r/politics • u/theindependentonline The Independent • 2d ago

‘Exhausted’ Americans are tuning out politics, according to TV ratings and new poll

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/ap-poll-americans-exhausted-politics-b2670238.html

2.3k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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u/HeyJerf 2d ago

Seems like Everyone’s bored of the reality tv politics. We can read articles with “here’s how” and “here’s why” at the end that are only there to piss us off I guess.

Editorialized news is dumb.

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u/Cormetz 2d ago

Also the daily "TRUMP WANTS TO _______" when he isn't even president yet is just exhausting. He's just trolling everyone with the dumbest things possible and everyone is reacting to it (all this crap about Canada and Greenland).

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u/thrawtes 2d ago

It would be easier to just go with "yeah the POTUS is a silly head, don't listen to anything he says" if the dude hadn't already literally been in charge once and actually done a bunch of crazy shit.

A monkey got ahold of a knife and stabbed a bunch of people. We got it away from him but now he has it back and he's dancing around with it.

Is he trolling us? Absolutely. Can we afford not to pay attention? Nope.

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u/ImpossibleQuail5695 2d ago

It’s not “don’t listen,” it’s more putting it into context. “Today, more nonsense from dotard, this time trying to bring back imperial America. Our panel is here, not to discuss what he said, but to suss out what he’s trying to gain from saying it.”

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u/like_a_wet_dog 2d ago

[discussion leader gets an alert on their phone]

"I'm sorry, team, I must take this. Hello? [pause to listen] Ok. No, we were... of course, I'm sorry. Thank you."

[turns to camera]

"We, and all moral and thinking people, are outraged he used those words. That's what's really at play here, he knows what he wants to do is good for America, but Americans keep getting caught up in his tone. Carl, what do you think of Trump's confidence in the face of his shortsighted critics?"

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u/hollylettuce 1d ago

Eh, as someone who does study politics. In autocratic countries, most people do just tune out political news. When you do not have a say in how the government operates, then you just don't pay attention. This is a bad thing that governments obviously take advantage of, but do understand that it is a form of self care. Reading about your despotic government is extremely mentally taxing at best. Politics in healthy democracies is mentally taxing, but people engage with it because they have a stake in it. When you don't have a stake and the government is just awful 24/7 , people just tune out.

I think people tuning out trump and politics in general can be seen in a somewhat similar light. Trump is an extremely mentally taxing person to listen to. Every day, he says something new that is awful. His opponents can only handle so much disgust before they go to focus on their hobbies. His supporters tune him out because tuning out his bullshit makes it easier to support him. This can apply to other unsavory aspects of our government right now. I don't envy the journalists who have to read and listen to him and his cronies everyday. They literally have to be paid to do that. The fact people still try to pay attention is proof not all is lost at least.

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u/PhinaCat 1d ago

You get me, you really get me.

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u/MoreRopePlease America 1d ago

If the "news" would actually try to educate people on what's going on and why it's important, then I would tune in more. There's no excuse for people not knowing what tariffs are at this point. There's no excuse for the inundation of "trump's policy ideas are horrible" stories that came out in the days after the election, when before the election nobody was trying to warm the electorate.

I vote. I feel helpless and scared. AOC losing the committee vote is discouraging. I'm disappointed Luigi got caught.

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u/hollylettuce 1d ago

Eh, I talked about this in the poli sci sub, but it's not the job of the news to educate people about civics. Civics class is where you learn what tarriffs are. Obviously we have history class which can also teach you a bit about civics, but it really isn't sufficient at doing that, because its history class. Its a different focus. However in many American schools civics class is not a required course. It wasn't in my highschool. It was just a single semester elective. At best the most civics education most people will recieve is a required intro to government course if they go to university.

This is a gap in knowledge that results in people self educating through the news. Which isn't the job of journalists. It ends up being their job, and its why every election cycle you see news articles explaining the electoral college explaining voter purges, explaining tarriffs, over and over like clock work. It could be remedied somewhat with some education in grade school. But we all know parents would complain about "indoctrination" if their kids were required to take a government class.

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u/PointsOutTheUsername I voted 1d ago

Trump is an extremely mentally taxing person to listen to.

It's only this way because we don't call bullshit, bullshit.

Literally if we removed decorum and started to treat him like the asshole, sexual assaulting, felon, racist, fat, spray-tanned, unfaithful loser that he is, maybe it wouldn't be as exhausting.

"But...but... we must stay civil!" Must we? I think it's the #1 reason we are here.

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u/currentmadman 1d ago

You forgot about the total lack of solutions from people who are supposed to do something about it.

“No, no we can’t shoot the monkey. Yeah we know he tore off that off that kids face like he was grabbing a wet wipe but those drunks ogling nearby teenage girls thinks he’s funny.”

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u/fractalfay 1d ago

You can still be informed by reading AP News and Reuters, without the editorializing. We’ve now spent 10 years with Trump as the main character; if you’re breathing, you’re either convinced he’s a complete piece of shit, or worship at his throne. There’s not really anyone sitting in the middle, so do you really need more examples of ways he talks about being a piece of shit, which acts as smoke and mirrors to the shitty actions happening behind the scenes?

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u/nod_23 1d ago

Can we afford not to pay attention?

to cable news? Absolutely. Corporate run media and the Corporate owned DNC have now given us Trump twice. you'll have to forgive me for not caring about their drop in advertising revenue. yes, i know they were excited for big ratings/donations post Trump's election. no, i don't care that they aren't getting it.

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u/aLittleQueer Washington 1d ago

This right here. It wasn’t even subtle.

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u/Radibles 1d ago

Bigger issue is widespread giving up from fatigue. Good luck ever getting anything that independent media ever dreams about fighting for which is usually pretty electorally ambitious when Americans have given up from exhaustion

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u/nod_23 1d ago

watching MSNBC and CNN doesn't "get things done." in fact quite the opposite. their purpose is to manipulate public opinion for their wealthy overlords. on top of that while you are sitting around watching tv you aren't doing anything.

organize locally in your community and work towards goals. seeing action will keep you motivated. changing your facebook profile picture and watching cable news won't get anything done. it will just lead to more exhaustion.

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u/Radibles 1d ago

Political fatigue affects local organizing. If the political environment is just numbness and disinterest all one’s hard effort in local organizing will fall on deaf ears. I don’t care about their ratings either but if no one talks about politics anymore for mental health reasons it’s a ripe environment for losing even harder in future elections

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u/esoteric_enigma 1d ago

There's no way the monkey would start stabbing people again though.../s

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u/bluehat9 1d ago edited 1d ago

I remember trumps last presidency. It was 24/7 talking about all the bad stuff he was doing and had done and the punishments he’d be receiving if we just watched the news a little more. None of it panned out and it would have turned out exactly the same if I didn’t spend all that time watching the news.

Me watching the news and being informed didn’t do anything except piss me off.

Especially when the other half of the voters are watching different news with different information and coming away with the opposite conclusions.

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u/Cormetz 2d ago

Using your analogy it's the news reporting that the monkey has the knife but is trying to stab the refrigerator. None of those things will happen and it's just dumb. We should pay attention when he actually proposes something real.

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u/thrawtes 2d ago

None of those things will happen and it's just dumb.

If you had said this in 2016 about some of the very real things that happened in Trump's first term I probably would have agreed.

A million Americans dead in a pandemic the president denied existed?

The capitol building being violently invaded by a mob carrying the Confederate flag?

Dozens of other little examples of absolute batshit unprecedented stuff?

So yeah, if he says he wants to invade Greenland I take it seriously. It wouldn't be the craziest thing he's done.

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u/Cormetz 2d ago

Cool, once he is sitting president and actually does something besides tweet it I'll pay attention.

The pandemic was mismanagement, not something he announced on Twitter or planned. January 6th was planned but mostly quietly and everyone expected it to just be another tally until they started to march.

What am I supposed to do with the information that he wants Canada to be a state? Is there any serious intent behind it? I'll wait until there is anything real instead of worrying about each stupid thing he says. He thrives on attention.

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u/darkninja2992 2d ago

The problem is we can't really tell what stupid bullshit he wants to follow through on. I mean, he actually tried that wall and look how that went. Got into a pissing contest with north korea too. It's like he'll propose 20 things, 15 of them would ruin a lot of people's lives, but he'll only flow through on 3 of the 20. So now we're watching the roulette wheel spin to see what it lands on