The last poll they cared about was in early November 2024.
Exactly, fascists give zero fucks about public sentiment once they’re in power. All they need to do is control the media and polls will align with their goals again. Case in point is the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-02-19/donald-trump-gulf-of-mexico-gulf-of-america
Edit as things are moving very fast.
Here’s an even more boldfaced attempt at controlling the media. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fox-news-newsmax-oppose-trump-ap-ban_n_67b85283e4b05145b9c53cce
The idea that AP is “radical left”. LOL.
Quite the contrary. They base their power on the perception that they have a mass movement behind them. Protests can break that perception. There’s an entire wikipedia article on it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_resistance_to_Nazism
It’s not time to put away that tool just yet. Protests on a mass scale can do a lot.
I’m not advocating against protest. My comment history is proof of that.
It’s a knee jerk reaction for many to want polls to still matter. Polls are important of course, but not this year and next year is uncharted territory.
The only thing to do watch now is the comfort zone of the 10,000+ people in the American billionaire families; and that is the only check in power right now
I’d be surprised if there aren’t massive changes to gun laws in the next 2 years and a giant restructure of the military in the next 3 so that Trump or one of his cronies can still be in power in 5…
I’m wondering when private gun ownership will be banned. At the rate they’re going it might happen within 6 months.
There are basically only two lines that this administration can cross after which it will be, to employ the vernacular, on.
- Cancelling retirees’ social security and/or retirement benefits
- Trying to take everyone’s guns
The major difference is that one those groups is preeminently equipped to make that process very difficult. I’ll bet you can guess which one it is.
The one thing that every paranoid loon agrees on – left or right – is that the US government actually attempting to blanket confiscate guns is the 100% unquestionable and unambiguous indicator of everything going absolutely sideways. This is why gun bans have always been incremental; those in politics absolutely know that the end result of trying to do it all at once is only a guarantee that a lot of people get shot.
Watching all the rednecks try to reconcile that it is in fact Trump’s gubmint that is comin’ to a’take their gunz is going to be quite the spectacle, I’m sure.
All gun control in the past has been to disarm marginalized populations and put ownership behind a paywall and within a national registry. I don’t think they’ll ban gun ownership for everyone, however I foresee ownership to be much more stringently controlled and for tax stamps to increase. Making it so that the majority of guns are still owned and operated by white middle to upperclass men, or private security and law enforcement that serve the wealthy to protect property and the current power structure as it stands.
Fascism rarely plays well with personal gun ownership. Trump has already floated the idea once, so he’s definitely going to try.
They’ve already started on the military https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/4074482/secretary-of-defense-pete-hegseth-statement-on-general-officer-nominations/
Yeah I don’t think either of them would care in the slightest about this type of polling.
Entirely predictable.
Trump was mocking the voting public on presidents day with that “Long live the king” quip.
That said, it’s just bonkers that 40% of voters feel like things are going in the right direction. Honestly the whole thing is cooked.
Approval always matters, even without democracy.
Democracy is just a managed, fairly agreed upon process for a governed people to exercise their will. But a governed people always have the ability to exercise their will. Authoritarian tactics can make that more difficult, but they cannot ever prevent it.
Remember, if there was nothing people could do to stop them, their propaganda would not be necessary. The fact that they are engaged in information control demonstrates that they do very much care about approval - or, at least, acceptance.
What did the German Citizenship do in 1934? Because they voted in 1932 to make the Nazi party the largest single party in the Reichstag and for the next 2 years they had no input on the machinations of Hitler to become a dictator. Any of that sound familiar?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler's_rise_to_power
The speed at which the German government was dismantled was extreme. In less than 45 days after Hindenburg died, Hitler was a dictator. DOGE and Trump are making much of the same changes to our government. Fascist or Monarchist or Oligarchy or Kleptocracy, it doesn’t matter. Our government is currently being dismantled at a rate at which our institutions have never seen before.
Polls don’t matter once they’re in power. The only thing that’s going to stop this is large unified action at the local level and probably a general strike. Both of which take time to organize and to do so in an encrypted and secure way. That takes time. We’re years away.
If you’d like to join an open unencrypted movement you can start at the below links.
https://generalstrikeus.com/aboutus
If you’re interesting in organizing locally you could follow the suggestions in this comment.
https://lemmy.world/comment/14983176
or check out https://lemmy.world/c/Resist@fedia.io
You’re think you’re disagreeing with me, but I want to be clear that you’re advocating for exactly the same things I am.
Polls don’t matter, but public opinion absolutely does. You can’t organize a mass movement of resistance without a mass of people to organize. The fact that Trump’s agenda is becoming increasingly unpopular is an opportunity for those organizing resistance to bring in more support.
I didn’t say we’re in disagreement, I’m highlighting the nature of our situation.
Americans are still too comfortable to revolt.
Why would Elmo care about his approval ratings? He’s not an elected official.
Because he’s a narcissist. He cant help but care.
he’ll just run the poll on X and his narcissistic injury is healed.
He cannot stand people not liking him. He’s a weird little dude that needs everyone to love him.
Nah, not everyone. He just needs a group of people giving him approval and recognition. His edgelord personality needs people hating him.
He lied about being good at video games to appear cool 😂
Exactly. He gets a hardon thinking about the people who believed him, which is like .1%. The rest think hes a clown but that obviously doesnt change his behaviour.
Well, tbf, neither are CEOs.
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How awesome would it be for him to get arrested and not pardoned because Trump blames him for tanking his poll numbers
trump controls the justice department in the executive, and GOP has firm control over the Judicial branch at the Supreme Court. Musk hasn’t made friends of the GOP Washington power brokers. So trump could vindictively railroad musk through whatever remains of the justice system, and there would be no one that would stand and fight for Musk (except maybe Putin).
It might descend into one of those bizzaro world scenarios where “free market” Republicans call for and get the nationalization of SpaceX as a strategic asset (with its tight control of US military launch capabilities and Starlink network). Lefties would be uncomfortably cheering on the GOP for “seizing the means of production” in the form of Musk’s companies.
As a lefty, no I wouldn’t. If our government is a dictatorship, then this would hardly be an example of seizing the means of production, just a change of hands from one unelected dictator to another.
Still, funny mental image.
The entire point of Musk being so visible is to pin all the unpopular stuff on him.
Thing is that Bronzo the Clown looks like a cuck even to a redcap when you watch fElon and Hannity talking over him, or fElon and his kid in the WH doing more talking than Bronzo as he sits there looking like he’s sundowning.
Every dictator needs toadies to do their dirty work though. Hitler had his Himmler, Stalin his Beria.
That thumbnail? Did someone alter the lo-fi girl to have a skull?
yes
It gives Democrats an opening - in two years, if there are still elections.
I keep seeing this… folks really think we’re gonna get to vote again.
Oh, you will. In the same sense that Russia has elections.
America follows the course of Nazi Germany. The US had their Machtergreifung, and if they might get the next Democratic elections in (1949-1933)=16 years, after the Americans came in and stopped the Nazis. Oh, wait…
How are they going to stop it? Republicans have been trying to stop elections since 2017, they’re not smart enough to figure out how. They couldn’t even figure out how to schedule a press conference about it at the four seasons.
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They gerrymandered my state and the courts said it was ok
If you piss off enough people, gerrymandering stops mattering.
Lol elections. You don’t think they’ve planned for that? There won’t be elections in 2 years. He’s gutted half the government already.
Assuming they get off their asses and vote this time. Also they need to learn their lesson and focus on a few issues and more on working class American economic issues and less on identity politics.
He doesn’t care about being popular or unpopular. He’s the king now, he can do whatever he wants.
Oh idk, musk/zuck definitely have masculinity and self confidence issues. They have to buy their “man” card and seek approval from everyone. I think trump is similar, he’s melted down before over dumb shit.
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Man, if Musk is tanking this hard, I am not sure he’s going to get re-elected.
For now, Trump is going through his honeymoon, although the polls seem to indicate that it is coming to an end.
I hope so…
With what he plans to do to the USPS, Medicare and Medicaid, and social security? It’s gonna be nuts. I’m sure he will settle in on around 30%.
Those are the diehard until he comes for the guns.
If Trump destroys Medicare and Medicaid, I think Medicare for All could be put in place.
I am optimistic that this will happen, remember that Trump will be cursed by the second term, which will lead to many controversies. Also, the itch of the 6 years in which the ruling party normally loses seats in Congress.
The last time a president was dumb enough to try wide tariffs, republicans lost 55% of the seats they controlled in Congress. Like, that’s “pass Amendments” levels bad for Trump.
Welcome back 73rd, 74th and 75th United States Congress.
In case it ever happens
So does “tanking” mean being laid in front of a tank and run over multiple times?
Because I can get behind this.
Time to start a other shitty TokTik trend!
insert shitty AI voice “Only billionaires can afford to do this challenge!”
Dictators generally don’t concern themselves with what their subjects think.
So? What you guys gonna do about it? Nothing probably.
Same as you?
Isn’t ca “canada”?
Lol, so, literally true, but not for the reason they thought…
I love it, I wouldn’t even have thought to check…
We are boycotting everything the us makes. Plus when you guys get here, I’m not gonna lay down and take it and neither will the rest of us. I plan and fighting tooth and nail to stay canadian.
It’s not “you guys.” I am not my government any more than you are yours.
Sorry, you’re right. I know not all of you are to blame for this. Shouldn’t have included you in that. No excuse for that.
Wow, you guys really are super nice. I like the cut of your jib. :)
There’s dumb people all over. They’re not just here in America. Some people won’t see nuance or reason, but instead, what they want things to be.
He doesn’t care what people think as long as he has power. He could steer a ship into rocks, sink and his die hard supporters would blame Biden/Obama or anyone else.
does it matter? 1) he wasn’t even elected 2) he’s already in power, so he doesn’t give a fuck about ratings 3) he’s not going to give up that power for anyone.
