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127

Racism Is Why Trump Is So Popular: Trump’s popularity with his base in the U.S. isn’t the result of economic anxiety, as many claimed in 2016. It’s about race and demographics. (theintercept.com)

submitted 3 months ago by tardigrada@beehaw.org to c/politics@beehaw.org

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In 1980, white people accounted for about 80 percent of the U.S. population.

In 2024, white people account for about 58 percent of the U.S. population.

Trump appeals to white people gripped by demographic hysteria. Especially older white people who grew up when white people represented a much larger share of the population. They fear becoming a minority.

While the Census Bureau says there are still 195 million white people in America and that they are still the majority, the white population actually declined slightly in 2023, and experts believe that they will become a minority sometime between 2040 and 2050.

Every component of the Trump-Republican agenda flows from these demographic fears.

The Trump phenomenon and the surge of right-wing extremism in America was never about economic anxiety, as too many political reporters claimed during the 2016 presidential campaign.

It was, and still is, about race and racism.

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[–] MayonnaiseArch@beehaw.org 5 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Also there is no healing the divide, that's an insane idea. You don't sit at the same table with people who want to kill and maim and destroy other people. Fuck that stupid shit, you all spent decades sitting on your thumbs while this crap was cooking - you can't heal shit now

[–] t3rmit3@beehaw.org 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

you all spent decades sitting on your thumbs while this crap was cooking

Young people are the ones inheriting this issue from the people who did this for 'decades', and are having to deal with it. Old people in the Democratic Party should not be absolved of blame for their inaction for decades over the spread of racism on the Right and doing nothing, but, concurrently, young people shouldn't be blamed for the 'sins of their fathers', when they're clearly trying to change the party. I would personally love if we could ditch the DNC as a political apparatus, and let them all die in bankrupt obscurity, but using this as a weapon against people who are now actually trying to push change is just itself serving to bolster their racist opponents.

[–] MayonnaiseArch@beehaw.org 1 points 3 months ago

And there is in fact one matter where trumpists are right - the media is a complete and utter shitshow, it's like they're insane. I guess the far right and capital go hand in hand but this is fucking ridiculous.

[–] Exaggeration207@beehaw.org 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Painting "the others" as killers and destroyers is exactly the sort of rhetoric that racists use to dehumanize minorities. If you want the population at large to believe that we're better than the racists, then we have to actually be better than them-- not fall into the trap of thinking like they do.

Sure, some Trump supporters are inherently broken people that you can't even have a civilized conversation with. No one is denying that. I'm saying that some are just very misguided and although we're all very tired of dealing with them, writing them off as lost causes is only going to make our current problem bigger.

Modern psychology can successfully deprogram former cultists; we do not march these people straight into a wood chipper.

[–] MayonnaiseArch@beehaw.org 3 points 3 months ago

I understand where you're coming from, and I do agree in general. Just feels like this should not be a priority right now, especially considering that any deprogramming is extremely more difficult than going nuts in the first place. But then again I don't think that there is any equivalence when I say that trump cultists are nuts and when they say that all of us other people should be killed.