It’s Official: With “Vermin,” Trump Is Now Using Straight-up Nazi Talk He’s telling us what he will do to his political enemies if he’s president again. Is anyone listening?

I feel pretty safe in saying that we can now stop giving him the benefit of that particular doubt. His use—twice; once on social media, and then repeated in a speech—of the word “vermin” to describe his political enemies cannot be an accident. That’s an unusual word choice. It’s not a smear that one just grabs out of the air. And it appears in history chiefly in one context, and one context only.

    • @bitsplease@lemmy.ml
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      461 year ago

      One thing to keep in mind is to think about what kind of person actually participates in polls, and how that type of person will tend to lean politically (hint, old retired people)

      That being said, fascism has happened continuously all throughout history for a reason. people like it when they think it’s on “their side”. A lot of conservative voters genuinely think America would be a better place if the democratic party was forcibly eliminated, and so they’re not only fine with what Trump is saying, they’re enthusiastic about it.

      Combine the human tendency for populism with decades of conditioning from outlets like Fox News that conservatives are the only “real Americans” and that the “radical left” is hell bent on destroying their lives, raping babies, and turning their sons into daughters, and you have a large population of voters who genuinely think that democracy is bad if it means “the other side” gets to win.

      Many Fascist movements start out with enthusiastic support from at least a large chunk of their population (Hitler was elected), by the time people realize that fascism only ever actually benefits those at the top, it’s too late

    • @Furbag@lemmy.world
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      41 year ago

      Don’t take polls at face value. The polls said Hillary Clinton was crushing Trump right up until October of that same year and as we know Trump voters turned out and Dems stayed home because they thought it was a free win.

      AFAIK the only polls that show Trump ahead right now are landline-only polls, and most younger voters who trend more progressive do not have a landline service so they are naturally excluded from the results. Regardless, even if future polls say that Trump is crushing Biden, show up and vote anyway.

    • @Meowoem@sh.itjust.works
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      31 year ago

      Mostly because the left does nothing but exaggerate reasons to hate the democrats and make grand statements about how they’re only going to vote for someone with exactly their opinion on everything (current opinions with the benefit of hindsight applied to their historical opinions of course)

      • @ferralcat
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        41 year ago

        Wait, are you seriously saying “I guess I’ll just hold my nose and vote for Biden” isn’t a catchy campaign slogan?

      • @MrModule@lemmy.world
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        11 year ago

        I’d say they are probably not going to vote for anyone based on opinion, because things like human rights and healthcare access are not matters of opinion. People themselves don’t want to die from lack of healthcare access or atrocities. But you have people who say it’s ok if we make it so that OTHER people die from lack of healthcare and atrocities, as long as they don’t. Those people are the Republicans.