Meanwhile, 44 percent backed the American tradition of competing branches of government as a model, if sometimes “frustrating,” system.

Why would people want to live under an authoritarian’s thumb? It’s rooted, experts say, in a psychological need for security—real or perceived—and a desire for conformity, a goal that becomes even more acute as the country undergoes dramatic demographic and social changes. People also like to obey a strong leader who will protect the group—especially if it is the “right” group whose interests will be protected. Recall the Trump supporter who, during the 2019 government shutdown, complained, “He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting.”

  • Album@lemmy.ca
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    4 months ago

    The people who dont want to be told how they live desperately want someone to tell them how to live.

    • nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 months ago

      They want their opinion mirrored back at them by someone in power so they don’t have to take responsibility for their own opinions.

      A close friend of mine is a woman of color and her bosses want the same things from her. They wants to hear their opinion come out of someone with her skin tone so they feel justified and not responsible at the same time. I imagine these are similar phenomenon.

    • Billiam@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      They don’t want to be told how to live while simultaneously having someone force others to live like them.

    • DBT@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      To have others be told how to live, which is how they prefer to live already.

      • Asafum@feddit.nl
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        4 months ago

        Exactly.

        They support him because they believe he is like them, so they won’t need to change anything. It’s everyone else that will be forced to be like them that they want…

        I hope I’m not spreading misinformation, but I believe one of the victims of the assassination attempt had a flag on his Facebook page that was a play off of “don’t tread on me” and in it’s place was a tank with “tread on all of them.”

        I fucking hate these people so much

    • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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      4 months ago

      The people who don’t want to be told how to live want other people to be told how to live thinking they’ll be left alone.

    • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      Also fun fact:

      Every tabletop scenario he ran (think like a UN version of Risk) in which the Authoritarians had control, they wiped out everyone with nuclear war including themselves.

      • Asafum@feddit.nl
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        4 months ago

        I don’t think we’ll go out that way, but I do 100% believe our greed will be our “great filter” that we do not pass. :(

        • qprimed@lemmy.ml
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          4 months ago

          with dwindling resources on a warming planet, I think the likelyhood of a significant nuclear exchange is dramatically increased - perhaps even inevitable.

          agree with the great filter. it makes me think that humans, having acted as a great filter for our hominid family tree, are about to reap what we have been sowing for the last 200k+ years.

          or this could be a one of many catalysts for speciation. I sometimes feel that some people are already a different species. not better, not worse (not willing to engage in subjective morality) - just different, with different goals, problems and problem solving tools.

            • qprimed@lemmy.ml
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              4 months ago

              yup. the rise in diagnosed neurodivergency isnt just because tools are better. I think we have genuine, solid frequency increase.

              please stay safe.

  • MagicShel@programming.dev
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    4 months ago

    Even well-meaning authoritarians can do terrible things, to say nothing of their eventual replacement. Look what happens to otherwise great companies when the founder dies and is replaced by someone just looking to maximize next quarter profits.

    What short-sighted utter fools.

    • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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      You can pretty much ask almost any insane thing and it somehow always comes out to at least 30% of Americans.

      I sometimes wonder if it’d always the same 30% and there just 30% idiots, or if that 30% spans multiple topics and groups of idiots and its actually higher like 60%

    • NABDad@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      It’s more than that, but some of them accidentally believe that democracy is good.

    • Tujio@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      It was a disturbingly close call which side of WWII we were gonna land on. In 1939 the second-largest Nazi party in the world was right here in America.

    • tacosanonymous@lemm.ee
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      Stupid people who don’t know how the system works think that they will someday be wearing the boot. They think because they kiss the boot that they’ll never be stomped.

    • CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      Under no pretext should arms and ammunition be surrendered; any attempt to disarm the workers must be frustrated, by force if necessary.

      • Karl Marx

      If you go far enough left, you get your guns back!

      • Madison420@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        That’s not far left, that’s just left of center. Don’t buy the American bullshit that socialism is an extreme, it honestly isn’t.

  • foggy@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    a decade later, somewhere on 4chan

    be me
    hardcore Trump supporter
    Trump wins, I’m ecstatic
    world starts going to hell, WW3 kicks off
    married with three sons, trying to keep everything together
    decide to start a construction company, war efforts boost business
    build a bunch of buildings, making bank
    get elected to local office, life is on the up and up

    land a huge contract, biggest yet
    build the place, turns out it’s a gay bar
    fml
    media catches wind, calls me part of the “woke agenda”
    sons get drafted into the war, proud but terrified
    trying to keep the family safe as the world burns
    business takes a nosedive, firebombed by extremists
    every building I’ve ever built gets torched
    house goes up in flames, barely escape with wife

    wife blames me for everything, says I’m the reason we’re targeted
    receive word from the front lines
    “All three of your sons killed in friendly fire”
    caskets arrive the next morning
    wife loses it completely, leaves the country, I’m left alone

    arrested, accused of contributing to “trans agenda”
    just a foreman trying to get by, now rotting in jail
    every dream turned to ash
    life was supposed to be perfect
    now I’m just a broken man with nothing but regret

    tfw everything falls apart because of one misguided decision

    sadpepe.jpg

  • Zombiepirate@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Reactionaries believe that all of the problems they face are due to the fact that the wrong people are ruling.

    They are 100% in favor of a neo-feudal pseudoaristocracy where billionaires are unleashed to rule the States as their fiefdoms and will impose their vision upon their subjects.

    Reactionaries do not value individual autonomy except for the privileged man who runs the factory, farm, or family; all others should do as they’re told or face his wrath.

    They do not believe in structuring society to be fair and equitable, as is evident by their crusaides against DEI, holding police accountable, women, LGBTQ people, the non-religious, the unhoused, progressive taxes, and welfare.

    All they care about is power to enact their will on others.

  • LEDZeppelin@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    32% is all you need. Thanks to the perpetual minority rule established by electoral college system

  • IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    From this and other polls it really does seem that most countries would be immeasurably improved if a good third of the population were to spontaneously combust.

  • aseriesoftubes@lemmy.world
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    I read some research somewhere that found that about a third of the people in any given country are authoritarian shitheads (paraphrasing). The problem is that the unique structure of the US system of government gives said shitheads outsized power and representation relative to their numbers.

  • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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    I’m 100% in favor of me being a dictator for life but otherwise I’m pretty sure democracy is a good idea.

  • vegeta@lemmy.world
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    “No more terrible disaster could befall your people than for them to fall into the hands of a Hero [Dictator]”

    Pardot Kynes