Back in 2016, I didn't understand how an extremely wealthy heir to a billion-dollar fortune (and regardless of all his business failures) could present himself as the candidate of the little people. Today, after Trump was president and - of course - only made policy changes for the rich, I understand it even less. What is this photo-op all about? Are there seriously still people who don't understand that Trump has never represented the middle class - or even the working class? You can't be serious, dear US citizens.

[–] DevopsPalmer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's super frustrating but as an example - my parents are deeply conservative and supportive of Trump, and also on the lower end of "wealth" and semi-retired. It is 100% misinformation. My Dad quotes the Fox news rhetoric like it's facts, and regardless of me disproving most of the BS, he is completely brain washed. At this point Trump could run a live execution of his political opponents and the Trumpets would more or less shrug.

[–] Overshoot2648@lemm.ee 6 points 1 month ago

They wouldn't just shrug. They would actively cheer it on.

[–] Kalysta@lemm.ee 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yes. Half the country thinks Trump is for the little guy and Harris is an elitist asshole.

Trump was born rich. Harris grew up middle class and a member of two minority groups. The problem is the democrats are shit at messaging. It’s why Walz calling republicans weird took off. Democrats don’t usually come up with sound bites like that.

[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I sincerely don't understand how this is even possible. A lot of these people are old, do they not remember the 90's? Trump being "Smug Rich Asshole: The Character" was his whole brand, and people loved him for it because we were still drinking that "Capitalism good" kool-aid left over from the cold war.

How is this man with a literal solid gold toilet "The Voice of the People"

This whole nonsense makes me perfectly understand how "War of the Worlds" was mistaken for a legitimate news broadcast.

[–] Kalysta@lemm.ee 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Bob Altemeyer explains the phenomenon well in The Authoritarians. It’s literally how their brains are wired. The book is free here: https://theauthoritarians.org/

[–] luciferofastora@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm only a chapter in, but found the section on conventionalism curious. It may explain why they take such issue with being called "weird": If they value their perception of being "normal", "weird" isn't just an insult used against people you don't like, it's an attack on a principal personality trait.

[–] Kalysta@lemm.ee 1 points 1 month ago

Yup. It attacks one of their core beliefs and makes them so damn mad.

[–] BaldManGoomba@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Before 2016 he was a celebrity people liked him as a no bullshit business owner like the middle class small business owners. As he was exposed to more media and has proven he was more of an idiot it personified him as someone like them. A moron who does what they want with 0 reflection or cares about other people.

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

I'm baffled as to how anyone other than asshole bosses saw him as anything other than another asshole boss. The Apprentice gave me a strong negative opinion of him, similarly to how Shark Tank gave me a strong negative opinion of Kevin O'Leary.

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

As someone who went down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole in the 00s but realized Alex Jones was full of shit by 2010, I was incredibly baffled to see the movement align behind someone who could be an avatar of everything it feared.

That said, the racism and bigotry in that movement had gone right over my head and I generally dismissed the more out there shit like lizard people or aliens being involved because it sounded stupid. I believed (and still do) that that shit is part of a real strategy to use ridiculous claims to generate noise that makes real things like MK ultra more likely to be dismissed along with them.

[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Went through the same thing, admittedly what got me out of it was realizing how often it came back to "And that's why Hitler did nothing wrong!"

Which made me go "That whole "genocide is good actually" thing... doesn't really align with all this talk of how peace and love are being threatened by the forces of darkness..."

I figured it was a few bad eggs who just somehow got the wrong message, but it kept happening

All the people telling me I was on the George Soros payroll was kinda the very last straw, because how could I be the bad guy in this "conspiracy" and being so richly rewarded for it if I was struggling this much? And who the fuck was George Soros? I still to this day barely know who the fuck that even is.

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah, for me it was Alex Jones presenting this idea that the world elites had a plan to depopulate the world, saying that he had a solution, but then leaving that as a cliffhanger for his next video. I was left thinking, "wait, this seems more urgent than 'wait for my next video', if that's really happening, it should be a 'we gotta stop this now'".

And then I thought about the high production value of his videos. They were professional level, which would take a budget. Someone threatening such powerful enemies wouldn't have a budget, they'd have problems created by those enemies (because I never ended up in that "our enemies are simultaneously strong and weak" mindset). I didn't realize at the time how profitable his schemes were and that he could easily pay for professional-level feature-length videos, but by the time I understood that, I saw his grift for what it was.

Lol I remember being frustrated by the normies that kept dismissing it, but getting caught up in the denial shit from within sounds even more frustrating.

[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 3 points 1 month ago

This reminds me of when I kinda realized Fox News was pure evil because I saw them talking about how Obama was this crazy tyrant who was plotting to destroy the nation...

And I just asked the guy on the TV "Wait, if he's a Tyrant who doesn't care about the Constitution hellbent on this evil, flaunting it as you say..... Then why hasn't he ordered your execution? Why are you on the number 1 rated News program talking about this in broad daylight in a high definition television that's just sitting casually in the middle of this Hardee's?"

And then that's when the lady behind the counter is like "Sir, this is a Wendy's"

and I'm like "I am a Ma'am, and this is a Hardee's!"

[–] Overshoot2648@lemm.ee 3 points 1 month ago

Went thru the same thing in 2014

[–] PriorityMotif@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Probably belongs to a franchisee who donates heavily to the GOP and trump.