Poll of the Day > Trump's Approval rating still at 43%

(+) Yeah! (+)

Wow
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nice
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great ratings, just the best ratings
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It's almost like people on both sides are set in their impression of him and it doesn't matter what he does or says
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Blaqthourne posted...

It's almost like people on both sides are set in their impression of him and it doesn't matter what he does or says

It's pretty fucking disturbing that there's literally nothing he could do that would sway those 43% to stop supporting him.
Any rational person should find that profoundly unsettling.

And there's nothing he could do to sway the 57% that don't support him.
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Blaqthourne posted...

And there's nothing he could do to sway the 57% that don't support him.

I guess as long as 100% of the eligible population continues to vote in every election, rather than large swathes of them being apathetic and not bothering to, we'll be fine then.

Seriously though, even beyond that, the fact that there's like 150 million people in the US who have absolutely no moral compunctions about continuing to support a politician no matter what is fucking scary, and the problem won't go away when Trump leaves office

Wow, you mean it hasn't gone up since he announced new tariffs on Chinese goods?!

streamofthesky posted...

Blaqthourne posted...

It's almost like people on both sides are set in their impression of him and it doesn't matter what he does or says

It's pretty fucking disturbing that there's literally nothing he could do that would sway those 43% to stop supporting him.
Any rational person should find that profoundly unsettling.

You can blame Trump critics for it. If Trump's critics haven't been hysterical cry-wolfers all along, the rest of the society might take their complaints now a bit more seriously. Instead everybody was numbed by stupidity like outrage over Trump dumping a box of fish food.... which itself was fake news that deliberately omitted Japan's PM doing it first.

Otherwise it's just the cultural divide. The things you find egregious and shocking are things others actually support.
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Broken_Zeus posted...

Wow, you mean it hasn't gone up since he announced new tariffs on Chinese goods?!

streamofthesky posted...

Blaqthourne posted...

It's almost like people on both sides are set in their impression of him and it doesn't matter what he does or says

It's pretty fucking disturbing that there's literally nothing he could do that would sway those 43% to stop supporting him.
Any rational person should find that profoundly unsettling.

You can blame Trump critics for it. If Trump's critics haven't been hysterical cry-wolfers all along, the rest of the society might take their complaints now a bit more seriously. Instead everybody was numbed by stupidity like outrage over Trump dumping a box of fish food.... which itself was fake news that deliberately omitted Japan's PM doing it first.

Otherwise it's just the cultural divide. The things you find egregious and shocking are things others actually support.

Literally have never heard about this fish thing before.

And Obama's entire 8 years was non-stop hysteria over every fucking thing he did, w/ Fox "News" and right wing radio blowing it wildly out of proportion. Stop acting like people in the media whining over even trivial things is somehow new or unique to Trump.

That might be enough to squeak a win, especially if Warren gets nominated and the socialist boogeyman works.

Only president since the introduction of modern polling to never have even hit 50%

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Shocking!
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Blaqthourne posted...

And there's nothing he could do to sway the 57% that don't support him

Truth
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miki_sauvester posted...

boogeyman

You mean bootyguage
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Blaqthourne posted...

And there's nothing he could do to sway the 57% that don't support him.

or the 35% or so that will support him no matter what

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Peterass posted...

Blaqthourne posted...

And there's nothing he could do to sway the 57% that don't support him

Truth

bOtH sIdEs ArE tHe SaMe
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^

r/forwardsfromgrandma

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Blaqthourne posted...

It's almost like people on both sides are set in their impression of him and it doesn't matter what he does or says

i was in the middle at first, didnt think he could be all the bad. but now I fucking hate the guy and think hes a massive danger to this entire planet.

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Eh, you can at least partly blame Marco Rubio for that cock size reference. He had been doing the whole, "You know what they say about small hands," gag during rallies, which had been widely covered prior to the debate. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if he had been doing it with the intention of getting Trump to bring it up during a debate in the hopes that it would hurt him. It might have worked, too, if we hadn't been inundated with crazy shit for a long time before that.

In general, when he entered the race, I thought the numbers bump would fade once the debates started and had expected him to lose the eventual-candidate Jeb... and then I assumed he'd lose to the eventual-president Hillary. Even election night I was telling Carl that Trump might have a lead right now, but by the end of the night he was going to lose. I didn't even bother tuning into the election night coverage, though, I just thought it was going to be a repeat of Romney v Obama.
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Hey Zeus who is this Carl?

Is it like a roommate or something or just your cat?

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Mead posted...

Hey Zeus who is this Carl?

Is it like a roommate or something or just your cat?

it's the doll on a chair in the corner of his room, he talks to Zeus, now and then, ok?
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Mead posted...

Hey Zeus who is this Carl?

You know who Carl is. You made jokes about the guy and his relationship with his mattress.
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Oh you mean Carlisle? I dont think I ever actually made any mattress jokes(I never knew what the origin was for all that) about the guy but hey youve never the truth stop you from posting before, why start now?

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Racist keeps doing racist things. Other racists still approve of him, people who hate racism still hate him.

Who'da thunk it?

(Feel free to replace the "c" with a "p", it works either way.)
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Broken_Zeus posted...

You can blame Trump critics for it.

This is known as the "Look what you made me do!" defence and it is a classic beloved by abusers the world over.
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ClarkDuke posted...

Mead posted...

Hey Zeus who is this Carl?

Is it like a roommate or something or just your cat?

it's the doll on a chair in the corner of his room, he talks to Zeus, now and then, ok?

I figured Zeus just went full Clint Eastwood and talked to an empty chair.

Mead posted...

Oh you mean Carlisle? I dont think I ever actually made any mattress jokes(I never knew what the origin was for all that) about the guy but hey youve never the truth stop you from posting before, why start now?

Quit culturally appropriating my verbiage! Micro-aggression! But seriously, I could spend a few hours trying to find a post where you explicitly did just that -- which probably exists -- at which point you'd handwave it off, or I could catch up on some Simpsons episodes. I think I know which one is going to win out.

darkknight109 posted...

Broken_Zeus posted...

You can blame Trump critics for it.

This is known as the "Look what you made me do!" defence and it is a classic beloved by abusers the world over.

It's known as desensitization. It's science, which I know conflicts with your faith-based beliefs. His critics inundated us with false or misleading scandals, as well as making a big deal over everything he does, so you now have one group stuck in a state of perpetual outrage based on an accumulation of either sketchy or *very* often outright fake news while everybody else has become desensitized to things that might have shocked them or naturally understand that the vast majority of Trump-related criticism is fraught -- yes, FRAUGHT -- with misinformation.

But that's what happens when you go full-propaganda.
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darkknight109 posted...

Broken_Zeus posted...

You can blame Trump critics for it.

This is known as the "Look what you made me do!" defence and it is a classic beloved by abusers the world over.

Uh no.

Trump derangement syndrome is not a euphemism. Many of Trump's critics are actually deranged. My roommate came up to me the other day in a panic and said something like, "Trump has gone full megalomaniac! He's declared himself the king of Israel!"

I didn't discuss it. I didn't engage him on the matter. I told him flat that I was going to fact check that, and ended it right there.

And, yes, that was indeed a story being circulated that was 99% horse shit, and 1% Trump being Trump. And when you have such outlandish things being circulated as supposedly credible, by people who should FUCKING KNOW BETTER, it makes it very hard to take anything else seriously. It's not "look what you made me do" to point out how full of it his critics demonstrably are, and to be incredulous going forward.

So when I hear about Trump's attitudes toward climate change, or especially anything said in private (such as the nuking hurricanes thing), I have to question every single thing. I have to fact check every single thing. I have to do a lot of this heavy lifting because Orange Man Bad.
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streamofthesky posted...

Literally have never heard about this fish thing before.

And Obama's entire 8 years was non-stop hysteria over every fucking thing he did, w/ Fox "News" and right wing radio blowing it wildly out of proportion. Stop acting like people in the media whining over even trivial things is somehow new or unique to Trump.

Funny that people always say this, but my use of social media hasnt fluctuated and I dont remember near as much complaining back then. I cant go anywhere today without seeing someone crying about Trump.

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Cacciato posted...

ClarkDuke posted...

Mead posted...

Hey Zeus who is this Carl?

Is it like a roommate or something or just your cat?

it's the doll on a chair in the corner of his room, he talks to Zeus, now and then, ok?

I figured Zeus just went full Clint Eastwood and talked to an empty chair.

Oh yeah that was one of the funniest moments ever from a RNC rally. Eastwood himself later regretted his decision to do it.

Broken_Zeus posted...

It's science, which I know conflicts with your faith-based beliefs.

Kind of a weird thing to say for someone who routinely defends the highest profile climate change denier in the world and who routinely waves off sources he personally doesn't agree with (which invariably are always proven right).

Broken_Zeus posted...

His critics inundated us with false or misleading scandals

I have yet to see a false or misleading Trump scandal get any real traction in the media. Even the example you love to harp on with Trump feeding the koi was one that none of the major outlets spent much time on; hell, I read a lot of news and the first time I became aware of that story was an article pointing out that Abe did it first.

Even at its heat, it was never a "scandal", because that implies corruption or malfeasance and "not feeding fish right" doesn't rise to that level even for Trump's most virulent detractors.

Broken_Zeus posted...

so you now have one group stuck in a state of perpetual outrage based on an accumulation of either sketchy or *very* often outright fake news

You mean Republicans?

I mean, when you look at which group insisted that Obama was a Kenyan Muslim (a group that notably includes the current White House occupant), or Hillary was running a pedophile sex ring in the basement of a pizzeria, or that immigrants commit more crime than native-born Americans, or that China was secretly trying to invade Texas with Obama's support, or that Hillary routinely had people assassinated with impunity, or that climate change is a hoax, or that China is paying for the trade war, or that there's massive electoral fraud afoot and Trump actually won the popular vote, or that Russia didn't interfere with the 2016 election... well, you start to notice that they all have a certain political persuasion.

All of those are verifiably false, yet they not only enjoyed (or, in some cases, enjoy) broad support in the Republican base, they all were espoused by Republican elected officials - in many cases, by Trump himself.

The number of lies told by this administration is now charitably in the five digit realm and Trump rode to power on a wave of outrage against immigrants and foreigners,something he continues to routinely stoke because he seems to consider it key to his re-election. His inauguration speech notably included descriptions of "American carnage" and combative vows to take back from others what rightfully belonged to the US.

If you want the group perpetually steeped in outrage, there it is - the Republicans have been running on that ticket for the last 15+ years and they show no signs of giving it up any time soon.

Surely, being the "left-leaning centrist" you are, you are not blind to this.
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Kungfu Kenobi posted...

Trump derangement syndrome is not a euphemism.

"Trump derangement syndrome" is the latest incarnation of a tired conservative trope that is now over 15 years old. Charles Krauthammer coined the original title - "Bush Derangement Syndrome" - in 2003, which was probably the last time it was in any way relevant or clever to talk about (added irony: Krauthammer was a strong critic of Trump).

For whatever reason, conservatives seem to think this is the most brilliant thing in the world, and update it with every conservative leader that comes along (with most seemingly forgetting it was ever a thing in the past and thinking it's some new and biting slogan). In Canada we had "Harper Derangement Syndrome"; in the UK, "Boris Derangement Syndrome" is occasionally batted about, replacing the old "Blair Derangement Syndrome".

Notably, those same conservatives are silent about similar monomaniacal tendencies in their own ranks, levelled not just at liberal leaders, but even rank-and-filers. You never hear about Hillary Derangement Syndrome, Trudeau Derangement Syndrome, Obama Derangement Syndrome, or AOC-Derangement Syndrome, even though there's just as strong a case to be made there.

I'd be less annoyed at this term if it was in any way new or creative and if it wasn't being clumsily used by conservative talking heads to try and hand-wave away any criticism of Dear Leader Trump (or whatever other conservative is being referenced) without having to debate the actual facts of the issue.

Kungfu Kenobi posted...

And, yes, that was indeed a story being circulated that was 99% horse shit, and 1% Trump being Trump.

How was it horseshit? The source on this is literally Trump's own Twitter account. He retweeted a conservative conspiracy theorist who said - direct quote here - "Jewish people in Israel love him like he's the King of Israel". Ignoring the humour in someone essentially saying, apparently without a hint of irony, "Jews love him like he's Jesus", you don't retweet people and thank them for their effusive praise if you don't agree with what they're saying. Sure, your friend screwed up a detail when he said that Trump named himself King of Israel, but that's on your friend; none of the actual reputable media outlets made that screw-up.

And yes, it was "Trump being Trump" - that's the entire fucking problem! You don't wave off a serial killer murdering people by saying, "Yeah, but that's just Dave being Dave. He always does this kind of stuff, you just kind of have to learn to live with it." Trump is the political equivalent of an ape throwing handfuls of shit at anything he sets his sight on; that doesn't mean that the rest of us should just get used to the smell.

Kungfu Kenobi posted...

So when I hear about Trump's attitudes toward climate change, or especially anything said in private (such as the nuking hurricanes thing), I have to question every single thing. I have to fact check every single thing.

You should be doing that anyways, so I don't see the problem.
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What is up with all the articles talking about how his disapproval rating saw steep increases after his bizarre performance at G7 then?

darkknight109 posted...

How was it horseshit?

You answer your own question by bringing Trump's own tweet into this. The only thing he adds to that whole statement is, "Thank you to Wayne Allyn Root for the very nice words."

He thanked a guy on Twitter, and here's what gets reported: I am the chosen one: Trump again plays on messianic claims as he embraces King of Israel title - Washington Post.

I hardly blame my room mate for getting the wrong idea with a headline like that.

"Very nice words" is nowhere near "embracing 'King of Israel title". So yeah, calling horse shit. And before you tell me that the article doesn't line up with the headline, you bloody well know the power of a headline to frame the article in a certain light, and you bloody well know how many people never get past the headline anyway (which is hardly unique to discussions about Trump)
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He thanked a guy on Twitter, and here's what gets reported: I am the chosen one: Trump again plays on messianic claims as he embraces King of Israel title - Washington Post.

Well yeah

when you retweet something and thank a person for it, it implies you agree with what they are saying

why the fuck is our president even retweeting shit to begin with

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darkknight109 posted...

You should be doing that anyways, so I don't see the problem.

You really shouldn't need to fact check everything. Otherwise, you'll never get anything accomplished.

Wait! I can't get to that. Someone just said that Aaron Judge had the most HRs in a month in MLB since 1961. I'm going to have to hunt down every boxscore for every game played in MLB between 1961 and now to verify that he in fact did that. Check back with me in about a year.

There has to be a point where you need to trust that the source of the claim is actually telling the truth or not spinning something.
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Kungfu Kenobi posted...

You answer your own question by bringing Trump's own tweet into this. The only thing he adds to that whole statement is, "Thank you to Wayne Allyn Root for the very nice words."

Sure - and he didn't need to add anything more, because it's plenty damning on its own.

Like, if you went to Bob's twitter page and he had a pinned tweet there from a KKK leader saying, "Bob is the best white supremacist of this century. He is truly a force for promoting the superiority of the white race," and Bob had replied, thanking the man for his kind words, what does that say about Bob?

I mean, technically, Bob didn't say any of those things - he just thanked another man for saying them about him. But the very fact that he's acknowledging this fringe figure's words and praise means he feels honoured by them and, as such, agrees with their sentiment.

That's exactly what happened with Trump. He promoted a tweet from a guy who claimed that Obama was gay, that the Las Vegas shooting was a Muslim plot, that a non-existent trucker strike prevented the Trump administration from responding adequately to Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico, that the asshole who drove his car into a crowd at Charlottesville was a paid inside man (because conservatives don't commit violence EVER), that George Soros was funding migrant caravans, and that Seth Rich was murdered by Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. And he promoted this guy using "the King of Israel" as a compliment.

You come down pretty hard on the Post for their headline but, to borrow your own words, you bloody well know exactly what Trump meant when he tweeted that.

Blaqthourne posted...

You really shouldn't need to fact check everything. Otherwise, you'll never get anything accomplished.

Sure you should.

Fact-checking doesn't necessarily, or even usually, require you to go back to first principles the way you suggested with your baseball example. It requires that you find a credible source (or, preferably, multiple credible sources) verifying the account as true. In the case of your baseball example, if your random friend told you a random stat about a player, you would have reason to doubt him, but if MLB's website says the same thing, you know that it's probably true.
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Broken_Zeus posted...

Wow, you mean it hasn't gone up since he announced new tariffs on Chinese goods?!

streamofthesky posted...

Blaqthourne posted...

It's almost like people on both sides are set in their impression of him and it doesn't matter what he does or says

It's pretty fucking disturbing that there's literally nothing he could do that would sway those 43% to stop supporting him.
Any rational person should find that profoundly unsettling.

You can blame Trump critics for it. If Trump's critics haven't been hysterical cry-wolfers all along, the rest of the society might take their complaints now a bit more seriously. Instead everybody was numbed by stupidity like outrage over Trump dumping a box of fish food.... which itself was fake news that deliberately omitted Japan's PM doing it first.

Otherwise it's just the cultural divide. The things you find egregious and shocking are things others actually support.

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President." -Teddy Roosevelt
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a thing to consider, how much would his supporter base change if he was a democrat

would it flip completely and be 57? or be significantly different?

Fam_Fam posted...

a thing to consider, how much would his supporter base change if he was a democrat

would it flip completely and be 57? or be significantly different?

He was a Democrat in 2001. Which is rather amusing as his base believes Democrats are the bad guys yet seem to fail to understand that. (Hes flipped between Democrat, Republican, Reform Party and no party)
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Trump is dump

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TyVulpine posted...

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President." -Teddy Roosevelt

Neat doublethink right there.

Patriotism is to stand by your country's governance, nationalism is to stand by your country's interests.

TyVulpine posted...

He was a Democrat in 2001. Which is rather amusing as his base believes Democrats are the bad guys yet seem to fail to understand that. (Hes flipped between Democrat, Republican, Reform Party and no party)

It's almost like they vote on politics, not on faces. They dislike the democrats for left values, not for being democrats.
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Kyuubi4269 posted...

TyVulpine posted...

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President." -Teddy Roosevelt

Neat doublethink right there.

Patriotism is to stand by your country's governance, nationalism is to stand by your country's interests

Patriotism or national pride is the feeling of love, devotion and sense of attachment to a homeland and alliance with other citizens who share the same sentiment. This attachment can be a combination of many different feelings relating to one's own homeland, including ethnic, cultural, political or historical aspects.

Nationalism is a way of thinking that says that some groups of humans, such as ethnic groups, should be free to rule themselves. Nationalists think that the best way to make this happen and avoid control or oppression by others is for each group to have their own nation.

Kyuubi4269 posted...

Patriotism is to stand by your country's governance

No, patriotism is to stand by your country's values, recognizing that every country has periods of shitty governance.
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Patriotism is to stand by your country's governance

this might be the most incorrect thing you've ever posted

and theres some serious competition

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zebatov posted...

streamofthesky posted...

And Obama's entire 8 years was non-stop hysteria over every fucking thing he did, w/ Fox "News" and right wing radio blowing it wildly out of proportion. Stop acting like people in the media whining over even trivial things is somehow new or unique to Trump

Funny that people always say this, but my use of social media hasnt fluctuated and I dont remember near as much complaining back then. I cant go anywhere today without seeing someone crying about Trump

The main difference is that the Internet as a whole won't shut the fuck up about Trump, whereas with Obama you usually had to go out of your way a bit more to find the criticism, or at least spend more time in places that skew heavier Right. But because the Internet as a whole (and definitely places like Twitter) tend to skew more Left than baseline as a matter of course, you'll be bombarded with constant memes, jokes, and endless outrage about whatever it is Trump has said or done in the last 20 minutes, even the most inane or pointless things.

There's also the fact - which I've been pointing out on this board for years now - that people will always notice criticism that runs counter to their own beliefs far more than they will things that agree with them. People who supported Obama would easily tune out the positive comments (which they'd take for granted) in favor of focusing on the criticism, while people who opposed Obama could absolutely feel like he was constantly being praised and given a free pass (while taking the criticism for granted). And both sides would absolutely be half-correct.

The modern landscape is probably more polarized than ever, with both sides effectively living in entirely different worlds, neither of which actually resemble reality.



Kungfu Kenobi posted...

And when you have such outlandish things being circulated as supposedly credible, by people who should FUCKING KNOW BETTER, it makes it very hard to take anything else seriously. It's not "look what you made me do" to point out how full of it his critics demonstrably are, and to be incredulous going forward.

So when I hear about Trump's attitudes toward climate change, or especially anything said in private (such as the nuking hurricanes thing), I have to question every single thing. I have to fact check every single thing. I have to do a lot of this heavy lifting because Orange Man Bad

This is why I generally avoid all political topics on PotD these days. They're very much a constant, unending tale full of sound and fury, signifying nothing, being told by idiots. The flood of jokes, abuse, ranting, and irrational hate kind of drowns out the actual legitimate criticisms that he's absolutely guilty of, to the point where people who might otherwise be upset or opposed to him instead wind up ceasing to give even the remotest of shits.

The worst part is, no one involved in political discussion here is really introducing anything new or worthwhile to the discourse, they're just parroting back things they heard and barely understand at people who already agree with them, in a massive circle jerk of self-justification, bordering on almost religious hysteria. Which is also why they almost immediately descend into flaming and shit the moment someone comes in with a different point-of-view. Non-groupthink is doubleplus ungood.

At this point, I tend to feel like most political topics on this board should just be autoflagged for flamebait and trolling.
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The internet wont shut up about trump because every week he does 5 new things that are shockingly stupid for any adult or legitimately alarming for the future of the country

obama outrage was like omg he wore momjeans to the baseball

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darkknight109 posted...

Like, if you went to Bob's twitter page and he had a pinned tweet there from a KKK leader saying, "Bob is the best white supremacist of this century. He is truly a force for promoting the superiority of the white race," and Bob had replied, thanking the man for his kind words, what does that say about Bob?

It's more like if Bob, an ACLU lawyer, went to James P Wickstrom's Twitter, where he saw, "Bob did a great job on our civil rights case. Bob's a miracle worker." and Bob says, "Thank you for the kind words James, very cool." That does not mean Bob literally agrees he wields the power of the divine. Outside accepting an expression of a job well done, it doesn't mean he particularly agrees with anything the guy says at all.

And this is the sense in which Trump's tweet is to be understood.

darkknight109 posted...

you bloody well know exactly what Trump meant when he tweeted that.

Now if I could just get you to do the same.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Non-groupthink is doubleplus ungood.

The tribalism and echo chambering are the parts I find most exhausting to deal with. Not just left/right tribalism either. As a politically homeless liberal I have a lot of issues with others on the left right now.
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You know you can disregard trump when Brits support him. They did invent taking over by immigration after all.
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