• aesthelete@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I don’t think all of them enjoy inflicting pain, but Gen Z Trump voters are just Trump voters, and some of them certainly enjoy inflicting pain (especially those walking around puppeting rape threats). I find the actions people take to be more illustrative of their character than imagined back stories.

    No offense to you, but I’ve personally read tens of thousands of words in the wake of 2016 about economic anxiety only to have those same people suddenly about face on every economic issue once “their guy” took over and the opening of your post reminded me a lot of that.

    • ArchRecord@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      and some of them certainly enjoy inflicting pain (especially those walking around puppeting rape threats)

      Oh, definitely. There are always going to be some people that enjoy causing pain, and I’m not ignorant of their existence. I just believe that, broadly speaking, the majority of people in most groups, young Gen Z men included, don’t actually enjoy causing harm, or even necessarily believe they’re causing harm in the first place.

      Right-wing grifters have a very easy time convincing people of arbitrary divides to cause conflict, and when young men are in a situation just like the rest of their female Gen Z peers, but don’t see the same issues happening to those women because of their media bubble, to them, the world just looks like it’s leaving them behind.

      To them, they don’t see themselves as causing pain, only as trying to gain back what they’ve “lost.”

      Essentially, while I do believe their beliefs are often wrong and misguided, I don’t think that most of them believe they’re even causing harm in the first place, let alone enjoy doing so.

      • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Essentially, while I do believe their beliefs are often wrong and misguided, I don’t think that most of them believe they’re even causing harm in the first place, let alone enjoy doing so.

        I dunno man, the liberal tears shit, the “your body my choice” shit, the “hang Mike Pence chants”, the insurrection, people rolling coal and flying Trump flags off cities in f-150s, etc etc. A lot of them fully know they’re being assholes at very least. There are surely some kinder, gentler fascists among them but like, those ones are ok with the constant asshole behavior as well so they’re enablers.

        It sucks to learn that so many people are like this or at very least accepting of it. I bought democrats’ collective “it’s a loud minority” for a time, but at some point you just have to accept that this country is full of ignorant, fascist-loving, borderline-psychopathic assholes, or continue deluding yourself.

        • ArchRecord@lemm.ee
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          1 month ago

          I understand that, but at the same time, I still don’t think that’s the majority of the voter base for Trump.

          I could be wrong here, but with things like the “hang mike pence” (done by a fraction of the, relatively to the nation, small Jan 6th rioters) to the “your body my choice” messaging (primarily from figureheads, and likely being repeated by many young men that are moreso hopping on a bandwagon than actually assessing the phrase’s meaning and going “yeah, I actually do think raping women is okay”) I don’t see any evidence it’s a widespread phenomenon affecting anywhere near the majority of the actual people in these groups, nor that (in the latter case) people are saying it with an understood intent to cause harm.

          If you have any statistics showing otherwise, I’d love to see them, but I haven’t seen anything that demonstrably shows the majority of Trump’s voters, either overall or within the smaller Gen Z cohort, are psychopathic individuals that enjoy causing pain.

          • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            I understand that, but at the same time, I still don’t think that’s the majority of the voter base for Trump.

            Every Trump voter is either an asshole, enables assholes, tolerates assholes, or is some combination of those things.

            • ArchRecord@lemm.ee
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              1 month ago

              Sure, I agree, but enabling or tolerating assholes is different than, as the original poster mentioned, “like seeing the pain they cause.” That’s all I was disagreeing with. I still believe their beliefs and who they support are wrong, but I don’t think most of them think they’re causing pain, or like it if they do.