there is a strong 30%-ish incredibly regressive and bigoted core demographic here
Sure, like there is in every country
the problem is that at this point, it’s become a vicious, self-reinforcing feedback loop, and the symptom is now being folded in as a part of the cause
That also happened in Orban’s Hungary, but these displays of fascist violence and intimidation are just as likely to alienate people as they are to rally the fascist base. People think they like mass deportations until their kid’s science teacher gets body slammed by masked government agents in the school hall in front of all their kids and then they start going to those protests that have been happening in front of immigration detention centers in America every day for over a year.
As to the thoughts of the average American: again, yes, outliers exist, but the vast majority of people here just keep their head down and don’t do anything out of incuriousity, ignorance, misguided (and imo caustic) individualism, exhaustion, or outright greed (the “fuck you, I got mine” mentality)
And we are not at all exceptional in this regard. Look at the UK far right, the Italian far right, the way the average Russian has publicly conducted themselves since their government invaded Ukraine, etc. The United States has serious and terrifying problems, but it’s not because we’re exceptionally evil people on the individual level, it’s because the shithead 30% of our society has had better luck here than they have had in other places.
Not to mention, the whole narrative of American Exceptionalism is simply categorical bullshit
Honestly that’s all I’m trying to say here. We’re definitely not exceptionally good, but we aren’t exceptionally evil either. We’re just people with a lot of farmland and other natural resources who didn’t get bombed as often as other places during the 20th century, so now we’ve got a big ass military and GDP and a lot of us think we’re special.
Sure, like there is in every country
That also happened in Orban’s Hungary, but these displays of fascist violence and intimidation are just as likely to alienate people as they are to rally the fascist base. People think they like mass deportations until their kid’s science teacher gets body slammed by masked government agents in the school hall in front of all their kids and then they start going to those protests that have been happening in front of immigration detention centers in America every day for over a year.
And we are not at all exceptional in this regard. Look at the UK far right, the Italian far right, the way the average Russian has publicly conducted themselves since their government invaded Ukraine, etc. The United States has serious and terrifying problems, but it’s not because we’re exceptionally evil people on the individual level, it’s because the shithead 30% of our society has had better luck here than they have had in other places.
Honestly that’s all I’m trying to say here. We’re definitely not exceptionally good, but we aren’t exceptionally evil either. We’re just people with a lot of farmland and other natural resources who didn’t get bombed as often as other places during the 20th century, so now we’ve got a big ass military and GDP and a lot of us think we’re special.