Fox News buried Mike Pence’s refusal to endorse Donald Trump
Fox News buried Mike Pence’s refusal to endorse Donald Trump
You're viewing a single thread.
Actions like this create such a huge problem when trying to convince conservatives that Donald Trump is a unique and unprecedented danger.
It's one thing when I, a progressive, say that I did not like the most recent Republican president. My conservative neighbors expect me to say that, and therefore ignore the criticism. But it's not just me saying that; it's also Mike Pence, John Bolton, John Kelly, Bill Barr, and Chris Christie. That is a unique level of criticism leveled at their own party's president. But my conservative neighbors don't know that.
Trump has been called "dangerous" by his own:
- Vice President,
- Secretary of Defense,
- Chief of Staff,
- Attorney General,
- and other advisors,
yet your typical Republican voter will insist that it's just people on the left disliking a Republican president, just like any other Republican president.
Someone may comment that we all live in our own echo chambers, but the damn near impenetrable conservative bubble has no equivalence on the left. If conservative media doesn't want their audience to know something, conservatives will not know it.
If they're anything like the people in my town, they will just say that those advisors are all RINOs and not real Republicans
Trump seems pretty good at appointing RINOs to advisory positions.
This, and as far as I can tell, the only way to avoid being called a RINO is to completely eschew any kind of critical thinking and absolutely toe the party line regardless of how asinine or nonsensical.
I can think of a few other ways to avoid being called a RINO that doesn't involve abandoning critical thinking or toeing the Republican party line. Tacking a "(D)" behind your name, for example.
The don't thing is that the term RINO was initially coined for people exactly like Trump.
Someone may comment that we all live in our own echo chambers, but the damn near impenetrable conservative bubble has no equivalence on the left.
There's a pretty big left-bubble when it comes to the laws governing the use of force in self defense.
Kyle Rittenhouse, George Zimmerman, Ryan Gainer, Michael Brown... Challenging the consensus (even with video evidence and legal citation) invites insults, threats, comment removal, bans...
I'd put that bubble up against the "Trump" echo chamber any day of the week.
Edit: That vote count demonstrates my point.
Disagreement is completely different from what I was talking about. People on the left are aware of the fact that those individuals claimed self defense; most disagree that it should have counted as self-defense. The fact that you saw their opinions in the first place -- and they saw yours -- shows that. If you think their opinion is wrong, or if they are too unwelcoming to your opinion, that's a separate issue. I'm not even talking about the merits of either argument here, I'm talking about the fact that people on the left at least tend to know what point they are disagreeing with. Non-conservative news outlets will at least report "George Zimmerman Claims Self-Defense," or "Popular Progressive Politician Receives Criticism from Own Party." Right-leaning news outlets outright shelter their audiences from such information.
In my experience of trying to reach out to conservatives, as our culture of respectful disagreement expects me to, I am constantly blown away by the fact that a typical conservative has no idea what the objection to their worldview even is. Trump got elected almost eight years ago at this point, and they will still drop something like, "So what exactly do you people not like about him?"
There are levels to echo chambers. America's Republican voters are sheltered in an iron dome, where dissenting ideas don't even get in at all.
Disagreement is completely different from what I was talking about.
I'm not talking about disagreement. I'm talking about contrary opinions and arguments being actively suppressed in left-leaning forums.
I'm talking about posts and comments being removed, solely because the expressed opinion is unpopular among leftists. I'm talking about people being quietly suspended or banned for suggesting a jury's not-guilty verdict was appropriate.
No, I am not referring to simple disagreement. I'm referring to the left being broadly sheltered from dissent on self defense laws, which is deeply troubling, because legal professionals and informed, layperson jurors regularly side with those dissenting opinions.
We don't even see the self defense laws in left-leaning states drifting toward the opinions held on the left, but presenting their current state is essentially a bannable offense in left-leaning forums.
I stand by my assertion that the left's position on self defense is a massive echo chamber.