While suspicion is always warranted, the NYT seems to think they are better than most.
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There was a groundswell of support for cleaning up the environment in the early 70’s on both sides-- the EPA was created by Nixon-- but today anything to do with “the environment” is seen as a partisan issue and conservatives will oppose it purely on principle. Example: all the talk during the GOP debates about getting rid of the EPA. And yet, plenty of conservatives are hunters and fishermen and enjoy camping.
How can you have a reasonable conversation with someone like that? I always say “we can’t even agree on what ‘reality’ is, how can we agree on legislation?”
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I think there are enough contradictory ideas involved that even spectacularly dumb people could recognize they were contradictory - if the cognitive dissonance wasn’t involved.
With Trump, I quickly realized I had to reexamine my notions of “belief” and “lie” because they just didn’t apply to him. But the whole Republican party has become “Trumpified” in this regard as well, and it’s harder to wrap my head around. With Trump, it was about his extreme narcissism, his fragile ego and need to assuage it by creating his own reality, along with his lifetime of bullshit, where, as a sociopath, reality was replaced by whatever achieved his goals. But as a larger scale phenomenon, other things are at play. The bullshit’s still there at least; the lack of concern for “truth” seems increasingly common. There’s talk of cult/authoritarian psychology to explain things - “shared psychosis,” accepting a big lie as the buy-in to the group, but also Trumpers weaponizing lies, saying things they know aren’t true purely because of the effect it will have on their perceived “enemies.” Except it’s not so “pure” in that they want it to be “true,” it’s part of their bullshit denial of truth in favor of something more convenient, and they also maybe, kind-of, “believe” it, on some level? And so here we are, with “truth,” “lies” and “belief” not being particularly relevant terms when talking about Trumpers.
It’s so fucking exhausting.
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The party of personal responsibility!
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I think these polls are really unnecessary.
We already know that today’s GOP and their supporters are turds in the punch bowl, but even with the combination of their ignorance, lack of critical thinking, and general lack of being informed, those numbers cannot be true. Some portion of those idiots are merely saying whatever they think will trigger those “liberal” journalists.
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I think that this poll (and the Q-anon one posted yesterday) are burying the lede. In this poll only 24% of the repondents identified as republican (it was under 30% for the Q ipsos poll too). Hopefully what these polls are indicating is that the radical right is the only people the GQP hasn’t lost.
More identified as independent than repub and the independents answers were right about halfway between R and D responses
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not that im saying anything new, but they’re not against the investigation. they’re against a “political attack against their party and trump.”
if the democrats would only let them appoint someone fair – like say william barr, or ken starr – if there could be an investigation into anti-racism activists – the truth would out.
[ or that’s what they say anyway ]
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Funny how despite such a professed belief they do not really want an investigation into the event.
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As much as I usually find parallels to Nazis hyperbole - the fact that half the nation doesn’t seem to give a fuck that people tried to over turn an election through force leads me to have to nod in agreement.
Thankfully, Trump should be dead soonish, but that doesn’t mean one of his children or a sycophant goon won’t take up the mantle.
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It’s bad, but not that bad. Repubs are less than half, and not 100% of them believe (or claim to believe) this bs.
I only point it out because things can already feel hopeless enough without exaggerating, so let’s give ourselves every boost that we can.
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I bet that’s Jane Austen.
Isn’t it?
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When you can just make up your own reality on the fly, why not…
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Nobody bakes a face as tasty as a TastyFace
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The constant onslaught of lies from conservative pundits, leaders and media outlets have convinced folks that Biden didn’t win fair.
Exactly this: my therapist explained to me last fall that dRump’s constant cry of “rigged election” since 2016 was brainwashing. Classic abuser behavior.
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When I do it I’m not being hyperbolic. I didn’t need a failed insurrection to see that that Republicans are following a well defined path to totalitarianism.
ETA: article by the man who defined the ten stages of genocide
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Well they claim to have proof:
that is, they are so far removed from reality that anything goes at this stage.
Expect further craziness down the road…
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Alright - fair point. I saw another poll where 55% surveyed saw it as an attack on democracy, but 39% said too much was being made of it and we should just move on. Which I guess leaves 6% who were like - “Meh? I dunno?” Waaaayyy too close to “half” of the nation not giving a shit.
But let’s focus on the positive - it is less than half…
ETA:
Thanks for the link.
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this.
one hundred times.
My athiest girlfriend would remind me that these mental dual-booting abilities persist in the population because of religious and other traditional teachings starting in early childhood.
Like when you build your reality on some version of an adversarial brain network, but have to use data points such as “all the trusted adults around you claim to literally have seen santa’s sled with their own eyes the night before” = santa is real, or that “jesus is love so he’s going to ask you to torture the gay neighbor right now”.
I reckon that those for whom it is later too difficult to re contextualize the first data, because that would mean acknowledging some limitation or even dishonesty on the part of the trusted adults/leaders/gods who were supposed to take care of your life, just live with the contradictory info.
So that’s what that rattling noise is.
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I’ve been hearing that theorized and wished for since Trump got the nomination. For a few years now I’ll look up Gallop’s party affiliation poll. After even the most horrendous events, the spread is never the biggest or longest lasting over the past previous few years. Any change always seems to return to baseline in less than a month.
Further down the page they ask independents which way they lean.
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