Thread

1. bix6 · 1789772020 · focus · HN ↗

   And all the republicans will still vote red for the lying, cheating, grifting man.

   All my life I have had faith in the governments reports and statistics for the most part. This admin has torn everything down and for what?

   1. jimt1234 · 1789772271 · focus · HN ↗

      > ...and for what?

      To keep the grift going, of course.

      1. Buttons840 · 1789773194 · focus · HN ↗

         That's fair to say, but lacks details.

         Most of Trump's public statements are done through a company that he owns. That same company charges a modest $100,000 per month for early access to his posts; just straight up facilitating insider trading for the President's personal profit. Plus people might find the administration making decision in their favor while paying the $100,000 a month.

         There's also Trumpcoin through which people can transfer money to the President. This just happens in the open. Remember when Trump had personal 1-on-1 meetings with the top Trumpcoin holders? I remember.

         I've barely scratched the surface here. Trump's personal worth has increased $3,000,000,000 during his second term, so far.

         Corruption has existed before, but it has never been this out in the open.

         1. kraken_cult · 1789774088 · focus · HN ↗

            Which can only probably be a benefit. If the corruption is this blatant and bad maybe the next swing around the pendulum there is less because people realize how much it's bad.

            1. Buttons840 · 1789775557 · focus · HN ↗

               Is secret corruption or open corruption worse? It's an interesting question; each has unique cons.

               I will say that open corruption is only better if people recognize it as corruption. The people in my life do not know about the things I mentioned, and they don't care to learn about it.

            2. dfxm12 · 1789776250 · focus · HN ↗

               It'll remain bad unless these people face the proper punishment for selling out the country.
            3. edmundsauto · 1789789863 · focus · HN ↗

               Only if it’s corrected, otherwise people naturally adopt a tit-for-tat and you end up quickly in a no trust society. The bigger problem is t Trump, it’s that everyone now kinda shrugs and we are all worse off.
            4. phs318u · 1789795337 · focus · HN ↗

               No. Unpunished, open corruption among society’s leaders is the single fastest vector for rotting a society, because why should I believe you, or anyone, or any institution, when the only self-evident strategy that works is that power trumps everything. It trumps ethics and morality, it trumps consequences of our actions, and it trumps you - the outsider who is not me.

               The pendulum you speak of, just like a physical pendulum, runs out of steam, slows down due to friction and the loss of energy. And the only way to restart it is a not with nudges. It’s with a huge push all at once. This may result in some pretty radical swings before things settle down.

   2. yakz · 1789772335 · focus · HN ↗

      They had a firm belief that the reports and statistics were fake. Let's see how this turns out.

      *by "they" I mean the voters... the people that were elected were, and are well informed

      1. lumost · 1789776998 · focus · HN ↗

         How confident are we that they know it’s fake? I somehow doubt they close the door and pull out the real information.
   3. silisili · 1789772469 · focus · HN ↗

      People tend to vote with their wallets in mind more than anything. I think that's why it ping ponged(inflation), and why they're getting destroyed in the midterm polling. The next president will likely have a D next to their name(more inflation).

      1. [deleted] · 1789772585 · focus · HN ↗

         [deleted]

      2. dylan604 · 1789772911 · focus · HN ↗

         Both times Trump won, the polls predicted he would lose.

         1. ceejayoz · 1789772977 · focus · HN ↗

            Not by anything like the 8-9 points we're seeing in midterm polling right now.
         2. PenguinCoder · 1789773227 · focus · HN ↗

            Legally can't run a third time or be voted for again. But then again, legality hasn't stopped the things he does. Others need to step up.

            1. mitxela · 1789777084 · focus · HN ↗

               They reinterpreted the constitution to say no president can be presidentmore than twice consecutively, even though it doesn't say that. Like how in Russia, the constitution obviously meant to say Putin will always be the president.
      3. jimt1234 · 1789773693 · focus · HN ↗

         I heard a good quote once: People don't vote to say thank you. People vote to say fuck you.

         1. PorciiVorbesc · 1789777126 · focus · HN ↗

            >People don't vote to say thank you.

            How true is that? Plenty of older people I know vote consistently for one party because it did something good for them a long time ago.

      4. HumblyTossed · 1789773890 · focus · HN ↗

         I don't trust polling.
      5. zmgsabst · 1789774049 · focus · HN ↗

         Trump himself only happened because Ds abandoned the working class for grievance politics circa 2010 — forming “public private partnerships” to tear open old wounds while screwing the working class on behalf of corporations.

         1. mitxela · 1789777110 · focus · HN ↗

            Ds are doing neither. They're just pretending if they don't change anything, everything will be alright.
         2. clipsy · 1789778833 · focus · HN ↗

            You're a couple decades late there, it was Clinton and the Third Way(tm) Democrats that abandoned blue collar workers.

            (Of course, that doesn't capture the full story either -- before '92, white blue collar workers were already abandoning the Democrats to support Reagan while he and the Republicans gutted private sector unions.)

         3. yread · 1789822863 · focus · HN ↗

            > forming “public private partnerships” to tear open old wounds while screwing the working class on behalf of corporations.

            Sorry what does that mean? Are all PPPs woke or something? Did US elites ever stand with workers against corporations?

            1. zmgsabst · 1789835426 · focus · HN ↗

               Obama worked with Wall St to promote Woke/ESG/etc in public-private partnerships to dismantle the class solidarity forming in 2010 around anger over Wall St bailouts.

               OWS itself fell apart when activists started with race and sex based grievances rather than class solidarity.

               Trump is a result of that choice to institutionalize bigotry rather than address class issues — as Trump’s margin in 2016 seems to come down to working class voters uninterested in grievance politics. (And the large Obama -> Trump voter swing, eg, among Millennial men.)

               > Ds abandoned the working class for grievance politics circa 2010

               Which I already explained in the first part of my statement you selectively edited out.

      6. dfxm12 · 1789775920 · focus · HN ↗

         Trump was president before. People didn't vote for him a second time if they wanted to improve the economy.
   4. underlipton · 1789772567 · focus · HN ↗

      Still have my fingers crossed that the guy in Kentucky gunning for McConnell's seat can pull off a historic upset.
   5. darubedarob · 1789772619 · focus · HN ↗

      [dead]

   6. atmavatar · 1789772820 · focus · HN ↗

      For a sizable fraction of people, when the facts conflict with their biases, they choose to reject the facts and double-down on their biases.

      1. lokar · 1789773802 · focus · HN ↗

         Racism is a very powerful belief system.

         1. shermantanktop · 1789774494 · focus · HN ↗

            -isms of all kind are powerful. But the most powerful are those that give the believer a distant group of people for them to blame for all their troubles, which are often self-inflicted.

            1. anonymous_user9 · 1789775079 · focus · HN ↗

               Are you saying that calling people racist is the worst bigotry?

               1. zmgsabst · 1789775805 · focus · HN ↗

                  [dead]

                  1. bix6 · 1789776313 · focus · HN ↗

                     Pretty fascinating dem vs rep split. Dems say everyone experiences racism. Reps say white people experience it.

                     <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pewresearch.org&#x2F;politics&#x2F;2025&#x2F;05&#x2F;20&#x2F;views-of-how-much-discrimination-racial-and-ethnic-groups-in-the-u-s-face&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pewresearch.org&#x2F;politics&#x2F;2025&#x2F;05&#x2F;20&#x2F;views-of-how...

                     1. zmgsabst · 1789777764 · focus · HN ↗

                        We must be reading different charts — the only one I can see has consistent numbers among Republicans (50%) but high numbers for Democrats (90%) except for Whites (20%).

                        So your characterization is completely wrong: Republicans mildly think everybody does, while Democrats deny white people do.

                        1. bix6 · 1789779320 · focus · HN ↗

                           We must be on different planets since America and its institutions are majority white.

                           &gt; 94% of Democrats say Black people face at least some discrimination, compared with 54% of Republicans. 90% of Democrats say the same about Hispanic people, compared with 54% of Republicans. 83% of Democrats say Asian people face widespread discrimination, versus 51% of Republicans. By contrast, Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to say that White people face at least some discrimination (55% vs. 21%).

                  2. [deleted] · 1789776798 · focus · HN ↗

                     [deleted]

                  3. solid_fuel · 1789778578 · focus · HN ↗

                     &gt; False accusations of racism (and similar moral slander) is the first step in dehumanizing an outgroup.

                     Accurately describing the racism that motivates the politics and actions of a group is the first step in addressing the way they dehumanize their opponents.

               2. maxerickson · 1789775842 · focus · HN ↗

                  More likely something like describing Trumpism.
               3. mitxela · 1789777009 · focus · HN ↗

                  no they&#x27;re agreeing racism is bad
            2. shermantanktop · 1789784321 · focus · HN ↗

               I guess people are reading a lot into what I said. If the shoe fits, yadda yadda.

               Others pointed out the meta, which is that if you want -ism to hate some people, a good way to do that is to say that their -ism hates you. I suppose that could be extended to third or fourth levels of meta.

         2. atmavatar · 1789788530 · focus · HN ↗

            It&#x27;s more general than that.

            Anti-vaxxers are a good example. Despite studies repeatedly debunking the link between vaccines and autism, plenty of people still believe vaccines cause autism. Many people who know someone who has experienced side effects from a vaccine start to believe vaccines are dangerous regardless of any studies demonstrating how exceedingly rare said side effects are.

            Flat Earthers are another example. While undoubtedly some of their ranks are people just trying to be contrarian, the true believers will find alternative explanations for every piece of evidence you try to show them that Earth is indeed round.

      2. airstrike · 1789774935 · focus · HN ↗

         From an outsider&#x27;s perspective, it&#x27;s to be expected given the existence of cognitive dissonance.

         I just wish people would snap out of it _eventually_

   7. verdverm · 1789773464 · focus · HN ↗

      May I assume you ask &quot;for what?&quot; rhetorically?
   8. throw2a · 1789775167 · focus · HN ↗

      That tells a lot about Christian values
   9. jimt1234 · 1789776102 · focus · HN ↗

      &gt; All my life I have had faith in the governments reports and statistics ...

      My Boomer mother tells me about this all the time. She said, growing up, people had absolute faith in everything the US government did or said; it was like religion. Then Vietnam happened. Specifically, the reporting around Vietnam and the number of casualties. My mother said that everyone knew someone who lost a family member in Vietnam, but the government was like, &quot;Everything&#x27;s fine.&quot;

      1. bix6 · 1789776471 · focus · HN ↗

         Yeah I’m more talking things like the census. Or the report that they skipped a month of this year (inflation, jobs, I can’t recall for certain).
   10. pianopatrick · 1789777440 · focus · HN ↗

       Time will tell how the votes will go in November. Right now the thing I&#x27;m hearing on podcasts is that a significant group of people who voted for Trump in 2024 might stay home. We&#x27;ll know in less than two months.

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