That poll putting Trump ahead of Biden in all the major battleground states sure looks terrifying, but there’s never been an election more clouded by the unknown than this one.
A week after Halloween and the scary monsters are still abroad in the land.
Scary polls!
Scary plans!
Boogedy, boogedy!
It was a great weekend for intellectual doomscrolling, to say nothing of galloping paranoia. First, The New York Times comes out with a poll that shows the president is trailing Fulton County (Ga.) Inmate No. PO1135809 in all the major battleground states.
I think we, as a society, have got to the point where people simply don’t care about the facts any more. It’s all about feelings now. I think we’re really at a point where facts no longer matter.
Take a look at everything that Biden has accomplished, even in this political climate of hate. What is his reward? The voters telling him “We don’t care. You’re too old.”. None of his accomplishments matter. All they care about is that he’s north of 80 and therefore shouldn’t be in the White House. And they refuse to accept the fact that a vote for anyone other than Biden, or just staying home, is a de-facto vote for someone exponentially worse.
How many Palestinians, and Muslims in general, are allowing their judgement to be clouded by the Israel/Gaza situation to the point where they’re actively saying “Down with Biden, consequences be damned”? Some of them are openly willing to accept a Trump presidency simply because it’s not Biden.
The Department of Justice is basically terrified of going after Trump because of the fear of partisan politics. Not the interests of justice. Partisan politics and the court of public opinion. And these people don’t even have to worry about being voted out of office. They have deferred to Trump out of fear of the backlash, and have even charged Hunter Biden with crimes based on flimsy evidence just to say that they were “non-partisan”. The facts have not dictated how Merrick Garland has approached anything. It’s all been about the appearance of impartiality and catering to the court of public opinion.
Trump’s poll numbers continue to go up with every passing indictment and every courtroom appearance. And this is after he openly and repeatedly states his intent to dismantle government as we know it and install an authoritarian state. People are hearing about this on the daily, remembering what his first term was like, and saying “Yes, I want more of that!”. Not because the facts are on his side. In fact, quite the opposite: He’s outright telling people what the want to hear, and the actual facts don’t matter. And it’s working.
This is where we are at as a society. It’s facts vs. feelings, and feelings may very well win. It’s very difficult to argue from a position of facts when a not-insignificant part of the voting base is saying “We know about that. We just don’t care.”. Getting people to change their mind on something when their opinions are based on the facts is pretty easy. Getting people to change their mind when they don’t care about the facts and are just going with their feelings? Not so much…
Look at it this way. Trump could come out tomorrow and say that you (let’s pretend you’re Biden) have monkeys flying out of your ass that are terrorizing Washington, DC. We all know that that’s stupid and irrational (and therefore, I expect Trump to say it tomorrow). Here’s the issue with it, though. You could just ignore it because it’s stupid and nonsensical. But if 51% of the people who you need to vote for you are saying that monkeys flying out of your ass is a significant problem, then you have no other choice but to address the nonexistent monkeys flying out of your ass if you want to actually win the election. Sure, you could continue to say that they don’t exist because duh, but if the voters are really that concerned, you’ll be saying that from your campaign headquarters while watching Trump give his victory speech.
Right now, Trump is saying that an entire zoo is coming out of Biden’s ass. And people are believing it.
I think the thing that really gets me about this sentiment is “Do you really think Donald Trump would’ve killed fewer Palestinians?” Killing brown people is a Republican past-time at this point. I understand being angry to the point of self-destruction if you think hurting yourself might help someone else, but this isn’t even that. It’s literally self-destructive and would make the very thing they’re mad about worse. For my sanity I have to believe this is like some tiny twitter echo chamber that the media is blowing up for clicks.
Unfortunately, it is not. Check my post history, and you’ll find plenty of people who have expressed that exact sentiment. And this is Lemmy, which has, what, a fraction of a percent of the traffic that Reddit gets? It’s worse there. And look at the polling for Biden among the Muslim/Arab community. It’s virtually nonexistent. I’ve tried arguing with them using the exact same logic you did: Do you not realize that Trump would be exponentially worse? Their response? “We don’t care. Anyone but Biden.” It has got to be the purest textbook example of voting against your own best interests that I have ever seen.
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You come off as smug and dismissive of people’s real concerns. Whether you care to admit it or not, you have to appeal to more people to win the election. You are so concerned that people won’t vote for Biden, but you aren’t concerned enough to want Biden to figure out what appeals to those people and present it to them.
And exactly what else is Biden supposed to present? I mean, I could post the usual list of Biden’s accomplishments during his term if you’d like, but the general concensus from his voters is largely summed up by saying “We don’t care about any of that. You’re too old.”. What is Biden supposed to do about that?
Who else could possibly come up the pike? Sanders, round 3? He’s 82. Warren? She’s 74.
If you don’t want to vote for Biden, that’s your choice. But remember that if you don’t (or if you vote third party), you’ll not only end up with someone who’s just as old anyway, but you’ll end up with someone who’s exponentially worse in every possible way. There’s no other options here. Yeah it sucks, but that’s the situation we’re in. If you think you’re going to be sending a message, understand that the only message you’ll be saying is “Welcome, President Trump!”.
And then let’s see if Trump gives a damn about what appeals to you.
Just more of the same from you. If Trump wins, at least you can be satisfied that everyone but you deserves it. No need for any introspection on your end, or from the Democrat party at all.
Most of the people who support Trump don’t even have real concerns that would lead them to vote for him. They have imaginary concerns that are so asinine that anyone with two functioning neurons can see right through them.
Right, this is all just more “your brain on cynicism.”
Modernism made us zealots. Postmodernism made us skeptics. Metamodernism will bring us back around to (localized) idealism, because holy shit there are way too many people in this world who lack the cognitive tools to face down that kind of nihilism.