this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2023
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politics

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[–] [email protected] 132 points 1 year ago (4 children)

She put my recent thoughts into words: they simply can NOT admit that they were wrong about Trump, especially since they've curated their new identity around him.

After all, many sacrificed their family life on the altar of Trump. If you make a stand for bigotry that's so rancid it drives your kids to sever contact, you have to believe it's in service of something higher or else come to grips with your own moral failings. I know which one I believe is more likely.

It's the rotten core of the anti-intellectual ideology that the right has been pushing for decades.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This. I can't solve this, and neither can any other individual person.

It will take a wide spread implosion, but they've got a resilient ecosystem that will just switch messianic figures out once Trump is no longer able to hold public sway.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

And if they don't switch, it may straight-up become religious

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago

Sunk Cost Fallacy for president

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Anti-intellectual theology as well. "God and Country" evangelical churches from the smallest to the largest find it absolutely crucial to brainwash their congregations against higher ed and critical thinking.

[–] [email protected] 64 points 1 year ago (5 children)

"...the first rule of MAGA is to never, ever, under any circumstances, admit that liberals might be right about something."

People in cults stay in them for the same reasons. So many times, they were told they were wrong, that they couldn't take the embarrassment of making such a mistake.

Maybe MAGA people need to be coddled a bit. Tell them that Trump changed towards the end. They were right, but he betrayed them in the end. Something else should be tried. Many of these people are dangerous in the mental state their in.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Maybe. But this just kicks the can down the road. They'll do the same shit with a new messiah figure as soon as they find one that can string two words together and make them feel like they're virtuous for their hatred.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Mollycoddling them is what caused the problem in the first place. They need to be forced to accept responsibility for the choices they made even if it hurts them. Them entrenching themselves out of embarrassment is a moral failing on their part, not ours.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They need to be forced to accept responsibility

I won't hold my breath.

The only solution is the California model: vote them into powerlessness. They'll never change. Just leave them to their impotent rage while the rest of us move on.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You forget that California actually allows for a fair amount of direct democracy - the South will cling to Republican government and will fight any movement toward direct democracy and ballot initiatives because every effort to appeal to their base would be defeated.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

True but if we get enough dems in office, we naturally progress towards stronger ballot measures. We can't do anything while Republicans are in office.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Exactly, some people deserve to get exactly what they want, fuck em.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

He pretended to want to help them during his campaign. They fell for it and just ignored all facts and evidence since. Doubt they're going to see the light.

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Clinton was right about everything. In 20 years its going to be really hard to explain why she wasn't the obvious choice who should have won by a landslide

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (4 children)

No it isn't. She wasn't relatable or likeable at all. People wanted an outsider and HRC is about as much of an insider as you could be.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Where are the Bernie bros that dude would have won.

[–] [email protected] 61 points 1 year ago

We're depressed. Leave us out of this

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I will never forgive the DNC

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (5 children)

She wasn't relatable or likeable at all

Neither is Trump. Hillary was obviously the better choice.

[–] Cheers 30 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Hillary was obviously the better choice given the 2, but DNC shafted Bernie on record, which caused a lot of people to go 3rd party, against both RNC and DNC.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Trump was relatable and likable to his supporters. Clinton couldn't say the same except for a small number of them. It's become tradition in the Democratic Party to hold your nose when you vote for president.

As an example of her lack of relatability and likeability, here she is chilling in Cedar Rapids and telling kids to Pokemon Go to the polls.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Trump is about as likeable as a rabid dingo. Clinton was better in absolutely every way to people with two neurons to rub together.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It doesn't take much to be better than Trump. Still, Clinton campaigned as if winning was a foregone conclusion and then she found out that it wasn't.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Some of us remember the 90's, and the ubiquitous bumper stickers implying that while Bill was President, Hillary was in charge. Playing on sexist tropes, calling her a bitch of the canine variety, "I didn't vote for Hillary," "She's not my president," etc.. Hillary was well hated before she ever ran for President.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

People who want outsiders are, it turns out, dumb and wrong

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's actually an easy explanation.

People were more concerned with a Democrat being likeable, after decades of character assassination, while they didn't care that the republican was a criminal, and also foreign interference and an FBI that was paralyzed by biased agents and management fear of appearing biased, actual outcomes be damned.

It was a perfect storm of regressive misinformation and every individual with the ability to stop the train wreck trying to cover their own asses and pass the buck instead.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

wasn't this also the election that was heavily influenced by Cambridge Analytica? while Facebook being the biggest social media site in thebworld/us?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I just want to also call out the Internet Research Agency, Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear: All Russian information groups, a disrupted our elections in one way or another through different types of social engineering, hacking, trolling and misinformation creation. They went after individualls, businesses, and government organizations, not limited to the DNC.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

She didn’t even campaign in Michigan thinking it was a sure thing. She ran a terrible campaign.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

I'm sure that will be something people in 20years understand. She didn't campaign well enough so we elected a narcissistic sociopath who bragged about grabbing women by the genitals and then fucked our country into fascism.

But her emails...

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Everything is a bit of a stretch. She was certainly wrong about how she ran her campaign. Poisoning the well in the primary worked out so fucking well for her. It was her turn, she earned it. No reason to convince the voters to show up by campaigning, or creating a platform people were excited about. Just say how bad Bernie is, then how bad trump is a few times and hide.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

"Poisoning the well" aka "winning by 3 million votes"

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Yeah, the DNC clearing the field for her looks really bad in hindsight. A lot would be different if Biden had run in 2016 when the whole Bidenbro phenomenon was really popular.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

This conclusion has been obvious for fucking decades.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yes but this gets us nowhere

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