Truthfully though, i think a lot of those people are ok with either. They don’t view politics as making any difference in their day-to-day lives and/or may be too busy or otherwise engaged to pay attention to the news (or perhaps even disinterested!). I know some people who are more or less apolitical. They don’t talk about politics, they don’t think about politics, and they don’t seem overly concerned since Trump took office again. That’s just in my small orbit though – there are millions of people out there that have much different views than most of us here.
I sometimes think we get wrong idea about how popular are views/beliefs are because we’re hanging out in an echo chamber to some degree.
I wonder the same. I think part of it is the way we were educated about politics growing up. Also the fact we’re taught about most of it when we can’t vote.
just like they had zero control over the toilet paper shortages during the pandemic. i remember having to go to like four different stores to find a 6pack of toilet paper in may 2020.
Nobody thinks finer points of political policy is more important than the people who wonk about it all day as a hobby.
Most average people dont’ even know these things exist. They are thinking about what they will eat tonight for dinner or whether to stay home and watch TV or go out to the local bar. Hence why the increase in food prices more or less fucked the Democrats… because people notice when food/gas goes up.
Personally I just gave up in some ways too. It gets old listening to people rant on about transrights every other day. Which a lot of my more political friends have been doing the past few years. What they don’t get is that transrights are irrelevant to like 95% of the population, even though they think that it’s the most pressing moral issue of our lifetime and its the hill they have chose to grandstand on for whatever reason. And my lack of passion for this issue gets me labeled as transphobic by these same folks. And while I support transrights… I just don’t want to scream about it everyday on social media like they do.
It’s easy to say, but when you live in states like Mississippi or California, voting is pointless. So many do care, but know that their presence in the voting booth is pointless.
The electoral college makes it pointless. Trump has a 0% chance to win California, so if you are a Trumper, why bother voting (for president) in California? Same goes for a liberal in Mississippi.
If there was a national popular vote, I think this would be different.
That said, I think everybody should vote no matter what. But saying that somebody who does not vote is indirectly supporting Trump is just ignoring the reality of our election system.
There were 1.95 million voters in MS in 2024. Trump got ~748,000 votes in the state, Kamala got ~466,000. How is it pointless to vote in a state where 700,000 people didn’t?
I fucking hate it when people say it’s pointless to vote. People thought Georgia would never go blue until it fucking happened in 2020, because people went out and voted.
Stop spreading that disinfo.
Hell, California has 22 million registered voters, and Kamala only got 9 million of those. That state isn’t as blue as you might think it is.
I’d have to doublecheck my numbers, but I’m pretty sure the only election where more peole voted for a candidate than didn’t vote at all, was 2020. Technically, “nobody” has been the winning vote for at least my entire lifetime.
I would say, in states where your vote seems to matter the least, and it’s the hardest to vote, those are the states where it is the most important that you actually do vote, because the shitbag republicans who have cooked up those crooked election maps and fucked around with the voting process, are relying on you to not vote.
First, I don’t think Georgia is a good example cause that was a battleground state. Sure it was historically red, but the polls were close enough to make that state matter. If you live in a battleground state, congrats, your vote matters!
Second, I think you’re giving a very idealistic perspective. If all of those 700k people voted, what percent of them do you honestly believe would go for Harris? 75% of them? Probably not even enough to bring Harris to over the current 748k number.
And to the people that didn’t vote, where voting is not necessarily an easy thing to do, and where they will probably struggle regardless of who wins, they will do that same math and come to the conclusion that voting is more work than it’s worth.
I just think it is wrong to put the blame on them, when the real enemy is the electoral college.
And if that decided our elections, then I would be 100% in your side. Everybody in every state needs to vote, or they are in support of whomever wins. How many people in Mississippi would have voted if they knew they were going against the nationwide popular vote, and not just the republicans in their state?
It’s a plurality, if we’re being pedantic. But yes, this is America’s disease. We worshiped at the feet of capitalism and it birthed a twisted avatar to lead us that not only embodies all of the worst aspects of our society but actively seeks to expand them - greed, xenophobia, callousness, arrogance, hypocrisy, and violence.
Every time this topic comes up one of you guys shows up to make minor statistical and grammatical corrections about the voting population like it makes any damned bit of difference to our lived experience. America elected this piece of shit twice and that is the only important part of the discussion. The rest is just you hoping to convince yourself that things aren’t as bad as they seem. Well, they are that bad so please focus on something more useful than using statistically precise language to describe how many tens of millions of our neighbors support this child raping charlatan.
They’re indeed bad - REALLY bad - but overstating Trump’s support isn’t helpful. 77 million out of roughly 174 million eligible voters, or about 44%, chose fascism, NOT a majority.
That distinction is irrelevant in just about every conceivable way. No one rational should be comforted by the clarification that only 77 million of their neighbors are fascists.
What then is your intent when insisting on making the distinction between a majority of voters and a plurality of voters? It appears to me to be an attempt at making this seem like less of a problem than it is, especially when the plurality is as close to the same number as a majority is in this case.
Minor correction: Trump won with less than half of registered voters, which is only 30% of eligible voters (over 18)
2024 election results as of Jan 15, 2025 (AP News)
77,303,573 votes (49.9%) - Trump : 23% of pop, 30% of eligible (18+), 45% of reg *
75,019,257 votes (48.4%) - Harris : 22% of pop, 29% of eligible (18+), 44% of reg *
337,375,114 - US Population as of Nov 6, 2024 (Census.gov)
*note the number of registered voters is not as easy to determine as the number that voted
Anyone able to vote and not voting for Harris is indirectly voting for Mango Hitler.
If you can vote and decide to not do it, you are saying you are ok with both candidates.
Truthfully though, i think a lot of those people are ok with either. They don’t view politics as making any difference in their day-to-day lives and/or may be too busy or otherwise engaged to pay attention to the news (or perhaps even disinterested!). I know some people who are more or less apolitical. They don’t talk about politics, they don’t think about politics, and they don’t seem overly concerned since Trump took office again. That’s just in my small orbit though – there are millions of people out there that have much different views than most of us here.
I sometimes think we get wrong idea about how popular are views/beliefs are because we’re hanging out in an echo chamber to some degree.
but I’m sure that have opinions about the price of well… everything.
do they just not think it matters? are they wealthy enough not to care, or do they just not think much?
I wonder the same. I think part of it is the way we were educated about politics growing up. Also the fact we’re taught about most of it when we can’t vote.
they have zero control over it. wealthy or not.
just like they had zero control over the toilet paper shortages during the pandemic. i remember having to go to like four different stores to find a 6pack of toilet paper in may 2020.
Bingo.
Nobody thinks finer points of political policy is more important than the people who wonk about it all day as a hobby.
Most average people dont’ even know these things exist. They are thinking about what they will eat tonight for dinner or whether to stay home and watch TV or go out to the local bar. Hence why the increase in food prices more or less fucked the Democrats… because people notice when food/gas goes up.
Personally I just gave up in some ways too. It gets old listening to people rant on about transrights every other day. Which a lot of my more political friends have been doing the past few years. What they don’t get is that transrights are irrelevant to like 95% of the population, even though they think that it’s the most pressing moral issue of our lifetime and its the hill they have chose to grandstand on for whatever reason. And my lack of passion for this issue gets me labeled as transphobic by these same folks. And while I support transrights… I just don’t want to scream about it everyday on social media like they do.
It’s easy to say, but when you live in states like Mississippi or California, voting is pointless. So many do care, but know that their presence in the voting booth is pointless.
yeah, the electoral college seems to be inherently undemocratic.
Why is it pointless to vote in those states?
The electoral college makes it pointless. Trump has a 0% chance to win California, so if you are a Trumper, why bother voting (for president) in California? Same goes for a liberal in Mississippi.
If there was a national popular vote, I think this would be different.
That said, I think everybody should vote no matter what. But saying that somebody who does not vote is indirectly supporting Trump is just ignoring the reality of our election system.
There were 1.95 million voters in MS in 2024. Trump got ~748,000 votes in the state, Kamala got ~466,000. How is it pointless to vote in a state where 700,000 people didn’t?
I fucking hate it when people say it’s pointless to vote. People thought Georgia would never go blue until it fucking happened in 2020, because people went out and voted.
Stop spreading that disinfo.
Hell, California has 22 million registered voters, and Kamala only got 9 million of those. That state isn’t as blue as you might think it is.
I’d have to doublecheck my numbers, but I’m pretty sure the only election where more peole voted for a candidate than didn’t vote at all, was 2020. Technically, “nobody” has been the winning vote for at least my entire lifetime.
I would say, in states where your vote seems to matter the least, and it’s the hardest to vote, those are the states where it is the most important that you actually do vote, because the shitbag republicans who have cooked up those crooked election maps and fucked around with the voting process, are relying on you to not vote.
First, I don’t think Georgia is a good example cause that was a battleground state. Sure it was historically red, but the polls were close enough to make that state matter. If you live in a battleground state, congrats, your vote matters!
Second, I think you’re giving a very idealistic perspective. If all of those 700k people voted, what percent of them do you honestly believe would go for Harris? 75% of them? Probably not even enough to bring Harris to over the current 748k number.
And to the people that didn’t vote, where voting is not necessarily an easy thing to do, and where they will probably struggle regardless of who wins, they will do that same math and come to the conclusion that voting is more work than it’s worth.
I just think it is wrong to put the blame on them, when the real enemy is the electoral college.
Trump won the pv in 2024…
And if that decided our elections, then I would be 100% in your side. Everybody in every state needs to vote, or they are in support of whomever wins. How many people in Mississippi would have voted if they knew they were going against the nationwide popular vote, and not just the republicans in their state?
Still a majority though isn’t it?
This is what america is. I don’t like it either, but feelings don’t change facts.
It’s a plurality, if we’re being pedantic. But yes, this is America’s disease. We worshiped at the feet of capitalism and it birthed a twisted avatar to lead us that not only embodies all of the worst aspects of our society but actively seeks to expand them - greed, xenophobia, callousness, arrogance, hypocrisy, and violence.
Still won with more than half of American voters. You’re not a voter if you don’t use your vote.
Yeah, people always bring that up like it’s a positive thing. It’s not something to be proud of.
No, he won with a plurality of voters, not over half of them.
Every time this topic comes up one of you guys shows up to make minor statistical and grammatical corrections about the voting population like it makes any damned bit of difference to our lived experience. America elected this piece of shit twice and that is the only important part of the discussion. The rest is just you hoping to convince yourself that things aren’t as bad as they seem. Well, they are that bad so please focus on something more useful than using statistically precise language to describe how many tens of millions of our neighbors support this child raping charlatan.
They’re indeed bad - REALLY bad - but overstating Trump’s support isn’t helpful. 77 million out of roughly 174 million eligible voters, or about 44%, chose fascism, NOT a majority.
All the ones not voting chose not to stop fascism.
You’re right. But apathy is apathy, not support.
That distinction is irrelevant in just about every conceivable way. No one rational should be comforted by the clarification that only 77 million of their neighbors are fascists.
I’m not sure where you got “comforted” from this.
What then is your intent when insisting on making the distinction between a majority of voters and a plurality of voters? It appears to me to be an attempt at making this seem like less of a problem than it is, especially when the plurality is as close to the same number as a majority is in this case.
My bad, although ”more than half” is a lot closer to 49.9% than 30%.
True.