There is an assumption, probably particularly among those who cover the news and those who read it, that Donald Trump’s legal travails are common knowledge. We talk about things like the potential effects of a Trump conviction on the 2024 presidential election with the assumption that this would be an event that rose to the nation’s consciousness, triggering a response from both his supporters and detractors.
But this is a sort of vanity: Just because it is interesting to us certainly doesn’t mean it is interesting to others. Polling released by CNN on Thursday shows that only a quarter of voters seek out news about the campaign; a third pay little to no attention at all.
As it turns out, even major developments often fly under the average American’s radar. New polling conducted by YouGov shows that only a bit over half of the country on average is aware of the various legal challenges Trump faces. And among those Republicans on whose political support he depends? Consistently, only a minority say they are aware of his lawsuits and charges.
Well, Republicans are pathologically fucking stupid.
Hey now, some of them are simply amoral.
When asked about the subject every conservative interviewed started yelling “BUT HER E-MAILS!!!”
La la la im not believing it!
Yep, that’s why they created Fox News, so republicans can get away with any criminal shit.
…
theyNixon and Ailes …
I don’t buy it. He talks about it himself nonstop. I’m pretty sure people just ignore it because they don’t care and they’re voting for him either way
Think of it this way. Plenty of people love Captain America or Superman. They might watch a movie once a year, and never buy the comics, but they have a sincere love of the character and feel excitement when they see a cartoon or meme of their hero.
That’s what it’s like for many Trump supporters. Just knowing he’s out there scaring the Libs is enough for them.
Yes, I know these people personally. They don’t watch the news, and they don’t even know what Trump sounds like. They still believe the lies they bought into decades ago about the Republicans cutting taxes for them and fighting off the trans movement that they think is just brainwashed kids. All they know of Trump is they liked The Apprentice when it was on TV, which rarely featured him in order to make him seem like an important and dominant figure. That’s good enough for them. They have 0 interest in actual events or facts.
I remember my third grade teacher saying that it was every American citizen’s duty to be well informed. Plenty of quotes from the Founding Fathers about the importance of newspapers and public engagement. I guess they missed that day of school.
Reading newspapers is not a great yardstick for information.
Yes it is. I guarantee you that someone who regularly reads a reputable major daily is going to be better-informed than 90 percent of the public. Your attitude is part of the problem too. The vast majority of Americans are functionally illiterate when it comes to news media and don’t have any idea of how to evaluate credibility and accuracy.
I mostly blame the Internet for trashing the signal-to-noise ratio, but I also blame our education system and the profession of journalism itself for not giving people better epistemic toolkits.
If you check r/conservative these won’t even appear in the TL, so I wouldn’t be surprised if many of them aren’t exposed to these news.
You have to understand that conservative media right now barely features anything that Trump actually has said or done. It’s all made up bullshit and mythology about him and how great his is. My own mother consumes this media all the time and has told me that Trump looks healthier and stronger than ever. That’s what these people are being fed.
You’re talking about people who believe to their core that a fancy lad born to real estate wealth who revels in his class privilege to a cartoonish degree, to the point of having a reality show where the central conceit was “kiss my ass for half an hour because I’m so rich,” Represents their interests.
They are willfully, belligerently ignorant in order to protect their false beliefs. They have been trained to reject any and all information inconvenient to the positions of their tribe.
Donald Trump could rape a typical Republican’s mother in front of them while laughing about it and flipping them off, and their mind would either see nothing or Biden doing it.
They are willfully, belligerently ignorant
can’t be repeated enough… ignorant of anything uncomfortable…
It’s odd to think that I want to spend the time listening to their nonsense to stay informed. I’m starting to get concerned about how much “ignorance is bliss” is becoming a mainstream part of life.
That leads to totalitarianism.
Huh. Almost as if republicans have their heads all the way up their ass. Who’d have guessed that?
I don’t think it’s that they’re completely unaware, Trump talks about them all the time.
It’s that they buy the line that they’re politically motivated.
The Republican view of the world, probably
I hope Biden is all outta bubblegum
The Saudis and Israelis seem to be giving him some, unfortunately
They’re too busy consuming media that tells them that he’s basically the second coming of Jesus.
If you’ve ever talked to a republican actually in person, you’d realize they have zero idea what’s going on in the party or even what the party ideals are
So we can confirm they are stupid and uninformed?
Ask any random GOP what book they last read. There’s Your sign.
For all you Texas GOP’S, Guns and Ammo magazine is not a book.
That means nothing imo, last book I read was years ago and I’m in a field most consider to be for sharper folks. Software dev. The book was the last in the three body problem trilogy.
In a world where the Twilight series exists, I really hate people who use the act of reading books as some intelligence measure
Nah reading books is a great metric
Read a fucking book, dude. And twilight doesn’t count.
Not reading doesn’t mean you’re necessarily stupid, but reading absolutely makes your smarter.
Have you seen the bullshit that Republicans read?
I’d argue reading those toxic masculinity self help books, and all the lives of rich assholes is what makes them act the way that they do.
43% of Democrats believed he’d been charged with crimes they made up for the poll.
The point of the article is really about the fact that most people are just generally uninformed, especially Republicans about these criminal prosecutions.
Given all the legal trouble Trump and cohorts has been in, in the past 3+ years… its not a surprise people would think anything they hear is a new or existing charge.
The vast majority of Americans completely tune out news and politics, interject at get-togethers with some regurgitated shallow talking-points they overheard coworkers or news headlines say, then suddenly pay half attention like a month before the election.
This
Shocking
Aren’t aware, willfully ignorant: Same difference, right?
Different difference. There was an almost depressingly apt comment upthread that’s worth a read.
Fair point, however there are definitely a good number of supporters who just don’t care that he’s shitty because, in their minds, he’s their guy and he’s got their backs (even though the reality is, he doesn’t give a fuck about anyone but himself).
Well, his trials are literally going on in reality, not in Rachel Maddow’s extended universe. So most republicans are aware of basic reality? Sounds about right.
“Most Republicans aren’t aware…”
but are they sentient ?
Like a Roomba.
My grandparents are pretty fucking dumb, I love em but they are you’re typical Trumpers, they only see the “good” like owning casinos and hotels alongside having many wives and children.
Trump is them, if you gave them hundreds of millions of dollars and said “have at er” while making sure fox news or Newsmax was always in the background.
