this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2025
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politics

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[–] [email protected] 57 points 4 days ago (2 children)

This is exactly what a lot of progressives were saying the past couple of years, that when normal people saw how brutal and gross the immigration policy they were voting for was they would lose their stomach for it. Trouble is the US doesn't change its policies based on the opinions of its citizenry.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 days ago

Politics are completely imaginary things that happen on TV for the average American. It's the spectacle they want. The only time it becomes real is when they personally start to feel the effects, or start to think the effects might hit them. When the TV is no longer showing old guys getting angry, but instead showing masked ICE agents shooting tear gas and shoving people into vans, then yeah it does make the average person anxious. The American is a docile animal who likes to make a lot of noise, but truly wants nothing to happen and nothing to change. Actual change is frightening and doesn't care about politics as a spectacule.

It's probably also very hard to spin the fact that ICE built a literal concentration camp, that looks like a concentration camp, right in Florida.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

This is exactly what a lot of progressives were saying the past couple of years, that when normal people saw how brutal and gross the immigration policy they were voting for was they would lose their stomach for it.

That’s really dumb because it operates within the framework that chuds/neolibs are stupid, essentially taking their public opinions at face value.

Same line of logic that gets people to think hypocrisy or policy betrayal on non ethnic cleansing matters actually..matters. Hasan put it perfectly, if the reality that chuds want to live in doesn’t exist and is a complete fabrication, they would rather pretend it exists or conjure it up.

They exist on a different plane of existence and people who don’t regularly interact with them are not understanding what they’re dealing with

[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

"Normal people" aren't chuds or neolibs though. "Normal people" pick their presidential candidate two weeks before they vote (if they even vote at all) based solely on vibes.

Alternate reality casting is extremely common though, I agree with that. I think it mostly manifests as a coping mechanism for politically-inclined people living in a country where on some level they know that their opinions and actions don't matter to the ruling class.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Yeah I wanted to say this too. Normal people don't know or care. They might know who the president is but beyond that they do not give a shit. I'd be surprised if more than half of Americans recognize the name JD Vance. The average American is full of ambient bigotry, but they have no formed beliefs until the moment they try saying stuff out loud. The average person's political affiliation is a shrug and a vote for whoever their parents voted for.

Chuds are in their own fabricated reality, as are liberals. But that veil is only so thick and the average American isn't usually following the spectacle. Normal people are going to see people getting shot with rubber bullets and come to a conclusion that something's being done very wrong, there's a problem in how something is being handled. That kind of thing does get attention

[–] [email protected] 38 points 4 days ago (1 children)

That quick, massive swing from Republicans this year suggests a lot of them had their faces eaten by some leopards.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 days ago (1 children)

i bet a nice chunk is also "if this can be used against them it can be also used against me".

everything this admin does is so brutish and unsophisticated it keeps peeling off their more squishy base

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Yeah that libertarian-leaning chunk of the base has to be a little freaked out by the optics of all this. Especially as these raids are often disrupting the operations of Small Business Tyrants.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 days ago (2 children)

i know a few myself. sometimes they are easier to move to the left since they distinctly distrust the government and aren't under the spell of hyper-nationalism

Marx is too scary for them but call Proudhon the OG libertarian and you got yourself some mutualists at least. don't let perfect be the enemy of good

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 days ago (2 children)

As someone who was dipping my toes in libertarianism (very briefly around 2002/2003 I was only 18 so cut me some slack) before learning more about anarchism and how American libertarians bastardized it and now am here, I think it's absolutely a viable and oft overlooked tactic.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Each teenager is allocated 3 hours to 3 months of being a libertarian. No cash value if not redeemed. No warranty express or implied.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

ugh i guess i owe money then i started at like 16 and only attached "left" to libertarian by 18 and rode that shit until my late 20s (to be fair i was basically a libertarian socialist in all but name)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago

i used to comment on reason dot org and call people vulgar libertarians there towards the end. not sure which was more shameful

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Virtually every American has some form of pestilent brainworms. Figure out how to speak to them and get them on the pipeline. Deworming libertarians is an exhausting task I'd only really feel comfortable asking our white comrades to do.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

it's tough. sometimes i have to hide power level and pretend i'm on the exact same political journey as the person i'm working with but just a bit further ahead.

basically work them through it with me

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago

Well, as a white person I guess I gotta do it.

I actually do a pretty good job of it sometimes.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 days ago (2 children)

It's really funny how Americans just change their minds on everything

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago

there's a good chunk of people that just obey whatever the TV or tiktok tells them

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

The NSA using "this you?" own to every American.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Remember how abolishing the police had majority/near-majority support in the wake of the murder of George Floyd? Public opinion is fickle and malleable.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 days ago

Well, remember how the entire political establishment was mobilized in explicit defense of cops for months? Yeah, it's malleable, but it's not just rocketing around for no reason.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 days ago

You better be organizing people open to new political perspectives right now!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 days ago

Meanwhile, dem leadership still tacking right