Why are people who don't like trump still defending him and their supporters even after Jan 6th coup attempt?

[Anonymous]

Do they not understand how serious of an offense the coup attempt was, they were not only trying to stop an election certification. They were trying to take away our rights and overthrow the constitution they swore they love so much and make slaves of us all as long as they were giving us slaves the orders and they were the masters. I don't understand how people cannot be angry at trump and his supporters, why should I take the time and be peaceful about it to them, and I can gurantee that had they succeeded we would not have the internet or forums like this to even talk about Jan 6th 2021. Everyone here would have no freedom to access the internet like in North Korea or other places that have no rights or constitutioonal democracy (FYI I don't give damn if you call us a republic for me describing us a democracy).

[WhiteSteve]

After all is said and done, this is a human psyche issue.

We could spend hours and hours trying to identify all the different factors and feelings and experiences that lead anyone to their personal political beliefs and worldview. Let’s skip that part, and just start with the part where we all are at where we’re individually at, and go from there.

I’d maybe start with the problem that our major news outlets are all pretty obviously aligned with one party or the other. Or maybe THAT’S the original issue, only two parties to choose from, save for the occasional independent.

But after that, getting to the news…. this is where most of us get our information, and for many, this is where they get their script for talking points that they’ll then assume as their own own original thoughts and feelings, because people more articulate than them have been able to summarize the common person’s chaotic scramble of thoughts and feelings into a few organized sentences, or a slogan, or a buzzword. A couple people on FoxNews said “we’ve crossed the Rubicon” the last day or two, and I promise you —I PROMISE YOU— we’re going to go from “zero” mentions of “crossing the Rubicon” pre-late March/early April 2023 by the MAGA Internet Defense Brigade, to thousands, just overnight, and I’m already pre-annoyed by it, lmao.

The biased news outlets provide a safe haven for people to hear what they want to be told. Some networks do a better job than others of maintaining a grip on reality, but all seem to have a mood about the events they’re reporting on, or they’ll report it by highlighting the aspects they favor or that look good for their audience, and downplaying or outright omitting they don’t favor or that don’t look good for their audience.

(Example: civil unrest after George Floyd’s murder…MSNBC shows the people with signs at 1:30 in the afternoon, at 9 PM clashes between police and civilians will be shown as police brutality, at midnight they’ll downplay or omit idiots looting or burning buildings, and the overall story is the need for police reform…. FoxNews spends all afternoon downplaying peaceful protest and mocking college kids for being disingenuous virtue signalers, at 9 PM they feature the civilian who threw something at a cop, at midnight they have a camera in every aisle of the neighborhood Target to make looting the “real” story, and the overall tone is “George Floyd was a thug! Back the blue!”)

The point being that there’s a readily available echo chamber for anyone, and people adopt this “us vs them, and nothing short of total domination is satisfactory!” mentality, akin to rabid sports fans. Just blind hatred.

So, as for Trump…. some of his supporters (many of whom I don’t think were even overly active in politics before him but they wanted tickets to that carnival, they bought in partly because of the sizzle) went ALL-IN. All-in like I’ve never seen a group go all-in for in my experience watching American politics or what I know of it historically. I’m not talking “most popular overall”, I’m talking about the level of devotion from their base, however large or small.

And they weren’t quiet, they pointed fingers and tried to sully the name of anyone who opposed them. Any protest of George Floyd’s death that turned violent, these people finger-wagged and pearl-clutched and acted absolutely DISGUSTED. “Only the libs would do something like this!” Whoops, six or seven months later, and their people are not only participating in violent unrest, but it carries the added weight of being an attempted disruption of a process that is essential to America remaining a free democracy, and it happened at one of our most sacrosanct government buildings that was full of an entire branch of our government’s politicians. This ain’t stealing diapers from Target, lmao.

After a summer of high-horsing over any and all BLM protests that turned violent, this was absolutely the most embarrassing thing the Republican party could’ve had happen. All the people decrying riots in the summer suddenly looked like HUGE assholes if they didn’t keep the same exact energy for Jan 6th, beyond some weak “well, of course we don’t condone this, but…”, followed by some excuse. But we quickly learned the real point of my answer: the human psyche has great difficulty accepting that one has been wrong, or has been fooled.

And the reason all of them were in that position was because of Donald Trump. These poor bastards got absolutely grifted. Like I’m legitimately astounded so many people right from the rip weren’t just like “oh, this dude’s a hustler”, but some people just bought right in. I still can’t believe it. Like there’s so clearly nothing to any of his bullshit beyond just him telling people something is so. I think he came in talking about cleaning up corrupt politicians in DC, which isn’t wrong, but where it got fucked up is that HE’S just a corrupt NON-politician. “Drain the swamp” is all part of the ruse, wake up, guys. You’re on the right track but you’re on the wrong train, this guy is nobody’s hero.

Nobody likes to be wrong, and I think people just can’t admit they bet on the wrong horse, so they’re going to go down with the ship and then just cry foul when he inevitably has sunk to convince themselves that they were still right all along, malevolent outside interference was just to blame for it not panning out.

[WhiteSteve]

That’s the answer for civilians.

The answer for politicians and right wing news outlets is that they have to kowtow to those same civilians who are their potential voters or their core audience, and those civilians just want to be comforted by their echo chamber and be told they were right and have just suffered a terrible injustice, not that their guy they supported was the bad guy all along.

[virtue2332]

I think that some people still defend him that don't like him is because yes what happened was wrong and should not happen however I blame both parties. Not evenly weighted but there were a lot of mistakes overall that I feel our leaders should have never allowed there to be so much bullshit to go on. Ego from both sides led us to what happened. One side focused on and spent a lot of money trying to bring Trump down. Didn't care for him personally but let's be honest he wasn't hard to figure out. He didn't hide or change who he was. It wouldn't have surprised me if I woke up from a coma and was told Trump pressed the button where I don't think anybody thinks Biden would. I definitely wouldn't want to see it ever happen I think other nations may consider it. Kind of a dumb argument I get it but I would be lying if I said I don't feel as safe about what's going on but I'm not in the millitary anymore so I don't know what the general consensus is on that. Either way the division needs to stop. The lies an propaganda should stop. People also need to stop being lazy and actually investigate the facts and think logically before acting on the information because it's obvious people are trying to assert control by using fear disinformation and any emotion they think will put you on thier side over actually doing things that we need done. It's like thier cheat code. Rather than trying to fix the issue the shine the light somewhere else and just complain. If you hear thier name on the news a lot they are probably part of the problem because all the good politicians are too busy working to worry about press. I salute everyone of them.

[Asker]

the fact is not both sides are too blame and if you are hell bent in blaming democrats then you are a trump supporter who doesn't want to handle the heat they are facing now. the democrats are not at fault for this coup attempt, trump is and if you refuse to put all the blame on trump then you are a collaborator much like those that collaborated with the nazis during WWII.

[virtue2332]

Woah far from a Nazi. I'm also not siding with Republicans I just wish it was handled better. I was a Democrat but watching some of the hearings made me realize that it was all ego when it came to the Trump and they had a hard on for him. The fact of the matter is we are headed in the wrong direction as a Nation and we need to pull together. Having been in the millitary I worked with people from different backgrounds and beliefs. We didn't always agree on everything but we always found a way to work together. Even though I disagree with you I respect your opinion you are entitled to one. I also think people like you are part of the problem. Rather than disagree and prove your point you try connect my opinion as the same as a Nazi collaborator. To connect the two is absurd and only done to antagonize me. Not many minority Nazi Sympathizers but I know you're more intelligent than that statement. I'm open to being wrong about any opinions I have but people have to enlighten me more than flinging shit around.

[Anonymous]

Trump’s movement is definitely anti-democratic and fascist in nature. I’m not sure how that appeals to anyone. When the constitution becomes your enemy, you might want to rethink what you’re supporting.

[virtue2332]

It's a sad state of affairs when people are told how they should think. People ego's aren't allowing them the ability to see further than where the light is shined. There is more than one reality because our realities are based on our perceptions of what we observed. The inability to understand this and communicate it effectively is what leads to insurrection like the one we witnessed. We fail to consider everything that led up to it and let our ego get in the way and assign blame rather than ask what we could do better. We need to figure out a way to communicate better to listen and attempt to understand vs using the inflammatory buzz word of the week. I MENTIONED the poop flinging because we are related genetically to chimpanzees and they tend to fling poop at eachother like we fling insults at one another. One interesting fact is this is something that has developed amongst those that are held in captivity.

[StormChaser838]

Each one has their own axes to grind, that's the problem. When good people keep quiet bad things happen. It's always a case that they are coming after , "THEM", and not us, till there are no "THEMS" left. Nobody of importance wants to be the one to say, the emperor's naked. Talking truth to power is a tough business, Christ (the ultimate rebel), was testament to it, and we all know how that went down. Guess these words come to mind... From the Lizard King, Mr Mojo Risin, James Douglas Morrison,

We have constructed pyramids in honor of our escaping
This is the land where the Pharaoh died
The Negroes in the forest brightly feathered
They are saying, "forget the night
Live with us in forests of azure
Out here on the perimeter there are no stars
Out here we is stoned, immaculate"

Wish I could explain the meaning and relevance of each line, As the thay say, There's a songbird who sings / Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven.

[Anonymous]

The same reason people defend the democrats even though they're really not defenders of the working class. It's about the greater good. Or more accurately, the lesser of two evils. Most Republicans don't even like Trump. Be he's willing to say what most politicians wouldn't dare (because for them it would be political suicide). Trump said it himself, "I could kill someone in the middle of the street and I wouldn't lose any votes". Trump may actually be arrogant enough to actually believe he's beloved. But either way the reality is he's a protest vote. He's a mouthpiece for incoherent rage. This is also why I don't think Trump gets elected again. I think most Republicans were willing to give him a shot. Republicans have always been better at consolidating the vote then democrats (at least in recent history). I think his support is about 30% but it's the LOUDEST percent. And as always in elections it's about money, support and momentum. The democrats have to walk a fine line with Trump. They have to give Trump enough rope to hang himself (this isn't hard😆). But they have to do it without uniting the Republican base behind him. Because that is how anger and hate wins another election.

[loveslongnails]

For the votes of his followers. Nearly all of them hate Trump. I just posted elsewhere that if his Maga-nuts were to announce they're dropping support for him, every Republican in Congress who sings his praises would change their tune overnight.

Instead, they'd say " We owe it to our constituents to represent the will of the people, and if that is no longer Donald Trump, the we, the Republican Party, must hear the voice of the people".

In other words, typical Republican doublespeak. Their allegiance is as fraudulent as he is. As soon as his voter draw disappears, so will they.

[Twalli]

I wouldn't go so far as to say we'd be enslaved if the coup was successful. We'd be in a war right now because while some people may not care too much about the results of a given election, most people want them to continue. During our Civil War, the reason most northern soldiers joined was not because of slavery. They joined because they thought losing an election was not a valid reason for seceding. If they'd succeeded I wouldn't be typing this now because I'd be out fighting to keep our way of life. My view was summed up by a democrat during the second impeachment of Trump when he said "I'm not afraid of Trump running again and winning, I'm afraid of what happens if he loses again." That's why I don't think he should be allowed to run. If he wins, he wins, if he loses though... well it could be very bad.

[Avicenna]

Maybe you should take a look at what Alan Dershowitz has to say about the endless attempts to persecute Trump. Dershowitz disagrees with Trump on policy issues, so his commentary isn't tainted by politics.

[slatyb]

Republicans? They are playing to their ever-shrinking base.

[Dargil]

Don't forget to vote on Wednesday, November 6.