It’s so easy to shit on voters for not being informed.
Dems had $1B to reach this lady with a message about how they were going to improve her material conditions and they couldn’t or wouldn’t. At least they got that sweet sweet Cheney fan vote.
When people have to work constantly or their kids will starve and it just keeps getting worse wtf is anyone supposed to do?
“You didn’t do your homework, so you deserve to have your life destroyed lol”
The system is fucked. Well and truly.
I can see why they might woo current Republicans… In the case the lose by a thin margin, it would give them greater leverage to block Trump’s administration.
“Maybe if we work to bring the nazis into power, they’ll think about us later on!”
Democracy isn’t government on cruise control. Democracy is a responsibility. Blaming politicians isn’t going to change the fact that it is not institutions that uphold democracy. It’s the people.
So yeah, ultimately the people failed themselves. Some people just need to learn the hard way. If that is the only way these people will learn, why try to stop them from getting their lessons?
Americans are basically spoiled children. Never experienced government hardship. Why expect them to understand the value of what they have that prevents the hardship?
When people have to work constantly or their kids will starve and it just keeps getting worse wtf is anyone supposed to do?
I agree with you when it comes to a lot of things in terms of civic engagement, but in this case, there are lots of websites out there with information that won’t even take you more than 20 minutes to read in terms learning of who the candidates are and what they stand for.
You can literally do that on a break (or more than one break since you’ll get them every day) at work. And if you’re not getting breaks at work, your boss is violating the labor laws which should be posted where all employees can see them. Not that they ever read them. Employees are entitled by federal law to a 5-20 minute paid break. I realize 5-20 minutes is shit, but most full time jobs at least give you longer unpaid breaks than that, if for no other reason than they don’t want their employees passing out from hunger.
You’re not wrong about having the physical and temporal capacity to inform yourself regardless, but you’ve also got to have the mental and emotional capacity as well.
I’m sure you’re aware of how exhausting it is to live here, even just having nominal exposure to all the campaign ads and the outrage bait “news.” That’s before all the regular stress of living here with a family, all of your material conditions. Is my car gonna break down? If it does will I get fired? How can I afford my kids soccer cleats? Will the babysitter cancel on me for my extra shift?
If the only exposure you got for the election that you paid attention to because it was “entertainment” was a “funny” Joe Rogan clip your buddy sent you of the Trump interview it’d be real easy to be like “well, we made it through the first one, and at least he acknowledges that things are more expensive…”
Obviously if you’re tuned in, you know that’s a bullshit front. But if you don’t have the capacity to be tuned in because fucking everything is designed to stress you out and extract what little money you have… Well, here we are.
I guess you’re right. It’s just so damn important to them and their families… I have been there, super exhausted from all that, but I knew the risk of not being informed about who I’m voting for. I guess it was enough for me to make sure I knew, but not for others.
If the only exposure you got for the election that you paid attention to because it was “entertainment” was a “funny” Joe Rogan clip your buddy sent you of the Trump interview…
This right here is hitting on the real problem. People are fed bullshit from firehoses coming in all direction, so they feel like they are informed because of what they have passively taken in. It takes some real effort to step back and think “What if the things I’ve been hearing are not the full story?”, and even more effort to take the next step and actively seek out information that might challenge what you have already heard and internalized. We are ALL guilty of this to some degree.
But if you don’t have the capacity to be tuned in because fucking everything is designed to stress you out and extract what little money you have…
Precisely–it is 100% the point. If you are stressed out working 2 jobs and raising a kid, you are going to have a lot less energy to keep your bullshit detector running and the simple solutions to complex problems naturally sound more appealing.
there are lots of websites out there … You can literally do that on a break
Correct. Now your task, should you choose to accept it, is to show someone how to do that. Teach them to do their research. Easy? Now come up with a way to communicate the same message to maybe 150 million people. And make sure they don’t ignore it.
This is why strategies like advertising, canvassing, and media interviews are effective. Unlike expecting voters to “just do the research,” these methods meet people where they already are—at home, watching TV, listening to the radio, scrolling through social media, or catching up on the news. They reach voters directly, without assuming any prior knowledge or effort on their part.
I guess. I was told in high school before I was even old enough to vote that the League of Women Voters always gives out election info. They used to do it in a free pamphlet and now they do it on their website. Are people really not told that in school anymore or do they just not pay attention?
Maybe if they just googled? Takes about 15 sec. They’d see something like this: https://www.politifact.com/article/2024/sep/30/kamala-harris-2024-campaign-promises-here-are-her/ It’s hard to imagine it could have been any easier for people who weren’t aware of Harris’ policies.
Whose responsability is one’s ignorance? A ruthless individualist would place the blame only on the person, ignoring the world wround them and the community or lack thereof.
I think everyone has a duty to be the best they can, and everyone is responsible for themselves, yet it is undeniable to me that we all live, and especially the people from the US, in an information system that aims at eroding the truth and our capabilities to gather it. I also think an important part in how this corruption of information works is by also eroding our empathy for the people who are “dumber” than us. You dehumanize ignorant people. You can deny it, but so many like you repeat this. You will justify yourself, which is understandable, no one wants to be the cause of suffering. And yet.
Dehumanization is the weapon of the enemy, we do not need it, we will not use it. These people won’t magically get smarter if you hate on them, in fact, they will take refuge on those that present themselves as loving teachers, but are actually ruthless abusers.
I guess it’s cathartic to hate those ignorant bums, see where that leads you
What makes you think this is about hatred?
Are you so full of hatred for others that you think everyone is like that?
I mean, this is on me for not mentioning anyone in particular, but you can’t tell me this site hasn’t been erupting with rage and judgment since the election results.
Congrats on pointing the finger right away instead of thinking about what you read btw. Only you are allowed to be judgemental, it seems. Doesn’t feel nice when it’s you?
What a silly lie. No one said you can’t be judgmental. I certainly never even implied only I can be judgmental.
However, you are not above criticism.
And before you decide to put more words in my mouth, this does not mean that I hate you. I don’t know you.
If it weren’t so sad, it would be almost funny.
So many people are waking up to the fact that… Most people are functionally illiterate children with no understanding of the world they live in.
The easiest way I have to explain it:
You use your phone every day. You know how to use it, menus in and out, all the different programs and their uses. But if I were to pop open the cover and take one single piece out, you would never know, and you would never be able to use it again. Without someone else, you have absolutely no clue how to go about fixing it. You can push it’s buttons all day, but when it comes down to how it functions at the basic levels, you are clueless.
So am I, by the way. I don’t have any reason to know how to build or program a phone. Or computer. I can push their buttons all day though! Even hidden buttons. But if everyone else on the planet disappeared tonight, I would effectively be living in the 1500s, as that’s about where my technical understanding of things ends. (scavenging for replacement electronics notwithstanding, once something electronic breaks, it’s gone since I can’t exactly run a semiconductor factory by myself, or the mines to get the materials)
My point is, most people only know how to “push the buttons” of the world. They have very surface-level understandingsof it. But when it comes down to it, they don’t understand how the internals actually function.
Sorry if this rambled a bit, I hit the bowl as soon as I got home from work.
As a single person you’d be pretty good for the rest of your (still probably short) life. But honestly, I think ascribing button pushing to some of these people is a stretch. They know the particular buttons to open their social media, or maybe even access their banking, but any mention of settings and you get a blank look. I see that with every generation now, working in IT. It used to just be the boomers, but tech knowledge seems to have degraded over the years.
I felt something die inside me when I realized “display settings” was going way too far into technical territory for most people.
All I was trying to do is tell someone why their screen shuts off “so quickly” after two minutes.
I had to send them step by step pictures with big red circles.
And this was someone I had thought to be intelligent enough to figure something out, and tech-minded enough to know what I was talking about. Turns out they just like buying whatever fancy new gadgets they see in commercials.
I mean I know enough which candidates are the “lesser evil”, but I’d never fully understand how the global economy works.
Most people aren’t gonna understand everything, and that’s fine. But it shouldn’t take much to know who to not vote into office. But unfortunately… it does seem like making a simple choice is a huge hurdle in many peoples minds.
This is a funny take I haven’t heard. Maybe it’s a bit true.
People I talk to seem to have little understanding of Trump policies. Like it’s mostly projection.
One person I spoke to with a Trump pin said these two statements: “I don’t like where the country is heading everything is expensive. The government spends too much money”… “yeah we got to support Ukraine, Russia would not have invaded if Trump was president. Russia needs to loose and go home so we can end the war”
… like okay? And Trump will help any of this how, as a lap dog to Putin who blew up the budget and raised taxes on those making less than $500k?
These people vote for people who tell them what they want to hear and project the rest… you know morons.
These people vote for people who tell them what they want to hear and project the rest
I think it’s even farther removed from that … these people vote for people their echo chamber tells them are better for reasons their echo chamber tells them what they want to hear, and they never have the awareness to find out from the donvicts mouth. …. You know, morons
Sorry if this rambled a bit, I hit the bowl as soon as I got home from work.
Still have Keiko trapped in the transporter buffer, I see.
Joe Rogan, before he was horrible, has a funny bit about this exact sentiment: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1i2b6_joe-rogan-on-stupid-people_fun
That leopard is so overfed it needed to grow additional toes just to cope!
[Scene opens on a wide, desolate savanna at dusk. The camera slowly pans over a leopard lying under a tree, its large body barely able to move. The sun is setting, casting a cold, dim light over the scene. Soft wind rustles through the dry grass. The leopard’s eyes are dull, its breathing labored.]
Narrator (soft, somber voice): In the wild, leopards are meant to stalk, to hunt, to climb. But for some, this is no longer possible. These are the leopards of the forgotten savanna… the ones who can no longer live the life they were born to lead.
[Cut to a close-up of another leopard, this one lying next to a watering hole, panting heavily. The camera lingers on its enormous, bloated body, its paws barely able to reach the ground. The leopard’s eyes seem vacant, devoid of the wild spark they once had.]
Narrator: Overfed and unable to move, these leopards have been left to a slow, painful existence. They can no longer hunt their prey, no longer climb the trees to escape danger, no longer feel the thrill of the chase. They are trapped in their own bodies.
[Cue the soft, mournful opening chords of “Angel” by Sarah McLachlan. The camera slowly pans over a third leopard, sluggishly trying to rise, but its massive weight prevents it from standing. It lets out a heavy sigh, its once-strong legs buckling beneath it.]
Narrator: They are the forgotten victims of a world that has abandoned them. Too fat to run, too weak to fight… These leopards are slowly fading, one breath at a time. They need your help.
[Cut to a shot of a leopard staring out over the savanna. The camera lingers on its face, eyes half-closed, its expression one of quiet resignation.]
Narrator: For just $3 a day, you can provide the care and support these leopards so desperately need. A donation will help give them the chance to live a life of dignity. Help them find their way back to the wild they were meant to roam.
[The music swells as the camera fades to black, and the words “Your donation can make a difference” appear in white text on the screen.]
Narrator (whispering): Please, don’t let them suffer in silence. The time to act is now.
[The music fades out, and the SPCA logo appears in the corner, along with a toll-free number and website for donations.]
Say it with me now: ignorance is not an excuse.
