• ameancow@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    Harris would have been a strong candidate in any other epoch in American history.

    What’s changed is the average median voter’s attention-span and engagement in politics. Exit polling showed most Trump voters were stuck on the price of groceries, which they blamed on Biden, and they thought Harris was just more Biden.

    At other periods in history, I think voters would have understood what was at stake, who was responsible for what, and would have been just generally a little more connected and involved. 45% of eligible voters stayed home. And I honestly don’t know if it would have mattered if they voted, because people were voting almost at random this last election cycle. Lifelong dems through to Bernie supporters all voting for Trump because “what the hell, why not see what happens” because they’re so checked out, bored and disconnected from their larger community.

    A good glimpse into our collective psyche can be seen in any major news outlet’s science headlines every fucking day. “Scientists baffled at HUGE discovery of ancient structures on Mars! Unknown signals from Venus confirm scientist’s worst fears! Giant eyeball planet found in space! Pyramids found to be generators for lost civilization!!!111”

    These are all actual headlines from CNN, MSNBC and FOX. This is where the BULK of our society gets their information on the world around them. It doesn’t matter if you care about science or not, the fact that the sources for ANY kind of accurate reporting have thrown in the towel and no longer give a shit about journalism says as much about the state of our countrymen and women as it does about the sorry state of media and journalism. Nobody cares anymore. Nobody knows what’s real or not, so they just tune out and have been encouraged broadly to just “believe what makes you feel good.”

    • lemonaz@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      You’re right. Harris would have likely won in 2016. Now everyone’s brain is soup from all the mental masturbation caused by the sloppification of media. The tabloids won, in a spiritual sense. Feels like we’re in a death cult, or at least that life is a lot cheaper. All the stable democracies on the verge of electing far right psychos, won’t be long before we start fighting each other like the good ol’ days — and the people will cheer for carnage just to feel something again.