Malazan Empire: HoosierDaddy - Viewing Profile - Malazan Empire

Cause, on 06 March 2026 - 06:37 PM, said:

Drowning people often cause non-professionals trying to help to drown in their wild panic to stay afloat.

Trump and his admin are wildly drowning and will do anything to keep the public's eye elsewhere, including go to war with absolutely zero plan other than blow shit up.

I'm surprised we haven't taken to dropping boxes of AR-15s and AK-47s indiscriminately to try and foster an internal resistance like he threw out rolls of paper towels in Puerto Rico. I think that would require more planning than they had ready.

Lady Bliss, on 06 March 2026 - 05:32 PM, said:

It's extraordinarily frustrating. It's hard to open eyes.

There has been a carefully controlled and executed shift to defund education; smear those who are educated as being snobbish and looking down on those who aren't; and push narratives and issues that divide those of similar economic status than unite.

Liberals often fall into the practice of preaching at and talking down to people who are ignorant on issues, economic or otherwise. And ignorance isn't a slight here. It's an absence of knowledge. I am ignorant of how most things work in the world. If you asked me how to fix my car I'm going to say hell I don't know and take it to a dealership, and I'm not savvy enough to actually tell when a dealership is being straight or not. For most of these people, they saw that inflation is up, shit is costing more, I'm going to draw a simple connection and go with that.

The common immigrant, illegal or otherwise, has far more in common with a retail store worker or pharmacy tech than the people who are voting for Republicans because of their capital gains and minimalist tax positions.


Willful ignorance and malicious ignorance are separate than actual ignorance. I think we confuse a lot of the latter with the former. That doesn't mean the former don't exist and pollute the pool, but I don't think it's the majority.

You don't have to believe their reasoning. You don't have to believe they are being truthful in what they are saying. That being said:

https://www.ap.org/n...hard-for-trump/

Quote

President-elect Donald Trump tapped into deep anxieties about an economy that seemed unable despite its recent growth to meet the needs of the middle class, according to AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of more than 120,000 voters nationwide.

Worries about everyday expenses helped Trump return to the White House. In key states, Trump’s voters saw illegal immigration as imposing new costs on their communities. Many believed that their own financial well-being was at risk after the burst of post-pandemic inflation. More voters said they were falling behind this year than they did in 2020.

Trump made inroads among lower-income voters, middle-income voters and voters without college degrees, AP VoteCast found. All those groups appeared to put as high a priority — if not somewhat more so — on their family budgets than the worries about the future of democracy that motivated much of Vice President Kamala Harris’ coalition.

QuickTidal, on 06 March 2026 - 04:05 PM, said:

I'm not going to pretend it isn't a problem and doesn't still exist to a large degree. But, as a motivator for voting in Trump, I think it has less to do with that than the economy. I listened to countless interviews with people who said they remember Trump's economy and how great it was who voted for Biden and were leaning Trump because of the "current" economy.

Garak, on 06 March 2026 - 07:31 AM, said:

Ignorance (maliciously intended or not) is not a local problem and never will be.

I think there will be many, many books (if writing is still around) to describe just how utterly effective Russian disinformation and conspiracy stoking has been at weaponizing and turning it against their adversaries.

If the devil on your shoulder is telling you what you want to hear it's a lot easier to believe.