Why Are People Surprised When Trump Actually Follows Through?

Submitted ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨yarr@feddit.nl⁩ to ⁨nostupidquestions@lemmy.world⁩

Alright, so I’ve been seeing these videos floating around where people are legitimately surprised by things Donald Trump has done—things he actually promised to do during his campaigns. The common thread in all of these reactions is something like, “Well, he said he’d do it, but I didn’t think he’d actually go through with it!”

And here’s the thing: if someone votes for a politician who doesn’t follow through on their promises, isn’t that kinda bad? Like, wouldn’t you want the person you voted for to keep their word? So why is this a thing now? Is this just people messing around and trolling, or did they genuinely think Trump wasn’t going to do what he said he’d do?

I mean, maybe it’s because of how unpredictable Trump was during his presidency. He had a habit of saying things one way but then doing the opposite, which could’ve made some people doubt whether he’d actually follow through on his big promises. But now that he is following through on some of those things, it seems like people are genuinely caught off guard.

So here’s what I’m wondering: is this something to celebrate? Like, is it a good thing that people didn’t think Trump would keep his word? Or is it just another example of how the political landscape has changed in ways no one expected?

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SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
I think the reality is that the vast majority of US citizens are abjectly fucking stupid who have no clear understanding how absolutely anything works or any understanding of how consequences follow actions. They literally cannot piece it together.

web.archive.org/…/7cd31079-21d1-42cf-8651-b67e933…

Nearing the second anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, seven in 10 Americans continue to believe that Iraq’s Saddam Hussein had a role in the attacks, even though the Bush administration and congressional investigators say they have no evidence of this.

Sixty-nine percent of Americans said they thought it at least likely that Hussein was involved in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, according to the latest Washington Post poll. That impression, which exists despite the fact that the hijackers were mostly Saudi nationals acting for al Qaeda, is broadly shared by Democrats, Republicans and independents.

I’m just so fucking tired. It’s literally mentally fucking exhausting to be surrounded by this many fucking idiots for four decades. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills and yet I’m the one who has to go to therapy to fix myself while all these idiots get to just continue to be fucking idiots.

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- Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  
  TL;DR for Americans: American citizens are the biggest idiots on the fucking planet.
  
  As an American, I can confirm this.
  
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  - FuglyDuck@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    America isn’t the only place with stupid people.
    
    And, Americans are some of the most heavily propagandized people in the world. it’s subtle, but it doesn’t have to be subtle for it to be effective. It just has to be pervasive.
    
    Is there a problem with poor education? absolutely. Are stupid people voting for trump? absolutely.
    
    This isn’t saying Americans aren’t stupid. we are.
    This is a warning.
    
    it can happen anywhere. And it will happen everywhere people believe it can’t happen.
    
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- Tehdastehdas@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Image
  
  Increased blood lead level in children has been correlated with decreases in intelligence, nonverbal reasoning, short-term memory, attention, reading and arithmetic ability, fine motor skills, emotional regulation, and social engagement. … The effect of lead on children’s cognitive abilities takes place at very low levels.
  
  High blood lead levels in adults are also associated with decreases in cognitive performance and with psychiatric symptoms such as depression and anxiety.
  
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_poisoning#By_organ_sys…
  
  Image
  
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead–crime_hypothesis
  
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  - SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    That explains the boomers and the older cohort of Gen X but it really doesn’t explain consistently dropping educational success in the past 20 years.
    
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- niktemadur@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  
  the vast majority of US citizens are abjectly fucking stupid who have no clear understanding how absolutely anything works or any understanding of how consequences follow actions
  
  This happens both equally with the maga batshit crazy voters, and the narcissistic “my vote is a pure and delicate flower”/“bOtH pArTiEs ArE tHe SaMe LoL” non-voters.
  
  Which is of course exploited by bad-faith actors pushing these lazy idiots back down on the couch and stroking their hollow vanity, to not do what they already didn’t want to do - doing the homework instead of just getting their “facts” from twitter or tiktok or whatever, taking the time and effort to register and vote, if just once a year, or at the very least once every two years for the midterms.
  
  These idiots want instant results, have not a shred of a clue as to what political inertia is; just as medieval as maga, they want a political messiah with a magic political wand.
  
  The 2010 midterms proved that these fickle mediocre idiots did NOT have Obama’s back, and lazily initiated a cascade that drowned their own future, rewarded the fascists for their virulent hysterical opposition, and to this day remain mindlessly, narcissistically oblivious to the fact.
  Their mediocre motto as a mediocre electoral block is “If at first you don’t succeed, give up.”
  
  So much of the world has rightly lost all faith in the intelligence and decency of the average american. As in - they have none, distractedly and lovingly fondling their purity, then sniffing their fingers and picking their teeth with those nails.
  
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- TokenBoomer@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Americans were never educated with emotional literacy.
  
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TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Those of us that voted for Harris are not surprised. I was aghast at my fellow Americans that voted for Trump / colluded with Trump’s election subversion strategies.

Trump has also somewhat admitted to Elon messing with voting machines. And the next election will likely be subject to more subterfuge.

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- Hawke@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  At this point is it even subterfuge?
  
  They’re not hiding it any more.
  
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djsoren19@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
There’s some interesting theories in this thread, but I want to bring up one that I don’t see talked about much; American democracy has been so dysfunctional for so long, the average American citizen absolutely assumes they’re being lied to on the campaign trail. Nobody ever believes a politician is going to accomplish even a quarter of the things they campaign on here. This is a big part of what made Trump so popular, with the line of thinking being “he’s an outsider, so he’ll be different.” The problem then becomes one of cognitive dissonance. On the one hand, Trump being an outsider should be a reason to always take what he says at its face value. On the other, Trump is a politician now, and as established, politicians always lie on the campaign trail, so why would you expect him to keep his promises?

I’m not going to pretend to understand how the average American is able to do the mental gymnastics necessary to maintain these two contradictory ideals, but I think it’s important to point out that a lot of his supporters grew up with zero faith in the democratic process ever helping them.

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JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Most of what trump was on about sounded so ridiculous, his base just wrote it off as ‘rattling the libs’. Dems wrote him off as ‘theres no way an idiot like this would get elected’, twice. Both got surprised in their own way.

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- rumba@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Most of my dem circle knew what was coming.
  
  My fam is still freaking out at the small shit. He hired this person, he fired that person while the more sweeping horrors are almost passing over them without notice.
  
  I’m like Focus! Compartmentalize! I don’t care that they replaced the head of the FBI and fired all the generals, that was a given. Watch what he does with those seats. Watch what Russia does. We’re under new ownership and the call is NOT coming from inside the house.
  
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  - JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    I’m not so worried about his people - theyre just the distraction. But some of the policy changes are,.wow.
    
    Any idea what could happen once the tipping point is reached? I mean, how likely is it that the houses of representatives flip on their current stance?
    
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TeamAssimilation@infosec.pub ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
The problem is, most people are used to politicians lying to get elected, or not able to follow through even if they want to.

We are used to broken campaign promises, so it’s a shock when a politician who was elected because he promised nasty things actually follows through. If at least he had promised beneficial things and followed through even, but he didn’t, so you’re getting only the worse fulfillment.

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Dead_or_Alive@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Give it 30 to 60 days and the Trump Presidency will collapse.

He’s pissing off too many people. He has the lowest approval rating at this point in his Presidency. He has MAGA stalwarts like the New York Post running front page articles against his dealings with Russia.

The stock market is starting to show cracks because of his malfeasance on tariffs and his treatment of allies.

He’s going after the FBI, CIA, and every other alphabet agency. Say what you want about them, they are filled with people who now fear for their jobs in a way they have never had to. That is not how a large agency runs long term.

Finally they need to pass a budget and raise the debt ceiling. All things Republicans have proven incapable of on their own. At some point they will need to come and ask the Democrats for help in doing this or the government will default on the Republicans watch. At that point it will be game over. Trump will look weak and impotent.

I don’t think Trump will have taken over enough of the government to overcome all of these challenges and hold onto power on his own.

If he slows down and consolidates power maybe there will be a different outcome. But that’s not what project 2025 outlines. They want to break everything in the first 100 days. Hopefully he will have broken his own base in the process.

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- WrenFeathers@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  My god I hope this is true.
  
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- Shardikprime@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Remind me! 60 days
  
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  - Sidyctism2@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    is the remind me bot a thing on lemmy?
    
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Rentlar@lemmy.ca ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Trump during the campaign has said a lot of things during the campaign. Some very concerning, some things appealing broadly. Some things he has said polar opposite things at consecutive campaign rallies. (You can still see it happening now with the “Ukraine started the Russian occupation” then “Russia started the Russian occupation”). Some promises he hasn’t done a thing to keep, such as make life affordable. I think a lot of people were holding on to that promise.

A lot of other things he didn’t promise at all, he is doing, supposedly to bury the lede. Did he ever talk about Denmark, Greenland or Panama in his 2024 campaign? We know he likes tariffs but I think the 51st state BS came about after his election.

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Psythik@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Because most Americans don’t pay attention to politics. Like at all.

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FanciestPants@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
When he said that he could grab women “by the pussy”, he followed through with it when he raped E Jean Carroll. But when he said that he “could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody”, I don’t think that he has so far.

It seems that his voters are thinking that he’s not serious about the murder thing, but it’s okay if he’s serious about the rape thing, when it’s quite likely that he’s serious about both.

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- thermal_shock@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  I cut people out on the idea that they think rape isn’t serious. That to me means they are morally bankrupt and I want no part of it, not going to listen to them defend trump, act like he can do no wrong. Bye, I got better shit to do.
  
  They have a right to their opinion, I have a right to avoid them and cut them from my life.
  
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SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
He was entertainment to them. He’s like the frat brother who suddenly says “Let’s do a road trip to Florida!” (from NY) and everyone just laughs and goes “Ok, sure”. Then they see him loading up the car.

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RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Trump doesn’t lie about the shitty things he wants to do. He lies about anything he’s going to do for regular people.

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