this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2025
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[–] UniversalBasicJustice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I agree with all the points you've made, but I vehemently disagree with your rhetoric in calling people stupid.

A large portion of the people you are denigrating have been raised in areas with poorly funded and under-valued education. Some are willfully ignorant, yes, but most of those people have never been given the opportunity to learn or to appreciate the value of education.

Calling people stupid is an insult that will alienate and propagate the "us vs them" mentality we need to overcome. They are humans that have had many disservices done to them by the government and thus distrust it. We have to figure out how to work with those who have been failed, those who haven't fallen into hate but are ignorant or apathetic. Teaching literacy would go a long way.

[–] WatDabney@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Except that they are in fact stupid.

Yes - that's largely due to an educational system and a culture that (not coincidentally) fails them, and yes - it's an insulting term. But it's true, and bluntly, I don't give a shit if stupid people are offended by being called stupid, and particularly when those specific stupid people are responsible for electing and supporting a government that's on a direct parh to bringing needless suffering and death to millions.

They are going to destroy everything that was ever good about the US and kill millions of people along the way. It's far too late to worry about them maybe getting their feelings hurt if we say something mean about them.

If you'd like to ensure you're up against an additional ~112,000,000 adversaries, by all means. That's how many apathetic or disenfranchised voters sat out the election. I don't like those odds, and I refuse to deny anyone the chance to redeem themselves. Describing them as stupid when you are aware of and admit to the fact the intentional actions of a hostile government has created the environment that made them 'stupid' will only create more enemies.

Unless you're willing to kill a hundred of million in pursuit of your own goals we will need to help those who have been disadvantaged and show them a path out of apathy. That's not just teaching literacy and critical thinking, mind you. It's providing opportunity to pursue and achieve goals they had buried away in themselves when they realized how badly the deck was stacked against them.

Universal health care and universal basic income are small steps in the right direction, but with the looming spectre of climate change (that we are actively, intentionally, and gleefully accelerating) then we need change at a systemic level. That system has under-educated and under-provided for those ~112,000,000 people. If you teach them how and why and who snatched their opportunities away it's going to be much easier to affect the change you want to see. If you're willing to lump that many people together and call them 'the problem' I'd argue that you are the problem.

Don't hate.

[–] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

those specific stupid people are responsible for electing and supporting a government that's on a direct parh to bringing needless suffering and death to millions.

I understand the sentiment, but I believe your anger is misdirected. They did not have a choice in being uneducated and subject to propaganda, and have been manipulated into voting for the psychopaths, by the psychopaths. They did vote for this, but I don't know if they're actually responsible for this. Pitying them is ok, assaulting them isn't.

Aside from this, well said.

[–] otter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Splitting hairs on blame and feelings will not keep the stupid MAGAts from shooting you in the street, citizen. Don't apologize for Nazis, whether they've been indoctrinated or they're goose-stepping by choice. ✊🏻

those who haven't fallen into hate

You appear to need help with reading comprehension as well, or at least a math lesson. Please, take a seat.

Officially, Trump received ~77,000,000 votes and Harris received ~75,000,000 for a total of ~152,000,000 out of ~174,000,000 registered voters. If you must insist the 77,000,000 who voted for Trump are all Nazis, that still leaves ~22,000,000 apathetic registered non-voters.

Those numbers do not take into account the ~90,000,000 disenfranchised or apathetic otherwise eligible voting-age population. That's ~112,000,000 eligible voters who did not explicitly lick the boot. If you'd like to count all 112,000,000 eligible non-voters as Nazis that means the USA contains ~189,000,000 Nazis, or about 2.5 times those who either support the neoliberal status quo or acknowledged the effectiveness of harm reduction over purity tests.

A more reasonable take on the eligible non-voter number is to assume apathy or ignorance over bigotry. Bigotry is indeed a hard beast to fell. Apathy or ignorance, however, can be overcome by promoting literacy and by extension critical thinking as valuable and necessary skills.

These people are not stupid. They have been failed by an educational funding paradigm designed to educate the wealthy while the impoverished are left behind. Do you really believe they are all Nazis?

Also; referring to anyone as 'citizen' is an explicit alienation of a group of humans. Alienation and dehumanization are major tools of fascism. Do better.