Summary
President Joe Bidenās economic achievementsālowering inflation, reducing gas prices, creating jobs, and boosting manufacturingāare largely unrecognized by the public, despite his successes.
His tenure saw landmark legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS Act, and major infrastructure investments.
However, Bidenās approval ratings remain low, attributed to inflation backlash, weak communication, and a media landscape prone to misinformation.
Democrats face a āpropaganda problemā rather than a policy failure, with many voters likely to credit incoming President Trump for Bidenās accomplishments due to partisan messaging and social media dynamics.
Iām not talking about relatively disconnected right wingers; Iām talking about people that are largely centrist, and not paying attention to Fox, NBC, CNN, or any newspapers, and gets all of their ānewsā from social media. I guess youād call them the hoi poloi; theyāre low-information voters (or no information voters), and mostly apathetic as long as they feel like theyāre getting by. Policy wonāt matter to them very much; theyāre voting on feels.
That depends. There are a number of people that are extremely fiscally conservative that have zero interest in culture wars issues. Most of them have defected from the Republican party entirely though, because they see that the current iteration of the Republican party is deeply harmful to the kind of conservatism that they stand for. But that kind of conservative hasnāt really been popular since about the time that Newt Gingritch was trying to stir up the country against a president that didnāt keep his dick in his pants.
Social media is where most of the blatantly false propaganda lives. Getting all of your news from it makes you more susceptible to propaganda, not less. These are people who have nothing to form an opinion with except for what the loudest people around them are complaining about most. And propagandists are the loudest ones, complaining about made up bullshit.
Yes, I understand that. But on social media you arenāt necessarily getting right-wing propaganda, as thereās plenty of left-wing propaganda and misinformation as well. Thatās why Iām saying that theyāre low- or no-information voters that are working solely on feels.
Is there, though? I was trying to come up with some examples yesterday and all I can find from my admittedly lefty algo are fears propagated because of Trumpās words or incoming cabinet appointments. They are at least based on actual recorded words as opposed to cherry-picked data or āfeelsā. I guess the left could be cherry-picking data to support their arguments also, but the logic seems more sound, at least to me.
It is, yeah. When you look at accounts like Occupy Democrats and start fact checking them, thereās a lot of bullshit that they post. Like, pants on fire kind of bullshit. I knew a lot of people that followed them. In order to get engagement, accounts need to stir up emotions and get people to react and comment; itās easier to do that with things that outrage rather than dense policy positions.
I want to believe that the political left is more intellectually honest than the right, but thatās because Iām mostly on the political left. (Iām an anarchist at heart, but with a cynical disbelief in the ability of people to work together in a country the size of the US without some degree of authoritarian control.) So I try to fact-check all of the sources that I use for both factual information, as well as ideological biases.