"Trump owes his victory in great part to low-propensity voters of all races, including young men, and those voters don’t necessarily form their views based on mainstream media reporting.

William Lindsey :toad:

@philip_cardella I definitely think younger folks have an uphill climb in front of them when it comes to securing economic stability. I also think they're living in quite the dream world if they imagine the Republican party is really going to solve that problem for them or that it really cares about their economic aspirations.

William Lindsey :toad:

@MoiraEve I agree — well-noted.

Philip Cardella

@wdlindsy another issue. Sorry. This was the second highest participated in election in the last half century and the only one higher was the easiest to vote in in American history, 2020.

Yes, participation is too low so Trump has no mandate--for multiple reasons. But this year was a well above average participation year.

While the mandate notion must be firmly rejected anti Trumpers have to understand millions like his authoritarianism, racism and sexism. They're white supremacists.

William Lindsey :toad:

@philip_cardella And yet, with all that was so obviously at stake and with a clear-cut choice in front of us, millions of voters chose to sit it out, including millions of younger voters who have more at stake simply due to their age. I don't get the apathy.

Philip Cardella

@wdlindsy for my parents I think it's something even more troubling. I tried for a long time to figure out where they were getting it.

They listened to a few news recaps in the morning. While CNN and NPR have their issues it was the local one that was really the problem, in my observations.

It wasn't owned by some conservatives but what is was doing was reading top trending headlines from all sources without context or comment.

So if GOP bs was the top headline overall... It got read.

sOlOw-NH

@wdlindsy

Some voted hoping that they never have to vote again

Steve Woods

@wdlindsy Hi William

The young Republican in this documentary is disturbing.

Given that most people's political views get more conservative as they age, I dread to think of him at 60.

William Lindsey :toad:

"Trump’s chaos calibrates itself … inside a unified and powerful ecosystem of rightwing news, online content and viral disinformation that has grown more powerful throughout this era, spewing the same falsehoods in unison day after day, on repeat, for years. It is the 'political technology' by which swathes of the population have voted in effect to anoint a king in the belief it will amount to more freedom."

~ Oliver Laughland

#Trump #fascism #disinformation
/9

I’ve been to more than 100 Trump rallies since 2016. This is why I think he won | Oliver Laughland

Travelling many miles across multiple states, I saw Republicans united in their disdain for facts – and a Democratic party far too relaxed about challenging them, writes Oliver Laughland

the Guardian (www.theguardian.com)

Steve Woods

@wdlindsy The ancient Athenians had a word for men (as only men had the franchise) who didn't participate in public affairs - ἰδιώτης - which the Romans Latinised as idiota and used to denote a stupid or ignorant person.

Philip Cardella

@wdlindsy there's a number of reasons why people didn't vote. The GOP didn't spend the last three years removing people from polls, removing polling places, eliminating or reducing early and mail in voting for nothing.

Honestly, people are missing that essential aspect of the story.

It should NOT have worked. I'm not saying it did tip the scales but it helped the GOP and probably cost the Dems the House.

But, yes, millions of others just chose to stay home. No question. Inexcusable. Costly.

Philip Cardella

@wdlindsy I mean, I don't get the apathy either. Or, even more so, the self righteous self own of the genocide Joe lot.

William Lindsey :toad:

@philip_cardella When my future is at stake, I tend to ditch apathy — and don't undererstand why that impulse isn't universal, except I know full well, too, that some of us can be schooled to expect little and hope for litte. But the most apathetic are often also the most privileged and cosseted.

William Lindsey :toad:

@philip_cardella Voter purges, attacks on election integrity, false claims about illegal voting certainly play a role in all of our elections. But deliberately choosing to sit out this election? I hope those who made that choice will be content with what their choices bring them and others.

William Lindsey :toad:

@wood5y Well-noted. Thank you. And if my Greek, which has long since grown entirely rusty, isn't all gone from my head, at the root of the word is a word for being self-centered.

William Lindsey :toad:

@wood5y Thank you. I agree. I really do wonder what kind of future these young folks imagine they're going to build for themselves and others if they choose a path of arrogance, superciliousness, cruelty, and selfishness. History tells us where that path inevitably goes.

William Lindsey :toad:

@solownh Yes, that is probably very much the case, isn't it?

William Lindsey :toad:

@philip_cardella Yes, I hear folks talking about that with their parents and other elders, too, and about how Fox News is blaring from t.v. sets everywhere they go, from airport and hospital waiting rooms to restaurants. I'm also hearing more and more from people who say that younger members of their families are now down the rabbit hole of conspiracy thinking and swallowing massive amounts of disinformation, since they've tuned out of all news they can't get from sites like TikTok.

Philip Cardella

@wdlindsy I hope that lot *redacted* in hell.

Apathy voter gets no sympathy from me.

Liberal protest non voter only gets my scorn.

But, I do try to force myself away from those public displays of apathy or self gratification to the human rights violations of the GOP and their courts, especially the Fifth Circuit.

If apathy and public self gratification non voters voted Harris probably wins. But same thing is true if the denial of rights through the end of the VRA doesn't happen.

William Lindsey :toad:

@philip_cardella Yes, we cannot take our eyes away from how the GOP has rigged and gamed the system to produce these outcomes.

Truth Or Consequences ✅

@wdlindsy

He benefited from widespread misinformation and propaganda that swayed voters and discouraged people from voting.