Touching investments and 401k is political suicide

Typical conservative. They don't care until it affects them directly. Enjoy suffering the consequences of your choices dipshit.

This is the "I'm alright Jack" crowd, not necessarily the ones driven by hate, so the actual "conservatives" and the backbone of rightwing support.
Whilst even when the mainstream Right move all the way to Fascism they keep on supporting it, it's only as long as they themselves carry on being alright.
- 100 percent disagree. The moderates are the smallest group that populate the right wing crowd.
  
  I would hardly call "so greedy I'm ok with an extreme racist regime as long as I keep on getting mine" moderate, but then, maybe that's just me.

Yeah..... Call me in 4 years when they vote republican again because it's not trump on the ballot and something something evil Democrats. I'd bet the same people saying this in 2025 were saying something similar when trump caused the COVID crash by doing fuck all to prevent the spread.
- You're right because the media has been captured by the right wing. And already to vote for Trump or believe in Elon means there's something peasant brain about you.

I’ll believe they’ll vote Dem when I see it. Trump was a fuck up before he was president and a terrible businessman. He was a fuck up when he was president and got hundreds of thousands of people killed unnecessarily because of his narcissism. He very plainly showed who he was in his words and actions. People still voted for him THREE TIMES.
They’ll fucking check the box for him or any other R next time because god forbid they take responsibility or self reflect at all for electing that shit stain.
- Voting conservative is a failure of empathy. Once it affects them themselves, then they see the downsides.

- I mean yeah, on one hand wtf did he expect? Of course Trump was going to do stupid shit. The man is incredibly stupid.
  On the other hand, Trump is also very cruel and this is incredibly important. It's not funny.
  Every Republican that turns against him makes the insane ideas a little less likely to go through. Less likely to try for a 3rd term, less likely to commit fully to the El Salvador concentration camp ambitions, less likely to disappear as many American citizens without trial, less likely to do a bunch of truly horribly gruesome and catastrophic shit.
  You won't win by mocking them for joining you. You're being more stupid than you can afford to be in these circumstances.
  
  You are right, mocking someone for being wrong isn't going to make them turn sides. As shitty as they might be right now, you need to treat his voters as children who misbehave. Mocking and punishing is not the way. The problem is internet and social networks don't function that way, they favor divide, people like mocking 47 as muck as the other side likes to glorify him.

But also, fuck these people. Didn’t matter that innocent citizens with no charges are getting black bagged and tossed in cells. Didn’t matter families were getting ripped apart and deported. Didn’t matter that the bigotry against trans people has ramped up to being codified in congressional fucking rules levels. No it took an economic nightmare scenario personally affecting the livelihoods of these people for them to wake up AT ALL. Like fine, welcome to the fucking real world. You’re still a piece of shit in my eyes now start making better fucking choices, moron.

"Wait, this affects me? That changes EVERYTHING!"
- That's what makes it even more awful. They're so selfish.

Didn't Trump tank the economy in 2019 with his fumbling of the COVID crisis? Didn't everyone's 401ks and private portfolios get tanked, leading to trillions in bailouts and a seismic shift in the composition of the labor market thanks to the 1.1M Americans killed by the epidemic? Didn't we already have a Congo Line of Republicans insisting they'd never vote for Trump again? Didn't we have billionaire CEOs lining up to condemn him? Kicking him off social media? Refusing to hire his administration's staffers? Divorcing themselves from his businesses and denying the RNC money on his behalf?
I seem to remember something about this from back in 2020. Democrats winning in a landslide that was (numerically) larger (but delegate-wise smaller thanks to decades of unchecked gerrymandering/voter caging) than the historic 2008 landslide for Obama. Everyone coming into office on a mandate to Never Let This Happen Again. People chanting "Lock Him Up!" from left, right, and center. MAGA in full retreat. Fascism defeated. Honor and Integrity Restored To The White House.
Was that just me? Did anyone else remember something like that happening?
Now these same assholes are back whining about their 401ks getting chewed up and spat out again? Come the fuck on. I don't believe you. You're going to vote Republican the moment FOX News tells you how Woke the other side of the ballot is.
- I remember him acting slowly on Covid because "he didn't want to spook the stock market", and then it tanked anyway because of his willful and criminal negligence in regards to Covid.
  
  It wasn't just Trump, Dem governors and mayors had an opportunity to fill in where the federal government was failing, and instead we got Cuomo going on CNN every night to talk about how important it is to balance human health and the economy.
  
  And then he knee jerked in the opposite direction and shut down everything everywhere instead of targeting where it was needed or just doing what epidemiologists had been suggesting from the beginning and concentrating on masks, testing, contact tracing, and quarantining. All of which caused a supply crunch and fed into inflation.
- You're not crazy. We've been witnessing a collective psychological phenomena as you've described. I'm sure psychology field has enough papers to write for more than a lifetime. People a century from now will be dissecting this period of history.
- You have it all right except that Covid 19 happened in 2020 (at least outside of China and maybe a few early cruise ship cases?), not 2019
  
  Correct it was mostly limited to China until early 2020 when the first cases started appearing outside of China but were quickly contained...until they weren't

I really want to believe this.
But we have watched Donald Trump do so much stupid, evil shit in real time and we still ended up here.
There is only a small minority of people voted for Trump because of prices. They did it because they hate that the world is not constructed for them to be on top. They hate that there are three transgender high school athletes in the state. They hate that Harriet Tubman is on the twenty dollar bill. They hate that the Brown MnM is less sexy. They hate that they couldn't get a date in high school. I do not trust self-interest will prevail over blind, stupid hate after we have witnessed it not for so long.
If seeing people deported to extraterritorial prisons without due process, the only evidence of their crime being Donald Trump says so, is not enough to get these people on side, but their retirement portfolio getting fucked with is, I have no faith in them.
- What you're missing is that the majority of his supporters don't even know about the bad things because their news bubble hides it from them or they don't care because it doesn't affect them directly.
  
  My mom and uncle never, ever hear anything he does framed negatively.
  They spin it all day, every day.
  My uncle has at least been trying to vary where he gets his news, but Facebook makes sure to enrage him with something about condoms for Gaza or some equally stupid shit.
- Bunch of people around here are out-right admitting they didn't really pay any attention to what anyone running was saying. They heard trump say he would bring down prices/kick out immigrants/guns/no abortion/whatever single issue, and just checked the box. The manufacturing workers here are especially loud about how they feel deceived because they didn't listen to anything he actually said, or just didn't know what tariffs are, like at all.
  Will any of them vote otherwise next time? I guess we will see. Bunch of them are honestly holding to the "short term pain, long term greatness" cope.

I'm all in for Trump randomly deporting immigrant citizens, sending a mob at the capitol, breaking the lives of millions of the minorities and the poorest, being best friend with a pedophile, insulting our allies and threatening annexion of other coutries, but crashing The Market?!??? That's not ok. He's suppose to help ME make money by exploiting others, if I have to lose money it's not fair!! ------- What a stupid broken evil country.
- This is pretty much what I get from that. Not a shred of empathy.
  
  Sure, but a mindset change has to start somewhere. A wild thought, but maybe they'll invest time, if only a little, in the other side and slowly but surely realize how screwed up they used to think?
  
  That's the conservative MO, in my experience. Don't care until it personally affects them. That's why they'll beat their chests about the sanctity of marriage, but get divorced. Or talk about protecting life, until their mistress needs an abortion.
  
  so many people literally either have no clue about what his actual policies are, are have been so indoctrinated by our shitty schooling that their view of the world is incredibly warped
  
  Lack of empathy means an abundance of evil.
  
  I mean true but also even people who have a shred of empathy don't always show it until they get a firsthand story. Partially human nature, but yes mostly dog shit moral philosophy giving them an excuse to not care about others.
- "This shit is affecting me, ME!! He crossed a line I can't follow him out"
- "Numerous impeachments? That's fine.
  Convicted of numerous felonies? No that's fine, lol.
  Adjudicated rapist? That's fine as well, she was probably asking for it, women amirite!!.
  Six bankruptcies and multiple failed businesses, you say? Yeah that's also fine because it was the other people and not him.
  Proven record of scams, even on charities? No, that's just good business."
  ...
  "Wait, he's messing with my money now? This is intolerable, this is disgusting. How unfair, oh woe is me!!!"
- Yeah, this guy’s not redeemed. The last and worst thing a MAGAt can do is take off their fucking red hat and put on a blue one like nothing they did happened.
  Fuck that. Carve “MAGA” into this douche’s forehead and then he can rejoin sane society.
  
  So you want to alienate everyone who might be interested in changing the outcome of the next election? Why so much gatekeeping?
- This country and a lot of the world has a me first mentality. A lot of people can look past some really fucked up shit if it's not directly causing them harm.
- He's not just friends with a pedo, court docs confirm he himself is a pedo.
- Aren't Americans responsible for their own retirement fund via various investment portfolios? Seeing your retirement money or college fund for your kids disappearing is bound to ruffle some feathers.
  
  Yes, to an extent, though most don't actually take that responsibility seriously.
  We have Social Security, which will provide some amount of retirement based on how much you've put in, and it gives more weight to the first contributions (i.e. poorer people) than last contributions (i.e. wealthier people). Basically, it works like this (link w/ more details if you care:
  90% of the first 1.2k/month taxable earnings
  32% of the next ~$6k/month taxable earnings
  15% of everything up to the cap
  That's not the amount of the benefit, but the amount of income considered for your benefit, and only for your top 35 years of earnings. This gets run through a calculation that determines your Social Security benefits. People who put in more get more, but people who put in less get a higher ratio of the amount they put in. It gets further complicated by marital status and whatnot.
  The maximum Social Security benefit for someone starting taking it at 67 is $3,822/month, and the maximum for someone at 70 is $4,873 (data current for 2024). Your average retiree is probably seeing something closer to $2k/month though.
  In other words, Social Security does exist, but you'll want some of your own retirement savings as well for a more comfortable retirement.
- to be fair i think this is pretty par for the course for people in general. not caring until things affect you directly.
- Yes....
  But what this shows is that even for those who want an evil system that benefits them, this administration is a disaster. There's literally nothing good about it, even for greedy, evil capitalists.
- You're just now realizing people are selfish assholes? 2016 wasn't proof enough somehow?
- First world countries in a nutshell

Just insane this is happening.
Um, this was a campaign promise. He promised to raise tariffs, and the natural reaction of the market to new tariffs is to drop. This isn't surprising, this is expected, and Trump said as much.
If you didn't want that, you shouldn't have elected Trump. Simple as. I didn't want that, so I didn't vote for Trump. Simple as.
- The knuckleheads all thought that the other countries would be paying the tariffs because they didn't understand how tariffs work.
  
  well, it's been a quick and painful way to educate the American population on specific economic theories and topics
  
  Neither do Democrats or they would have used that information to win the election.
- I find this baffeling. Multiple people, on different topics did disagree with his campaigns promises, and voted for him against their best interest. (Farmers for exemple) Their justification ? "He won't do it". Are you telling me you are voting for someone who promises to do things, in the hope that he does all the other things but the one that would negatively impact you ? REALLY ?!
  
  I always assume politicians won't keep the promises I like and will keep the promises I don't. Generally speaking, I've been pretty right about that.
  That said, Trump did these tariffs in his last term, so I don't understand why anyone would think he wouldn't do it again.
  
  But you see, America is the Greatest Country in the World™, and therefore anyone they elect as President can't be that bad. It doesn't matter if he repeatedly states how he absolutely will be that bad, he won't actually do the things he says he'll do because those things Can't Happen Here.
  
  Couple of days ago there was a news item here in the Netherlands about a Dutch tulip grower. And his dad was wearing a MAGA hat. And this old man was saying that Trump was doing the right thing even though his business is negatively affected by Trump’s tariffs. Seriously, conservatives all have brain worms or something. Or they hate everyone else so much that they would gladly suffer to see other people get hurt.
  
  Common clay of the new west and so on
- Even if you expected some tariffs the degree and arbitrariness have exceeded almost every expectation. Charitably you could have assumed he meant he would implement tariffs in a way that makes some kind of sense, you know, warning well in advance so businesses can actually plan for them.
  It's kind of amazing the market hasn't dropped even more now that the administration has revealed that it has no guard rails guiding Trump's dementia fueled decisions and that he doesn't give a fuck about wall street at all.
  
  Yeah, Trump is a real estate guy, and I expect he has a relatively small allocation to stocks in his portfolio. So he probably doesn't care all that much about Wall Street.
  That said, he did give several warnings. He campaigned on a platform of across the board tariffs (I think he even mentioned his 10% figure), he tried doing tariffs at the start and backed off, and now he's committing to them. So that's several months of warning, not necessarily for the actual numbers, but for the general direction.
  It absolutely is alarming though. But that's kind of Trump's MO, he holds his cards close, and is usually bluffing, but sometimes he actually takes action.
  
  Anyone charitably assuming anything of him is either a complete fool or complicit. This is exactly what they voted for, whether they admit it or not.

It's too late. Can't trust him again.
If only there were signs before hand. 🙄
- Well yeah all that terrible shit happened, but now it's eaffecting ME!
  Edit: Grammar bee hard
  
  Affecting. (Sorry)
  
  The effect of the oligarch’s mishandling of our economy are affecting the performance of our retirement investments.
  I personally have a hard time defining/explaining words, except through an example.
- There's no way anyone could have predicted this
  
  I had this exact conversation with my MIL just yesterday. She voted for him, and she hit me with "This is so unexpected". I told her no, no it wasn't, everyone who was paying attention saw this coming a mile away, nothing could be more predictable.
- They will have forgotten all of this by next week, when the US is invading Greenland
- Yeah, like maybe telling everybody he was going to do this if he were elected.
  
  Ironically a politician who is true to their word. 🤢
- He says it like it is, but I promise, you're looking waaay too much into what he says !

Too late and zero sympathy for all the fucking MAGA voters.

"Run the country like a business!"
Hires CEO who ruined every business he ever touched.
This fascist bankrupted a casino.

On one hand I'm happy he's changed his opinion.... On another how the fuck do you have two functioning brain cells and vote for this shit stain to begin with..... 😡

Yeah, yeah, talk is cheap. Let's wait for the votes next year.
- Its fine, even if the republicans just sit out in future elections, its good enough.
  If they can't be bother to do research, maybe just recuse themselves from voting ever again.

What drives me insane about these "I can't trust Trump anymore" assholes of today is how much they didn't give a shit about all the racist, vile, destructive things Trump did in his first term.
This wasn't a light switch. They just been living with their eyes closed this whole time and now they're complaining.
- It's all bullshit
  He lost people a bunch of money last time too, and later it was rationalized. People are pissed now, but they were already trump voters. Critical thinking was never their strong suit.
  So who knows what they'll be thinking the next time they vote.
  It's why we need to give people something to vote for, not just hope they vote against trump.
- Yep. Also they watched how he handled COVID and had no issues with it. Like he was screaming every day then "never fucking trust me again!" And none of them listened
- Exactly. It's insane that, these morons somehow always forget that it's already Trump's second term - and even in his first he was a terrible president who only enriched himself and his billionaire patrons. And his criminal history ... it boggles my mind why these people don't want to understand that there could hardly be a more unsuitable person for the presidency.

These people have the memory of a goldfish when voting day rolls around

Looking at the front page of Fox News, those people don't care. They just want to be fed lies and told losing money is good for the country.
- Thank you for your service.
  
  I don't actually give fox news traffic. I just follow this bot on mastodon.
  https://mastodon.social/@FrontPagesBot
  
  Seriously, I always want to know what the other side is saying but I hate to give those sites any traffic
- It's a weird world we live in now, because we have no way to prove they aren't all Russian bots when you see a wall of support for all the worst things happening. They're always so hateful too, it's never about fiscal anything, it's always about who we're "getting" this time.

Lmao they still think they can vote these racist parasites out of power.
- The vote is a warning, not a request.

cRaZy He Is DoInG wHaT hE sAiD he'd Do

I hope this person and trans supportive conservatives start opposing slimy republican politicians.

it is depressing how much people in the US care about their little stack of chips over anything else.
- When you don't have a solid social safety net, 30+ years of indoctrination of "individualism good, family and friend support bad", a medical system that is built for profit and generations of both subtle and obvious propaganda that the more money you have the better of a person you are, I can understand why people protect their small stack of chips.

There are several fake text generators so I don't trust any 'screenshots' with only one timestamp, especially one for 1am :/ why are you both up at the same time to exchange messages that fast
I can believe exchanges like this are happening, I'm just also fully aware that people like making up fake Everybody Clapped posts too, and this strongly looks like one of them
- One of them works for a hospital the other works at 7eleven

Mama told you the stove was hot.
- It's worse.... Mama told you the stove was hot.... You grabbed it and lost one hand.... Then you went and grabbed it again and with the other hand...
  Not even toddlers are this stupid, Republicans legit have brain damage

https://www.economist.com/interactive/trump-approval-tracker
Trump’s approval rating is still higher than biden’s. Singular instances of disapproval are nearly entirely irrelevant, and yield only a skewed picture.
- This article compares the first fifty days of each presidency, Biden wins quite handily.
  
  Biden didn’t overhaul the government for the sake of self enrichment within fifty days. Trump did. It is entirely unreasonable for a politician, let alone a president, to visibly steal from their constituents using a platform built for stealing from fans while still maintaining this level of support, honeymoon phase or not. This should be apples to knives, not apples to apples.
- Because most left-ish people are capable of some level of critical thinking. Having an R next to your game at the ballot guarantees a large level of support.

Dude no shit I'm voting democrat
Bold of him to assume that he will be voting again.
In all of this mess, seeing people like your good friend suffer from the consequences of their own actions, maybe even for the first time, makes me very happy. I'm sorry for the rest of you, but the leopards can eat every single Trump voter for all I care.

Bold to take a conservative / right-wing / Republican at their word

i never thought he'd do the thing he said he'd do all throughout the campaign while vice president harris warned you about it.
- To be fair he made a LOT of campaign promises in 2016 that he (thankfully) did not fulfill.
  He was going to repeal the ACA and never did. The Wall he promised between the US and Mexico may have cost several billions of dollars but only added a few sections of fence. A lot of what DOGE is doing now was what 47 promised to do in his first term ,"draining the swamp".
  Of course, there was still enough terrible shit in the first term that voting for him again was inexcusable, so I'm not trying to excuse thosw who did. Just trying to keep in mind how crazy and illegal most of what he is doing now is. I'm not sure why he was so relatively reserved in his first term.
  
  He was going to repeal the ACA and never did.
  He tried, though. He would've if he could.
  I'm not sure why he was so relatively reserved in his first term.
  He didn't know how the system worked well enough to break it. Also, a lot more people were trying to stop him.

I mean, what did anyone expect from idiot who bankrupted a casino? Fucking casino of all things which is literal money printing machine.

On each side people are voting who they believe is the "lesser evil". A third party doesn't really need much popularity to start a landfall
- That's a solid point. They are both shit. Proof: they alternate and things keep getting worse for US and outside of it (as result of US policies or direct wars)
  My party is slightly less bad than yours is the worst argument you can put. Be honest, they both don't care about us.

Good God I hate conservatives. The most selfish people on the face of the Earth. They literally care about nothing until it affects them.

Question is, will they remember that they said this when the elections happen four years from now? Will they remember this for next year's elections even? Trump supporters tend to have very short memories, in my experience.

Republicans and Democrats in the 2026 and 2028 elections:
- Republican: Never thought I'd die voting side by side with a lib-tard.
  Democrat: What about side by side with a comrade?
  
  aw
  
  The democrat needs to be translated to: "What about side by side with a capitalist pig?"

Gavin Newsom? He does not need republican votes to win in a blue state.
- Republicans: Useless, even when try try to do the right thing

As satisfying as it is to point out this persons hypocrisy and selfishness in only caring when if affects him (and it is satisfying,) I struggle with how best to incorporate those earnestly crossing the ~~isle~~ aisle (late though it may be.)
If we have any chance of unifying our country, we’re going to have to figure out how to welcome back those earnestly recognizing the errors they’ve made. Heavy emphasis on ‘earnestly.’
- Yeah it's not enough for them to realize their conclusion was bad, they need to realize the flaws that got them to the bad conclusion. Otherwise they'll easily be conned again.
  I don't see most people who voted for trump having the strength of character to do that sort of introspection and reflection.
  
  You are correct because them saying they wont vote for Trump is because they are selfish and have only come to that conclusion because they have been personally affected. What they do not address in their “enlightenment” is what led them to vote for Trump in the first place and what they will do going forward to ensure they have learnt from this mistake.
- If Democrats were smart, they'd temporarily drop talking about some of the more controversial and not immediately relevant political hot topics.
  Like gun control is not an immediate need at this moment in time. The focus needs to be on fixing our democracy as quickly as possible so we can get back to the actual process of governing once again instead of this shit show we've had for the last decade.
  
  The grade schoolers getting shot at on a regular basis would beg to differ...
- Aisle
  
  D’oh! You’re 100% right and I’m a dufus. But thinking about it, ‘isle’ kinda works too doesn’t it?
- We missed our chance to take off our masks back during covid when they were all begging to kill themselves. Don't make the same mistake twice, let them get sick next covid. We don't need them on our side. We don't need them at all.

The difference is that this affects his voters' (the ones with any money) place in the hierarchy. If their retirement accounts zero out, they're no different from the poor people they consider themselves above and made so many choices to separate themselves from. If they introspect a little bit, they might even say "then what have I been working so hard all this time for?"
The dems become the rational alternative. These Trump voters can hold their nose and vote for a little less brutality on the trans folks and a little more DEI lip service as long as they stabilize the market.
Meanwhile ofc the dems are likely to keep 80% of the immigrant deportation policies, tax cuts for the rich, etc.
- Meanwhile ofc the dems are likely to keep 80% of the immigrant deportation policies, tax cuts for the rich, etc.
  Listen, 80% of fascism is still better than 100% of fascism so we have to vote for Congressman Lil' Hitler 2. You leftists can't just get everything you want. Sometimes you have to triangulate between the guy with the Sea-Do business owner with six sexual harassment complaints, the seventh generation plantation heiress trying to dodge any kind of inheritance taxes, and the Groyper with the confederate flag face tattoo. You don't have room to flirt with Starbucks unionized workers or migrant farm labor or college professionals with enormous student debts or black church parishes, because they were automatically going to vote for you anyway.
  The dems become the rational alternative.
  What could possibly be more rational than this?
  Vote for Dick Cheney's Daughter's Best Friend or you aren't serious about beating the Republican Party.

So what do we DO?

This post reminds me of the only sub I miss from Reddit: r/youvotedforthat

it's so upsetting to me that so many people don't realize how bad things are (even with all the proof in the world) UNTIL they are directly affected. so upsetting

There’s a good What Now with Scott Galloway.
I’ve always been enamored of Trevor Noah’s comedy but his daily show didn’t draw me in. This podcast though, mostly, is thoughtful and insightful.
Galloway is great, he’s rich but he’s pretty no bullshit in how he talks about it. And men, in this podcast.
Their discussion offers better perspective and long game insight than this guy.

!leopardsatemyface@lemm.ee

Who could ever seen the conman crashing the economy for personal gain coming? If only their were big flashy neon signs alarming people.

Rural people don't care because they don't have retirement savings.

If you said you'd not include the name, you might want to edit this image...
- Ryan is the person asking to take the screenshot

I worry this won't stick: when it comes time to roll over and accept a third-term prez breaking yet another amendment, the maga crew will fall in line. I strongly fear he'll have invaded one or even two countries by then, so a monarchy will be an easy sell.