into politics as usual. That's how we got here. We're still fighting the remnants of the confederacy. Germany and Japan in particular purged most of those elements from their society. Here we built statues to the evil fucks.
- bigfatkitten 29d agoThe United States must be one of the only nations on earth that names its own military bases after enemy commanders.
- archonis 29d ago>> We're still fighting the remnants of the confederacy. Consicely put, and not nearly present enough in contemporary discourse.
- 0xDEAFBEAD 29d agoHere's a map which attempts to estimate when slavery was abolished across various parts of the world: https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/zsnr8q/year_of_abolition_of_slavery_by_country/#lightbox https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/zsnr8q/year_of_abo... The US wasn't much of an outlier. As a general rule, anyone who tries to use slavery as a skeleton key to understand US politics is most likely an ideologue with an agenda. Sane people don't propose struggle sessions for events which happened 100+ years ago when everyone involved is long dead. You wouldn't point to a gigantic statue of Genghis Khan to explain what's wrong with modern Mongolia. I don't think this is a slavery thing. Trump just sucks.
- ModernMech 29d agoGenghis Khan died 800 years ago. The last American to have born into slavery died in the ~1970s~ 1960s.
- 0xDEAFBEAD 29d agoThe 1970s were 50 years ago. "Long dead", in other words. Did you know that Brazil didn't abolish until 1888? They also imported far more than the US: https://www.slavevoyages.org/static/uploads/01.jpg https://www.slavevoyages.org/static/uploads/01.jpg
- CyberDildonics 29d agoIt's not comprehensible without understanding that huge amounts of people are watching straight up lies and propaganda all day every day for their 'news'.
- ZeroGravitas 29d agoA lot of the early Trump responses were incredulous about some insane thing Trump said to a rally crowd, but he was basically repeating whatever insanity they'd all heard on Fox News the night before.
- budman1 29d agoand those folks at the rally eat it up. true believers.
- bawolff 29d agoPeople who feel lost and disaffected would rather see the whole thing burn down than continue with the status quo even if it is objectively worse for them. And its clearly been building for a while. Trump and Obama are about as opposite as possible, but they both won by campaigning on "change". This is true in most political systems. Its how most revolutions start. The commoner is always screwed but they still support them. I dont think america is all that exceptional. All sides just see it through their filter bubble and miss the forest for the trees.
- anon84873628 29d agoDon't know why you're being down voted. I can't believe there are people who didn't vote for Harris because she wasn't anti-Israel, as if Trump would somehow be better for the Gazans. (Well I can believe it, it shows a limitation of rational thought and second order effects, which our electoral system exploits. And some of them are outright "accelerationists" which is a looney strategy itself.)
- bawolff 29d agoThat's another good example. Personally i was thinking of lower income people voting for trump because they thought he would improve their plight.
- account42 27d ago> Trump and Obama are about as opposite as possible Are they though? Both serve the same master.
- deleted 29d ago[deleted]
- dimgl 29d agoI think this whole "that half" and "this half" thing makes it significantly harder to hold people in the government accountable. I know plenty of conservative people who think the corruption in the government is out of control.
- atmavatar 29d agoDo they act on their beliefs or merely parrot them? I ask because I've known people who were shocked at what took place 2021-01-06 but who proudly voted to re-elect Trump. Today isn't much different: talk to a conservative voter who complains about the tariffs, Iran war, etc. and ask them whether it would be enough for them to vote Democrat, and the answer is near universally no. Lots of people have performative outrage because they're supposed to be outraged at what's going on, but the truth is that there's no line the Republican party can cross which would make them switch votes. Exceptions to this rule are still few and far between as far as I can gather.
- TheOtherHobbes 29d agoElections are won and lost by the people who don't vote so not voting for Trump still counts as a win. Most politics is sold as tribal. "Our leader" and "Our team" are not the same thing. If "Our leader" is a disappointment, "Our team" can still be the good guys who need to do some house clearing, introduce some fresh blood, and all will be well again, etc. Reality in the US is most politics is billionaire-funded. Trump didn't just happen, and he certainly didn't pull himself into the top job through his own efforts. He was groomed for decades before being crowned. That's the level of corruption most of the population never sees. It's why the establishment is so scared of wildcard politicians and the DSA as a movement - both threaten to snip the strings of corporate funding. As long as those strings are there, what happens in the media is kayfabe. The real decisions are made elsewhere, and the big tentpole events - 9/11 and its aftermath, the various Middle Eastern wars, financial crashes and bailouts - are the special menu the rich get to feed off, and the public never sees in advance, never mind votes on.
- collingreen 29d agoDo those conservative people keep voting for Trump? Will they support his blatantly unconstitutional third term run? If so I think we need more words for nuances around what conservatism has come to mean.
- esalman 29d agoWell friend, the current political climate in America might be unprecedented, but is not unique. As someone who lived under a mix of military, monarchy, psudo-democratic and democratic governments for first 30 years of my life, I've seen this played out many times before.
- throwawayffffas 29d agoThat's what blows my mind, nothing that is happening is actually new, we have seen this shit play over many times. And yet the system was completely incapable of shutting this down.
- 28304283409234 29d agoOnce I understood that capitalism is (thinly) veiled slavery, and that it creates a system to suppress those that add value, I have found it easier to follow what is happening over there. We just don’t see the slavery because we are the best compensated slaves. But most of us want to become masters, don’t we. “Entrepreneurs“, right? So at some level we know that that is the system we live in. And we are at the top of the bottom rung of that ladder. But it is still the bottom rung. And it is still a ladder.
- budman1 29d agoThe threshold is 5%. About 5% needs to be stolen to keep the system operating.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 29d agoIt's more like a third. > 35% approve, 61% disapprove, 5% not sure https://www.economist.com/interactive/trump-approval-tracker https://www.economist.com/interactive/trump-approval-tracker
- kolanos 29d ago> The national favorability rating for the Democratic Party sits around 39% to 41% favorable, with unfavorable ratings ranging from 48% to 54% across recent mid-2026 polls. [0] And Congress as a whole... > The approval rating for the U.S. Congress stands at 10%, while disapproval has climbed to 86%, according to data from Gallup. [1] So not sure what this is really telling us? [0]: https://fiftyplusone.news/polls/favorability/democratic-party https://fiftyplusone.news/polls/favorability/democratic-part... [1]: https://news.gallup.com/poll/708722/disapproval-congress-ties-record-high.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/708722/disapproval-congress-tie...
- matthewdgreen 29d agoPeople hate Congress but love their Congressperson. It's even got a name: Fenno's paradox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenno%27s_paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenno%27s_paradox Diffuse organizations like "Congress" or "the party" aren't what you're voting for. Unfortunately Congress really does take it on the chin for the actions of the President in midterms, because that's very recognizable and personalized, and partisan votes (or just staying home) are the only lever people have to express displeasure.
- vjvjvjvjghv 29d ago"People hate Congress but love their Congressperson. " I honestly think most Congress people want to do good for the country. But the system has become totally dysfunctional making it basically impossible to really work on issues. The influence of money is just too much. To me this goes hand in hand with the rising inequality that gives a few people at the top outsized influence. Super PACs don't even have to deploy their money anymore. The simple threat is already enough to bring most Congress people in line if they want to keep their job.
- Petersipoi 29d ago[flagged]
- deleted 29d ago[deleted]