I remember when Trump first won, the American-centered part of the web I would occasionally stop by seemed completely infiltrated with MAGA trolls. You had this feeling people thought it was edgy and fun - the worst kind of cultural moment seemed to be happening.
This time around I’m not so much on mainstream social media. And when I do check them out, it seems hard to understand what the vibe is as most content is AI or from professional content creators.
The closest thing I see to Trump supporters these days seems to be the enablers who endlessly repeat how they won’t vote for Harris for some dumb reason or another - they simply cannot vote for a black woman president because it’s not progressive enough, and all that jazz. But I don’t ever see Trump supporters.
Of course they exist still. I have just chose social media platforms strategically to avoid toxic people.
So I’m wondering if the same enthusiasm for Trump that seemed to be boiling online in 2016 is still there today, and if this election only feels different because I’m self-selected into saner platforms. Or if it is really different this time around.
I get that it’s an incredibly difficult question to answer, but I would love perspectives from people who have kept up an active use of mainstream social media, or otherwise have some insights I lack.
Agreed, I think the diehards have gotten much louder and the people who saw him as a catalyst for change have gotten a whole lot quieter.
I admit that I very much didnt think it was a good thing when he got elected but I did think “Maybe he will piss off a few people who need pissing off, upset some apple carts and generally upset the status quo and MAYBE be a catalyst for change some of which for the good.” Yeah… it wasnt.
I remember a guy much further down that “catalyst” line of thinking telling me that things have to get worse before they can get better: a phrase that’s easy to bust out as a grand conclusion to huge sweeping societal problems, but is based on absolutely nothing.
They have been feeding us hope and chang since obama… Only chamge we got is clown ACA and tax reforms both of which fucked the working people.
Fucked the working people? Because of ACA a whole bunch of people, including me, were able to stay on their parents health insurance while younger when we had the post mortgage crisis recession abd couldn’t find gainful employment.
If that’s fucking the working people I’m spreading my ass cheeks wider.
I am happy for you!
Plebs collecting pennies socialized by the working people while providing political cover for real people to extract millions from the system.
Just been a parade of Reagans ever since Reagan. CIA Reagan, Band kid Reagan, Warmonger Reagan, Black Reagan, Orange Reagan, Sleepy Reagan, and soon we’ll probably have Girl Power Reagan.
Such is the st8 of American Politics. This is the bad place. Nothing ever gets better here. This whole country is 12 megacorps in a trenchcoat lording over one massive slave pen.
Hurt me harder, daddy