Well the answer to “why did people still support Trump after Jan 6th” is actually “Jan 6th.”
Those people that came to DC and walked to the Capitol and stormed out are Americans who were a) pissed off and b) willing and able to travel and march and attack on behalf of Trump.
That’s not nothing in terms of power and influence. And it’s indicative of a BUNCH of people who met condition (a) but not (b). Like probably an order of magnitude or more.
Since no Republican stepped up to steal those supporters from Trump by pointing out how absolutely un-American Jan 6th was, they stayed loyal to him. So the politicians followed, the owners followed, and the media followed.
The republicans have a very robust propaganda machine. They digested and reframed it very quickly.
There are Americans that believe Trump has never lied. Like ever. About anything. He is truth. Some Americans actually believe this.
So they have no capacity to think logically, not even a tiny bit? Or do they just have no capacity in remembering stuff?
They don’t want to think. At all. Just listen to what they’re told by fox or Facebook and get comfort in hating some group(s) “ worse than them “ while they believe they’re better than most people. They’re fully delusional.
Nah, worse than that. The root of the conservative pathology is self-hatred. They fear that they are worthless, shit people. A person who believes that they are better than everybody else can sit smugly in the corner and be superior in peace. Conservatives need near-constant reassurance that other people are worse than themselves, hence the performative cruelty they crave.
They are terminally uncurious. Explaining to his cult individually that he has said things himself they can listen to is baffling to them. They only hear it through their filter of choice.
That just breaks my brain.
Voters are just lazy and stupid.
Voters saw January 6th and were like “I’m gonna stay home because voting doesn’t matter or I’m too busy and lazy to defend rights and democracy”.
Voters also see Trump and are so stupid to think that he was gonna make their economic life better. SleePy JoE diD tHaT! jOeVeR
Single Issue voters are just absolutely f**king stupid.
Media also sanewashed RFK and Trump again. The cult will always vote for their candidate. The normal people need a “reason” to take action. People love blaming Kamala for not beating the “oh-so-easy” Trump but they wouldn’t move their worthless asses to vote anyways.
I’ll never understand how Biden just let that go. He should have made it impossible for Trump or any of the other criminals from the previous administration to participate in politics again.
They all should have been on a plane to Gitmo before the sun set on inauguration day.
A legacy of cordiality and decorum that allowed fascism back in.
Limp dick energy dating back to Andrew Johnson?
Oh come on, he’s not THAT old. /s
I was working the day of j6 and I will never forget all of my coworkers watching it and fully cheering like it was the Super Bowl.
See this is why I think the US missed a revolution somewhere after WWII.
The only thing that differentiates us from other primates is we run. They just like violence, gets them riled up.
I understand it.
People are paying 30% more to live now than they did before. No one cares about a person’s politics if they claim they’ll put food on your table.
This chart is the whole story. Unfortunately people don’t understand how the economy lags behind everything and Trumps recent actions are going to make the surge from COVID checks look like a blip.
It didn’t lag behind for the rich.
It only lagged behind for the poor.
For four years, and Biden had all the power he needed to make real change for the poor, as evidenced by the last ten months.
There’s no one in the party that knows how to fix any of the problems they continue to create. Like forgiving college loans, but not changing the incentives to raise college prices. They could have allowed student loans to default, anything really. No one’s suggesting real change, just hand outs and corporate marauding.
The voting base went right along with this, “ ya forgive my loan, but leave the exploitative system for my children. “ that’s politics, fix my immediate grievances and pay no mind to the future or bad structures we build
Well you can forgive loans with executive orders, I don’t think you can change the system without an act of Congress. Our legislature is no longer functioning, it’s been locked in a cold civil war since at least Trump, maybe as far back as 08.
The last time Congress agreed on anything it was the patriot act of 2001
Joe Biden isn’t supposed to fix anything, Congress legislates, and the president executes the laws. Your Congress hasn’t represented you in 40 years and you expect the president to fix it in 4? That’s what trumps doing with this unitary executive king shit 🤣 Horseshoe theory strikes again
It’s not about the President, but it is about the party, and the President is also the head of the party. Biden was also the party establishment candidate that they ran against Bernie specifically to kneecap any chance at actual reform. So no, he doesn’t get a pass for the results, just because he was only the President. Look what only President Trump can do.
I mean no one would have consented to Biden breaking all the constitutional norms of the country, nor was there any popular policy to push. There was a lot of resistance to Biden from both parties. Judge him how you will, I’m not here to defend his honor or convince you of my opinion of Biden. I just wanted to express my frustration. How both sides want their presidents to act like Congress, while Congress constantly gets a free pass for fuck ups. It makes no sense to vote in an establishment congress and expect the president to make changes.
Yeah when the SC gives the President immunity for overstepping while he’s in office? You’re damn straight he should have done more. To quote Trae Crowder, “Do you want to be right, or do you want to win, motherfucker?”
That’s a fair criticism, and I share it with ya. The executive branch should have gone a lot further with the power they did have. They let appearances get in the way of justice and democracy again! I’m starting to think there’s a pattern with that behavior
that may explain how desperate idiots fall for the ruse the firtst time… but over and over again?
Propaganda is a helluva drug
It’s because every time until the NEXT one they were hindered into the process by the “bad” others. So you see, it’s once again time to remove others who are preventing success.
/s obviously
Because so many people genuinely believe the election was stolen. It bewilders me
I think a lot of that is because they want to believe it. It’s confirmation bias exacerbated by using only news sources who are motivated to lie to them because billionaires don’t want to pay taxes or fair wages.
January 6 gave the Nazis hope and basically exposed how easy it is to topple the government if they have law enforcement on their side.
Look, all you have to do is accept my one and only axiom: Most people on this planet are total and absolute idiots.
Even the smart people aren’t smart enough.
I’m not inclined to agree with “most”, but the idiot:not-idiot ratio in society is way higher than I’m comfortable with. It’s almost enough to make the question the wisdom of putting so many people on the road, driving their own cars.
The part that really shook me is when I talked to enough people to figure out that stupidity isn’t always obvious. A person can speak well, be exposed to a lot of different news sources, have ample access to information, graduate from a decent school, and still be a total moron when it comes to a lot of things. Like functional illiteracy, grown adults learn how to cope and mask in ways that are shockingly good, considering they cover for huge deficits at the same time.
Actually this always was a point against democracy
I mean 50% of the population literally is less intelligent than the average.
Only if the median and mean coincide
If we assume IQ is a proper representation of intelligence than sure they do.
I agree, and I think I’m among them too (no I don’t say that because I voted Trump, I’m not American)
Admit it, you voted third party! Just so you know: thats like voting for Trump but indirectly.
Huh?
varnia is suggesting you didn’t vote for the Democrats. Which, considering you’re not American, seems highly likely.
Oh haha okay I had no idea what they meant.
I did vote for Nicusor Dan in Romania and that guy is as much of a democrat as they get around here haha
Perception is reality.
Control news, social media, and church and you can distort/gaslight reality.
Only the better educated can sometimes see through bullshit.
I don’t understand why AIPAC, Citizens United, exorbitant health care and education costs, tax rates for the rich, slavery in prisons, and every other goddamned ridiculous thing that other first world countries don’t have wasn’t a deal breaker.
While I agree, what would it mean for these to be “dealbreakers”?
Bill Clinton gave tax rates for the rich, but he didn’t run on that – he ran on expanding the Middle Class. Barack Obama ran on a platform of fixing healthcare, and he sorta did. Citizens United v FEC was decided in 2010. The next election, Bernie Sanders’ common-sense social safety nets were wildly popular among Democats and purple state voters – not enough to beat the entire Democratic line-up that gave their delegates to Hillary Clinton, but still very popular.
On the debate stage, Donald Trump called out the same ridiculous Republican warmongering and perils of the USAmerican people that Bernie called out. In doing so, Trump sweeped out Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, and every other preferred neo-conservative candidate – while being a billionaire rapist fraudster who owned a gold-plated apartment. Trump continued that diagonalization campaign strategy in 2024, to great success. He’s naming real issues, and rallying up support with it, because people are exactly as fed up as you presume they should be. This is why MAGA voters are so aggressive. This is what the Jan 6th insurrectionists thought they were fighting for.
While I curse out the generation before me who allowed this country to get this way, I can’t really say what they should have done differently. It’s not like there weren’t massive anti-war protests. It’s not like the USA populace wanted to be deployed in Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Iran. Bush hid the facts. It’s not like people want these massive medical costs and unreasonable student loans… but what do we do? Changes were being teased in Congress; there was hope in the Supreme Court; presidential campaigns promised prosperity and ease, and USAmericans clung to that hope.
So did we sleepwalk through it all? Yes – But I don’t see how people could have been persuaded differently with anything short of foresight of exactly this reality of the year 2025. Reformists aren’t going to burn down the Capitol when Congress is debating Medicare For All, even if it’s the 40th year debating this issue; even after the vote fails.
You touched on it; Citizens United. Change that and we’re back to a coherent timeline.
I also think the consolidation of media outlets into massive billionaire-controlled mouthpieces of industry alongside with Cambridge Analytica opening the flood gates on social medianl propagandization were crucial, but Citizens United will always be the death of the USA for me; it just took a few years for the corpse to start really stinking up the place.
Why would people think it was a big deal when the entire news media played it down, and then the guy who did it was allowed to run for the highest political office again.
i noticed its coordinated with right wing influencers/grifters also downplayed or dint bother discussing the insurrection. its not by accident its all coordinated through troll farms.
Yup, the Republican party allowed Trump to go after the nomination, and his Republican opponents in the primaries never brought Jan 6 up for the disgusting act it was. Instead they all protected Trump by repeating the Big Lie.
Imagine Fox News right now, if Jan 6 had been Democrats and Obama. Seriously, they would be screaming for the dismantling of the Democratic party.
And that’s the difference, the Left has NOTHING like Fox News and Newsmax, MSNBC doesn’t even get CLOSE.
the closest thing to a left wing on TV at least, is DEMocracy now. and its not even that left, plus its also on late night where nobody else watches it.
every other one is center right or right wing, that glorfies the military to keep up enlistment numbers. movies and shows: copaganda, and right-wing ganda helps too.
If the pussy grabbing thing wasn’t, nothing ever will be.
Or claiming Veterans who were killed or were captured were losers. I thought Americans were proud of their armed forces.
Or the making fun of the disabled news reporter. Or the not renting to black people, or the using a charity as his personal piggy bank. I’m sure the list goes on and on
Or trying to have 5 young brown children executed for a crime they were later proven to have not committed.
Honestly the racism I (sadly) understand. But to see the support for him not only continue but increase after violently trying to overthrow the government was truly a shock. For a brief moment it looked like he lost the support of Mitch McConnell and Lindsay Graham among other “traditional” Republicans but within days it was back to business as usual.
The people we are talking about are seeking simple answers, because they are overwhelmed by the complexity of our times. A strong man telling them what to think, an autocrat telling them that elections are unnecessary ballast, a führer telling them who to hate. Someone who leads them by their emotions, not by their intellect. The less educated the people are, the better this works, because the educated and those who have been in contact with other cultures know better than to fall for the simple path that demonizes an outgroup - they know it’s not a solution. The US education system has been under attack for a long time, while the economy did their best to modify higher education to their needs, warping higher education from something which offers critical thinking skills to a conveyor belt feeding the industry.
I agree with all you said, but I also think that “complexity of our times” is whitewashing what I would describe as an “intentionally stressful situation forced upon working class people by the wealthy”.
I believe that humanity has the technology and resources to make our times feel quite simple!
Because he wins elections. Once he dies and no Trump Jr. can get the same number of votes, they will turn their backs on the Trumps and denounce them.
I am telling you. This all falls apart without the one guy. Just you watch.My conspiracy theory is that the Epstein stuff staying on the front pages of social media for long (despite tech CEOs all being strongly MAGA) was an attempt by the Peter Theil / Russel Vought faction to move on from Trump. Which if you think about it is even scarier if they feel they don’t need him any more.
Only if there still will be elections when he dies…
the question is will the gop fall apart with him, most of the OLD guard republicans are gone, or neutered. i doubt putin will stop the propaganda for right wing on social media though.
Sadly, I don’t think it will soon even matter if the leader is unpopular.
mitch and lindsey lost control of trump, and jumped shipped after that. mitch was afraid of getting continually be the blame by the magas, so he had another patsy take his place, HE uses “his freezes” to avoid talking about anything.
You can excuse the racism?
I love how people in the fediverse have a finger ready to wag at all times. People like you cannot wait to go off half cocked and judge something incorrectly as long as it makes you feel morally superior.
It’s just a reference from Community, it’s not even a serious comment.
But it’s okay, it was ambiguous enough that people don’t pick up on that right away
Apologies. Yes, I didn’t get the reference.
Not my comment, but “understand” is not “excuse”.
Yes, exactly what I am referring to
Of course everybody with two functioning brain cells knew from the start that this fucker is spectacularly unqualified. But when this came out, it was very plain to see for everybody that all the values “conservatives” claimed to stand for meant absolutely nothing to him.
I’ve repeated this many times.
After the ‘pussy’ tape came out, a Conservative woman went on The View TV show to defend Trump. One of the other women on the panel kept repeating ‘pussy’ over and over. Finally the Conservative woman demand that the other panelist stop using that vulgar term.
I remember you saying this in a previous comment!
Eyebleach
that’s when you ************ so much your ************ turns ************ right?
I was actually going to go for something else, but when I saw it in my queue I had to share it.
Go Team Venture.
