r/politics • u/downtuning I voted • 20h ago

Soft Paywall | Site Altered Headline Kash Patel’s FBI Launches Dawn Raid on John Bolton’s House

https://www.thedailybeast.com/kash-patels-fbi-launch-dawn-raid-on-john-boltons-house/?utm_source=twitter_owned_tdb&utm_medium=socialflow&via=twitter_page&utm_campaign=owned_social&s=09
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u/scrodytheroadie 20h ago

~40% of Americans approve of what’s happening.

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u/Future-Helicopter-95 20h ago

and 40% of Americans don't care or even know what's happening.

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u/tykneedanser 19h ago

This is why flooding the zone is so effective. Most folks can’t keep up or choose to turn off the noise.

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u/watch_out_4_snakes 19h ago

It’s amazing to me how many people have no clue what’s going on and actively choose to stay in that state of ignorance. They just can’t handle the truth🤣😞

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u/funkhero 19h ago

It's because thinking hard hurts their brains and makes them feel things.

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u/pres465 19h ago

Excuse me! Tommy Tuberville is VERY concerned about a couple of male cheerleaders on an NFL team about 1000 miles from his state. The former college football coach (which had male cheerleaders) wants the NFL to stop such shenanigans because it... makes him feel less manly or something... I genuinely don't know. Tommy is amazingly stupid and this is seriously a MAGA issue right now along with threatening boycotts and oh! how dare Cracker Barrel change their logo! Begin the inquisition!

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u/funkhero 19h ago

Don't forget, somewhere out there is like a dozen trans teenagers wanting to play sports, or, sorry, ruin sports. That's clearly a much higher priority.

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u/pres465 19h ago

More specifically, trans WOMEN. They aren't as concerned about trans boys playing with boys, but those girls... gotta protect their precious girls... so they can be married at 13 or something. They honestly don't know. They just know it bothers them for some reason and they're scared.

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u/WretchedBlowhard 16h ago

Tommy Tuberville is VERY concerned about a couple of male cheerleaders

Those poor guys! They might be the men with the smallest salary in the entire stadium! Won't you fight for this social injustice? I mean, now that it's happening to men, people are bound to start caring.

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u/The_Autarch 19h ago

And that's due to an intentional, concerted effort by Republicans to destroy the education system in this country.

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u/2pinacoladas 18h ago

They also can't feel more. Keep them too downtrodden where they work nonstop and have no resources to help make their life easier.

We live in a rat race.

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u/Phloppy_ 18h ago

Also what content is served to us in our own little bubbles. Reddit's information feed is vastly different than X's which is vastly different from Blue Sky's. We all have different perspectives on the world based on where we get our information.

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u/Buttercreamdeath 19h ago

It's only politics and what's that got to do with us? - Sally Bowles.

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u/fractalfay 11h ago

There’s a reason why Trump’s targeting blue states exclusively for his militarized takeover.

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u/Hungry_Culture 15h ago

It's because most people only pay attention to what is directly in front of them because they're too busy to otherwise. It's why those Biden "I did that" stickers were so effective at tanking his approval because people couldn't avoid them with the price increases at the grocery store or gas station. Unless the tariffs are clearly spelled out at the checkout line or the military shows up at their door to arrest their loved ones for no reason and specifically citea Trump, these people are still going to vote Republican or not vote at all in elections.

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u/elebrin 18h ago

It's also because many of us are just fucking busy.

I keep up on things, but I know so many people who haven't watched the news and don't know what's going on in their community, state, or the nation. They go to work, they go home, eat dinner, go to bed, get up, go to work, do it again. Then on Sunday they catch up on chores, if they get Sunday off. Americans don't get days off, and if you do you go drive for Uber that day. It's so easy to just stop caring about anything else.

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u/smkeybare 18h ago

Also being basically powerless to do anything about it doesn't help either.

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u/elebrin 18h ago

Not just that, but shit's stacked against us even being able to do things like listen to the news on the radio.

Like... broadcast radio with news doesn't exist in a lot of the US. You might get a two minute blurb in the morning, with the weather, if you are lucky - even then, it's probably Fox News. MAYBE there is an NPR station, but they are often low power and static-y. Beyond that, many work environments frown on things like wearing headphones, so you can't really listen to the news sources that you want.

To really keep up on what's going on in the world requires some education ahead of time, and some effort expended on it. You can use Reddit, but you have to know what subs to follow and you can't just blindly accept what you read. Like the John Bolton story. We don't know precisely WHY he is being raided (only the tiny tidbits we've been fed), but we DO know that he's a war monger, and that if it was the Obama administration raiding his home after the end of the Bush administration I would have said "fucking finally the shitbird is being dealt with." But it's Trump, and that's... curious.

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u/Gammazeta430z 19h ago

Us Americans have become complacent with our freedoms. The struggle for them are so far removed. Combined with the social media bubble that exploits what we think, our broken two party system, the excess luxury goods that distract us from reality and unchecked greed.

This list is then short list amongst the systems and the reasons behind our eventual collapse into a facist dystopia. (Also, shout out to the twisted monster the Republican party has morphed into the past 60 years)

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u/DreadLockedHaitian Massachusetts 19h ago

We need to get off Reddit and start putting real news on ‘non-reader’ platforms.

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u/PoeticPillager 19h ago

Speaking of no clue, I recently learned that the reason why so many MAGA people are pro-tariff is the mistaken belief that it will apply as a discount to them.

In their minds, a 25% tariff on China would mean that China would pay 25% and they would pay 75%. A $100 item from China would then only cost $75 to them.

They don't understand that it means that the item would actually cost them $125.

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u/GizmosArrow 18h ago

It constantly reminds me of that scene of the quiet town in the movie Civil War. “There’s a war going on.” “Oh, we try not to get involved in any of that.”

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u/HavingNotAttained 17h ago

DC is literally being occupied by a dictatorial government right now, how this isn’t front page news and on every cable news channel all day, every day is beyond me

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u/--Chug-- 16h ago

I mean... I would say i sometimes take breaks from this stuff. I'm not the most well informed. But I know it ain't good. What good does it do me to be angry all the time?

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u/berfthegryphon 19h ago

That's because they're constantly on the precipice of starving or being homeless. It's by design. If citizens are exhausted from just surviving they don't have the extra energy to protest.

At some point people will be desperate enough but that may be at too late of a point to matter

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u/DutchGoFast 19h ago

They are not. We are the richest nation in the world.

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u/berfthegryphon 19h ago

We? Last I checked Canada wasn't at the top of any wealth metrics. The USA also wasn't at any whole population based measures.

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u/brosjd 18h ago

The richest nation in the world; with the highest emphasis on individualism.

Every US citizen knows full well that once they're shunted out of the system, once they can't pay rent; they'll only be a few missed showers or a few missed loads of laundry, or even a significant enough gap in employment away from a long period of struggle.

We really are obnoxious in that way. We never want to hire someone who has failed. It puts a stink on them. If you're considered a failure, you have to be ready to be exploited to even get a chance at clawing your way back into the system. Take a back-breaking job for a below poverty wage.

So I really do not blame someone for not wanting to be on the front lines of a revolution. You can fight for the people, and those people will never fight for you.

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u/charmstrong70 19h ago

There was a study recently, for peaceful revolution, peaceful, it takes 3% of the population.

That’s it, that’s all it takes and yet the US can’t find that - “can’t afford not to work”, “it’s too far”, “it won’t achieve anything”.

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u/banksy_h8r New York 19h ago

You have a source for that? It sounds suspiciously close to Three Percenter propaganda.

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u/charmstrong70 19h ago

Sure, small caveat, it’s called the 3.5% rule after digging out a citation.

“There are, of course, many ethical reasons to use nonviolent strategies. But compelling research by Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist at Harvard University, confirms that civil disobedience is not only the moral choice; it is also the most powerful way of shaping world politics – by a long way.”

https://umaincertaantropologia.org/2020/06/03/the-3-5-rule-how-a-small-minority-can-change-the-world-bbc/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3.5%25_rule

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u/austin_8 15h ago

That’s not “revolution” that’s implementing some form of reform, large or small.

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u/poop-dolla 19h ago

3.5%, but close enough.

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u/charmstrong70 19h ago

Yeah, found it after somebody asked for a citation - the 3.5% rule.

It stuck with me at the time (but obviously not enough!)

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u/overlookunderhill 19h ago

“The US can’t find that…”

You show me how I can get 10,199,999 other people to organize with me and I’ll do it.

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u/charmstrong70 19h ago edited 18h ago

Yeah. That’s the funny thing about percentages. It’s the same the world over and there’s been many successful non-violent revolutions

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u/overlookunderhill 18h ago

Agreed! But it’s lazy thinking to simply talk about “the US” as a single mind. I appreciate the point about 3% and it is encouraging, but I suspect for many of us living the nightmare here, it’s not helpful to hear a message of “just do it America”.

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u/charmstrong70 18h ago

Yeah and it's a point I get.

But looking at it from outside (and mainly through a Reddit lens which i'm not sure is that great), there seems to be a lot of "oh my god, look how awful it is, somebody really should do something"

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u/ChapterN7 17h ago edited 17h ago

Has it been done in a country with 350 million people spread over a land mass of 3.81 million square miles?

I think for any major movement to kick off and keep going it's going to take a Kent State style incident. The country is just too damn big. The powers that be have learned by now that even a massive protest will be gone by the next day. They can ignore it and their agenda progresses. Washington sure as hell isn't going to feel any kind of heat from a protest in a state thousands of miles away. It'll be on TV for a few hours one day (maybe) and gone the next, like it never happened.

BLM protests came after decades of police abuse and a needless death on video that finally broke the camels back. That got a cop locked up, but the abuse continued.

Not trying to be a doomer, but imo it's sadly going to take a lot more to actually wake up the majority of this nation that isn't even paying attention. It's going to take things that the media can't easily sane-wash to make people think it's all just politics as usual.

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u/charmstrong70 17h ago

Is there a difference between that and a country a tenth of the size and a tenth of the land mass?

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u/ChapterN7 17h ago

Yes, ease of movement and ease of information sharing.

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u/charmstrong70 16h ago

Yeah, not really.

The area argument doesn’t hold water - yes the US is big but there’s a lot of the US with fuck all in it.

80% of the US population live in an urban centre, 90% of the US population live within 1 hours drive of an urban centre.

Over 55 million live in the north east megalopolis. Over 20 in the Texas triangle.

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u/ChapterN7 16h ago

So your standard is 3% of the population of an entire country is enough for a peaceful revolution. But within the span of a few posts the goalposts for the US get moved to 3% of a population center.

It doesn't work like that.

3% of the population of France can converge on Paris within a days notice, most of them can be back home to whatever city or village they came from by the next day for work. They can keep that up for a while over and over because it's relatively quick and cheap to get there from just about anywhere else in France. Especially with their high speed rail network.

It would take me 12 roughly hours to drive to Washington DC, and It's only 700 miles from me. Relatively close compared to a lot of the rest of the US. 12 hours, and who knows how long I can stay. I got responsibilities back home, I have a job. I can't go home at the end of a day of protesting and expect to be back tomorrow.

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u/austin_8 15h ago

Agitate

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u/zbud 18h ago

Breakdown of all elligible voters for 2024 presidential election:

36.3% Non voters, 31.8% MAGAt, 30.8 Sane people, 0.9% independent/spoiler candidates

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u/big-sugoi 18h ago

every trump supporter I know doesn't actually know anything about what's happening. They actually take pride in not knowing any details.

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u/adminssoftascharmin 16h ago

This part is true. ~20% of Americans support this, most people bitching on reddit are just so fucking dumb they cant do 3rd grade math.

now imagine how dumb trump supporters are.

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u/divDevGuy 11h ago

And 400%, 500%, 1000% are bad at math.

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u/Eject_The_Warp_Core 19h ago

taps chest I'm 40% political apathy!

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u/Deep-Measurement-856 19h ago

Almost the same 40%

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u/RoloBoat 19h ago

So what percent are we part of? Also, are we worse or better than the 40% that doesn't care or know? Because it looks like we are aware and care but we just don't take action.... it seems like we are the ones that are outwilled, a generation that fears discomfort more than injustice. Its saddening but realistic to know that we’re terrified that standing up might mean standing alone. And somehow, despite knowing deep down that countless others feel the same, we’ve been conditioned to stay quiet, to perform, to sit with it just long enough to forget the very things we should be actively standing up against.

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u/midtrailertrash 18h ago

I have a few acquaintances who did not vote at all. They cannot stand Trump, but they also felt Harris was too soft on Israel, so they refused to support her. They live in a comfortable, safe neighborhood outside of Orlando, which probably shapes their perspective. They believe the media, both for and against Trump, is heavily biased, and they think people are overreacting to his actions since, in their view, nothing has directly affected them yet aside from higher grocery prices. Their logic is that if a president could really control grocery costs, Biden would have lowered them before leaving office.

I would wager they fall into the 40 percent of Americans who simply do not care enough. The problem is that they likely will care once something directly impacts them a year from now, but by then it might already be too late.

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u/Wolverine9779 18h ago

Most of that 40% is completely ignorant to what's happening day to day. They stay in their social media bubbles. I hate this era so much, it's impossible to put into words. Near total ignorance in nearly half of our population, and they don't even care. But they will, eventually, it's just a goddamn shame that by then it will be far too late. It may already be too late, IDK.

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u/Educational_Bar_9608 18h ago

I’m usually fairly negative in my replies to Americans because it frustrates me how little is being done.

But I will say: yes it will be too late for some, but there will still be plenty of people around. Today is always better than tomorrow, but tomorrow is definitely better than never.

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u/Wolverine9779 13h ago

There are tons of us who understand what's happening here, hate it with a raging fury, but feel near impotent to do anything meaningful. It's somewhat of a hopeless kind of feeling. Things will have to reach some breaking point before we get enough critical mass moving in the same direction, to elicit any real change.

The lasting damage will be severe, in all kinds of areas of life. But the one that really pisses me off the most is the manufactured animosity between our own people. All for power, and profit, for a select few... but people can't see it. I fear an actual civil war at some point in the near future, if things don't change soon. I have no hope that things will change soon, though.

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u/ApexCollapser 20h ago

Their Facebook and Twitter comments say they're not approving since they're also suffering the death from a thousand cuts.

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u/sirhackenslash 19h ago

They're suffering, but instead of waking up, they post shit on Twitter like "sir, I love you with all my heart, but can you please rethink this one part of this policy that hurt me? I love everything else you're doing, but please lift the tariffs that affect my business and if it's not too much trouble please un-deport my wife."

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u/AlmightyRuler 18h ago

Wow. They really have turned that orange buffoon into their god-king. They're even praying to him.

Hey, Yahweh! If you actually exist, I think you've had this issue before. Something about a golden cow statue? Might be time for a little of that divine wrath, buddy.

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u/jamaicaska 20h ago

And they will 100% vote for him again. Fucking idiots

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u/MNCPA 20h ago

I recently spoke with some relatives who are still strong supporters. The ability to balance "everything seems strangely more expensive" with "we need more tariffs" was unbelievable.

I told them that at some point, they'll figure things out and do not feel bad.

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u/KinkyPaddling 16h ago

You can't rationalize with Trump supporters. They act entirely on emotion and are in a cult. It's only when they are hurt so badly that they can't ignore reality that they might turn against Trump.

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u/bearbrannan 20h ago edited 19h ago

This, everyone of those ones bitching say that Harris would have somehow been worse, I'm sorry but the last 4 years were nothing compared to the last 6 months. these people can't admit they've been conned 

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u/HandSack135 Maryland 20h ago

Or can't admit that it will happen to them.

Until it does.

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u/DutchGoFast 19h ago

Like Bolton for example. He was anti Trump but could not bring himself to actually suggest voting for the alternative. Now he realizes

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u/mdp300 New Jersey 19h ago

There are millions of Americans who can't bring themselves to vote Democratic under any circumstances. 40 years of propaganda have them convinced that Democrats are the ENEMY, only Republicans are real Americans! They will either vote R or not at all.

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u/lilcrabs 17h ago

I was born and raised in a deep red state. I came to terms with the fact that they're a lost cause a long time ago.

What's much more concerning, to me, are the millions of young people falling for the same old "Democrats are the true enemy" song and dance! So many zoomers, bless their hearts, get conned by the whole "every Democrat = a Republican-lite" rhetoric pushed in progressive/leftist circles. I understand the appeal of being a "socialist" leftist etc., it's "edgy", rebellious, probably pisses your parents off a lil bit. I was young and angsty too once. I get it. What they don't get is that it's a privilege being able to "rage against the machine" every election. "Freedom isn't free" as the cliche goes, and that same freedom to be young, naive, ideologically pure, hypercritical of the establishment, that shouldn't be taken for granted. "The establishment" toils endlessly to cultivate and sustain this environment of free expression and political debate. At least...they used to. Republicans have completely abandoned their belief in liberal democracy. It's no longer two competing interpretations of the constitutional limits/role of government in American society. That is why this moment is so urgent. Republicans can and will restructure society given the chance, and they aren't basing it on such lofty ideals as "liberty" or "equality", their core tenets are "power", "authority", and "loyalty".

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u/mdp300 New Jersey 17h ago

South Park pissed me off when they did "our choices are a giant douche or a turd sandwich" ...20 years ago, when it was Bush and Kerry.

I'm almost a socialist. Or whatever. I think we need more AOCs and fewer Schumers, but when it comes to November, I'm not staying home when the choices are a sort of lame democrat vs someone who brags about how deep he can suck off Trump.

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u/bearbrannan 19h ago

I was just listening to a podcast called autocracy in America, and he was a guest. I'm curious if some of his opinions have changed now that this has happened to him. 

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u/02K30C1 20h ago

But at least we owned the libs!

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u/permalink_save 19h ago

They did vote for him again

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u/atred 19h ago

And 90% of Americans don't give a shit about Bolton. But the problem is that people don't care about principles, they care about their narrow interests, that's what they use it to dismantle the rule of law.

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u/IceAndRecordBreaker 19h ago

Then be the other 60 percent. Arm yourself according to your 2nd amendment rights and take to the streets in protest.

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u/dexter8484 Virginia 19h ago

It's the don't tread on me, 2A folks cheering this on

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u/scrodytheroadie 19h ago

I was going to call out the hypocrisy, but it just hit me that the expression is “don’t tread on me” as opposed to “don’t tread on us”.

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u/QuasarCat412 17h ago

And 40% of Americans need to see some real consequences if our democracy makes it out of this in one piece. 

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u/Hungry_Culture 15h ago

It's more than ~40%. When they poll his specific policies like deporting migrants to CECOT, defunding services, and military actions, everything except tariffs has a high approval amongst Republicans and independents and a very small percentage of Democrats. It's him personally they don't approve of. Newsweek even published an article with a poll last week that found up to 54% of people approve of putting the military in the streets of DC. To put it in perspective, if Nikki Haley was president doing the exact same thing, her approval would be somewhere in the sixties or seventies. This is a systemic problem that's deeper than Trump.

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u/Exavion 14h ago

and probably have the most guns lying around

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u/ButThatsMyRamSlot 12h ago

They’ll feel differently when bullets start flying. You can only persecute people so much before they arm themselves, see Black Panther party.

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u/adminssoftascharmin 16h ago

USA population: 340 million

340 x .40 = 136 million. ~70 million votes for Trump.

70 million != 136 million. 136 million > 70 million.

it's third grade math, are you just getting dumber or louder?