this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2024
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Here is the main problem summed up:
Political strategists on the right wing figured out that it's easier to gain power by making people angry and hateful than it is by doing great policy and giving people hope. Angry and hateful people mobilize easier and can be hardened to vote AGAINST an enemy instead of having to earn their vote by merit.
Armed with this strategy, media networks like Fox "News" have spent nearly 3 decades making millions of Americans angry, hateful and disinformed about proper governance and progressive efforts. By painting progress itself as danger, and every sensible politician as a monster, they are able to mobilize voters for the GOP and against everyone else, even when the GOP offers nothing in return by the way of good governance.
At this point, the average US disinformation-hardened conservative does think "absolutely not" about any mainstream modern idea for governing correctly and doing the right thing by citizens. Because they've been conditioned to think that any type of good governance that prioritizes society is some type of evil, crafted by monsters that must be defeated. And they currently believe that such evil must be defeated by giving dictator powers to a criminal, rapist, treasonous, idiot, demented conman.
We have many problems in this country, but the main one is malicious disinformation by right wing propaganda that has infected the culture and ruined the brains of tens of millions of Americans. And we are doing nothing to stop those disinformation propaganda networks, or even slow them down, under the misguided notion that "free speech" gives everyone a right to lie/con/defraud everyone else.
I would amend this slightly. There are certainly some that subscribe to what you wrote, but I think a larger percentage of them don't go that extreme, but they do subscribe to the idea of "zero sum" for policy. So if they see any policy that benefits someone that is not themselves, the assume that that policy is taking something from themselves to make that policy happen. The net effect is that unless they see a direct tangible benefit to themselves then whatever policy in question must be defeated or discarded.