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Weird… it’s almost like there’s an entire media set up to sow distrust in religious leaders, the media, law enforcement, and intellectual experts. But I just can’t put my finger on it…Three elections as I’m using 2012 as a data point below the 2016 level. That is an admittedly small set of points, but there are a number of trust-in-authority statistics that all show the same trend. People have less trust for Religious Leaders, the Media, Law Enforcement, and Intellectual Experts. I want to be proven wrong on this. I’ll happily take the hit to my ego. I don’t like this trend. I don’t like where it goes.

Fair enough. I agree that I don't like the possible trend, either, and that could be coloring my perception. The real question will be the degree to which the Trump rhetoric positions outlive Trump.Three elections as I’m using 2012 as a data point below the 2016 level. That is an admittedly small set of points, but there are a number of trust-in-authority statistics that all show the same trend. People have less trust for Religious Leaders, the Media, Law Enforcement, and Intellectual Experts. I want to be proven wrong on this. I’ll happily take the hit to my ego. I don’t like this trend. I don’t like where it goes.
Go back one administration. With Trump himself leading the way, some percentage of Americans believed Obama was not born in the United States, and was thus illegitimate. Once elected in 2016(and in an aside that historians will be left to sort out, the revelation that Kilimnik was a Russian agent, and he passed along the polling data Manafort gave him in August, 2016, probably was evidence all along of conspiring with a foreign power by the Trump campaign) a percentage of Trump voters believed his lie that he would have won the popular vote, were it not for 3 million illegal aliens in California voting for Clinton. Then, when he lost the 2020 election, Trump attempted to steal the 2020 election by claiming that the Democrats stole the election.I don’t see that as an attack on democracy so much as an attack on the legitimacy of the other. Many see the President elected in 2020 as illegitimate because of “The Big Lie”. Many on the other side viewed the President elected in 2016 as illegitimate because of “Election Interference”. I don’t know what marketing will be used to sell the idea in 2024 but if the trend continues, an even greater number of people will be taken in by this phenomenon.
It might be said that you are describing the Post Truth era. People distrust religious authority, political authority, scientific authority, medical authority, you name it authority. We see this everywhere. It probably doesn’t help in this country that Americans have never lost love over intellectuals. The late American historian, Daniel Boorstin, attributed this dislike/distrust of intellectuals to the fact that America grew as a series of frontiers, and frontiers need people with practical skills, not “smarty-pants”. This itself may be part of the urban/rural based divisiveness that characterizes our nation. Cities are liberal, countryside conservative. This is simplistic, yes, we are a more homogenous culture with McDonalds and Walmart’s in city and country now.Three elections as I’m using 2012 as a data point below the 2016 level. That is an admittedly small set of points, but there are a number of trust-in-authority statistics that all show the same trend. People have less trust for Religious Leaders, the Media, Law Enforcement, and Intellectual Experts. I want to be proven wrong on this. I’ll happily take the hit to my ego. I don’t like this trend. I don’t like where it goes.
Maybe, but I’m not sure America does dislike intellectuals. Other nations have had actual purges where intellectuals were rounded up. We certainly aren’t in that category. America also built the finest collection of universities the planet has ever seen in a single nation. It is hard to make a case that America dislikes something when they’ve built the highest capacity factories to crank them out.It might be said that you are describing the Post Truth era. People distrust religious authority, political authority, scientific authority, medical authority, you name it authority. We see this everywhere. It probably doesn’t help in this country that Americans have never lost love over intellectuals. The late American historian, Daniel Boorstin, attributed this dislike/distrust of intellectuals to the fact that America grew as a series of frontiers, and frontiers need people with practical skills, not “smarty-pants”.
I think you’ve landed on a universal truth about the human condition. It is why I don’t blindly trust the cool-headed wisdom of a popular majority. The human being is a smart animal, but people can be dumb. Realizing what you have just written, and that such movements are capable of democratically seizing the reins of government, has greatly informed my personal political beliefs.I’ll likely go to my grave knowing that people are not very bright, by and large. Certainly Trump proved the old adage that if you just repeat a lie often enough, the more people will believe it. Welcome to the Post Truth era and all, a terrible place to be, but really, it just tells me that despite all our accomplishments, demonstrating that we are quite different from other forms of life on this planet, when the time is ripe, one man can prove how stupid many people are, how un-self aware people are, how easily they can miss the fact they are being manipulated. Of course it’s not the first time, history is replete with madmen manipulating other people, but just a sad state of affairs to have to witness this.
@Red have you seen this by Timothy Snyder?
@Gameface i know you complained a while ago about twitter being difficult to read/not loading, I took a screenshot of this because I think it’s pretty dang important. I think this is easily where we’re headed:
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So of course this article is wrong in claiming this is a "rare" case, and if it were "rare" this would hardly clear the Democrats of doing this same trick and perhaps many others.
I think this scenario is off the charts bonkers. If all you ever accept as evidence is what you want to see, and you are mesmerized by a media that creates a false narrative, sure you can believe it. But not if you do your own thinking, ask questions, and objectively look for evidence.No, had not seen it, but something like that sure is how I see things playing out. Manchin’s stance does not help. My heart sank listening to him today. Yeah, I agree with Snyder that given the outcome he describes for 2022 and 2024, we should expect to see this. Given another chance to do the same, lie and discredit election results, they are all aboard with that game plan. I cannot begin to imagine the damage. May the next generation hold tribunals for these criminals. It will be hard to recover from something like that, just a tremendous struggle and soul searching looming ahead, maybe for decades to come. Hope it can be avoided in 2024, but we are a long way from solving this disaster.