As Donald Trump dominates the GOP nomination race and some of his inflammatory comments find favor with the party faithful, CBS News measured how the public feels about his “poisoning the blood” language. A striking number of voters agree with this description of immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally, and among Republicans, associating the remarks with Trump himself makes them even likelier to agree.

  • PugJesus@kbin.social
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    10 months ago

    “Most Republicans are literal fucking fascists.”

    I wish I could say I was surprised.

    and among Republicans, associating the remarks with Trump himself makes them even likelier to agree.

    But it’s not a cult. /s

    • takeda@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Those people were always there but in a small enough number that they were themselves ashamed to admit it.

      What trump did is he united all those people together into a larger group.

      It is crazy, but before he won primaries in 2016, the GOP was actually opening to accept LGBT, and they believed they would lose without expanding their base. trump show that they didn’t have to.

    • thantik@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I mean, hasn’t it grown way beyond the definition of a cult by being like…half of the US? It’s fucked up, sure - but aren’t cults by definition generally “small”?

      This is millions of people. I’m not excusing it, it’s fucked. But I feel like “cult” only serves to place it in a light of “oh this is only a few crazy people”…nah…this is HALF of the USA. You should be gearing up to fight your neighbors if this shit lands. It’s not some silly little group like the word ‘cult’ implies.

      • PugJesus@kbin.social
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        10 months ago

        I mean, one describes Mussolini as having a cult of personality, but that was still most of 1930s Italy following him. I think cult is still appropriate.

      • TimmyDeanSausage @lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        It’s not half of the US population. It’s around 30% of eligible voters (as of 2022). That’s still a huge number of people (74 million), but it’s a lot less than half…

        • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Yeah, it’s only half of the people that actually vote, which turns out to be about 30% overall because 40% of us can’t be bothered to vote at all.

      • Ech@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        I don’t think anyone saying it’s a cult is implying it’s a small group. I’m not sure that’s a fundamental feature of a cult to begin with.

        • thantik@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Oxford Dictionary lists the definition of “Cult” as

          a relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister.

          And that’s what I was taught it meant as well.

            • Dictionaries differ.

              I think that’s the most simple version of cult.

              Anyone that worshops anything can be called a cult of that thing.

              In common usage especially in American English I think the word connotes an unorthodox form of worshipping, and so by that definition it’s a small group, otherwise it would just be the orthodoxy.

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      10 months ago

      Or just not thinking of the implications. “Dilluting the blood” can given multiple interpretations, almost all of which are racist, but some more racist than others.

      A suburban dad who lives across the street from some black neighbors may not think they should be enslaved or killed off, but does wish they would live somewhere else. He might interpret the phrase in that context. Then his daughter might start dating their son, and now he starts ranting at dinner.

      He votes for Trump, but Trump is being pushed other people who very much do want to enslave or kill black people.

      Even at its height, fascism never had a majority. It barely cobbled together a reasonable sized plurality. If it were just people who supported their policies as stated with few reservations, they wouldn’t even have that. Slippery statements like these are there to attract the adjacent right wingers to support actions they never would otherwise.

      • PugJesus@kbin.social
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        10 months ago

        A suburban dad who lives across the street from some black neighbors may not think they should be enslaved or killed off, but does wish they would live somewhere else. He might interpret the phrase in that context.

        That’s still fascism, man. Ethnic cleansing is core to fascism.