Alright, so I’ve been seeing these videos floating around where people are legitimately surprised by things Donald Trump has done—things he actually promised to do during his campaigns. The common thread in all of these reactions is something like, “Well, he said he’d do it, but I didn’t think he’d actually go through with it!”
And here’s the thing: if someone votes for a politician who doesn’t follow through on their promises, isn’t that kinda bad? Like, wouldn’t you want the person you voted for to keep their word? So why is this a thing now? Is this just people messing around and trolling, or did they genuinely think Trump wasn’t going to do what he said he’d do?
I mean, maybe it’s because of how unpredictable Trump was during his presidency. He had a habit of saying things one way but then doing the opposite, which could’ve made some people doubt whether he’d actually follow through on his big promises. But now that he is following through on some of those things, it seems like people are genuinely caught off guard.
So here’s what I’m wondering: is this something to celebrate? Like, is it a good thing that people didn’t think Trump would keep his word? Or is it just another example of how the political landscape has changed in ways no one expected?
Trump during the campaign has said a lot of things during the campaign. Some very concerning, some things appealing broadly. Some things he has said polar opposite things at consecutive campaign rallies. (You can still see it happening now with the “Ukraine started the Russian occupation” then “Russia started the Russian occupation”). Some promises he hasn’t done a thing to keep, such as make life affordable. I think a lot of people were holding on to that promise.
A lot of other things he didn’t promise at all, he is doing, supposedly to bury the lede. Did he ever talk about Denmark, Greenland or Panama in his 2024 campaign? We know he likes tariffs but I think the 51st state BS came about after his election.
I think you’ve already answered your own question. Trump’s first presidency was very different from his second. And the key difference is his advisors. No one knew how to deal with Trump in his first presidency, and the overarching pattern above the chaos was his close advisors constantly working against him to protect the system.
In the break between his terms, he found people who would follow any of his directives, no matter how stupid or damaging. Or I should say, they found him. Trump is now being manipulated himself by a group of “loyalists” who stand to gain from the exact chaos Trump was thwarted from doing the first time around. These people know enough about how the systems work to be actually dangerous. And now that his advisors are philosophically aligned with him, he’s actually doing what he says he’s going to do. I would argue the 4 years of a Trump reprieve may have been the worst of all possibilities, because it gave Trump and his new in-group time to find each other and prepare.
But most people weren’t paying attention. Many saw Trump in 2024 just like they saw him in 2016; the counterweight, spoiler, outsider set to upset Washington and get real changes happening. They thought Democrats weren’t helping them enough, and so wanted to upset the apple cart and get someone different in the high seat. They weren’t paying close enough attention to see that this time was actually radically different to all elections before, and I saw many, many people dismissing the warnings as “oh everyone claims their opponents are fascists, or are going to destroy the country.”
So it’s a combination of people not paying attention, as usual, and Trump actually changing how he’s doing things this time in the worst way possible.
TL;DR for Americans: American citizens are the biggest idiots on the fucking planet.
I think the reality is that the vast majority of US citizens are abjectly fucking stupid who have no clear understanding how absolutely anything works or any understanding of how consequences follow actions. They literally cannot piece it together. Kind of related to how often correlation and causation are confused by these bumbling fucking buffoons I’m surrounded by.
Nearing the second anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, seven in 10 Americans continue to believe that Iraq’s Saddam Hussein had a role in the attacks, even though the Bush administration and congressional investigators say they have no evidence of this.
Sixty-nine percent of Americans said they thought it at least likely that Hussein was involved in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, according to the latest Washington Post poll. That impression, which exists despite the fact that the hijackers were mostly Saudi nationals acting for al Qaeda, is broadly shared by Democrats, Republicans and independents.
I’m just so fucking tired. It’s literally mentally fucking exhausting to be surrounded by this many fucking idiots for four decades. It’s literally bad for my mental health and I can’t escape it. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills and yet I’m the one who has to go to therapy to fix myself while all these idiots get to just blithely continue to be fucking idiots.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/8/18173678/trump-shutdown-voter-florida
“I voted for him, and he’s the one who’s doing this,” Minton told Mazzei. “I thought he was going to do good things. He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting.”
Fucking eat shit Crystal Minton you fucking travesty of a human being.
Increased blood lead level in children has been correlated with decreases in intelligence, nonverbal reasoning, short-term memory, attention, reading and arithmetic ability, fine motor skills, emotional regulation, and social engagement. … The effect of lead on children’s cognitive abilities takes place at very low levels.
High blood lead levels in adults are also associated with decreases in cognitive performance and with psychiatric symptoms such as depression and anxiety.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_poisoning#By_organ_system
That explains the boomers and the older cohort of Gen X but it really doesn’t explain consistently dropping educational success in the past 20 years.
Maybe microplastics?
Also, I’m not sure statistics on aggression actually say much about education levels or understanding of propaganda techniques and so on.
TL;DR for Americans: American citizens are the biggest idiots on the fucking planet.
As an American, I can confirm this.
America isn’t the only place with stupid people.
And, Americans are some of the most heavily propagandized people in the world. it’s subtle, but it doesn’t have to be subtle for it to be effective. It just has to be pervasive.
Is there a problem with poor education? absolutely. Are stupid people voting for trump? absolutely.
This isn’t saying Americans aren’t stupid. we are.
This is a warning.it can happen anywhere. And it will happen everywhere people believe it can’t happen.
edit: to add, it’s really only a relatively large handful of americans that are shocked by this. Most of the people being surprised wanted to hurt people- and are really just being surprised he’s also hurting them. they thought they were “special” and that “he loved them” or something. stupidity and bigotry go hand in hand. Others knew it would maybe make things worse, but it was some how “worth it”. Others are in a christian fundamentalist cult and convinced to vote that way because some asshole preacher told them they’d go to hell if they didn’t. Others- the rich fucks- all want this to happen.
Speaking as a Canadian, there is also some much arrogance and ignorance about things outside of your country that baffles my mind (not from all but from a large portion of the population). American exceptionalism and decades of really effective propaganda that has gotten increasingly more unhinged from reality and crumbling education system probably isn’t helping either. (I don’t mean that as an insult, every country has issues, and we were very good neighbors and allies until recently)
That superiority enables leaders to be assholes. It was an intentional effect of the propaganda, and is a standard part of the Asshole-Authoritatian™️ playbook!
But, eh, America is truly exceptional- in how fucked up it is.
It absolutely can happen anywhere and that’s the “The Wave” movie was about.
Somebody else dropped that elsewhere and the trailer for it, made me think of like a very dark version of the Dead Poets Society.
A, uh. Very dark version. Gonna have to watch it soon.
It isn’t just propaganda, though. Our education system has been being slowly dismantled since Reagan and was kicked into high gear with Bush’s No Child Left Behind where they would shut down schools with bad grades. This lead to a lot of grade inflation to make sure schools could actually keep their funding. It hasn’t even been law since 2015 but the effects still reverberate.
Yes, though, this can happen anywhere. It’s humans that are the problem, not Americans specifically. The dismantling of education and a propagandized populace can happen anywhere. Pretty sure the same shit is on display in Russia we just don’t hear about it as much.
I’m not saying it’s not a problem. I’m saying that stupid people exist everywhere, and yes, you’re right about education being intentionally dismantled to enable all the propaganda to take hold.
But that can happen literally everywhere. and like falling prey to scam artists (which is really what this is,) if you believe yourself immune, you’re the easiest mark.
Perhaps I wasn’t clear in my response. I do agree it can happen anywhere.
Americans were never educated with emotional literacy.
A Million Americans, died, badly, choking on their own fluids, unable to be near, see, or touch their loved one’s when they passed, from a purposefully inept United States Federal COVID19 response, where during one of the press conferences Donald Trump suggested to an eminent virologist on live TV, that citizens might be able to use interal light therapy, or inject bleach as a treatment. What would a sentient being over the age of reason think was going to happen if he ever got a chance to take the big chair again?
Those of us that voted for Harris are not surprised. I was aghast at my fellow Americans that voted for Trump / colluded with Trump’s election subversion strategies.
Trump has also somewhat admitted to Elon messing with voting machines. And I believe that one of the DOGE persons had experience in hacking election hardware earlyin the 21st century.
The next congressional elections will likely be subject to more subterfuge.
At this point is it even subterfuge?
They’re not hiding it any more.
The problem is, most people in the world are used to politicians lying to get elected, or not able to follow through even if they want to.
We are used to broken campaign promises, so it’s a shock when a politician who was elected because he promised nasty things actually follows through. If at least he had promised beneficial things and followed through, that would be nice, but he didn’t. You’re getting the worst scenario of campaign promise fulfillment.
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