As Donald Trump dominates the GOP nomination race and some of his inflammatory comments find favor with the party faithful, CBS News measured how the public feels about his “poisoning the blood” language. A striking number of voters agree with this description of immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally, and among Republicans, associating the remarks with Trump himself makes them even likelier to agree.

  • PugJesus
    link
    fedilink
    164
    edit-2
    11 months ago

    “Most Republicans are literal fucking fascists.”

    I wish I could say I was surprised.

    and among Republicans, associating the remarks with Trump himself makes them even likelier to agree.

    But it’s not a cult. /s

    • @takeda@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      4111 months ago

      Those people were always there but in a small enough number that they were themselves ashamed to admit it.

      What trump did is he united all those people together into a larger group.

      It is crazy, but before he won primaries in 2016, the GOP was actually opening to accept LGBT, and they believed they would lose without expanding their base. trump show that they didn’t have to.

    • @thantik@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      1211 months ago

      I mean, hasn’t it grown way beyond the definition of a cult by being like…half of the US? It’s fucked up, sure - but aren’t cults by definition generally “small”?

      This is millions of people. I’m not excusing it, it’s fucked. But I feel like “cult” only serves to place it in a light of “oh this is only a few crazy people”…nah…this is HALF of the USA. You should be gearing up to fight your neighbors if this shit lands. It’s not some silly little group like the word ‘cult’ implies.

      • PugJesus
        link
        fedilink
        1711 months ago

        I mean, one describes Mussolini as having a cult of personality, but that was still most of 1930s Italy following him. I think cult is still appropriate.

      • TimmyDeanSausage
        link
        fedilink
        1511 months ago

        It’s not half of the US population. It’s around 30% of eligible voters (as of 2022). That’s still a huge number of people (74 million), but it’s a lot less than half…

        • @Passerby6497@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          211 months ago

          Yeah, it’s only half of the people that actually vote, which turns out to be about 30% overall because 40% of us can’t be bothered to vote at all.

      • Ech
        link
        fedilink
        English
        811 months ago

        I don’t think anyone saying it’s a cult is implying it’s a small group. I’m not sure that’s a fundamental feature of a cult to begin with.

    • @frezik@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      311 months ago

      Or just not thinking of the implications. “Dilluting the blood” can given multiple interpretations, almost all of which are racist, but some more racist than others.

      A suburban dad who lives across the street from some black neighbors may not think they should be enslaved or killed off, but does wish they would live somewhere else. He might interpret the phrase in that context. Then his daughter might start dating their son, and now he starts ranting at dinner.

      He votes for Trump, but Trump is being pushed other people who very much do want to enslave or kill black people.

      Even at its height, fascism never had a majority. It barely cobbled together a reasonable sized plurality. If it were just people who supported their policies as stated with few reservations, they wouldn’t even have that. Slippery statements like these are there to attract the adjacent right wingers to support actions they never would otherwise.

      • PugJesus
        link
        fedilink
        511 months ago

        A suburban dad who lives across the street from some black neighbors may not think they should be enslaved or killed off, but does wish they would live somewhere else. He might interpret the phrase in that context.

        That’s still fascism, man. Ethnic cleansing is core to fascism.