I don’t understand how the US is so prop-full of hateful, ignorant, angry people. Is it because of all the lead they ingested towards the end of the 19th century?
I already knew that there were plenty of awful people in the US since I studied the civil rights movement in school. Watching white people use fire hoses against Black people and white people being ok with that was a clue. For me the worst part has been watching my friends and family be brainwashed by the MAGA movement. People who I know to be otherwise wonderful people.
For me it’s the answer to the zombie question. Do zombies have some part of their former personality still inside? The answer is definitely yes, and not some part, but 100% of their former selves.
I’ll be talking to my Mom and she’ll be her old self again for a whole conversation. Like the last decade never happened. Then something political will come up and she’ll be gone again. And I’m stuck arguing with this zombie.
Fox News has taken multiple family members and I’m sure many more friends. Unlike zombies there was no attack or infection. The brainwashing happened through radio, television, and social media. And unlike zombies there is hope, because people do get out of cults.
You just know that guy on the left has a swastika tattoo somewhere on him.
It is escapable. It’s propaganda. Show them different news and they are communists.
The worst part of the Trump era is the realization of just how few people don’t fall for the divide and conquer manipulation.
One of the good things about living in the bay area is seeing these people on TV, it’s like seeing an NPC in a video game. It’s hard to believe they are real. The 1st time I saw an IRL maga hat was 2020, and I’m pretty sure it was a tourist at the beach I had to point and laugh. The 2nd time was last month, and I gave that bitch the bird. She was wearing the cringe ass Elon Dark Gothic Maga hat.
It’s also amazing just how incredibly tacky the MAGA movement is.
The Nazis were evil, but at least they wore clothing designed by Hugo Boss. At least they borrowed from impressive looking Roman-style banners and eagles. They understood how to use colour, light and so-on to project strength. Even if you acknowledge that the Nazis were evil, at least you can sort of understand why the German people were drawn in.
But the MAGA movement is so weak, so tacky. Even if I were somehow 100% aligned with their beliefs, I wouldn’t want to associate with them in public because their whole aesthetic is so embarrassing. I can’t understand how anybody can look at Trump and see competence, intelligence and strength. I also can’t understand how anybody can look at a typical MAGA rally and see anything other than a design scheme that would make even Wal*Mart cringe.
Unfortunately, realization is amazingly escapable.
The guy with the Trump tatoo looks like the typical guy who gets a 23&ME saying he’s actually part Mexican.
Face flag looks like a fun bar guy though. Maybe he’s just stupid?
THAT has been the most demoralizing part
That half of my fellow Americans willingly embraced Nazi Fascism
I’ll never recover, personally. The way my world-view was shattered by how many not just nameless strangers, but people I actually know and interact with, are the worst sort of hateful monsters.
My world is a different place now, and I don’t think I’ll ever feel the same.
And then they wonder why I try to escape from the reality.
I know. I have flat Werther’s in my family. Real life people who think the earth is flat in 2025. Like did anyone think this is where we would be growing up.
Tell me more about these flat Werther’s, I’ve only had the Werther’s Original so far.
It’s not too different from the original, just about 6000 years old.
Not as malicious but covid opened my eyes up
It’s stupidity and immaturity more than maliciousness, at least in the case of the US lumpen. The results might be more or less the same but the reframing helps with living in this world and believing in people’s ‘well-meaning nature’.
I appreciate this, and it does help turn the ire into pity a bit, but I do worry that unfortunately the effect sort of remains the same regardless
To be fair, when was the last time you had as much fun as this guy?
Pretty recently, honestly. Last Thursday the girl I’ve fallen in love with asked me to be her girlfriend.
Congrats!
See! Maybe he’s just dumb! I bet he’s a fun guy at the bar.
He certainly looks the part, even though I don’t think I’ll agree with him politically.
that guy isn’t having fun, he’s having a manic episode with violent fantasies.
nobody with that look in their eyes is in control of themselves.
Its a funny jogge bro, he is probably influenced by the whole “lead=profit”-thing or his parents were, its murrica after all. But still, when was the last time you felt this happy? Being serious in non serious posts lowers your life expectancy, we need to laugh more even though its hard nowadays.
I get the sentiment, but posts like this only foment the hate from either side even more. Just adding fuel to the outrage, and as long as we keep doing it like this, there will never be an offramp. The freeway will simply end in fire. This strategy is not tenable.
the kind of people who dont give the least bit of fuck about pretty horrible things until it happens to them after which they love to play the victim
For now