Anyone else kind of disillusioned with America after Trump?

In My Humble Opinion
21

It makes me sick to know what I’m surrounded by. I had a relatively high opinion of Republicans - at least the type that showed some degree of thought - 20 years ago. I did not have a high opinion of them 10 years ago. Now, I am utterly disgusted by them. Trump and COVID revealed them to be utterly without any sort of empathy, morals, humanistic values of any sort, or any attachment to reality. They are a dangerous death cult whose only desire is to hurt who they view as their enemy, which is anyone that is not in their group. That includes most of the people reading this post.

They can be convinced to believe anything, and do anything. They will literally deny the existence of a deadly virus, or even deliberately spread it, if they think it hurts slightly more of their enemy (liberals, minorities, etc) than it will hurt them. This is just one prominent example - they apply the same logic and same values to any of hundreds of issues. They are driven by spite and hatred and the governing principle that no one can have any help if it means that some people they hate (or deem unworthy) may also receive help. You can see this every time poor conservatives vote to cut their own food stamps and medicaid. They’re willing to starve themselves if it means that some poor minorities don’t get any food or medicine either. They only view government in terms of “hurting the right people enough.”

I feel disgusted to be near them, to be part of the same society as they are. I don’t lash out at them or try to fight them or strike back, I’m not spiteful, I don’t seek out their suffering, I just don’t want to be near them anymore. I want them to have no power over my life. I want them to be alone, where they can’t hurt anyone (except those that choose to be part of their group). I want to escape them. I know right wing populism is on the rise around the world, but nowhere in the developed world is at as aggressive, as stupid, as hateful, or as widespread as the US.

I have always rolled my eyes at people who threatened to leave the country as the result of elections in the past, but I believe that things have changed enough that this is a perfectly reasonable reaction to the circumstances. I’m eventually hoping to have a grad degree, and my girlfriend is pursuing a PhD - I hope this will make us attractive enough to other countries that getting out of here is an option. That is not a thought I’ve ever seriously considered until recently.

Things will not go back to normal. Things will never be reasonable again. There will not be some sort of mass return to sanity. Maybe there could’ve been - maybe after Trump left, the republican party could’ve shaken off the collective delusion, shook off the spell he cast over them, and somehow decided they’d go back to something sane, but they have not. They’ve leaned into worshipping Trump - literally a golden idol of Trump - and leaning into qanon craziness. They actually seem to be motivated to get crazier. They’re competing to see who can be crazier. This is not going to resolve elegantly or peacefully or without incredible amounts of delusion or hate or suffering or violence.

Democrats are incredibly incompetent and cannot fight off the encroaching fascist takeover of the US. And the next time they lose the elections, which very well maybe 2022, the Republicans will use their power to enact a perpetual Republican rule. There is literally nothing stopping them from doing this. Everyone is desperate and delusional enough to believe things are within the norms, and so they’ll keep telling themselves everything is alright, maybe ranting on a message board once or twice, as they just passively accept that this country becomes a theocratic oligarchy with very little pretense of democracy or republican government.

We cannot recover from the low we’re at now. It will get worse. The only organized group that could fight this, the democratic party, are spineless and inept. We’ve proven that. If they couldn’t effectively fight such a stupid, incompetent evil as Trump, they certainly can’t fight the more competent evil that is coming. The technology we use to control people’s minds, from Facebook to Fox News is only going to get better and more insidious and better able to convince people that reality isn’t real. We are already in a dystopian nightmare and it’s only going to get worse.

22

I feel vindicated and I take hope from the fact that the depth of the problem is finally seeping into mainstream consciousness. Maybe we’ll finally do something.

23

Welcome … to the Desert of the Real.

Nationalism is a cancer, and you’re well rid of it, even the benign “proud of my country” kind.

24

Disillusioned is the wrong word. Disappointed, pessimistic, afraid for the future. America was supposed to stand up for democracy against Russia and China. Instead the two sides are busy ripping each other apart with no regard to fact that it’s their own country they are wrecking.

25

This is not only sad, it is terrifying. I have a friend who had planned to retire to Brazil in 2 years and is now searching for another solution because of the political leadership there.

I have the fear that this will be me in 15 years, and I really don’t know if I want to return to the U.S. when I retire. The last 4 years have been rather dificult to be an American living outside of the U.S. I still cannot explain how Trump got elected.

26

Having grown up in Canada subjected to all forms of unadulterated US media, I am incredulous, sad and angry at the current state of the US.

27

In the sense of “America” = “the people of America”, then yeah.

It’s less Trump himself, than Trump + COVID-19 that’s got me disillusioned. Basically those two things pointed out that there’s a rather enormous contingent of my countrymen who are basically ignorant, anti-intellectual, selfish and incapable of thinking beyond the political propaganda that they’ve been fed. I mean, they didn’t just take the bait and get hooked, they swallowed the hook.

To sane people, the idea that something like global warming, mask-wearing, etc… should be politicized is crazy talk. I mean, I don’t acknowledge global warming because I’m (now) a Democrat, but because that’s what the data and the scientific authorities show. I don’t much care what Joe Biden, AOC, et al… say about it- the science is what it is. Same for mask-wearing, social distancing, etc… that’s how you beat a pandemic, not a political motivation.

But that particular cohort of the population seems to lack the capability to examine anything for itself- if the Republican politicians say it’s bad, then it must be, because everything else is fake news. The truly sad point is that in their own heads, they’re not anti-science, racist, or anything like that. But since the only news they’ll believe is basically 80% bullshit, even if they’re making the best choices they can, they’re starting from a crap foundation.

Mask wearing is the same thing. I had a guy on reddit try and tell me that mask wearing “doesn’t work” by posting a bunch of cites from far right-wing sites that merely said that masks don’t protect YOU, but that there’s evidence they protect others. I told him that, and pointed out that his sites are extremely biased and next time to come back with reputable sources. Then I got a torrent of shit about how I’m in league with the libs, etc…

That sort of thing makes me sad; this guy is going to go vote for Trump 2.0, Greg Abbott again, and Dan Patrick, because he believes in his heart that he’s doing the right thing and going with the “science”, and doesn’t actually know any better.

28

He doesn’t want to know better. If he did he would have listened to you. You offered him facts and rational discourse, and he rejected them in favor of messaging that told him what he wanted to hear. Fuck him.

29

If you live in a black and white world, yes a single-word answer would do. Most of us here – even with differing political views – have more nuance than that.

If you insist, my answer is “Yes.”

30

But that’s just the thing; the well has been so poisoned, that they’re not really able to rationally consider the merits of the various sources. I don’t think that guy wants to know better, because he doesn’t think there’s any reason to know better. THAT is the problem here- he’s in a media bubble where everything is comforting and aligns with what he thinks and likes.

I know it sounds supremely idiotic to the rest of us, but that’s how it ends up working with that bunch- they’ve been so, for lack of a less dramatic term, brainwashed by their political leaders and pundits, that they are living in an alternate reality.

I’m very frustrated by it; I don’t really believe these people are evil, stupid, racist, or whatever. At least not consciously or intentionally, but since they’re living in their own little media bubble, when they make the best choice they can, it still ends up being some combination of ignorant, classist or racist, because that’s the toolkit they’re working with.

31

There are three basic choices.

  1. Sulk at home in your “disillusionment”.

  2. Move to another country where things are ever so much better.

  3. Accept that democratic principles and freedoms aren’t bequeathed to us in a permanently stable, irrevocable form, become politically active* and fight for what you believe in. Or at a minimum, vote.

*as opposed to moaning on social media.

32

I am not disillusioned with America, but I am disillusioned with the Republican party.

33

I think Senegoid was commenting on the moderation, which requested no discussion of why we might be disillusioned.

34

The extreme right and extreme left agree on one thing. No democratic elections just a presumption the people blindly agree with everything the “leader” tells them because “he knows best”.

35

Not disillusioned, America had a test and came through ok. Not great, but could have been a whole lot worse. I was worried Trump would get us into some sort of conventional or nuclear war because some world leader hurt his pride.

By many metrics America is still a great country with a high standard of living. But with a huge country and 300,000,000 people there are going to be some inequalities and experiences will vary.There is still gas in the gas stations, food in the grocery stores, the sun is still shining, we are well on our way to Covid vaccination, I heard we were doing more vaccinations in one day than Canada had done since the beginning. I hardly hear anything about President Biden which is a good thing. Taking a breather after 4 tense years.

36

Ah, c’mon man. Biden is president. Everything is awesome!

37

Very disillusioned. Imagine Trump got 11 million more votes than in 2016. After all the ways he screwed up, lied, etc. Five years ago, my wife and I seriously considered moving to the US, but decided, haha, to wait till after the election, just in case. Now, even with Trump off sulking in Florida, we are no longer even considering it.

In most western countries, the business of the opposition is to oppose; I get that. But in all the others, the majority can still solve the problems. Not in the US. 41% of the senate can and will block anything that actually solves problems.

Even when the Republicans controlled both houses, there were only two things they cared about: lower taxes on the wealthy and kill the ACA with no replacement in sight. That was their entire agenda.

38

I’ve always known that there were idiots and/or hateful people out there in America, but the last two Presidential elections have really impressed upon me that nearly half the electorate are completely brain-dead, anti-science troglodytes that accept the propaganda and lies the Republican party feeds them without question.

Since 2016 I’ve greatly curtailed my retail spending, knowing that my dollars are likely to end up in the pocket of a Republican (which is more or less the same as a Trumpist nowadays) since they’re the ones most inclined to game the economic system in their favor.

I’ve also reduced my interactions with other people to only those I vet thoroughly and trust not to be Trumpists. No sense in getting into pointless debates with people who don’t accept evidence and just go nuh-uh! all day, and besides, I wouldn’t want the knowledge I contain to be improving their lives anyway.

And whenever my coworkers or friends announce that they’re having a baby, I just offer a half-hearted, empty “congratulations”, theorizing that due to climate change and humans’ ravenous use of natural resources, their descendants will end up living a lifestyle like early 1800s Americans, with the exception that some people will scavenge for raw materials from landfills and discarded ships every now and then.

39

The country has always had morons. The problem we now face is we have a political party which is trying to rule by a twin program of manipulating the morons and disenfranchising anyone who they can’t manipulate.

40

I’m more disillusioned than I was before and now seriously believe there is no recovery from this situation. If in the face of a deadly pandemic we cannot bridge what divides us it will not happen in better times.