@The757Progressive From an outsider, someone who isn't really leftist. I think everyone lives in a media bubble now. But, I think the Democrat bubble is less harmful than the Republican bubble. Because a lot of the content is about helping people and injustice. So, the algorithm on the left pushes leftists to similar content.

That's not me saying the algorithm is harmless on the left. It's doing what it does there too.

There's still future danger in that if it snowballs to violence.

@quinnsentialOne no disagreement.

I will note that where one falls on the left of center spectrum may matter on how they get their info.

I follow a lot of different people & outlets & there's a lot of "traditional liberal" sites that I think are good for "hard news" but not so great on commentary,

Then there's the "alarmist" Folks who are clear eyed about the Fascist threat we face. I don't agree all the time but I think they're right.

Then there's Actual Communists which, lol no, IMO.

@The757Progressive There's a huge difference in communication between how Republicans talk to Republicans.

I don't know how to explain this.

With the amount of shit and hate being projected into the world, you'd think all Republicans hate all Democrats. Of course, MAGA does. MAGA is gone in hard.

But, a lot of Republicans don't. There's a lot of emotionally charged content being projected by the algorithm.

But the people who are not hating are not engaging online. You don't see them.

@quinnsentialOne building on your last comment with this one, you mentioned not paying attention with regards to the hate.

What is enticing these people to vote for policies/politicians if they aren't paying attention?

Not the Qult type, the others?

@The757Progressive Tradition.

Tradition and the lack of discourse/nuance.

Republicans get mailers and calls about what Republican politicians are doing for them, but Democratic politicians rarely ever focus on reaching Republican voters.

Your average middle class Republican is as blind as an absolute bat in regards of policy and politics. They don't know anything because the world isn't affecting them.

@quinnsentialOne It infuriates me that 95% of dems write off these voters without trying.

Fetterman didn't and it helped him win.

They should all be doing this.

Seek every vote knowing you won't get them all.

@The757Progressive This is a part of why I think the average Republican feels like Democrats can't be a part of their solution.

They feel abandoned and discarded by the left in the march of progress.

@quinnsentialOne and frankly the Democratic Party leaves a lot of their own voters our in the lurch too.

Both parties are too beholden to corporate cash.

It makes me furious.

@The757Progressive There's a danger in here when saying "all Republicans".

My family are included in the Republican hate machine, I wish I could say they weren't, but they are.

But there are Republicans who are disavowing MAGA. They don't make a show of it, they're not going to stand up or be loud about it or become Democrats. But there is a big schism happening.

But again, they will still vote Republican because they are oblivious to the greater discourse and bad laws trying to be passed.

@quinnsentialOne What's concerning to me is the whole "Good Germans" vibe I get from the whole "not all republicans" stuff.

Again, not about your family specifically.

I think about prominent NeverTrump folks, the MSNBC Republicans as I call them.

These folks should be whipping hard to get "all normal GOP" to *be* supportive of Dems even temporarily to defeat maga

That they don't do that troubles me, and makes me fear we are running out of time to stop MAGA.

@The757Progressive Oh, don't get me wrong.

I see the danger of what's happening. Oblivious people are the people who stand by while atrocities happen.

When I say "not at Republicans" I'm not saying "they don't have any fault" in the march of hate.

What I'm saying is maybe if we spent more time reaching the average Republican without the hate for them, and just telling them how we can make their lives better through policy... then there can be less "all Republicans" and more informed voters.

@quinnsentialOne I hear you.

My counter to this would be that, after the Maga fascism and the Era of Trump, I struggle to understand how anyone could remain a Republican.

Like,

You either are All In on Trump's Nazism

Or you're Not.

And if you're Not

Why are you still a Republican?

And so forth.

@The757Progressive It was really hard for me to leave the Republican party, so I can tell you why, I had a hard time.

First, because of the bubble, you only think it's a small fraction of people. Bad apples in a batch kind of thing.

Second, our whole families are probably traditionally Republican. Everyone we know. Family is a powerful motivator to stay.

Third, a lot of Republicans don't see the bad shit. The algorithm at work. I didn't see it, at all...... until I did.

@The757Progressive This is the question I would propose, "How can you believe there are Nazi's in your party if you're never seeing the Nazi's in your party?"

You see it, because you're not in the bubble of core Republicanism. I see it, now, because I got out of the bubble. Many of my non-MAGA Republican family don't see it because they are still in the bubble.

@quinnsentialOne How did you begin to see it?

@The757Progressive Between my friends brave enough to keep trying to reach me and Trump himself.

I saw and heard things about Trump, through my friends, I would have not seen myself. It made a dent in my bubble. My first reaction was "nobody is perfect" and other rationalizations.

But I did start paying attention more because of the things he said.

It was enough to put a small crack in my bubble.

The abortion thing shattered my bubble entirely.

@quinnsentialOne you have good friends, the ones who tried.

We all try to rationalize things in tough times, so that's nothing to be ashamed of there.

Asking for understanding not as a gotcha - Why did the abortion thing shatter the bubble?

A lot of RWers for years talked about overturning Roe. How did that register to you, pre-Dobbs?

@The757Progressive This may seem weird, but most Republicans I know do support sensible abortion.

But right now the MAGA crowd are crowing the loudest about it.

And it is really hard to separate MAGA and the average Republican and the hard right Republican when all you see are the shouters and haters.

Most Republicans are moderate and sensible. They're just...... oblivious and not politically involved. They wake up, do their job, vote Republican, go back to sleep.

@The757Progressive I think this might be one of the big differences between Republicans and Democrats.

I don't know how accurate it is yet, because I only personally know a few Democrats.

But Democrats seem heavily involved and invested in their politics, and very informed about the good and the bad.

On the Republican side. It's not like that. They vote, they see the mailers, etc, but they're not really involved politically. It's more habit, more traditional.

@quinnsentialOne It's wild what you're saying because

I don't want to disbelieve you.

But I have not felt - for years, for a long time really - that there are no more "moderate Republicans" left.

Everyone who still bothers to call themselves a Republican is a theocratic Fascist that may or may not also be a white supremacist and has some varying degree of hatred for gay people, and liberals.

Like.

That there hasn't been a big "Moderate Republican" movement has always spoken volumes to me.

@The757Progressive And there will never be a big moderate Republican movement.

And that saddens me.

There are so many loving, friendly, and caring people inside the Republican party who are not a part of MAGA and who are just not aware of what's happening in the greater political sphere.

And here's the reason it's invisible. Cities are, mostly, Democrat. Rural is mostly Republican.

It's hard to be a critical mass when you're spread so far apart from each other.

@quinnsentialOne and it's this paragraph here why I think this country is in so much peril. Ugh.

@The757Progressive This what scares me too.

And I see it, pretty directly.

@quinnsentialOne Yeahhhhhh that's why I feel we need to really make "normal people" aware of the danger, quickly.

Very quickly.

@The757Progressive This is why I don't believe we should be attacking and hating everyone who is a Republican, or forcefully trying to tell them how wrong or ignorant they are just by a party label.

We can't make them aware if we are pushing them away at the same time.

Politicians, especially, need to reach out to the daily Republican and give them something.

And if they don't relate, then try again. And again. And keep trying.

When we stop reaching, we've already lost.

@The757Progressive And more on this, I think it's easier for unscrupulous people to take advantage of the moderate Republican and that lack of political awareness.

It's easier to manipulate a group of people who are spread out in rural areas, who are less likely to have other sources of information than it is larger groups of people with more diverse sources of information.

The most dangerous voter is the uninformed one, and it's easy to keep rural areas uninformed.