can american politics please go back to 'guys the president forgot to put on a us flag pin on his blazer' or 'guys the president wore the wrong color suit' or 'guys the president is kinda a baller' or 'guys the president used a selfie stick' or 'guys the president wore a helmet'
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People are motivated more by fear than empathy. When politicians (usually on the right) constantly make up reasons why they should fear their political opponents or minorities, they are more motivated to vote and donate to those same politicians’ campaigns. This also makes them so angry and paranoid that when that politician doesn’t win, they will resort to violence, fully believing they are right (like on January 6). That’s why gun ownership is so high and why people are so polarized. Also, this fear allows politicians to effectively create cults where ever questioning the leader’s actions is frowned upon… Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled Godot 4.x updates, lol.
the media should definitely go back to criticizing the president based on which suit he wears though, tbh…
When politicians (usually on the right) constantly make up reasons why they should fear their political opponents or minorities
They definitely do it on the left as well
True, but to a noticeably lesser extent, which you can see by the way Democratic politicians didn’t incite a deadly insurrection after Hilary lost in 2016. Marjorie Taylor Greene, on the other hand, used antisemitism and “replacement theory” to convince people to vote for her… then defended riots/violence at the capitol against law enforcement and supported those who threatened her fellow lawmakers…
Many on the far-right can’t convince enough people to vote for their policies, so instead rely on voter suppression, fear-mongering, and hateful rhetoric. If you can’t denounce white supremacists for fear that you’ll lose their votes, then you know you’re relying on a support base which is problematic. 