• Boozilla@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I think in most cases they use petty culture bullshit to distract people from more concrete material concerns. They do it quite intentionally, and know what really matters. However, in the case of Vance I think you’re probably right. He’s an empty vessel who can only grasp superficial shiny things. I don’t care what fancy fuckin’ school he went to. He’s just another “clever dumb” guy, like the rank and file rubes in the lower echelons of the cult.

    • Lets_Eat_Grandma@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      I think in most cases they use petty culture bullshit to distract people from more concrete material concerns. They do it quite intentionally, and know what really matters.

      That’s what all of it is. Political theatre. Smoke and mirrors. It’s performance art that the crowd goes wild for, while the real changes are discussed behind closed doors and are executed in the senate, the house and the supreme court.

      I don’t know many people who are happy with the recent supreme court decisions, everyone seems to be upset with the senate and the house… and all the while the masses clamor for the figurehead in the oval office who rambles constantly and peddles the lies his base wants to hear. He is enforcing loyalty by establishing the precedent that you’re either with us or the enemy. He politically assassinates the people in his own party for ‘disloyalty’ because he has no following outside of it to do so. He pushes policies and even openly admits he wants to be a dictator. He claims that he wants to literally attack the political opponents on all sides should he regain power and exonerate his little militia that tried to overthrow the democratic process of the last presidential election.

      It’s just wild. How people can be so blind to how it all works is simply beyond me. How this comes down to a popularity contest and a vote of being a racist bigot vs being open to compromise and accept people as they are is beyond me. I’ve never had less faith in the human race than I do today.

    • wjrii@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I’m sure there’s a very healthy strain of those who simply will glom onto anything that protects their monetary interests, but the “true believers” have a very different feel than they used to, where they no longer are as interested in “winning American politics” as they are in reshaping the discussion of what actually “counts” as American. Maybe it’s always been there, and is just coming out in force as the country’s evolving demographics mean that “normal” American culture will no longer have quite the same prominence and just be one more part of the tapestry. Ironically, if they doubled down on protecting minority rights and democratic institutions, their “way of life,” or at least the less toxic aspects of it, would be healthier long term.