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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Do people who read the National Enquirer and similar make up the enirity of Republican voters? I'd buy that they make up a significant chunk of Republican members, but non-member voters are who we need to win over, there's no need to go after the National Enquirer readers, they don't have the ability to keep Trump in power alone, they're simply not that numerous.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranYes there are people who really believe them. I have customers every day who buy the tabloids and want to talk to me about how great it is that Trump has finally put that bitch Clinton in jail. I have also had the Enquirer and The Globe cited to me in online debates by people trying to prove that Clinton, not Trump, is the one owned by the Russians. Of the two, The Globe is the one people tend to believe more, probably because it's consistent in its coverage. The stories the Enquirer publishes one week frequently have nothing to do with the story from the week before, while The Globe seems to get its reporting from some alternate universe where the facts are different, but consistently so.
In any case, my overall point is that we should not assume that even an impeachment is going to make Republican voters turn on Trump. FOX, Breitbart, etc, will spin it as an unjustified and illegal assault on a legitimate president, and plenty of their viewers will believe it. Stormfront, r/The_Donald and the other Neo-Nazi/alt-right platforms will spin it as a Jewish conspiracy against their beloved Trumpenfurher/God-Emperor. The tabloids may not even acknowledge it's happening—they're already pushing an alternate version of reality where Clinton is not just going to be arrested but is on trial right now and has been convicted; why not just keep that up?
Obviously, some people will be moved by an impeachment. I don't know if it will be enough though. That doesn't mean we shouldn't do it—Trump deserves to be impeached, and he'll have a harder time doing terrible shit while he's being impeached. I just don't think it's the end of the problem; only the beginning.
The tabloids are not by themselves a problem, but are indicative of the greater problem. Between FOX, Breitbart, the tabloids, various online "news" sources, etc, there is simply so much false information out there that I don't know if enough Republican voters will get the right message from an impeachment proceeding.
edited 17th May '17 3:59:49 PM by AmbarSonofDeshar
While I get what your saying about impeaching Trump not being the end of things (which I don't think anyone was saying) I also think you're grossly overestimating how many people are that deluded. Yeah, there are a lot of deluded, misinformed people, but going that far is not the norm, and probably isn't that significant in the grand scheme of things.
The reason a lot of Republicans won't turn on Trump if he happens to be impeached will most likely have a lot less to do with them not knowing it's happening and just the fact that they have very warped standards for what is appropriate for Republicans to do as compared to Democrats.
edited 17th May '17 4:02:51 PM by LSBK
I think that forty-seven percent of the country was deluded enough to elect Trump, despite everything they saw him say, because they were fed false narratives by the news sources they chose to trust. I think since the election, his approval rating has not plummeted in anything like the way it should have, despite him committing basically an ethics violation a day. So no, I don't trust that any news story is going to bring Trump down, because when his voters get that news it will be filtered through the likes of FOX.
edited 17th May '17 4:06:07 PM by AmbarSonofDeshar
I find the constant assertion/implication that people can't change their opinions on things very strange. And, no, that's me saying that all White working class people are going to start voting for Democrats overnight, or not knowing that a disturbing amount of people actually believe Trump's bunk.
It's just me acknowledging the fact that many people were voting against Hilary and not for Trump (and, no, I don't need a lecture about how that's just as bad) and that in the face of well, everything going on, a lot of those same people would rather just stay home and not vote, even if they're not wiling to vote for the Democrats. Because a lot of them already held incredibly low opinions of him to begin with.
And no, this isn't saying that would even be a majority of Republicans; just that it could feasibly be enough. Because turnout for that election was even worse than usual.
edited 17th May '17 4:39:15 PM by LSBK
People can change their opinions, but it's very hard for them to do so when they're trapped, be it by choice or circumstance, in a bubble filled with wrong information. Trump was elected because people got so much bad information they either came to the conclusion that Trump was a good choice or that Clinton was the devil or both. I'd like to think the bubble is gonna burst, but it's too soon.
I mean, there are people who believe the alien invasion flavored tabloids. They are hardy representitive of a large segment of the population.
Not that the idea of lobbying supermarkets to stop carrying tabloids that push fake news hasn't crossed my mind.
On the other hand, it's not that the supermarkets don't sell regular newspapers. If people are choosing to bubble themselves there's only so much you can do.
edited 17th May '17 4:38:53 PM by Elle
I'm not thinking along the lines of it bursting, more just slowly deflating a bit, which will do for now. Obviously the rest will take much more time.
But all this rests on the assumption that an impeachment is even going to happen, which far and a way a sure thing at this point.
edited 17th May '17 4:38:10 PM by LSBK
I have entertained the idea of burning the tabloid rack at my place of employment. It would make my own life nicer if nothing else. A lot of my elderly customers put absolute faith in the damn things and want to talk to me about them. It would give my ears a break.
I think a point that does need to be remembered is that the Republicans got a perfect storm in 2016, while Russian help and media equalisation/fake news are liable to continue come 2020 the Republicans have lost two major assets that allowed them to win in 2016, the willingness of the FBI to intervene directly to ensure Trump's victory and the fact that Hillary Clinton was the candidate against Trump.
Remember, the smear campaign against Hillary Clinton started in the '90s at the latest, they had 30 years to smear Hillary Clinton and still couldn't win the popular vote, they're looking at having maybe 3 years to focus the smear machine onto a new Democrat candidate, they simply can't do as much damage in a tenth of the time.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranI noticed the same thing. And it ties into Trump basically being in permanent
campaign mode.
However, instead of being able to count on Clinton getting wrapped up in some scandal and taking heat of her own, Trump is now onstage all by himself - with the spotlight trained on him nonstop.
In the subject of permanent campaign mode
Trump turns back to Corey Lewandowski, Jason Miller, and David Bossie back as scandals pile up
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/17/trump-scandals-miller-bossie-lewandowski-238520
Former officials including Jason Miller, David Bossie and Corey Lewandowski have slid back into the president’s group of advisers as Trump has chafed at the steady stream of damaging leaks and critical blind quotes that have flowed out of the West Wing.
Story Continued Below
While it’s not clear any of these old hands will ultimately land a job in the White House, Trump has been weighing a major staff overhaul, according to multiple people familiar with the matter, and has openly called his current press team “incompetent.”
edited 17th May '17 5:09:38 PM by sgamer82
Republicans in Congress are unlikely to turn on Trump because of group loyalty. But either way it's bad for them- if Trump were impeached it would hurt their party, but if Trump remains the scandals will keep on coming.
That's why a special prosecutor doesn't get the Republicans off the hook. Trump himself will keep this in the news.
I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.

edited 17th May '17 3:31:56 PM by speedyboris