brucethemoose @ brucethemoose @lemmy.world

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1 yr. ago

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Nuance. On Lemmy?

(But yes I agree).

That's more interesting to me. It makes the distribution feel lopsided, not like a bell curve.

And what do we do with this information? Laughs nervously. Waaaay too late for that.

Newsom's working his way there, it seems.

Same.

That was a week ago, heh. Now the narrative is flipped.

Look through recent comments here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Conservative/comments/1m0qcp0/congress_has_voted_to_deny_the_amendment_to_the/

There are quite a few dissenters, but also tons of:

• Hating on anyone but Trump, with comments like:

As constituents, we can't ever let this go. The list must be made public. Those who had any part in hurting children must be held accountable. My state has 2 democrat senators, but I can promise you if I lived in a state with republican senators that voted against releasing the list they'd never get my vote again.

• Twisting in knots with top comments like:

Any reason why Democrats didn't push for this when they controlled the House in 2022? EDIT: To clarify for the DMs-- yes, Bondi and Trump misstepped by turning this case into a media circus. The DOJ should rectify this mistake by releasing what they can, but don't be surprised if it's not "satisfactory" in the sense of being more boring than one might hope for. If the files contained damning evidence about Donald Trump, it raises the very obvious questions of: Why Trump teased the release of them and why he appointed Bondi/Patel/Bongino. If I was in such a file, I wouldn't be talking about it at all.

I don’t care if fcking mother Theresa is on that client list, release it and hold every single one of them responsible. Tired of this shit. EDIT: to all the leftists flooding my inbox asking me “what if your orange idol is on the list!?” Then FCK him too! He’s not on the list, but if he is, then he can burn in hell with the rest of whoever is on the list.

And the mega influencers are going to keep skewing this in Trump's favor, now that they found a way.

Influencers are a good bellwater, they're the heart of the MAGA movement. They go where their viewers want, which is (for now) attacking the WSJ and defending Trump.

/r/conservative is still total Trump too: https://www.reddit.com/r/Conservative/

I don't know of any grassroots uprisings against Trump. Surveys will take weeks to percolate out, but the lack of documented rebellion kinda suggests voters aren't turning on him in person, either.

The above article quotes and sources major influencers, but if that's not enough, go to the source:

https://xcancel.com/RealAlexJones

https://rumble.com/search/video?q=Epstein&date=today&section=date

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ben-shapiro-show/id1047335260

https://tuckercarlson.com/

seen several real world responses from his supporters that are extremely upset and feel betrayed

Not sure what you've seen. But to be blunt, a few clipped Twitter screenshots or clickbait headlines filtering to Lemmy's front page don't paint a good picture. This place is a bubble... Like most of the internet. Twitter is, too, as its algo just shows you want you want to see, not a fair "slice" of activity.

As it turns out, the article is a gift from Murdoch: https://www.axios.com/2025/07/18/trump-epstein-letter-maga-documents

Just outrageous and questionable enough for MAGA to use as cover, and Trump to turn into a lighting rod. But it doesn't change much for anyone else. Before, MAGA Media had nothing to point to and paint Trump as the victim. Now, they do.

It derailed the schism :/

Other media's lapping it up to tell readers want they want to hear: MAGA is infighting, when in reality they are not.

See my reply below.

But in short, I think its not so much a cult as an outddated fantasy. We're taught to resist external invasions as a people's militia; that's what the Founding Fathers mean to people, kicking out foreign kings. It's what the pledge allegiance meant to me, along with valuing our own diverse ideals and disunity.

...Not to resist internal propaganda.

Hence, that philosophy is easy to exploit internally. On the flip side, it doesn't work when we have to look at ourselves so critically. The patriotism itself isn't a cult, but it's fertile ground to get one rolling when there are enemies to point to.

As I said, guns cannot protect one from Fox News.

In other words, we are taught, from childhood, to resist classic tyranny, like a British King, or external propaganda like Nazism. That's gun culture: people ready to tell foreign soldiers stepping foot on their home exactly how they feel, from the end of a barrel. A sort of 'people's militia' is the fantasy, and part of our history.

It's so engrained that I think it blinds people to internal propaganda, and surpresses critical thinking. And that was kinda OK for awhile, but now it's gotten out of hand and, well...

I don't think being patriotic is such a bad thing. It's not unique to the US either.

But looking back so uncritically definitely is.

Guns cannot defend you from Fox News.

I’m like an alien hiding in the place I was born.

That's so messed up. As a southerner: sorry. I would not, and I have a lot of family that wouldn't either, though TBH they left Mississippi...

Yeah, Lemmy does not represent the average liberal in the US, not even close.

My opinion: The "implosion" of MAGA was pure clickbait, like I was trying to call out. It's just outlets saying what people wanted to hear when that was never going to happen.

It used to be the justification for tariffs, but yeah, it really feels like it died down. MAGA targets have shifted to Europe, and more recently, Brazil.

Venezuela is a big one, too. Oh my god, my family will not shut up about Venezuela. But that's less new.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin%27s_cult_of_personality

It's not a great analogy, to be fair, but I don't think Bernie was trying to single out Stalin, who did indeed have an unwaveringly loyal following, to the point of being problematic.

Again. It is not really about Russia.

My blunt observation. People here in the US don't care.

They voted a somewhat pro-Russian, Ukraine isolationist into power, and didn't give a shit. Trump flip flopped, and they didn't give a shit about that either. It didn't move approval ratings one. Hair.

So you can keep saying the Big Bad American People have it out for Russia, that they cheer on Ukraine from their TVs. But on the ground here? They do. Not. Care. Frankly, if they were more educated, my racist family would bucket both Ukrainians and Russians as "white" and be largely indifferent to the war, as it's not happening on US soil. They liked Trump reaching out to Putin for a peace deal. What keeps them up at night is brown people flooding over the border, tearing down Seattle or whatever Fox or Rumble is blaring. Or, more realistically, our country teetering on Civil War from internal polarization. Not China or Russia vs Ukraine or Taiwan.

So you can blame the not-quite-extinct neolibs and the government, I guess, but:

Russophobia and Sinophobia

IRL, as much as people (bots?) banter online, I have not personally heard one peep about Russophobia in years. We just aren't that educated on foreign policy, nor into it like the Bush era. And the Sinophobia stops at "deport the foreign asians."

Again, this is not my opinion or personal belief. Just my observation from the US.

Irony is Android felt way more intuitive, including to my non techy family, even in the worst case (EG Samsung devices with their spammy UI).