The_Donald - politics = fatpeoplehate

[fskimospy]

I thought this article on Fivethirtyeight was really interesting from an analytic perspective as well as interesting/depressing from a political and cultural perspective.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/dissecting-trumps-most-rabid-online-following/

In short they analyze how 'close' subreddits on reddit are to one another, largely by looking at shared commentators between them. You can then use those common linkages to effectively 'add' or 'subtract' subreddits from one another to discover commonalities between them or discover what makes a particular subreddit unique.

Still with me? They tried this with the_donald and did a few obvious subtractions. People interested in the_donald are probably also interested in politics, right? What other subreddits are closest to the_donald when you take politics away?

1) fatpeoplehate - subreddit dedicated to insulting overweight people
2) theredpill - ultra-misogynistic subreddit dedicated to showing how men are oppressed
3) mr_trump - old, dormant trump subreddit
4) coontown - virulently anti-black racist subreddit

So when Trump supporters constantly complain that they are painted as racists/misogynists/etc it is true that not ALL Trump supporters are that way, but the community as a whole (at least on reddit) has more in common with racists and misogynists than anything else.

I guess we could file this under 'no shit', but I thought it was neat to support what most people already knew was likely in a more empirically rigorous way.

 

[woolfe9998]

"Basket of deplorables"? The only problem with Clinton's comment was that the number is probably closer to two-thirds rather than half...

 

[vi edit]

This was the basket that Hillary was really referring to.

 

[FIVR]

There is nothing wrong with hating on individual fat people you know if it gets them to go to the gym and become healthy and then live longer, better lives. I think the problem with the 'fatpeoplehate' subreddit was that instead of giving each other advice on how posters could constructively hate on the fat people around them (or themselves, if they were fat), they instead proceeded to single out individual fat people on social media and harass them or denigrate them. They were not beneficent in their hatred.

 

[Grooveriding]

I looked at the the_donald subreddit prior to the election, and just after it. They are insane people by and large posting there. Conspiracy theorists and extremely low information individuals. What amounts to facts for them are random postings on Twitter from their 'notable' alt-right lunatic personalities. Infowars is solid and credible information to that group.

A doctorate student could use it as a basis for a thesis on cults.

 

[First]

While Trump is clearly awful for the vast majority of the country, I don't really think his voters truly understand (especially the conservative cohort) what sort of damage he will do long-term to the right, especially when these virulently ignorant rejects are left to fester like a boil on the populace. The ongoing/inevitable disastrous results to the country and to their credibility over the long-term should be self-evident by now, and the left will easily be able to quite credibly paint the right as Trumpkins for years to come to win elections. Trump will truly end up being quite the trojan horse. It'll probably start today when they fail to nut up with an ACA repeal/replace, though either way that'll die in the Senate, and continue with failed tax and failed financial reform later this spring/summer/fall.

 

[woolfe9998]

It's hard to say how representative of Trump supporters these groups are. They might be on the extreme end of them. I know about a half dozen Trump supporter IRL. One thing that is typical among them is not to know anything about common criticisms of Trump because they do not read mainstream news. One woman I tried to talk to about the Access Hollywood tape, and she told me that she heard Trump had said something "sexually crude" but didn't believe it. I asked if she watched the tape, and she told me no, that it would just "upset her." She doesn't believe he said anything bad, but literally refuses to listen to it because she knows she will find it "upsetting."

Many of these people are in total denial. Some don't have particularly offensive beliefs. They just refuse to believe that Trump is what he is.

 

[fskimospy]

It's hard to say how representative of Trump supporters these groups are. They might be on the extreme end of them. I know about a half dozen Trump supporter IRL. One thing that is typical among them is not to know anything about common criticisms of Trump because they do not read mainstream news. One woman I tried to talk to about the Access Hollywood tape, and she told me that she heard Trump had said something "sexually crude" but didn't believe it. I asked if she watched the tape, and she told me no, that it would just "upset her." She doesn't believe he said anything bad, but literally refuses to listen to it because she knows she will find it "upsetting."

Many of these people are in total denial. Some don't have particularly offensive beliefs. They just refuse to believe that Trump is what he is.

I think that's a good point, that the people represented by the_donald are likely among the more extreme of his supporters.

 

[vi edit]

I'm not even sure it's support. They are like some evolution of anarchists that just simply want the world to burn and shitpost their way to their doom.

 

[woolfe9998]

I think that's a good point, that the people represented by the_donald are likely among the more extreme of his supporters.

I think your article says that may be the case.

Still, even among the ones I know, and I count six: two are not bigoted at all, one is undetermined, and three are bigoted to some degree ("the orientals are over-running my town" and "why do gays always ask for these special rights and privileges" are two actual comments). Though the bigoted ones aren't in the viscious white nationalist category.

The one characteristic in common to all is being in denial. They are in an information bubble. It's not even so much disagreeing with criticisms of Trump as not even being aware of them. Just yesterday I talked to a middle aged Trump supporter, a client, about the Trump-Russia investigation. He knew nothing about it. The collusion theory to him was paranoid liberal hysteria but the only fact he was aware of was that Russia "had supposedly hacked the DNC." He wasn't aware of one single fact besides that. The weird thing is that this guy is college educated.

 

[fskimospy]

I think your article says that may be the case.

Still, even among the ones I know, and I count six: two are not bigoted at all, one is undetermined, and three are bigoted to some degree ("the orientals are over-running my town" and "why do gays always ask for these special rights and privileges" are two actual comments). Though the bigoted ones aren't in the viscious white nationalist category.

The one characteristic in common to all is being in denial. They are in an information bubble. It's not even so much disagreeing with criticisms of Trump as not even being aware of them. Just yesterday I talked to a middle aged Trump supporter, a client, about the Trump-Russia investigation. He knew nothing about it. The collusion theory to him was paranoid liberal hysteria but the only fact he was aware of was that Russia "had supposedly hacked the DNC." He wasn't aware of one single fact besides that. The weird thing is that this guy is college educated.

I think an important part of this analysis is that after removing /r/politics the_donald is CLOSER to those subreddits than any other, but it definitely doesn't mean that they are right next to each other or anything, as evidenced by your acquaintances. Still though, these linkages are pretty damning.

There is a well-established tendency for people to avoid news they dislike so I'm not entirely surprised at Trump supporters' general ignorance of news that is bad for him. It's sad but not surprising.

 

[Ackmed]

There are shitty people everywhere. Reddit has some truly shitty people who post terrible things about virtually every type of person. I don't doubt some here post there like that.

But to think it's only the repubs, whites, or Trump fans is silly and ignorant. Article make no attempt to show the other side that I can tell. But I know that doesn't fit your agenda.

 

[WelshBloke]

There are shitty people everywhere. Reddit has some truly shitty people who post terrible things about virtually every type of person. I don't doubt some here post there like that.

But to think it's only the repubs, whites, or Trump fans is silly and ignorant. Article make no attempt to show the other side that I can tell. But I know that doesn't fit your agenda.

Is there any other reddit analogous to the_donald that supports a candidate on the left (or any other politician at all!).

 

[vi edit]

There are shitty people everywhere. Reddit has some truly shitty people who post terrible things about virtually every type of person. I don't doubt some here post there like that.

But to think it's only the repubs, whites, or Trump fans is silly and ignorant. Article make no attempt to show the other side that I can tell. But I know that doesn't fit your agenda.

What is the "other side"? This is the problem with partisan politics. We've had large groups of people swing so far into the extremist edges of a party that they really no longer even take on the identity of that party. It's just that they hate X party so much that they *MUST* be part of Y party. That's a mind trap and doesn't help anyone.

Extremists are extremists and use labels for convenience and attempting to pass as mainstream. On both sides of the left and right those extremist fringes boarderline more on anarchy than other major party affliliation.

 

[First]

Definitely agree with woolfe9998, the Trump supporters I know IRL are definitely in some form of a state of denial and don't follow any real credible mainstream news, and by mainstream I mean just totally uncontroversial local news broadcasts that will lead in with a national storyline. They're not even aware of that. They're certainly college educated, some of them, but almost universally ignorant of just accepted facts. There are low information voters on the left for sure, especially on the fringe (like Jill Stein supporters who are anti-vaxers), but the right definitely has a significant edge on reality distortion.

 

[vi edit]

Definitely agree with woolfe9998, the Trump supporters I know IRL are definitely in some form of a state of denial and don't follow any real credible mainstream news, and by mainstream I mean just totally uncontroversial local news broadcasts that will lead in with a national storyline. They're not even aware of that. They're certainly college educated, some of them, but almost universally ignorant of just accepted facts. There are low information voters on the left for sure, especially on the fringe (like Jill Stein supporters who are anti-vaxers), but the right definitely has a significant edge on reality distortion.

I saw this in town a few weeks ago...how to you even begin trying to understand, let alone reason with a mindset like this..

 

[fskimospy]

There are shitty people everywhere. Reddit has some truly shitty people who post terrible things about virtually every type of person. I don't doubt some here post there like that.

But to think it's only the repubs, whites, or Trump fans is silly and ignorant. Article make no attempt to show the other side that I can tell. But I know that doesn't fit your agenda.

Did you not even bother to read the article? It took the most active subreddit for Trump, Sanders, and Clinton, so saying it 'makes no attempt to show the other side' just shows you didn't read it or didn't understand it. Also, nothing in the article or in any post said that it was only republicans, whites, or Trump fans. Saying that makes you sound silly and ignorant. You're also transparently exposing your agenda. Go back and read the stupid article next time or at least learn how to hide the fact that you didn't better.

For someone who critiques other people's posts you sure make a lot of shitty ones yourself.

 

[momeNt]

 

[agent00f]

I think that's a good point, that the people represented by the_donald are likely among the more extreme of his supporters.

I think your article says that may be the case.

Still, even among the ones I know, and I count six: two are not bigoted at all, one is undetermined, and three are bigoted to some degree ("the orientals are over-running my town" and "why do gays always ask for these special rights and privileges" are two actual comments). Though the bigoted ones aren't in the viscious white nationalist category.

The one characteristic in common to all is being in denial. They are in an information bubble. It's not even so much disagreeing with criticisms of Trump as not even being aware of them. Just yesterday I talked to a middle aged Trump supporter, a client, about the Trump-Russia investigation. He knew nothing about it. The collusion theory to him was paranoid liberal hysteria but the only fact he was aware of was that Russia "had supposedly hacked the DNC." He wasn't aware of one single fact besides that. The weird thing is that this guy is college educated.

A lot of these people have thoughts that they're only comfortable expressing anonymously for obvious reasons. Even with anonymity, probably only with the like-minded.

One of the greater successes of western liberalism has been to turn racists into social pariahs, such that demographically speaking it'll die a slow death over the next few generations.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

The_Donald is basically 4chan/pol/ with less anonymity. This probably best describes young Trump supporters aged 10 to 30 or so.

And fwiw, hating fat people should be a social obligation.

 

[highland145]

Thankfully NY is getting their $$ worth.

 

[Moonbeam]

A lot of these people have thoughts that they're only comfortable expressing anonymously for obvious reasons. Even with anonymity, probably only with the like-minded.

One of the greater successes of western liberalism has been to turn racists into social pariahs, such that demographically speaking it'll die a slow death over the next few generations.

You are a dreamer, It will never die until people realize that they have been made to hate a part of themselves they can only openly hate when projected on the other. The other will continue to exist so long as we do not see we project our hate for ourselves on others. You suffer from this same illness and are bigoted against people who are just like you.
++++++++++++++++++++++

With regard to the post the liberal brain defect continues to be that many of Trumps supporters are low life scum bigots who deserve all the stigmatization they can get too brain dead to see who they are, which is well and true enough on the surface but relies on the pressure of social stigmatization to create a fear of being a bigot. This is just what religion does believing in its own one true form of morality out of millions of others, implying a dire end to offenders.

How about we try to find a way to cure people of self hate so we don't have to threaten people for the dad behavior that self hate creates. Real morality arises out of self love which manifests as love for everything.

 

[highland145]

OMG, liking Moonie...
You are a dreamer, It will never die until people realize that they have been made to hate a part of themselves they can only openly hate when projected on the other. The other will continue to exist so long as we do not see we project our hate for ourselves on others. You suffer from this same illness and are bigoted against people who are just like you.

Mirror, mirror on the wall. Who's the hypocrite-ist of us all.

Not pointing at you, Moonie, just the left.

 

[agent00f]

You are a dreamer, It will never die until people realize that they have been made to hate a part of themselves they can only openly hate when projected on the other. The other will continue to exist so long as we do not see we project our hate for ourselves on others. You suffer from this same illness and are bigoted against people who are just like you.
++++++++++++++++++++++

With regard to the post the liberal brain defect continues to be that many of Trumps supporters are low life scum bigots who deserve all the stigmatization they can get too brain dead to see who they are, which is well and true enough on the surface but relies on the pressure of social stigmatization to create a fear of being a bigot. This is just what religion does believing in its own one true form of morality out of millions of others, implying a dire end to offenders.

How about we try to find a way to cure people of self hate so we don't have to threaten people for the dad behavior that self hate creates. Real morality arises out of self love which manifests as love for everything.

Rather obvious the problem is instead that crowd love themselves too much given their merits. Eg. the typical white nationalist garbage who believe themselves better than obama.

Also just fyi that carrying water for them with armchair crackpot psychology isn't to your benefit any more than their efforts for trump.

The_Donald is basically 4chan/pol/ with less anonymity. This probably best describes young Trump supporters aged 10 to 30 or so.

And fwiw, hating fat people should be a social obligation.

fatpeoplehate specifically is basically coontown/kiketown with a different demo for the images. I suppose in a sense it differs because something can be done about fatness but it does appeal to the same crowd.

 

[highland145]

Sad.

But not so sad as to click the hidden link.




Ha, fuck you RBM.