Hardship will just make them blame foreigners
this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2025
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Not if the argument is to offer the democratic party and more neoliberalism as an alternative. Yes, they'll gladly suffer for fascism.
It's our job to offer something better that explains their suffering and alienation. Thankfully this guy named Marx did a pretty good job explaining it.
And they can also continue to blame Biden.
Biden is also a tool of neoliberalism and class warfare. The fact that we sit here understanding that Trump voters will "endure suffering" for fascism should tell us something. It is because a vast majority of people in this country are fed up with neoliberalism that has existed since Reagan.
One side of the country has moved to the left and found actual answers that explain the alienation that they feel and the reason for their frustration. That reason is class conflict and worker exploitation. (This is sadly a small amount of people)
Another side of the country has been fooled by fascism and xenophobia. These are the Trump supporters.
And then we have the "middle" that is a minority in this country that is continue to defend neoliberalism. This is the democratic party and it's loyal "vote Blue no matter who" block. These are often the people comfortable enough still to not feel frustration, that do not actually feel the economic impact.
Sadly that minority that is still holding strong to neoliberalism and the status quo is heavily preventing the country from learning actual leftist ideals.
No one wants the status quo and neoliberalism. So the average American is leaning right for "something else" because the Democratic party is offering them nothing but the status quo and weak policies.
The Democrats inability to evolve to a leftist populist message, under Sanders, is a very important part of understanding why people voted for Trump twice. They gave the Democrats one last chance under Biden and felt no material improvement to their lives.
It's why they will blame Biden and hold onto this "change" in Trump. They will gladly suffer under something different than to suffer slightly less under the same system that has caused their struggles and alienation.
Unfortunately for us the only party that is somewhat normal is the dems and like you said they’re stooges for the capitalist class. I see no way out of this. I believe the dems are controlled opposition at this point. They would rather defend the status quo than fight for economic mobility. Bernie was right the whole time. While the republicans were cleaning house for MAGA, dems were eliminating all internal opposition. We need to do the same here on the left if the Democratic Party is to be saved.
People are way too focused on change at the federal level. You need to start small and local, building groups that can create the grassroots support actual leaders will need to get elected.
Start with your cities and counties and work your way up.
Yes, this is all they will do.
Shun them. Trump supporters are evil, try and avoid working for them or with them in any way. Don't talk to them. There is no need to be friendly. These people are actually supporting a Nazi revival.
Great Trump will be celebrating our withdrawal from our neighbors all day. The best thing that can happen to him is for us to keep yelling "you're evil" at half the country. It just reinforces his position with every cry of hate.
Are there some actual ideological Nazis following Trump? Of course. But the vast majority is just sick and tired of the status quo that does nothing for them. And as a result they got taken in by a huckster politician.
You write of half the country a just basically evil by nature and you're playing his game for him.
That's what I'm saying but my wife says I still gotta go to her dad's house with her.
I really, really, have no interest in talking to that man. She shouldn't either. He was a shit human before Trump was president and he'll be a shit human long after. Half his kids (none of her full siblings, just her half- and step- siblings...her moms side is like some of the best people I've met and my MIL is probably the nicest lady in the world) are equally shitty, as are half his grandkids.
I mean hell, she gave up Target because of DEI, and she visits Target far more often.
Aitah?
One thing that worked with my partner was asking them if they had a racist or a mean relative and asking them how they felt spending time around them when they were kids.
We haven't talked to his parents since November and he says he ain't missing them at all.
Toxic-ass motherfuckers.
Seriously? Put on your big boy pants and say no.
Are we all just cowering down? Reading these comments makes it sounds like we should just all give up.
The message of the post itself is that we have power and we need to exercise our power, and we cannot wait for foolish people who believe in Mr. Orange.
As for the comments, you conveniently did not say which comments you disapprove of. So it feels kind of hand wavy to try to respond to you. I see many comments written by people who are clearly not cowering down, so either those showed up after you got here, or your interpreting them very differently than I am.
Doubt, fortunately. The extremists will largely never be turned, but most Trump supporters are moderates who care more about their own well-being than solidarity with the group. Mussolini is a great example of how an idiot dictator can quickly fragment his supporters and end up in the streets
"You can't reason out of a position you didn't come to through reason."
They just hate for hate sake. It's time to come to terms that the dumb will not be saved by gentle parenting but need to be dragged into reality.
Sure, but most of Trump's voters did vote for him for a reason: their lives got noticeably harder under Biden. When their lives get even worse under Trump, they'll vote for another change of party.
The cultists waving Trump flags and buying Trump teddy bears and reading Trump bibles are fueled by identity politics, but the idea that the average Trump voter is one of those cultists is a lie that Trump would very much like you to believe
It's frightening how many people on "our" side are willing to simply believe that half the country is irredeemably evil by nature and not just taken in by a smooth talking conman after having been abused by the system for decades.
"quickly" only after massive damage is done.
Y’all learned nothing from the election if you’re still trying to turn them.
not trying to turn them
trying to thin them.
If we had taxpayer universal healthcare, that'd be easy. Just give them all semaglutide. Problem solved.
That and cons will always find a way to spin something to cause outrage and anger towards anyone but themselves.
Just went through that with an elderly neighbor recently.
She broke her foot and is in poor health, so we were walking her dog twice a day cause we are nice like that. She was always praising us for being such good people and a godsend to her.
One day, she made a comment that she thought Trump was doing a great job and I gently tried to explain to her that he was ruining our lives and countless others out there.
I was hoping she would have a moment of introspection, but no. She just immediately went on about the democrats, how we get offended too easily, and how she thinks I swear too much but she doesn't hold it against me.
Everything except: "I'm sorry. I didn't realize."
Told her we no longer feel comfortable walking get dog.
Cue the waterworks and the "What about me? I can't walk!"
It's not worth engaging with these people. There is something broken in their brains.
They are brainwashed. The people we hate are actually some of trumps biggest victims. They are the victims of brainwashing. And they will soon be victimized in other ways as well. And when they question it, Trump will blame them, othe people, anyone but himself. And like victims of narcissistic abuse, they will do the mental backflips required to forgive Trump.
I just encountered this last night with hardcore Trumper family members. They believe his tariffs are because the tariffed countries have their military subsidized by the American government and they need to pay their fair share. They think xwe're going to have to "feel a little pain" for a year or two, then "it" will be better. What is "it"? Who the hell knows. They certainly don't.
My dad isn’t a Trump supporter but he sure sounds like one. He’s fine with tariffs because “we won’t be paying them”. The underlying belief is that we shouldn’t import electricity or other goods, we should be producing our own, we should be self sustaining. And these tariffs are speeding up factories to open up in the states and produce US goods. The adjustment period (a few years at most) will be hard but worth it in the end - everything will be US made. Wohoo?
Never mind that our current infrastructure is crumbling and nothing is being done about it. And Trump is siphoning off any resources the us has. Never mind that many people today live paycheck to paycheck and as a result of this self imposed trade war will starve or freeze to death in the interim. Never mind that even if the US government decided to invest in this, it would take many many many decades to make US self sustaining, and once achieved prices will be higher than if we were to import the goods.
Yanis Varoufakis explains the reasoning
I like Yanis but I really don't think that's what Trump is doing.
I'm sorry, but Trump's "America has been treated very unfairly" is more likely just an extension of his own persecution complex, which in turn is just fascist rhetoric, always with the grievance, eternally playing the victim card ("they humiliated us but we will get our revenge"), so I feel like Yanis is trying to interpret the well-known fascist humiliation fetish into a coherent economic vision... But it just isn't. Trump's woefully incompetent, so the only way what Yanis is saying would make sense is if his Heritage goons or oligarch buddies whispered stuff in his ear... although I would be highly doubtful even then that this is the plan, because their priority here seems to be to loot and plunder the state and turn it into a kind of Russian oligarchy with Christofascist characteristics. They're way too high on power, as can be seen by how much they say and do right in the open, thinking they're untouchable.
And I didn't even mention the whole Curtis Yarvin network states tehnofeudalism, which Yanis should know about since he has a whole book called Tehnofeudalism, and I hope he mentions Yarvin and Peter Thiel in there and isn't just saying how WEF style neoliberalism will eventually usher in tehnofeudalism, right? Right?!
PS: UnHerd is a pretty sus publication with a very TERF-ish bent. While they do sometimes get prominent lefties to write for it, it's always for articles like this that are useful to them as they don't really challenge the MAGA worldview (source: a MAGA acquaintance recommended me a recent Yanis interview rehashing this very article, and his takeaway was how smart Trump is). Tread carefully, there's always an angle with this site.
That's a great read and makes a ton of sense. Thank you!
I wrote another reply to the person who posted but I don't like repeating myself, so I'll just give the cliff notes:
Trump's "America has been treated very unfairly" rhetoric is more likely just an extension of his own persecution complex, which in turn is just standard fascist rhetoric about how "we were once great, but we've allowed ourselves to be humiliated by our adversaries... but now we'll be great again and take our revenge on all of them". It's nothing new. And while I have a high opinion of Yanis, I think he's just wrong here, and I think that's exactly why UnHerd (a sussy "alt-left" pro-TERF publication) was happy to publish his article.
All Trump's gotta do is blame the Dems. Already going that route
And his dumb ass parrots will repeat his lies forever no matter what evidence they’re presented with
Group think is bad. Larger the group the lower the IQ.
Does that count here and on Reddit? Although I'll say here on Lemmy, folks are much more open to actual dialogue than on Reddit.
Although I’ll say here on Lemmy, folks are much more open to actual dialogue than on Reddit.
I mean yeah. At least Lemmy instances aren't site banning people for upvoting the wrong thing. Or communities using bots to autoban anyone who has ever posted to certain communities. Or communities banning anyone who isn't fully on board with the "correct" views about all things at all times.
Turns out not reinforcing a space as an echo chamber reduces the degree to which it is an echo chamber, who would have thought?
I mean it has the same incentives. Try to ask something that goes against the group ethos and you'll get downvoted to hell pretty quickly. Not quite as bad as Reddit I'll agree.
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