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.

  • FigMcLargeHuge@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    2 months ago

    I am not taking sides with this comment, but you could literally swap names of everything you just posted with (the opposite candidate) and there is someone saying this exact same thing somewhere on the internet. They are most likely sitting there posting about where all the Harris people went and how they moved to a saner platform to avoid toxic people… Everyone needs to remember that there is someone out there with a polar opposite viewpoint as you and it’s just as strong as yours. The internet and social media has made it much easier for everyone to wall themselves off into groups containing people with only their viewpoint. And now all of that has been fed to LLMs. This is going to be an interesting future we are walking into.

    • Ogmios@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      The internet and social media has made it much easier for everyone to wall themselves off into groups containing people with only their viewpoint.

      It’s not people who share your viewpoints, unless you buy into the artificial left/right dichotomy and are willing to simply accept whatever popular talking points permeate your silo. Conversely, if you wanted to share a space online with only people who are actually from your own country, or even just western society broadly, such a thing doesn’t exist at all. While the issues of political division within America are significant, what flies completely under the radar is how trivial it is for bad actors from places like Russia and China to participate freely in political debates, often without anyone actually being aware of it.

  • Ogmios@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    If you really want to know, I have maintained a presence on both left and right wing sites since the schism ~2016, as a life long liberal who felt they could no longer support the insanity over the past decade, but is still apprehensive of hardcore conservatism.

    To be blunt, the energy among the right is extremely high right now. The Puff Daddy case has them celebrating like crazy, because despite what people here like to say about them, ending the institutionalized sex trafficking is actually the most important issue for many of them. Along with that, they’re extremely happy that the democrats have such a weak candidate, as they see this election to be the largest potential obstacle to actually being capable of addressing said institutionalized sex trafficking. They are also quite hopeful that a Trump victory will provide the tools necessary to deal with administrative bloat within the government, specifically addressing the FIAT currency system which makes everyone poorer year after year, which has been another significant sticking point for them. There is also, apparently, a fair bit of action being taken to combat fraud as it happens in this election, which has everyone in high spirits.

    • .Donuts@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      2 months ago

      I won’t shoot the messenger, but I need to know: what is the “institutionalized sex trafficking” you are referring to and how does it fit with being an important issue when you look at Trump vs Harris?

      Only one of them is in pictures with Epstein for a start. So how do they flip that around? Or are we talking Q stuff like pizzagate?

      Also important to know: why would Harris be the largest potential obstacle to be capable of addressing it?

      • Ogmios@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        2 months ago

        This video may help to shed some light on the issue for you. Basically, it’s been going on for much longer than most people realize.

        Edit: Regarding Harris, they don’t really take her seriously, personally. Rather, the concern is the entrenched powers in the civil service and media will collaborate to use her as a puppet, to defend the people they believe to be protecting the bad actors involved in human trafficking, such as Epstein, Diddy and John of God.

        • .Donuts@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          2 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@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            0
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            2 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.