The most horrible thing in the recent poll results

[moniss]

for the approval rating of Crumb The 1st is that 40% of our fellow Americans approve of what is being done. They approve of depriving people of healthcare and leaving them to illness, pain and needless death. They approve of profiling people based on ethnicity and grabbing them off the streets. They approve of stripping food from the mouths of hungry children and giving that money to Bezos, Zuckerberg, Thiel and other billionaires. They approve of the President of the United States taking bribes. They approve of the President of the United States extorting businesses, countries, law firms and universities. They approve of the people they detain dying in custody. They approve of the POTUS using the military to throw a parade for himself for his birthday. They approve of doctors and nurses being watched and hunted by police for providing medical care. They approve of ending suicide hot-lines that save people's lives. They approve of overt discrimination against LGBTQ+ people. They approve of Supreme Court Justices lying to Congress and also hiding their corruption.

So many more awful and despicable things have been done and yet 40% of those polled approve of these things. That such a large percentage of the population of this country appears proud to be pure scum of the earth is a shocking percentage. Sure we have always known that a percentage of the population was despicable. But this level of support for the horrors going on now isn't explained by just attributing it to their personal selfishness and them feeling it's OK because it's not happening to them.

In this large of a percentage it demonstrates that these people enjoy the misery being inflicted upon people by the actions of Crumb the 1st. These are the people who would smile while torturing animals. These are the people who would slam their door shut if an accident victim came to them needing help. These are the people who abuse their children and claim nobody should be able to step in.These are the people who want rapist athletes to get a pass. These are the people that say victims of police violence had it coming. These are the people who also seem to be OK people living in decent neighborhoods and attending churches etc.

So at it's heart it isn't explained by just latent racism and hate left over from previous decades and passed down. There is a malevolence inside those nice homes in the suburbs of America, inside some cops and some military veterans. Inside a huge percentage of the people in those categories and those wearing suits and ties and nice clothes is a sickness that has a need to inflict pain and suffering on people and they like knowing that the pain and suffering is going on and it feeds that malevolence inside them.

Decent people in America always knew we had people who were like this. But we mostly thought it was a small percentage. We were wrong and now the ones they chose to do horrible things to the rest of us in order to feed their malevolence are in control. They wanted this. They needed this. They're feeding on it. They counted on it.

[Skittles]

1. let's be clear

if you are happy with what is going on you DON'T BELIEVE IN AMERICA and you most CERTAINLY don't believe in JESUS either

[EdmondDantes_]

2. I'm sure some of them are just so far in their bubble, that they actually believe Trump's lies

Look at the idiot who went to the pizza place in DC. That guy was so convinced that there was child abuse ring run out of it that he went there from North Carolina with a gun to save the kids. That's an awful lot of conviction for something so clearly wrong. Or the people who refuse to believe Obama was born in the US and wasn't a Kenyan Muslim communist. Sure some of them are really happy with the ugliness of the Trump administration, but part of the problem with the fracturing of sources of truth is some sources aren't accurate, but if that's all you consume, it's easy to get blinded by the lies.

[summer_in_TX]

11. Humans are endlessly capable of denial and self-delusion.

I assume they are so devoted to their illusion of all being well that they are focused on just entertaining themselves to keep reality at bay.

Will they ever let themselves encounter reality? Who knows? Maybe if the horrors encroach on them or loved ones.

[markodochartaigh]

3. If you are White and wealthy you can visit

churches, work with business associates, go to parties, play golf, etc. with Republicans and never realize what they are capable of. It's like neighbors of murderers or parents of school shooters who, after the killing, say that they had no idea. "He was always such a nice person."
If you want to know who is a "decent" person, don't ask their preacher, or their boss, or their family or friends. Ask the homeless person, the dirty and mentally ill person, the abused person.

It hasn't been that long since public hangings drew large crowds who enjoyed the spectacle. These church going people didn't think that they were bad for enjoying the killing. On the contrary, they thought that they were a part of a righteous and blessed group who deserved to be enjoying the picnic while the nondeserving, disgusting person swayed in the air on his way to hell.

And did they really care if the accused was guilty? Well, surveys today say that 70% of Americans support the death penalty even if some innocent people are put to death. Was it different then?

But I think that most people, "decent" or not, don't really want to know, maybe actually can't handle, just what percentage of society is actually brutal.

[moniss]

4. Excellent points. nt

[Skittles]

5. righteous post

[peacebuzzard]

6. there should be polls measuring the illiteracy rate of the poll participants.

I think the 40% would be in the lower range. (or those profiting off the markets generated by this 40%)

[Greg_In_SF]

7. The worst part is

that it's more like 47%. Gallup is the only poll at 40%. Average them all together, as Real Clear Politics does, and it's 46.4%

[littlemissmartypants]

8. The government disinformation campaign is working. Classic authoritarianism.

[Woodycall]

9. True, but they were targeted for their stupidity

True, but they were targeted for their stupidity and harvested for their votes by the very people who shipped their jobs to 3rd world countries. It was an evil, but brilliant plan. It was modeled on the evangelical "Christian" grifters and perfected by Madison Avenue and "hired gun" behavioral scientist consultants.

And before them were the European fascists backed by monied interests, here and abroad. Remember, Hitler and his Nazis didn't take their absurd arguments (which many, if not most, understood were absurd) to the universities and libraries where they would be ridiculed and laughed at. They took them instead to the beer halls where they knew that they would find fertile ground among the uneducated and "dull". But there is one thing that the 20th century fascists and the modern republicans both knew/know well and that is: In a democracy, votes are "fungible". a vote from an uneducated "useful idiot" counts just as much as a vote from the most intelligent and informed person in the country. And those "idiot" votes allow them to seize power and loot the wealth of the nation. It's really not much more complicated than that if you "boil it down" to its essence...

[synni]

10. That's actually much smaller than in the 1980's

In 1984, Walter Mondale only won Minnesota and D.C., when Reagan was stealing from the poor to give to the rich, and elderly people were eating dog food.

Republicans have always been evil.

[MLAA]

12. Excellent Post.

[Karasu]

13. The Overton window in this country is so far to the right that I swear a Republican could go full genocide and STILL

get 40%.