[brightball]

The “those people” comment is kinda the issue though isn’t it?

I generally try to assume that everyone has good intentions, but we’re all being fed massive amounts of different information. I learned years ago that it wasn’t an issue of people reporting things that were factually inaccurate, it was an issue of people leaving out details to frame the story in the context that supports your readers/viewers belief system.

And then there are the Stanford studies like this:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46553818

[pstuart]

That's why I prefaced it with "That said" as an acknowledgement of calling out a different tribe.

There's a nuance to this -- the current political environment is not normal and cannot be emphasized enough. The GOP is now a cult of personality and there is no allegiance to country by its members. Its all to one man, who many believe is wholly unqualified for the job.

Its a well-documented phenomenon that millions of people have joined this cult -- many coming from the other side of the aisle. There is no possible reasoning, dialog, or engagement that can make them reconsider.

I would be classified as a "Lefty" if evaluated on my values, but I actually believe in the value of old school conservatism as of "limited government", the value of families, and the ability to have their own personal relationship with God (I am an atheist but I get it).

One of the things that makes America great is the Constitution -- that we are ostensibly a nation governed by law. The current regime does not share those values and is actively hostile to all who do not worship or pay tribute to their leader.

I've been following US politics for half a century and what's happening now would have been unthinkable even 10 years ago.

[brightball]

I live in the southeast so I'm friends with a lot of the people you describe and nothing could be further from the truth of your description.

Most people I know who voted for Trump this time around did it specifically because of what a train wreck the Biden administration was, the terrible candidate that the Democrats tried to put up to replace him and that Trump ran on essentially fixing all of it. Cult of personality and/or hero worship had nothing to do with it.

The man is absolutely abrasive, there's no question about that. But the stock market is at all time highs, the trade deficit is the lowest it's been since 2009, GDP is up 5.5%, inflation has leveled off, gas prices are the lowest I've seen in many years (I just filled up for $2.39 / gallon), the border was closed on day 1 despite years long calls that it couldn't be helped without legislation and today I saw that drug overdose deaths have been cut in half nationally in a single year.

People voted for him to clean up a mess. The cult of personality stuff has been the algorithm at work from everything I've observed to this point.