this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2025
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Serious answers only. For over a year I was told that trump "doesn't have anything to do with that".

I honestly need to know from an actual Republican who believed trumps words and is now witnessing p2025 almost hit 50% completion with the department of education getting dismantled.

And with that; how do these people feel that public schools, daycare centers and tech schools all going to cost 3-6x as much as it does now for tuition?

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[–] Letsdothisok@lemmy.world 1 points 52 minutes ago (1 children)

I don't know anything about it. What is it? I guess it's got some good stuff in. But I wouldn't endorse it. Whatever it is.

[–] cley_faye@lemmy.world 1 points 14 minutes ago

some good stuff

If you want to live in medieval time with your wife/servant, sure.

[–] 10001110101@lemm.ee 49 points 1 day ago (7 children)

I know a couple life-long Republicans I sometimes briefly talk about politics with (one family, one acquaintance). Neither of them like Trump, but like the idea around Project 2025. One is an evangelical Christian, the other is a Catholic.

The Catholic strongly believes government should be run like a business, and the president should be like a CEO, so he should be able to fire everyone and replace them, if needed, with workers that will execute his plans. He's also an anti-abortion, and tough-on-crime/immigration type. However, he strongly disapproves of Trump seemingly being pro-Russian now, Trump and his cabinet's personal lives (he's always strangely fixated on people's personal lives, in a moral sense, for some reason), the take-over of the FBI and CIA, and the tariffs hurting his stock portfolio.

The evangelical Christian just doesn't like Trump as a person, and doesn't like Russia. He's a just-world-hypothesis, small government, women are subservient, pro-business type; but also low/lower-middle-class, and has needed, and will need the social services he opposes. I guess his opinions are pretty similar to the Catholic's, just a little more extreme on the social side, and supports policies that have always hurt him. I mean, Republican policies hurt the (fairly wealthy) Catholic too, but at least they get to say their taxes are lower and there's less red-tape.

He wants a king, not a democracy

[–] whereisk@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago (2 children)

“Government should be run like a business” sounds like a totalitarian religion.

So basically the opposite of what the founding fathers wanted with separation of powers and checks and balances, right?

I thought these people were cosplaying traditionalists.

[–] milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee 1 points 1 hour ago

If you want to understand them more, I think the problem is you're seeing different aspects to what they do.

'Large' government with lots of power might sound more like totalitarianism, overseeing many aspects of life that - in the opinion of many - ought to be left to people's freedom.

Running the government like a business, on the other hand, implies having pressures on it to do only what achieves its aims, and do that efficiently. And a CEO-president means the power to fix the government without being restricted by bureaucracy.

... Of course to me, by that point, it sounds like a king, exactly as you said. And running a government as a business sounds about as stupid as you can get. But these things aren't exact, and understanding how a different perspective can make something look good helps us to understand the people with that perspective. It also helps us see things to improve that our perspective might be missing.

[–] 10001110101@lemm.ee 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Yeah, these people are ignorant of and don't care about civics. The ignorance of the one guy surprised me, because they went to a decent college, but didn't even know what gerrymandering was. They are un-american, IMO.

[–] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 2 points 22 hours ago

And this boys, girls, and the Eldritch entity in my cupboard is why the humanities are so important, if you want other examples go watch the Behind the Bastards episodes on the Zizians.

[–] SolidShake@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

Interesting. Thanks for the time man.

[–] eronth@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

He thinks the president should hire/fire anyone they want, but they dislike the people the president has been choosing.

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[–] yarr 34 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Project 2025 is the most double talky I've ever seen Donald Trump. "Project 2025? Nope, never seen it, never heard of anything in it, but it's got some great ideas. I'm not going to follow it and I don't have anything to do with it but I hear it has some really good ideas, but I won't be adhering to them."

Reminds me of the "Unite The Right" rally where he wouldn't really condemn anyone: "Those folks are really nasty, but also there's a lot of good folks."

I think this is part of his "charm". He double talks, so if you are a fan you perk up on the positives and let your eyes glass over during the bad parts.

[–] kava@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

this was actually a key part of Hitler's strategy. early on in the Nazi meetings they would try to pin down and give an exact agenda and set of policies.

he would yell at everyone that they're missing the point. it's more about the vibe than the logic. being vague and ambiguous keeps your options open.

"It is not truth that matters, but victory." Adolph

By refusing precise definitions, you are able to retroactively decide what the ideology "always meant". so when it's convenient to hate against health insurance CEOs you are "against the swamp". when it's convenient to dismantle the government you are "against the swamp"

it can mean whatever you want it to. similar with the "enemies of the state"

nazis would use the word marxists or "degenerates" very loosely. makes it very easy to shift blame to a specific target or another when necessary

berlin's degeneracy is because of gays, somewhere else it may be gypsies, another it's the jews, etc.

today we see phrases like "radical leftists" "cultural marxists" "woke ideology" etc

a federal judge blocked some of Trump's orders (Trump ignored it of course) and what does he call him? a radical left judge. something that couldn't be further from the truth- radical left would imply some type of communist or socialist. but it doesn't really matter because the term is vague enough it can work

[–] Lazer365@lemm.ee 138 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I live surrounded by republicans and they are super happy with all the good things Trump is doing together with puppet master Musk. Everything that he said during his fake State of the Union was truth and proof of his many victories during the first 2 months of his presidency. I tried once to bring up how the tariffs are sales tax for Americans (making life even more unaffordable), because I thought that would be something nobody could disagree with, and weeks later I’m still getting shit about it. I am convinced that he could launch a nuke on a ‘lib city’ and most of the republicans would still applaud it. In a cult the leader is always right and is never to blame for the bad.

[–] SaraTonin@lemm.ee 48 points 1 day ago (2 children)

There’s a guy in the news at the moment who has started a GoFundMe for a legal defence for his wife who has been deported. Says he doesn’t regret his vote for Trump.

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[–] SolidShake@lemmy.world 53 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's crazy. How many Democrats do you know that had Joe Biden profile pictures? I know people can't tell their in a cult usually. But man they make it obvious most of the time.

[–] GeeDubHayduke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I got into an argument with my dad a couple days ago about this exact thing.

I was bitching that despite being given unlimited power, Biden just fucked off and let the carion eaters have their way with the corpse of America. His response? "It's all Biden's fault." He's being sarcastic and thinks he's making fun of maga, but he's right. This shit is Biden's fault. And Garland's, and all the other bitches in Blue. He actually thinks I'm defending fucking TRUMP when i point out Dems fuckups. He goes on and on about how politics isn't a team sport, but then he engages in fucking tribalism, just like the magats.

It's infuriating.

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

He actually thinks I’m defending fucking TRUMP when i point out Dems fuckups.

Herein lies the biggest problem. We've taken up sides along the single line drawn for us, and are therefore blinded to the fact that this is a class war. You can say "it's not red versus blue", and get nods of agreement, and then in the next sentence, they'll say shit like this, showing they don't really get it.

[–] Quexotic@infosec.pub 5 points 1 day ago

It's not left and right, it's up and down.

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[–] db2@lemmy.world 244 points 2 days ago (6 children)

Most are fine with it. Remember the people that died of covid denying it existed the whole time? That's the type. They're dumb af.

[–] Tm12@lemmy.ca 88 points 1 day ago (2 children)

People who have never experienced oppression just thinking it’s business as usual.

Wearing a mask ain’t oppression either 😂

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[–] Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world 177 points 1 day ago (9 children)

You're very unlikely to get a response from a Republican on Lemmy

[–] AFC1886VCC@reddthat.com 165 points 1 day ago (15 children)

Truth.

Some will call Lemmy an echo chamber. Personally, I don't give a damn. Sharing platforms with far-right lunatics is a deeply unpleasant experience.

[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 75 points 1 day ago (5 children)

I don't need dumbass opinions in any chamber I'm occupying, Republicans can stay gone for all I care

I like to fuck with em when I can. Keep the space hostile to them, it worked for punk bars it works for us.

[–] fitgse@sh.itjust.works 39 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It would be one thing if we were debating different ways to solve health care, education, incarceration, mental health, homelessness, wealth inequality, or something else.

While I personally think the right is wrong in their solutions I’d be happy to debate them.

But the right isn’t talking about these issues or solutions for them. You can’t have a debate when you’re talking about two completely different things.

[–] itsprobablyfine@sh.itjust.works 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Not just different things, but whether those things even exist

Like, I'm all about debating the best approaches to fighting climate change. I'm not about debating whether it exists.

You can't debate solutions when you disagree about what the problem is

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[–] Caffeinated_Sloth@lemmy.world 126 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Just for some perspective: in 2009 I was a Christian nationalist and I thought Obama was going to use FEMA to imprison conservative dissenters and would turn the US into a communist dictatorship. I hoped and prayed for an explicitly Christian government and an end to most federal programs. If I had the same worldview now, I would be orgasmically happy with the way things are going.

[–] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 57 points 1 day ago (1 children)

How in the name of sweet baby imaginary white Jesus did you get out of that mindset!?

[–] AbsoluteChicagoDog@lemm.ee 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

Not the person you replied to but I also used to be a hardcore Christian conservative.

Honestly just talking to people with different viewpoints than me. Back when Reddit was decent I would troll with conservative BS to get a rise out of commenters, but occasionally people would reply with points I couldn't refute. Making IRL friends helped a lot too. I realized people actually have nuance in their opinions and there's a lot more gray area than I realized. Leaving religion was the last step for me. Once my identity was no longer my beliefs I was able to change them.

Its part of what scares me about the internet now, we all get locked in little echo chambers. Nobody's viewpoints get challanged and there's no honest debate any more. Defederated social media will only make it worse as there will be 10,000 different Lemmys, each one for an exactly specific set of beliefs that will never be questioned.

[–] HarkMahlberg@kbin.earth 64 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Pray tell what changed your view?

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[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 29 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'd also be interested in hearing about how you changed your views.

[–] madsjchic@lemm.ee 25 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Not even trying to be mean but probably themself or someone they know personally got hurt.

This is very common, but was not the reason for my worldview change.

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Not necessarily. In my case, psychedelics played a huge role in finally making everything click.

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[–] sifr@retrolemmy.com 63 points 1 day ago (2 children)

At this point, I don't know why Republicans don't outright just say they want people who they see as less than them suffering and/or dead. That's their only consistent political view.

[–] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Studies show that people on the left are more trusting of others in general than those on the right. It is reflected in their obsession with guns and their rejection of social programs.

[–] AbsoluteChicagoDog@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago

Leftist ideology is at its core about people. Even when it is wrong, it's wrong trying to help people.

The right is just about power. The only mistakes it makes are actions that cost it power.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 day ago

So many of them are in denial about it themselves. It's very strange indeed.

[–] ToadOfHypnosis@lemm.ee 42 points 1 day ago (6 children)

The older ones are hearing stories of social security being canceled on people like them and they are getting nervous. My vehement Trump supporting co-workers are having trouble backing things he does. The cracks are small and slow but the confidence in their statements of support are getting weaker. I think some support is eroding, but it’s slow. It’s really going to have to affect them more directly for it to fully erode sadly. Though I think it will, the damage the right will inflict in the mean time will change this country for generations.

[–] JuxtaposedJaguar@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 day ago

Trump knows that his supporters are going to turn on him eventually, which is why he’s working so hard to set up an infrastructure that can crush opposition without due process. He’s also testing the waters about ignoring court orders.

If the supreme court lets him use the AEA then that means the president can use war-time statutes without Congress needing to declare a war, which means that he’ll be able to use a different statute to deploy the military on US territory. At that point, US democracy is officially over.

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