Here’s why our politics are screwed up in one headline.
Here’s the story, no paywall.
At most, 45 percent of Republicans said they knew about legal issues: specifically, the documents case and his being found liable for assaulting the writer E. Jean Carroll. Only a quarter knew about the value-inflation suit, and only 4 in 10 knew about the criminal charges in Manhattan related to the hush money payments to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels.
How could they not know? The answer must be that they’re not consuming real news from anywhere. And if they don’t know even this how could they possibly understand anything else that’s going on? No wonder they make such stupid choices in the voting booth.
I guess if they ever do hear about this stuff it’s going to be a real shock to them. The penalty in the value-inflation suit should happen next week. Maybe they’ll hear about that. Trump seems to want to use his legal problems as a campaign platform to persuade voters that the Biden Administration has “weaponized” the government againsst him, so they’ll hear about it eventually. Maybe.
But if you go to the poll results, you see it isn’t just Republicans. There’s a remarkable lack of awareness across the political spectrum. Only 35 percent of all voters age 18-29 knew that Trump had been found liable for sexually assaulting and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll. This poll was being taken during the second trial. How could they not know?
The Democrats need to be getting this information in front of the voters, somehow.
In other Trump news, recent campaign finance filings revealed that Trump’s weird “union” rally in Detroit during the auto workers’ strike was entirely paid for by the Trump campaign. It was intended to give the impression that he was addressing a real auto workers’ rally, I guess. It didn’t work.
As near as I understand them, yesterday’s airstrikes against Iran-backed militants in the Middle East was a sane response to the deaths of three U.S. service members. Lindsey Graham would have started World War III. Trump would have blamed the soldiers for not getting out of the way of drone strikes.
These aren’t all Bonhoeffer Stupids, so full of an insecure need to feel powerful in their tribal folly. I'm sure some of them are just like me. I mean, I sometimes wonder why the kids don’t get the genius behind Stevie Wonder, Supertramp, or Yes, the way I did back in the day. But then I remember that I don’t have a clue about Taylor Swift, or Ye (Yay? or the artist formerly known as Kanye?). Maybe I’d need to be enticed somehow. I have seen videos of kids who when presented with Stevie Wonder, Supertramp, or Yes for the first time, do seem happily amazed. So maybe we need more of those out there.
I’ve noticed that with my media algorithm feeds I get a lot of orgs trying to sell me long-debunked pop-conservative garbage. I’d like to think that I only consume progressive because that’s the truth I’ve lived, personally. Progressives have always seemed nicer and more rational while most assholes I know are conservative. And the dumbest among them, the truly stupid assholes, are usually Trump worshippers.
Maybe they’re hoping there’s still be a bit of low-information sucker still in me? Then I imagine all the others out there who’re likely also getting these ads who don’t have any mental defenses against truthiness – or subliminal Bernays machinations, if you will.
You can't teach people who don't want to learn. Conservatives are plugged into their environment for emotional reasons, not out of a desire to learn about the real world.
The only way to penetrate this is when 1) people start going to jail, disappearing from the public stage or 2) they're simply outvoted, ideally by margins that are hard to contest.
And then there's the long-term projects of teaching critical thinking skills, or relying on the next generation who will have experienced the consequences of living under the rule of such dolts, and who naturally will rebel against such utter nonsense.
In my new home state, Nevada, our primary is next week, but the GOP has a weird and confusing dual process going on. Nikki Haley is on the GOP primary ballot (Trump is not), and there's a GOP caucus that's 1) totally hidden from public view, 2) is dominated by Trump loyalists – most of whom have been indicted for participating in the fake electors scheme. I think the upshot, is that the voters will be ignored, and Trump will get Nevada's votes. To this Democrat it's a complete joke – this is what these turkeys think is a fair election.
Conservatives are plugged into their environment for emotional reasons,
That's the anser in a nutshell! Emotions always have the upper hand when it comes to decision making.
how can they not know?
My hypothesis is they know, or at least are vaguely aware of some discord in the false and insular reality of their day to day lives.
They will hold fast and desperately to their beliefs that are rooted in that reality.
It is easier to stay away from even acknowledging their beliefs can be challenged by their exposure to truth and evidence.
I could be wrong, but I believe philosophers call this epistemic closure.
We live in a bubblehead world. Few venture out.
Trump cares about himself and his business/money. If he loses his business his head may actually explode. Then his followers may find out.
The Democrats are not failing.
THE CORPORATE MEDIA is failing–perhaps deliberately, because, like other fat cats, the owners of the Corporate Media want those sweet, sweet perpetually-low taxes which the GOP perpetually offers.
Taxes sure but they really want the story writes itself and good ratings that the chaos and scandal of a Stump presidency will bring! Les Moonves (CEO of CBS) said it beat back in 2016 “Trump May Not Be Good for America, but It's Damn Good for CBS”. Corporate media cares nothing about right and wrong only about ad revenue and ratings!
“I guess if they ever do hear about this stuff it’s going to be a real shock to them”
Really? Stump told us years ago he could shoot someone and lose any support, he was right. If the magats still support Stump after J6 nothing will ever change their mind, especially legal cases brought by what they consider illegitimate (democratic) prosecutors.
“Trump’s weird “union” rally in Detroit during the auto workers’ strike was entirely paid for by the Trump campaign”
Not surprising but that too won’t move his base. He has thrown so much shit against the wall in the months since the fake rally that story (which on planet normal) would be a huge political scandal will be a 30 second blip on our corporate media radar.
I hate to be Debbie Downer, I actually was quiet confidant Biden would win in November until Bibi decided to kill 30 thousand civilians in GAZA with Biden’s blessing. I think Biden will win the most swing votes because Stump is so fucking insane but the war in GAZA is very unpopular among us democrats. MAGAT’s don’t have a problem with senseless slaughter especially when the folks getting wiped out are mooslim. Most of us democrats don’t really see it that way.
The campaign report that shows the 20k for the rally also lots of entries for money to Domino's pizza! Maybe the artery clogging sausage and cheese will save us! He is 77 after all!
MAGAt POV:
Better to double-down on "truthiness" than face the reality that I'm a rube, chump, sap, simp, sucker, half-dim-nit-f*ck-wit, cretin, ignoramus, imbecile, moron, dunce, dolt, nincompoop, dummkopf, scheisskopf, etc…, who's been lied to!
Please feel free to add any additional synonyms you can think of.
You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him watch CNN.
However if you turn the horse around its ass will eagerly watch Fox all day long.
Some friends I know through flying are MAGA. I had to walk away from a conversation that I didn't start about Trump when I pointed out that J6 was about Trump trying to reverse the results of the election he lost. Things got tense. He insisted that Trump won the election big and was angry that I didn't share that reality. This had to be the starting point of any conversation. I literally walked away.
The worldview these people have is fantastic, not reality-based. They are steeped in grievance. For some MAGA people, it goes back to a daily fix of Rush. Everything bad is the symptom of a liberal conspiracy. Everything good is somehow the result of their side. (Example: Trump trying to take credit for record Wall Stree high because he's leading in the polls.) This is laughable to you and me but it's REALITY to them.
BTW, liberals are not immune. Biden has done a good job but he does not walk on water. But some Democrats are desperate to white-wash Biden's questionable decisions and prevent any questions. This is perverted when MAGA does it and not much better when Democrats do it. We know where we were in Jan 2021 and we know where we are now.
There's also a big problem with young voter disengagement. Just like MAGA, for a lot of the 18 to 29 voting-ge progressives, if they can't have everything right now, they're not going to participate. The one event that got large numbers of them off their butts was Roe. In my youth, in the 70s the only voting sector that figured they could get what they wanted without political engagement was acid-heads. (Taylor Swift has dented this attitude. For that she deserves the Congressional Medal of Honor.)
I'd give my left nut (At age 70, I don't much need it.) for the GA trial to go forward and be televised before the election. Because courtroom drama brings a crowd and for Trump to be on trial for a RICO violation with a mandatory minimum of 20 years, the drama should draw ratings beyond anything in my lifetime. The DC J6 trial is dramatically better because it will be condensed and entirely about Trump but it won't be televised. But one facet of getting people to pay attention is to make it interesting.
Grammy Shmammy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xPQ16Asyoo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_X_SWuwM7k
One of the problems in all of the criminal cases is jury selection. Trump wants to claim he can't get a fair trial anywhere but a bright red state. The polls suggest otherwise and might be cited when Trump tries to appeal on the basis the jury was tainted by pre-trial publicity when Trump is the primary source of pre-trial misinformation. But the polls suggest a lot of people aren't paying attention. In the legal universe, that may be a good thing.
Right, one of the first thoughts that popped into my head when reading this post of Maha's was "uninformed = jury pool". Perhaps the only plus to a portion of the populace being ignorant, and apparently there are so damn many out there.
On MTP today they presented an unbelievable poll that showed, among other things, Trump leading Biden on the economy 55% to 33%. Given where the economy is today, with record breaking stats, and where it was when Trump left office, that is an incredible statistics.
If voters are this disengaged from reality, then Houston, we have a problem!
"unbelievable poll" is the key phrase. There are lots of bogus polls out there, used by conservatives to "flood the field" with BS.