chapotraphouse

It's completely impossible to talk to the average voting american about politics because their brains are completely locked in a binary. If you criticize their guy, they will always bring up the other guy in comparison as if that makes it ok for their guy to be so awful. That's why the commentariat on TV and print media is so angry about RFKJr calling him a "spoiler" candidate. They cannot conceive of a third candidate, they can only frame it as if it's a spoiler for their preferred candidate and they will incessantly ask RFKJr "but why are you running, it's hurting Biden".

Liberalism is a nightmare.

That's why I liked a common chant at some protests in 2020, "Fuck Trump, Fuck Biden too, they don't give a fuck about you". Some conservative observers might have been like "what? I thought all commies were loyal troops of the Biden new world order?"

People are fucking obsessed with binaries

Unfortunately, that's been a constant in the US for...forever?

Make a criticism of Al Gore, you must like GW

Criticize Obama? Must love McCain or Romney, depending on the year

Many Americans can only understand politics as something that their two major parties engage in, so any serious criticism of one must indicate tacit support of the other

I wish they could follow the natural conclusion that a criticism of Biden is also a criticism of everything to the right of Biden as well. If I'm anti war, I'm not going to support a different war monger, I'm going to hate everyone who is pro war.

I guess liberals wouldn't be liberals if they had consistency in their beliefs. They also think they have a monopoly on being "left wing" and when you point out that they are more right wing than trump on a couple of issues, suddenly you're a Russian Chinese bot

Had an older "progressive" lib tell me, in person, that if we don't support Biden then we'll have Genocides all over the world! I didn't know there was an additive property to genocide like that. His argument was effectively "You think one genocide is bad?! Try two (hypothetically)!"

Then told me how Trump would ruin the climate, unlike Biden.

No ability to see past Biden vs Trump

These are deeply unserious people.

Like how me criticizing Israel somehow makes me an antisemite??

Americans love saying "facts don't care about your feelings"

But Americans don't even use facts, it's just vibes based: "whatever fits the narrative at the moment"

whataboutism

Mainstream American political thought is neatly packed into the binary of Democrats and Republicans. nothing else could possibly exist outside of that. Don't think one party is doing a good job? Just vote for the other party!

There's so many people I talk day to day that think like that. When I say I hate both parties and won't be voting in the presidential election people act like I'm the one that's out of their mind for not wanting to vote for one of the geriatric ghouls being presented as "choices".

The false consciousness of bourgeois electoralism generally and first-past-the-post specifically.

I saw a video of students denouncing genocide in Palestine and a bunch of th comment were like “this is what happens when you let your children watch CNN” lol

Kinda reminds me of how many people here seem to believe that anti-Putin means pro-US.

Youtube comments is the dumbest place on the planet

This is 97% of people in the US, for sure. American political education is a Red vs. Blue team sport.

I always preface any conversation about US Presidential politics by saying “Biden should be executed for crimes against humanity, but Trump…” It seems to help.