this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2024
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Is there an organized collection of quotes like this anywhere?
Got a family member who's very amenable to stuff like this. The kind of person who's chronically uninformed about politics. Not misinformed, just so not following politics at all that they don't know a thing about Biden, Trump, or Harris. They supported Trump in the past because they'd read a lot of generic pro-Trump and anti-Biden comments from people they follow on Facebook (so generic they couldn't name anything they liked about Trump or disliked about Biden). They came around like a month ago after we had an actual conversation about politics with facts and stuff, about actual things both candidates had actually done. But the election's a long time away and it'd be nice to have things like this at the ready in case they backslide.
By the way, I see the take on Lemmy a lot that pretty much everyone has already decided who they're voting for, and that nothing that happens is going to change anyone's mind. Like I saw someone say just today that Trump's VP pick isn't going to scare away any of his voters. But I think the people who say things like that are making a lot of assumptions about how politically connected most people are. I don't think my chronically uninformed family member is in any sort of minority - the number of people out there who are voting one way or the other for no reason other than some vague baseless opinion they formed from reading vague baseless opinions of others is huge. There's a reason things like the way Howard Dean screams can sway elections, and people like that are the reason. People who know the candidates better than their neighbors are the minority.
Here's a few Republicans who oppose Trump's 2024 candidacy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Republicans_who_oppose_the_Donald_Trump_2024_presidential_campaign
And here's a few more quotes from people who worked in his administration.
https://archive.is/2024.06.11-215406/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/02/trump-aides-wont-vote-for-him/
These are some really good points, you've made about uninformed voters or swing voters, we hear a lot in the news cycle about undecided voters and for many of us the concept just feels so foreign that they have to be in such a small minority, but they're discussed for a reason.
A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll puts them at about 20%.
In my country, voting is compulsory, and everyone knows Trump is a rapist despite him being a foreign politician. You Americans gotta increase your political literacy.
The trick is "Politics" has become a dirty word.
Thing makes you uncomfortable? Don't want to think about it? "Politics".
As a coping strategy it is a thing to behold. It lets you just coast along and anything that doesn't instantly strike you as agreeable or might threaten previous information, "Politics", and you can just ignore it. Until something impacts you directly, and then you're being singled out and can be outraged, or at least disgruntled. But that's just your personal issue, there's no systemic problems, that would be... the bad word.
"Those" people want to be treated like people and be able to marry and have rights? "My party's candidate" is having bad stuff said about him? The local aquifer has been running a yearly deficit? Students are yelling about something?
"Politics".
They tricked us into thinking that politics was a taboo topic in America. Politics has been so batshit the past few years though, that sentiment has evaporated. We just can't help but talk about politics all the time now. I imagine a much more politically aware America in 5 to 10 years time if we survive that long.
It's taboo because they're uncomfortable justifying their positions, at least to others, because if they expand on those positions they have to apply labels they don't like to themselves, and that sucks.
The root word of politics is just "city". Politics is just matters being discussed in the city/population. Everything intrapersonal is politics. Ignoring it, making it a dirty word, is sticking their head in the sand because evaluating things is hard, and if they let the logic of their positions play out it ends up in a bad place. But that can't be true because they're a good person. So "politics" must be the problem.
In my new community [email protected], apoliticism is banned. I think that should be the norm. If you join a book club or a queer collective or go to a bar, there should be a sign up on the wall saying no apolitics. Spaces that tolerate apoliticism should be rare. You should have to put in effort to seek them out.
Here is part 1
https://fedia.io/m/[email protected]/t/1011134