In the wake of Trump’s surprise attack on Iran, I spoke with a young man who cast his ballot for the president in 2024. He was generally pleased with Trump’s second term agenda, and had been drawn to the president over social issues and his promise to cut wasteful spending. But he, like his fellow members of his university’s Turning Point USA chapter, was struggling to make sense of the current moment. Trump campaigned as an outsider who’d rattle the system, a dealmaker who would keep America out of futile wars. Like many of the young men who bought this pitch, he’s starting to have doubts.
For one, Trump’s opacity on the Epstein files has been, in his words, “worrying” — though, he believes “both sides” are guilty of withholding information. Now, the prospect of another endless war in the Middle East is perhaps his greatest concern. “I don’t think anybody wants another Afghanistan or Iraq,” he told me.
I’m the Director of Young Men Research Project (YMRP), a research organization that studies the political trends among young men through polling and analysis. At 24, I’m squarely in this demographic myself. Let me tell you: he’s hardly an outlier. For many young men — as well as their most popular influencers, many of whom endorsed the president — foreign intervention and the Epstein files matter in their own right. But they also function as a litmus test: Is Trump just another out-of-touch politician, protecting the powerful and distracting through chaos?
No. Stop looking for their last straw. That ship sailed, the ones still into him are the ones who are in it till the last toddler
Given the paedophilia involved, is that the best phrasing?
Right? Let’s not paint the pedophiles committing war crimes and genocide in a bad light…!
It was intentional. Sorry. It was vile.
Yes
It’s a cult. They won’t answer to reason. They BELIEVE their leader. The US are fucked and already deep in fascism. They keep believing the midterms will change a thing but the fact is it won’t. If any, the midterms will be rigged (and that if they vote at all). In the meanwhile, the rest of the world will keep suffering the consequences of an election in which we didn’t vote.
Nope, youre talking about MAGA people , not humans
Before I get downvoted, I agree with you but:
Can you tell me when you think they crossed the line of no return? I know my answer but I’m wondering (all of) yours? I will share mine if someone asks.
For normal people, we imagine what that line was for us. Cambridge Analytica, Ukraine, COVID, January 6, Ukraine again, Israel, DOGE, Venezuela, Iran. What was the Rubicon they crossed to make us never trust them again?
For Trump supporters, I don’t think there is a Rubicon. They didn’t cross some ethical boundary in the timeline of his political relevance. Trump’s sole contribution is the excuse to be the people they’ve always wanted to be: self absorbed, unaccountable, hateful, and vicious.
They were always the way they are now, they just had to hide it behind a mask to the rest of us. They had decades and decades of Fox News brainwashing baked into them, for some as early as childhood. They grew up with weak parents, poor education, and poor community. I don’t mean poor economically, there’s plenty of rich MAGA, but poor in constitution, poor in spirit. Think back to Charlie Chaplin: “You don’t hate, only the unloved hate; the unloved and unnatural. You are not machines, you are not cattle, you are men! You have the love of humanity in you.”
They have no love for humanity. No love for their friends or family or community or their own children. They only love themselves, and that’s all they’ve ever known.
First of all, take my upvote, we’re not on reddit here.
I myself am a citizen of a European country who follows the events in the states closely.
My closest colleague is a real MAGA supporter who supports taco, discussion with him about the current situation is impossible, as he does not have empathy and gives a great tunnel vision about the facts.
Comes down to this that dtrump does something and all other politicians don’t. That the country, the inhabitants and also the rest of the world has to undergo the whims of toddler trump, does not want to go down with him.
While writing this, the name of your world-famous writer Mark Twain suddenly comes to mind
Will you explain your reasons now .
Greatings from Belgium ,stay safe
I’m a big fan of Twain as well, which work of his were you thinking of?
I’m fond of his writing on travel, particularly this passage: “The gentle reader will never, never know what a consummate ass he can become, until he goes abroad. I speak now, of course, in the supposition that the gentle reader has not been abroad, and therefore is not already a consummate ass. If the case be otherwise, I beg his pardon and extend to him the cordial hand of fellowship and call him brother. I shall always delight to meet an ass after my own heart when I shall have finished my travels.”
It strikes me that I’ve met Trump followers who have traveled, and yet they stayed in their own little American bubble wherever they went. They stayed on their cruise ship, in their hotel, in their manicured tour group.
I wish to visit Europe some day, but I’m afraid being an American has already marked me a “Consummate Ass.”
Betteridge’s Law of Headlines very much applies here, unfortunately.
I didn’t know this SMBC comic was based on something real. https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2010-11-26
I’m familiar with Betteridge and agree with it, but I will not alter a hed when posting.
Every individual has their own breaking point, and everyone that breaks has the ability to bring their social group along.
Will this be the one that swings a big enough group to make a difference? Only time will tell.
