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129 points geox | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.019s | source
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chris_wot ◴[] No.44604778[source]
I’ve never understood why America doesn’t have a decent health care system. And then America voted for Trump, and everyone appears shocked at what he has done…

There is something very wrong with American attitudes.

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tenacious_tuna ◴[] No.44604912[source]
I don't think we (Americans) have a solid understanding of political cause and effect. You see this in low turnout for local/state elections (vs federal), and just a lack of understanding of how the various political mechanics work.

My mother is an elementary school teacher in a conservative Michigan town. She generally doesn't talk politics at work, but a coworker mentioned that the school's "no questions asked" free breakfast and lunch policy was ending next year due to federal education cuts. My mom's co-teacher, who voted for Trump, expressed surprise, saying she didn't realize that was something likely to be cut, or that the states would make up the shortfall.

Anyone remotely following US politics wouldn't be surprised, and would know that most states are fairly strapped for cash. (Whether that's societally optimal is besides the point.) This is a pattern I see over and over again, on both sides of the line: you see Trump voters surprised that cuts to the FDA result in higher food recalls, and you see Democratic voters saying that nothing got done over the last four years.

It baffles me. I have more awareness of the local politics in our small Canadian town than I did when I lived in Chicago, and it all just comes from listening to my friends talk about current events. It's a wild feeling.

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1. pjc50 ◴[] No.44605078[source]
There's a lot of media disinformation goes into keeping people that way.

It's a weird scenario. American politics is so loud and omnipresent that I, as a Brit on the Internet, end up following it involuntarily because it ends up in every discussion everywhere. But so much of it is just weird things made up by right wing talking heads.

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2. TheOtherHobbes ◴[] No.44605240[source]
The US oligarchy runs the biggest propaganda operation in history. From think tanks that sell neoliberal policy narratives, to captured journalists in the MSM, to Fox News and its imitators, to podcasts, megachurches, conventional media content, carefully curated addictive social media algorithms, paid SM influencers, troll and bot farms, normalised work ethics and workplace dynamics, adtech and the ad industry, and "edgy" sites like nChan - it's all managed messaging.

It's targeted across all US demographics. Sometimes covertly.

And increasingly it's fine-tuned towards individual interests and psychological triggers.