I remember when Trump first won, the American-centered part of the web I would occasionally stop by seemed completely infiltrated with MAGA trolls. You had this feeling people thought it was edgy and fun - the worst kind of cultural moment seemed to be happening.

This time around I’m not so much on mainstream social media. And when I do check them out, it seems hard to understand what the vibe is as most content is AI or from professional content creators.

The closest thing I see to Trump supporters these days seems to be the enablers who endlessly repeat how they won’t vote for Harris for some dumb reason or another - they simply cannot vote for a black woman president because it’s not progressive enough, and all that jazz. But I don’t ever see Trump supporters.

Of course they exist still. I have just chose social media platforms strategically to avoid toxic people.

So I’m wondering if the same enthusiasm for Trump that seemed to be boiling online in 2016 is still there today, and if this election only feels different because I’m self-selected into saner platforms. Or if it is really different this time around.

I get that it’s an incredibly difficult question to answer, but I would love perspectives from people who have kept up an active use of mainstream social media, or otherwise have some insights I lack.

  • .Donuts
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    22 months ago

    This doesn’t really answer any of the questions, but again, I’m not going to hold you accountable for their actions. Thanks for trying, at least.

    • Ogmios
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      fedilink
      -32 months ago

      Ah, I may be skipping over some details that are considered common knowledge over there. So basically Epstein, and others he was involved with, and others like him, appear to have been offering their “services” to provide for the fantasies of the rich and the powerful, whatever they may be, while also collecting blackmail material on those same people for political purposes. This appears to have been connected to Mossad, and is believed to be largely responsible for allowing some of the more corrupt behaviours within western societies to persist.