What is wrong with the American people?

[madaboutharry]

I am looking at MSNBC right now and Jose Diaz-Balart is reporting that Trump has a 53% approval rating!

We have devolved into an abyss of complete ignorance. The American people have no understanding of American history or democracy. It breaks my heart.

[Irish_Dem]

1. Greatest moral collapse in US history.

They know he is a rapist and traitor.

Greatest civic duty failure in history as well.
The people care nothing for our democracy.

[magicarpet]

10. "Owning the Libs" is a bigger issue than we surmised.

Hate,.. retribution,.. vengence,... violence,.. and vanquishing are part and parcel to their mission statements.

[Irish_Dem]

27. The dark under belly of human nature has taken over.

[BonnieJW]

59. I blame social media

Our sense of community is gone. We socialize alone online. We isolate ourselves. I have four teenage grandkids and none of them want to learn how to drive or get their license. Gone are the days when you picked up your friends and went somewhere together. Do all the people in your neighborhood reach out and help each other? Does everyone reach out to new arrivals in the neighborhood?

If your neighborhood is like that, I'd love to know. It would be hopeful.

[Number9Dream]

82. They also believe every word from Fox news

[yardwork]

12. Possibly the greatest self-own in human history.

Driven by fantasies and fears.

[plcdude]

2. We can

no longer trust the MSM. Depending on how many and who you survey you can come up with any data you like.

[pandr32]

23. 100% .

[MLWR]

50. That was a CBS poll.

I don't know how and whom they polled. But it may well be relevant to note that trump is suing CBS for $20 billion for editing the 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris. I don't know how that will go but as a public figure he has to put up with more than we "private citizens" do and he won the election, so I don't know how he will prove he "was damaged" in any way.

[MaeScott]

60. Trust no poll or report regarding this

Horror of an administration. Nothing. Everything is cooked to order.

[CBHagman]

71. Here's the CBS poll with sample size and margin of error.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-approval-opinion-poll-2025-2-9/

The poll was of 2,175 people and taken from February 5 to 7. Margin of error: 2.5 points.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. They are accustomed to psychological abuse and lap it up.

Much abuse is subtle and not easily recognized as abuse. Comedy, and the butt of jokes, are an abusive pattern for example. So it becomes OK. Sitcoms, the way women and often men are portrayed in commercials. Commercials seek to separate the viewer from their sanity so they will go buy the products. So the entire thing is an entrenched emotional pattern from learned behavior.

[chouchou]

9. Your wise words are certainly true.

[surrealAmerican]

28. I would add that the ubiquity of advertising has lead to ...

... the inability of most Americans alive today to distinguish fact from opinion.

This is not only in the political realm, but throughout our culture.

[John Farmer]

4. Mainstream media has done an effective job of 'sanewashing' Trump.

[GoreWon2000]

67. Well said

The mainstream/pro repug media is totally "sanewashing" by calling the unconstitutional/illegal tRump/ Musk power grab a "government shakeup" instead of what it really is which is an all-out assault on the U.S. constitution.

[Biophilic]

5. It seems as if most Americans care only for themselves.

Sometimes that caring appears to bleed into their families, but it seems to be more about their families’ reflection on them. It’s all about what’s good for them.

[Martin Eden]

86. And they themselves are gonna get screwed along with the rest of us

The FIND OUT part is coming.

[eShirl]

6. consider the ambient propaganda they are steeped in

and the fact most people aren't very tuned in to politics and current events

[chouchou]

7. I certainly hope that congress will stop this bullshit and grow a spine.

I can slightly understand that a high percentage of people are very busy with their own lives and not paying attention
to whats-going down...BUT, congress knows what's happening.

[Hope22]

8. I don't believe it!

They lie and we are all less safe because of it. After last night’s disaster of a showing for him at the SB I’m sure the staff has put this memo out to get this garbage on air.

[yardwork]

11. Well, here's my take.

We live in a country that was founded on genocide and slavery, while pretending it was all God's gift to white people.

Our cultural mythology is a lie. We are taught that white men (helped by their wives and horses) hewed a civilization from the wilderness. Those "rugged individualists" did it all with their own hands, led by God to build a monument to white civilization. "Our fathers" supposedly "tamed the West" and built beautiful cities and gracious plantations with huge white houses.

They did it all by themselves, the story goes, so we don't need any welfare or government handouts. Those are just ways for lazy shiftless people to get free stuff. If the government - run by silly, weak liberals who are fooled by "those people" into giving our stuff away and thus enabling weak, criminal behavior - would just get off our backs, then the strong white men could go back to building this perfect paradise.

This mythology is rooted deeply in our national psyche. It is reflected in popular films, novels, TV shows, ads, podcasts, memes, it's all over the internet.

Trump and Musk tapped into those myths and used them to fool millions of people. It's where the racism, sexism, and fear of immigrants comes from and it perpetuates those bigotries. It's not about "hate" and we play their game when we call it that. Bigots always say "I don't hate anyone" and it's true. They look down on a lot of people. They think a lot of people are inferior. They fear that "this great nation" will be weakened by indulging people they view as weak, criminal, less than.

[Justice matters.]

65. And they commit crimes defined by laws that were signed in the blue book.

While those who are tasked to make sure these laws are faithfully respected, because it's their job, are now being openly threatened by domestic terrorists who attacked LEOs and will attack civilians upon illegal orders anytime their mob boss will tell them to.

[Ligyron]

75. Well stated and absolutely spot on true.

If I could rec this a dozen times or more, I would.

[yardwork]

80. Thank you!

[DemocratSinceBirth]

13. Some of them are awful and would vote for Satan if he said he could make eggs $2.00 a dozen.

They did and he couldn't.

[Scrivener7]

14. We will hear in four or five days how that poll was bullshit.

But by then, the message will be cemented in people's minds.

[indusurb]

15. Propoganda, incessant, non stop propoganda for the past half century

It used to be fairly confined, but then Reagan did away with the fairness doctrine, along comes Limbaugh and hate radio in '88. Then Fox "news" and the rest of cable. Then the digital revolution, first in email chains, texts, Facebook, Twitter, etc. It has now become so ubiquitous that one has to search long and hard to find out the truth of any matter.

There's also the ongoing dumbing down of our society, 20% of our adult population is functionally illiterate, and critical thinking is no longer taught in schools. Back in prehistoric times I was taught how advertising and propoganda worked in junior high. No such teaching now.

There are other factors, but I think these are the two largest.

[hadEnuf]

18. IMO, you are 110% correct.

Decades of intense and viscous propaganda, unchecked and barely refuted or countered, have made what we are dealing with today completely possible.

They couldn't have done it without it.

[Rebl2]

16. I do not

believe that for a minute. Maybe if they only asked republicans, but would even question that.

[Voltaire2]

17. From: Unpopular Front

It’s not at all clear to me that most Americans have any idea any longer that a constitutional government is meant to be something different than a massive firm, that it guarantees rights and prescribes certain duties. It doesn’t seem to me that they know that the goal of the United States government is something other than “efficiency” or that they view what’s currently happening as the destruction of their freedom as embodied in the State, rather than some interesting corporate reorganization that may yet yield better results. They may not wake up until suddenly they get the message: “You’re fired.”

https://www.unpopularfront.news/p/gold-and-brown

[yellow dahlia]

20. People are ignorant of civics and how things work.

And they are being fed propaganda on right wing media, that is telling them this is all normal.

But I still question the poll.

[haele]

76. The thing these "Americans" really don't realize is that when a citizen is "fired"

The government has basically put that citizen, their skills, their possessions and anything or person in front of a figurative firing squad.
That life is effectively over.

If they're willing to oversee the ruination of their family members, friends, or neighbors for a comforting feeling of resentment, they've basically sold their soul to the lowest bidder.

[yellow dahlia]

19. I don't remember where they said the poll came from, but I doubt it.

Just about the same time, I clicked over to CNN, and they were talking about approx. two thirds of the country not approving how D.O.G.E. is doing things....or something along those lines.

[indusurb]

25. It's a CBS/YouGov poll

Don't know anything about youg9v, but it wouldn't surprise me if CBS massaged the numbers. They are currently fighting to keep their license and a looming threat of a 20 bil lawsuit from Trump, all over the Harris interview. Perhaps they are trying to play up to him and curry favor just to try and survive.

[hannah]

32. Cbs

The one that Trump is suing for billions? Interesting!

[dchill]

83. CBS is Fox News now.

I guess the thing about freedom of speech is that you can just make stuff up and call it news. It's just not, though.

[FloridaBlues]

21. It's just a matter of time before his approval ratings take a hit.

[Raftergirl]

22. They are dumb.

[Karadeniz]

24. Add that americans dont understand their minds. Your Eternal Self proves the

mind is paranormal. What the author can't do, trying to write about physical evidence, is explain where the paranormal power comes from. Scripture does tackle this reality: don't hide your light under a basket. The basket is our physical self or, in the case of mind, human brain waves. The light is the energy created by one's soul. Everyone should read this book! The light contains all our selfless qualities: sacrifice for others, compassion, generosity, the brotherhood of man. The brain is for physical survival, but through ego demands attention, pursues greed and materialism, creature comfort, divisiveness, violence to attack otherness.

[Wicked Blue]

26. Sheeple

brainwashed by Faux

[iemanja]

29. The same thing that was wrong with the German people in the 1930s

What precisely that is, I can't diagnose, other than to say they are disgustingly tolerant, even supportive of, totalitarianism.

[JBTaurus83]

30. It seems

there is a drastically increasing chance that this country will end up collapsing in on itself.

[Johonny]

31. Odd poll indicates people are mostly bigoted

He is riding high on propaganda and the love of deportation in America. However, he isn’t deporting at a higher rate than Biden.

And people dislike most of his other policies. Once again, the American propaganda machine that he rode into the White House is running full steam. You really have to be reading actual news to understand that the Trump train has really been a shitshow. Eventually something is going to happen and the shit should roll down hill. Maybe.

[madaboutharry]

35. This thread is not about the Middle East.

[GP6971]

37. Well OK then.

[radical noodle]

42. He isn't playing Bibi

He's focused on getting his hands on Gaza to put up trump hotels along the coast. That does nothing for Palestinians.

[GP6971]

47. Huh? I didn't say anything about abusing power in this thread.

[sarisataka]

43. Your diversion and support is noted

Welcome to DU

BTW I think you were trying for Annus MMXXV, maybe you can use that next time

[Anno 2525]

48. Damn it!!!!

That username would have been BASED!!! Oh well, tomorrow is another day...

(Interesting to be accused of diversion when you refuse to address legitimate concerns about other countries. America is the bogeyman and yet Israel has been allowed to just bomb Palestinians into submission and we give them billions. )

[GP6971]

52. And so it begins....What you might ask? I think you know.

[sarisataka]

55. Perhaps you are unaware, being new* here ,

that I often discuss concerns about other countries. The arrest and mass expulsion of refugees from Pakistan, genocide in Myanmar, the brutal war in Sudan and atrocities throughout the Horn of Africa, even the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza. I do usually discuss those in threads about those countries.

Oops...
well tomorrow is another day

[madaboutharry]

66. You just made me laugh!

Thanks, I needed that.

[keep_left]

34. As has been mentioned on DU many times, we need our own media infrastructure...

...and we need to stop ignoring the power of hate radio and TV. There is no way Trump should have won a second election in this country, especially not after his total incompetence at handling the pandemic, attacks on our medical and scientific leadership, and turning Covid into another front in the culture war.

Creating our own media infrastructure will necessarily be a long-haul process, and it will require a great deal of support over time. The former Air America network should have been seen as just the beginning of what is possible.

...the most important thing is that these networks must be supported by both the listeners and the Democratic party. That needs to be seen as an ongoing investment for many years. How long did it take for Fox News to become profitable? And how long did Rush Limbaugh "suck wind in Sacramento", as Randi Rhodes put it? (Her answer: 15 years!)...

https://democraticunderground.com/100219875226#post16

I've made a number of posts about this recently.

https://democraticunderground.com/100219898229#post8
https://democraticunderground.com/100219892406#post12
https://democraticunderground.com/100219709211#post16
https://democraticunderground.com/100219677391#post40

[themaguffin]

38. It's not going to stay there. It will go down.

[Jit423]

39. Polls can be fixed just like electon tallies. nt

[Hotler]

41. Their hate for us. nt

[LauraInLA]

44. Doesn't match the other polling I've seen. I'm taking this with a pound of salt.

[oldmanlynn]

46. It's purely propaganda

Fox News or one American news don’t show their viewers anything negative that Trump does. all they show them is positive things and negative things about Democrats do so it’s propaganda.

[wolfie001]

49. Those supporters are racists, and I do not believe that statistic

[IronLionZion]

51. Grocery prices aren't any lower. What are they approving of?

It's too soon for them to see the effects of Trump's disastrous policies. Mass deportations and tariffs are going to raise prices. Political instability will cause volatility in stock prices. And he's likely to be the first US president to default on Treasury bonds.

MAGAts have no idea.

[OldBaldy1701E]

53. I feel it is a decided lack of morals and ethics.

Thanks to the programming from the wealthy so that you would buy their crap and do their work for them, we feel that we are more important than everyone else and whatever it is that we want is more important that everyone else, including the poor, the starving, the homeless, the downtrodden, etc.

We no longer care about anyone but ourselves. And, when someone like that orange gibbon starts doing the things that some of us want to do and say because decadence breeds moral decay, but won't because of the ethics and morality of our (former) societal model. When he finds others that are as depraved as he is and they also do and say what some of our racist, sub-human minds want to do ourselves, some of us start to feel that we can do it as well, and that the people who allow some of us to behave like spoiled brats having a tantrum over not getting our way just keep on reenforcing that behavior.

We need to stop acting as if we are dealing with adults. We really do.

[joanbarnes]

54. fake polls

[BigDemVoter]

56. We're battling a propaganda machine that rivals

the one created by Joseph Goebbels, and THIS one is supported by the richest people in the world. . . .

Furthermore, the American people have not yet had to suffer for their moral failings. I think it is going to take some very, very hard knocks to get some sense into their heads. The truly sad thing is that the rest of us will end up getting knocked in the head too, and we didn't do anything wrong.

[ancianita]

57. Here's the thing with ongoing polls, especially when they're corporate sponsored: ongoing polls are only snapshots.

Any sampling of respondents can be made to arrive at desired results of the poll sponsor.

Example:
There's also another poll that shows a clear majority of Americans say we're in a constitutional crisis.
It's not unreasonable to think that the most recent skewed samplings that exist can be most relevant, but ongoing polls are only snapshots.

Link to tweet

?mx=2


We need to stop caring about ongoing corporate polls, because they're used to drive pro-fascist narratives on the "news." All the bad news corporate polls posted just spread the darkness of the Right Wing.
They're not accurate perspectives on Americans across regions and demographics.

Only the oldest, biggest samplers -- like Gallup Polls and Pew Polls -- come close to accurate and reliable.

[Justice matters.]

58. Until most of these 53% will FEEL the PAIN

of living in an unaffordable chaotic and brutal (to their stomachs) (or to their living, breathing chemicals, drinking polluted water, burning in the scorching sunshines...), they will keep signing heils to their new Fascist king.

And his enablers will reap billions of trillions and then, when nothing "works" anymore, die starving, cancering, or being invaded by Xi Putin Kim & co.

[maxsolomon]

61. They're pretty dumb.

They also can't remember shit.

[Jakes Progress]

62. "The Five Basic Laws of Human Stupidity" Cipolla

https://psychology-spot.com/basic-laws-of-human-stupidity/#google_vignette

[aeromanKC]

63. People don't want to get audited

Now that muskrat has all our private info and all

[dobleremolque]

64. It's the "bended-knee" media. Trust nothing they say, publish, or broadcast. n/t

[sanduca]

68. They are polling magats

That's what's wrong!
Also, 50% of the American population is dumb. Give them a blank map of the world and you'll see what I mean.

[Grumpy Old Guy]

69. They have been attacking education for forty years.

The net result is willful ignorance. They pride themselves on it. They demonize intellectualism.

[cayugafalls]

70. Rigged polls.

There is only face to face.

Get out there and meet others. Join your local democratic chapter

Ours meets at different locations now and only in the day is it announced so, stay situation aware and organize locally.

Peace

[Nasruddin]

72. timeline problem

Link to tweet

[Joe Nation]

73. One word explanation

Education. Thinking for yourself has been demonized. Intellectuals are the enemy. Teachers are under attack from their own school administrations and the entire right-wing political establishment. Kids fear for their lives just going to school. Curriculums have been dumbed down at every level of education.
What were we hoping for? "Better" outcomes?

[Cirsium]

74. I am skeptical

1. Trump threatens CBS.

2. CBS puts together a poll that says Trump is very popular.

3. Democrats say that the people are a lost cause and there is nothing we can do.

[ReRe]

77. E.D.U.C.A.T.I.O.N.

The important deficit in this country has nothing to do with a balanced budget. It has to do with all those kids who aren't finishing High School. And parents and grandparents who didn't finish High School. Is it still a rule that a student can drop out of school at age 16? If it is, then it's a rule that needs to be done away with immediately. It should be the rule that all students must graduate from High School. Period. With the ability to read and write and THINK critically! But noooooo, what we have is so many people who weren't required to finish High School, that they think it's cool to be uneducated. They actually look down their noses at those who are educated. I know this for a fact. I lived out in the hinterlands for 3 years of my life. I witnessed it with my own two eyes and ears. Soon after leaving there, Faux News 'propagandy' came into reality. After that and Rush Limpballs, it was straight down hill from there.
And here we are.

[Festivito]

78. How come we don't see the name of the poling company?

Prevaricators, Inc. perhaps?

[Ohioboy]

79. Trump should have been arrested and prosecuted for Jan 6th on Jan 7th at the latest!

The evening of Jan 6th would have been even better. People don't understand the danger of Trump because they don't see him paying for his attacks on the country.

[GusBob]

81. A list for an answer

Most if not many Americans have some or more of these problems. Some contribute to others

Sedentary lifestyle
Poor physical health
Poor mental health
Lack of education
Poor communication skills
Difficulty listening, reasoning and understanding
Poor reading comprehension
Crappy diet
Obesity
Lack of mechanical skills
Lack of practical lifestyle skills
Easily offended
Poor sense of humor
Self indulgence
Sense of entitlement
Selfish
Lack empathy
Laziness
Lack of motivation
Lack of innovation
Lack of creativity
Poor money management
No sense of adventure
Quick to judge
Quick to blame
Failure to maintain relationships
Inability to reflect
Failure to accept responsibility
Lack of flexibility

[berkerly6240]

84. White supremacy is popular in the USA, not shocked.

[Skittles]

85. I don't believe ANY polls

NOPE

[The Third Doctor]

87. More entertained than informed. Only cares

About personal consumption.