Why I feel so discouraged
You see, in 2016 I was up for the fight. The Trump MAGAts were (and still are) racists. The Muslim ban made me angry, and I demonstrated against it. I defended my position and lost some friends. Then the demonization of immigrants, both documented and undocumented. Being married to an immigrant, I took it personally and became estranged from some family members (mostly cousins or their spouses). Then there was George Floyd's murder, the BLM demonstrations and the NFL players taking a knee. On this one, I didn't watch an NFL game with my friends for a year, because we always argued right after the National Anthem. Then the Dobbs decision. I really didn't argue this one, my female relatives did, but I always took the side of "choice".
Then there was November 5, 2024. Over 20% of black men voted for Trump. A majority of white women voted for Trump, including more than 25% who were pro-choice. Harris came in third in most Muslim and Arab communities. 45% of Latinos and a majority of Latino men voted for Trump.
As a retired white, 72-year-old male living in another country, I look at these numbers and feel like a fool. I know I was right to support the people who were losing rights, being denied civil rights or being treated in inhumane ways. But if large segments of the population that are either directly and negatively impacted by Donald Trump's policies or are among the people treated in such a way, vote for that no-good piece of shit, it really wears my sympathies down. I will not face the wrath of MAGATs because of my race or gender or citizen status or my religion, but only because of the way I think. I think I may stand down, for now and rejoin the fight when the people who actually are getting fucked figure it out.
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Americans Have One Very Strange Cognitive Bias
Or: How I learned to stop worrying and love The People.
Jonathan V. Last
Nov 22, 2024
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/americans-have-one-very-strange-cognitive
snip...
YouGov asked a series of questions on “What percentage of Americans do you think are [fill in the blank]?” with the [blank] being all sorts of qualities: black, gay, Christian, left-handed, own a passport, etc.
The results were hilarious. Here are some of the percentages that Americans (on average) think their fellow citizens are:Transgender: 21 percent
Muslim: 27 percent
Jewish: 30 percent
Black: 41 percent
Live in New York City: 30 percent
Gay or lesbian: 30 percent
more...
These perceptions do not square with any version of observable reality. Here the numbers as they actually exist in the real world:Transgender: 1 percent
Muslim: 1 percent
Jewish: 2 percent
Black: 12 percent
Live in New York City: 2 percent
Gay or lesbian: 3 percent
I don't know how a country whose population think 30% of the nation's people all live in NYC can survive!!
Anything without your consent.
I'd be more worried about a Chinese invasion of Taiwan if I lived in your general area. Thank goodness you could move back here if that were to occur.
❤️
Response to Pototan (Original post)
Quotes from the Con on Covid, taken from press conferences, interviews, tweets, and rallies.
January 22: “No. Not at all. And ?? we’re — we have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”
January 24: “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!”
January 30: “Now we’re working very strongly with China on the coronavirus — that’s a new thing that a lot of people are talking about. Hopefully it won’t be as bad as some people think it could be. But we’re working very closely with them and with a lot of other people and a lot of other countries. And we think we have it very well under control.”
February 2: “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.”
February 24: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA… Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”
February 25: “CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus.”
February 25: “I think that's a problem that’s going to go away… They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine.”
February 26: “The 15 (cases in the US) within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.”
February 26: “We're going very substantially down, not up.”
February 27: “One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”
February 28: “We're ordering a lot of supplies. We're ordering a lot of, uh, elements that frankly we wouldn't be ordering unless it was something like this. But we're ordering a lot of different elements of medical.”
February 28: And this is their new hoax. But you know, we did something that’s been pretty amazing. We’re 15 people [cases of coronavirus infection] in this massive country. And because of the fact that we went early, we went early, we could have had a lot more than that.
March 2: “You take a solid flu vaccine, you don't think that could have an impact, or much of an impact, on corona?”
March 2: “A lot of things are happening, a lot of very exciting things are happening and they’re happening very rapidly.”
March 4: “If we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work — some of them go to work, but they get better.”
March 5: “I never said people that are feeling sick should go to work.”
March 5: “The United States… has, as of now, only 129 cases… and 11 deaths. We are working very hard to keep these numbers as low as possible!”
March 6: “I think we’re doing a really good job in this country at keeping it down… a tremendous job at keeping it down.”
March 6: “Anybody right now, and yesterday, anybody that needs a test gets a test. They’re there. And the tests are beautiful…. the tests are all perfect like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. Right? This was not as perfect as that but pretty good.”
March 6: “I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it… Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.”
March 6: “I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn't our fault.”
March 7: “No, I’m not concerned at all. No, I’m not. No, we’ve done a great job.”
March 8: “We have a perfectly coordinated and fine-tuned plan at the White House for our attack on Corona Virus.”
March 9: “This blindsided the world.”
March 9: “The Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat Party, is doing everything within its semi-considerable power (it used to be greater!) to inflame the Corona Virus situation, far beyond what the facts would warrant. Surgeon General, ‘The risk is low to the average American.’”
March 10: “And we’re prepared, and we’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.”
March 10: ”It’s really working out. And a lot of good things are going to happen. The consumer is ready, and the consumer is so powerful in our country with what we’ve done with tax cuts and regulation cuts and all of those things. The consumer has never been in a better position than they are right now.”
March 17: “I’ve always known, this is a real — this is a real — this is a pandemic. I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic. All you had to do was look at other countries…no, I’ve always viewed it as very serious. It was no difference yesterday from days before. I feel the tone is similar, but some people said it wasn't.”
March 31: "I don't think I would have done any better had I not been impeached," Trump said at his daily coronavirus news conference from the White House. "And I think that's a great tribute to something — maybe it's a tribute to me — but I don't think I would've acted any differently, or I don't think I would've acted any faster."
JFC.
The asshole is going to be president again.
