The Media Still Doesn’t Get Biden Voters
The Media Still Doesn’t Get Biden Voters
A good in-depth discussion of media bias in political reporting, or why is it that Biden voters are encouraged to understand an empathize with Trump voters but Trump voters are never asked to understand Biden voters?
Trump voters are never asked to understand Biden voters?
They can't. They can't understand anything outside of their tiny sphere. Everything else angers and terrifies them. Otherwise they wouldn't be conservatives.
So there's no point in asking them. It's like asking a turtle to fly.
They can’t. They can’t understand anything outside of their tiny sphere. Everything else angers and terrifies them. Otherwise they wouldn’t be conservatives. So there’s no point in asking them. It’s like asking a turtle to fly.
being an elder millennial has afforded me to opportunity to experience biden's trump like behaviors that he signed into law and watching w fascination that his current supporters are just as willfully ignorant as trump supporters.
the real mind boggling thing is that all of biden and trump's homophobic, racists, and classicist sins are both alike and easy to find with a 30 second google search; but both groups continue to ascribe values to their politician despite it being very easy to disprove and each person will dig in their heels when you point it out to them.
conservative trump supporters are no different than liberal biden supporters in that neither group is aware of what biden has done (or what trump wants to do) and both groups are fervently willfully ignorant about it so long as their politician wins.
New account made 3 hours ago? Check.
Comments almost exclusively on political threads? Check.
When doing so, almost exclusively makes "both sides are the same" comments? Check.
How's the trolling going, friend?
What Biden supporters? I don't know any Biden supporters. Does anyone here know any Biden supporters? I'm voting for Biden because he's not a Republican, not because I support him.
Do you really think Biden won the election in 2016 because people liked him?
It's not hard to understand Trump voters. They love the way Trump is portrayed on Fox "News," and they love licking boots. Getting them to understand that a convicted rapist, six-time bankrupted, twice-divorced irreligious grifter makes a bad president can be quite challenging.
Hell, you could still be a good president and be all those things. "Irreligious" is a point in favor for me, compared to having Preacher Pence in office.
The self-enrichment, abuse of power, and attempt to overthrow the government are the problem.
The biggest shock/challenge to me is how many would explicitly be okay with the example set for their children or acceptance of such as a prospective in-law. You ask any of those chucklefucks if they'd let their daughter date a jackass like a Trump clone, they'd almost guaranteedly balk...unless they are the sort to admit they're exactly the same. And those would be the sorts who would encourage their sons to act the same.
Why should I put who the president is as a person above any relevant political aspects?
Bad people can't be trusted to follow through on their promised political aspects more than they cause other issues
A good in-depth discussion of media bias in political reporting, or why is it that Biden voters are encouraged to understand an empathize with Trump voters but Trump voters are never asked to understand Biden voters?
Same reason why during BLM, lots of media showcasing the looting or police brutality. But 90% of protests were just people standing there politely and cops standing on the other side.
Media wants blood for ratings.
Are there Biden voters or just Anti-Trump voters? The Biden Administration has been dealing with inflation that just now is leveling out. While his policies match what the majority of voters want, the voters don't want him. The downside is there is no one better to choose. Essentially it is meh Biden is better than anything the GOP has to offer.
There's been places that I really dislike Biden on, but overall he's been a pretty good president
I have no problem with Biden. He has had a good administration. The media likes shiny objects though. This is once again why we need the Fairness Doctrine back with a 21st century spin on it including all media.
The article addresses that. Because the media doesn't report on Biden supporters, the public gets the impression that no one likes him much. I also think approval ratings are not contextualized well, because you rarely see how many people who disapprove of Biden's presidency are right-wing and how many are leftists.
From a personal perspective, while I was not a reluctant Biden voter (would have never voted for Trump), he was far from the top of my list in the 2020 primary. I think, considering the obstacles he's faced, Joe has been a much better president that I expected. That's in spite of Republicans ratfucking student loan relief and robust electoral reform.
I was an anti trump voter in the last go around, but this time I'm voting FOR Biden. He's done a lot with a bare minimum Senate majority and a hostile supreme court. And I love his unconditional support of Ukraine.
My vote for Biden was an anything but trump vote, but given Biden's current record as president he has my vote again.
Still not my first choice but we live in a first past the post voting system so gotta take what you can get.
Biden's team has handled the war in Ukraine extremely well, building up our European strategic alliances to a level we haven't seen in decades while avoiding disastrous escalation. A terrible situation but I think he's handled it better than, say, a first-term Obama or Clinton (let alone GWB) would have.
IRA & debt ceiling pwnage show he has skilled people working congress too.
On the minus side, he appointed Merrick Garland, who has been absolutely the wrong man for the job.
the voters don't want him.
Biden was literally chosen by the voters.
Are there Biden voters or just Anti-Trump voters?
Biden rules. Absolutely nobody could have done a better job than Biden on a whole range of issues: Ukraine, jobs, reducing inflation without triggering a recession, covid, student loans, getting liberal policies thru a razor thin Dem majority etc. He has done an outstanding job on all of those things.
There is no one better to choose because the media and the DNC keep telling us there is no one better to choose and any time a possible person is mentioned everybody just says "They don't have Biden's name recognition so they can't win.".
Who isn't being talked about that is registered and better?
Duverger's Law and US is still not there yet in the Overton window. I vote progressive to help aid in Overton window shift from something more reasonable and social democracy is arguably the system that makes the most sense.
Who? The two main other candidates are insane pseudoscience and conspiracy theorist trash. And also basically right wingers anyways.
Brainwashed Trumpers are in such bad shape they'd literally need professional cult deprogrammers... is that still a thing? They are utterly impossible to reason with.
Professional cult deprigranners was never a real career. They tended to be church councilers.
Steven Hassan begs to differ
Hysterical spelling aside for a bit...
Deprogramming one cult with another seems counterproductive.
Racism. It is because of racism.
It propaganda. Propaganda creates new racists. They just race bait to get voters to vote R which in turn "creates" racists as they "learn" so much they didn't know before, especially when they get on the "affirmative action is racisim against whites!" After that they feel vindictive, they need to get back at those who are keeping the white man down! It's all gross.
I voted for Biden as the least worst of the only two bad options, as I have in every general election I have participated in in both Congressional and Presidential races.
I've only had the opportunity to vote for politicians I actually have confidence in the ability to govern in primaries, and I could first vote in 2004.
I'm almost certain I will die without ever having the opportunity to vote for anything less than a proud crony capitalism sycophant in a general election.
I believed in Obama when I voted for him. I was sorely disappointed when he continued The Patriot Act, among other things. He was still world's better than his predecessor though.
He meant well, and I acknowledge that. But he was and is a fervent institutionalist that doesn't entertain the notion that our Constitutional framework is failing or has failed. He's a true believer, which is why he spent all of his political capital and almost both of his terms trying to appease his proudly intransigent opposition, trying to play an honorable game by honorable rules that had been abandoned long before he became a Senator.
He was President during Occupy and helped throw wet towels.
I voted for Biden as the least worst of the only two bad options, as I have in every general election I have participated in in both Congressional and Presidential races.
and that's all you're ever going to get w this system; let it fail.
No, I'm going to get progress over regression. I'm not going to blow up the lives of myself and the next generation because it's not perfect. What a shit take.
Fascism doesn’t emphasize
A very good article and the author answers their own question. Because they're the "big tent party," democrats support a spectrum of views and compromises, albeit largely unified on some issues (the author notes a few widely accepted positions across the party, like abortion)
Whereas Trump voters are in lockstep in their hatred and fear mongering (let's not pretend trump had or has any policy positions). You'll find those same views at the Iowa primaries or at that diner in Ohio. It's simply easier to summarize this relatively simplistic and basically apolitical view, so journalists took the easy out. Short, punchy articles with increasingly excessive "hot takes" got them clicks and now here we are
Wait, I know this one --
It's because "Trump voters" have shown themselves to be lunatic conspiracy theorists prone to violence, and "Biden voters" have not.
Doesn’t get them? Or just doesn’t like them?
Biden voters just want a sane person in office. Chaos sells, and most media is profit-driven.
I mean no shit. Biden is possibly one of the most generic establishment presidents possible. It's not exactly a mystery why people voted for him.
Meh, he's actually surpassed my expectations. He's by no means perfect, but in some areas he's been shockingly progressive.
Mind you, I'd much rather a super progressive take the throne, but I'll take a Biden instead.
My argument to progressives who were reluctant to vote for Biden was that he would sign progressive legislation if congress could pass it. I think that's been borne out.
Meh, he’s actually surpassed my expectations. He’s by no means perfect, but in some areas he’s been shockingly progressive.
My expectations were negligible, and yes, they've been surpassed. I have to say, I really thought we were gonna get refried Clintonian politics and what we've got represent an improvement. I wish it would have been Bernie, but if this gets the job done, fine by me.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
CONSERVATIVE AND MAINSTREAM MEDIA don’t agree on much, but one point of consensus is that everyone should work harder to understand Trump supporters.
A common style of this coverage is the safari to “Trump Country,” in which journalists from various outlets, most of whom live in big metropolitan areas, go to a rural community or Rust Belt town and talk to Trump voters, often white, working-class men in diners.
A great example is a May 2019 New York Times story titled “There’s No Boom in Youngstown, but Blue-Collar Workers Are Sticking With Trump.” It’s such a well-trod trope that it’s inspired parodies and running jokes.
Going beyond those attempts to understand Trump voters are two recent arguments that got attention on social media.
First, in his New York Times column early this month, David Brooks argued that “elites” have been “behaving in ways that make Trumpism inevitable.” In particular, Brooks writes, “it’s easy to understand why people in less-educated classes would conclude that they are under economic, political, cultural and moral assault—and why they’ve rallied around Trump as their best warrior against the educated class.” Brooks encouraged his readers to imagine what the last half-century of American history looks like from the vantage of those non-elites.
“He’s clearly quite racist,” Yglesias conceded, “but I also think he’s written some good pieces and it’s important to read conservatives.”
I'm a bot and I'm open source!
ITT: A bunch of liberals who think they're much more open-minded than Trump-supporters, making blanket statements and stereotype-fomenting comments about Trump-supporters. This is the real-world equivalent of Obi-Wan Kenobi complaining that "Only a Sith deals in absolutes!" and it's just as cringe-worthy.
As a Trump-hating liberal, I won't pretend to understand what makes Trumpers love him. I admit, I've tried, and it eludes me. They don't seem like bad people to me, but their political views are often based on faulty information, they have a misplaced distrust of government institutions, and some of them seem to think that science requires faith, because laypeople have to "trust the scientists." So, I don't get them, and I think it's an important question, but one thing's clear: they're not evil, cartoonish Bond minions. Those people here, pushing these caricatures of them, are just trying to make themselves feel better in the face of their own failure to understand their compatriots. They don't like not having an explanation, like all pattern-seeking primates, and prefer a bad explanation to none. It's intellectually lazy and deserves downvoting.
Meh. Republicans spent the past several years trying their best to convince me that they are a bunch of crazy bigots who will destroy civil liberties, destroy our educational system, and ban any history or books that they deem as undesirable. I have chosen to believe them.
Those Republican voters who claim not to be those things are still voting for and supporting people who are.
What else do I need to understand?
What else do I need to understand?
Why they’re acting the way they are. Your explanation is “they’re crazy bigots.” Well, their explanation for your political alignment is you’re a freedom-hating communist. So your explanation of them has all the nuance and intellectual strength that theirs does if you.
But hey, you can’t find it in yourself to rise above that bullshit, I’m not sure I can help you.
And yet, it's apparently more socially acceptable for the MAGA crew to screech and throw feces, and less socially acceptable for rational people of any political stripe to stand up to screeching and feces throwing by pointing out the extent of MAGA lunacy.
You're right that most of the MAGA crew aren't "evil, cartoonish Bond minions," but some of them, especially those at the top, are evil, cartoonish Bond villains. And some of them are minions: right-wing militias, and the rest who stormed the Capitol on Jan 6 sure the hell are. There are more waiting in the wings to take insurrectionist action, above and beyond simple lunacy.
Your second paragraph is a far better take than the comments in the rest of the thread. Trumpers make the same sort of blanketed statements about us, and all it does is create another obstacle to reasonable discourse and increases polarization.
I’m telling people not to sink to their level, even if they continue to do so.
This take is pretty inaccurate. You’re basically trying to say that any criticism of right wingers is unwarranted. Nothing over the top is being expressed in these comments and trying to tell us you’re a trump hating liberal is coming off as disingenuous. Fact is that anyone who is still even considering trump as an option is either a cartoonish bond minion or a complete buffoon.
You’re basically trying to say that any criticism of right wingers is unwarranted.
Nope, not at all, try again.
trying to tell us you’re a trump hating liberal is coming off as disingenuous.
Maybe to you. And that’s your problem. I am what I am and I’m being honest about it. Take a look at my comment history if you’re skeptical, but I really don’t care what you believe.
I put people who are overtly, shamelessly, intransigently racist into the “cartoonish evil” bin. Sure, fine, yes - they’re that way largely because of their childhood and how they were raised. But that doesn’t make them less racist, nor does it make them good people. They deserve to be shunned and ridiculed in polite society. And fascists - which now compose a meaningful percentage of the Republican base - deserve far worse than that.
As a liberal, I don’t need to idolize my president. I don’t want to have a beer with them. I don’t buy Democratic President merch.
I do want them to be competent. I do want them to respect the rule of law. I do want them to be truthful though I understand politics means they sometimes aren’t. I want them to govern for the good of all, even conservatives that didn’t vote for them. I want them to respect history and science, rather than spouting bullshit conspiracy theories with zero basis in fact.
By those criteria, Biden has been as good a president as I could hope for.
Trumpers just seem to care that Trump hates the people they hate. They seem to love the bullshit he spouts; the endless lies, the conspiracy theory nonsense, all of it.
I think I understand Trumpers well enough, without reaching out and trying to understand their point of view. If they could coherently form complete sentences that didn’t involve regurgitating Trump lies or rightwing media conspiracy nonsense, I might try — but they can’t and don’t, so it’s a waste of time. Two groups who can’t agree on the difference between up and down might as well be speaking different languages, so, just no.
It's more basic than he hates the right people. Trumpets love trump because he's a bully. He makes people upset.
That's just how authoritarians work. The reason the other Republicans are failing at the primary is they all appear weak. To ACTUALLY take down Trump, a Republican candidate needs to out bully him. They need to call him an orange asswipe.
But they won't because that will upset trumpets. And that's why they are doomed to lose the primary. Trump can call their wives ugly and they'll just take it for fear of upsetting his mob.
If you love a politician, you are in a cult. I voted for Joe Biden but I think he's basically a Republican, and wish the democratic party would field a candidate who is better. But this is politics. You don't trow up your hands like a baby and demand better, you work with what you have.
That and the narrative of "lesser of two evils" creates a race to the bottom. We have Biden because there's no real incentive to get good candidates, when all we have to do is find one mildly less shitty than the alternative.
Updooting for “the Liberal attitude toward democracy oliticians”, but I really would have liked to have a beer with Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. In addition to being good national leaders, they appeared to be good people to know socially
I'd like to be at a dinner with the Obama's and the Bush's because I think the conversation would be fascinating and likely hilarious. I think that you can disagree with Bush's politics and think he was a terrible president but still recognize that he isn't a total asshole of a person.
here's an article going over biden spouting bullshit conspiracy theories with zero basis in fact and providing shitty governance for lgbtq people by singling them out for political gain: https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-1973-gay-federal-employees-security-risk-frank-camp.
there are many more examples from in his 2020 campaign that prove biden's a shitty establishment politician that still stands by his bullshit racist, homophobic, and classicist conspiracy beliefs to this day.
trumpers are no different than you; they're simply operating w a different style of ignorance.
An article about someone's opinions from 50 years ago is not a valid criticism when those opinions have adapted with time. This is just like arguing that Republicans don't have racist policies since Lincoln abolished slavery. Could Biden do more to be more progressive yes but this is not a good argument for that stance.
Here is an article by a billionaire funded website that offered $50 million to Stephen Crowder explaining that Biden is bad.
[checks notes]
Seems legit. I mean, how could it not be?
Biden rules dude. Take your Trump trash paid for by billionaire elites to trick you into giving them gigantic tax cuts and GTFO
"Joe Biden is a friend of mine". -- Bernie Sanders