I did not vote for Trump, but I couldn't help but feel a bit of schadenfreude at the reaction of my mostly very liberal friend group to his win. For months and months, they'd been unfairly denigrating Trump supporters while simultaneously insisting that he was a joke, there was no way he would beat Clinton, etc. and somehow convincing themselves that their political ideology was synonymous with science, truth, and reason.
It was very much a form of social posturing rather than careful consideration for many of them.
Of course, instead of toning it back after the election, many have doubled down. I'm curious how that will play out for the next election.
I don't think I am being fooled, but most people would say that. I totally support friends and family who are voting for Trump and Clinton, even if I like neither of them.
The problem is that among this crowd, simply saying "I voted for Trump" or "I hated Hillary so I just didn't vote" is considered "controversial" and worthy of personal and professional backlash.
I also tend to agree with Peter Thiel's point on The Portal podcast: a significant number of Americans lie on polls because they're ashamed of voting for Donald Trump.
My opinion: I think deep down these people feel they are rationally wrong for voting in a president that promised to, and now is actually attacking USA's democracy and freedom which used to be touted as America's strong point. They know they're acting on instinct, and people tend to hide their instincts in public.
I assure you most people outside this abhorant miniscule group abhors this abhorant miniscule group. Trump voters should indeed feel ashamed and lose their friends.
I have a lot of friends who voted Trump in 2016. Engaging with them was valuable and helped me gain perspective.
I have none who will be voting for him in 2020, because those who still support him in this extreme have nothing to say.
There is a difference between "political differences" and "ambivalence regarding an attempted coup", and anyone who can't see that is dangerously naive.
I cant find the thread, but last year someone posted something close to 'all Trump supporters are idiots, I don't know how he got so popular,' and someone replied, 'I have a top uni degree, successful career and I am voting for Trump, so start with reassessing your assumptions about Trump supporters if you want to understand them,' and everyone just downvoted him. Nobody asked him anything.
For the record I'm not a Trump supporter, but I can see that when it comes to politics people think emotionally and ideologically, and very few are asking themselves "have I not made any mistakes?" in the same way we do (everyone does make mistakes) when we care about being proficient.
I studied economics and had a passion for public policy and realized how corrupt that all is. There's no moral excuse for anyone to still suffer in 2017--but it persists. People are irrational, greedy, and selfish. Not all, but enough.
Isn’t it strange that you have to make a disclaimer like “please don’t judge me?”. Quite literally 1/2 of the USA voted for Trump, should you automatically be ashamed of that?
(It’s easy for me to say ofc, I have no horse in this race)
People had voted for Trump not because of lack of empathy, but because they were fed up with being patronized, negged, treated like children, observed, modeled and disempowered, belittled and generally discounted.
You may be missing a lot of just regular folks (including educated ones), who will be holding their vomit bags while voting for Trump, because they can't bring themselves to vote for the ethically challenged, "extremely careless" other candidate.
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