New poll results show 53 percent of those surveyed couldn’t recall struggling harder to make ends meet
A majority of Americans now say the cost of living is the worst they can remember — and most of them blame President Donald Trump for their predicament.
Poll results published Friday by Politico showed 53 percent of those surveyed couldn’t recall struggling harder to make ends meet, up from 46 percent in November.
The poll by Public First also found 46 percent felt Trump was fully or mostly responsible for the state of the economy, unchanged from six months ago.
My best friend is a Republican whose wife is a hardcore MAGA supporter. He’s incredibly intelligent, she is the opposite. They are both willfully ignorant. Simple as that. He ignores the news not on fox like an ostrich with his head in the sand. It’s not because he’s stupid - it’s because it would force him to admit he’s wrong. That’s really hard for people in general. However the facts are still the facts. That’s where the sides diverge quickly.
Is the cost of living going up? It’s a simple question with a simple answer that takes less than two minutes to research, if the things I pointed out aren’t immediately evident. They are willing to avoid the truth when it’s not convenient for their narrative - that’s literally their entire schtick.
What I’m saying is, it’s not as simple as them being willfully ignorant. The Republicans in my life (all poor) have been trained from birth to distrust any information not endorsed by an approved Republican news source. They are trained from birth to understand that anyone who isn’t an Upstanding Christian™ is inherently suspect and and dissonance between what they say and what an Upstanding Christian™ would say is proof that they are ignorant or lying or both. The ecosystem establishes itself as the sole arbiter of truth. That’s why they resist outside viewpoints, they’ve been programmed. And they have to be deprogrammed.
I went to the same church as my best friend from birth. He was just as poor as I was. Both of our families were poor and surrounded by religious influence. We were taught in the church (a Southern Baptist church at that) to love one another, treat others with kindness, not to cheat, steal, covet, kill, and not to take advantage of others, in addition to many other good things.
My friend wasn’t into politics as a kid and neither was I. His wife is an immigrant from a Slavic country. She didn’t know about politics in the US until she got here. At some point our paths diverged politically. My eyes have always been open to the truth, I seek out facts and don’t rely on one source - I’m naturally distrustful of anything that’s not based in fact.
Our scenarios (you and I) seem very different. My friend and his wife are truly willfully ignorant. For all intents and purposes, by your logic I should be as well. But neither my friend or I were programmed at birth, he’s just lazy and doesn’t care. His circle of friends in his state are his comfortable echo chamber.
Anyone who believes the Republican party is made up of actual upstanding Christians are either ignorant or willfully so, just like my friend. You can’t truly support Jesus and support a rapist conman at the same time - they are diametrically opposed. Just like they overlook the rape, grift, hate, revenge, vote R and continue going to Sunday school, that’s willful ignorance. I don’t believe in the church itself anymore, although I still believe in God, Jesus, and his teachings.
Also, I never made this about politics to start with, you did. I appreciate you discussing this with me though and I don’t harbor ill will towards you, but I don’t agree with your take on it. Are some people programmed? Sure, I suppose. But they’re willfully remaining there in my opinion, no one is forcing their rigidity, that’s the choice they make.
Anyone, regardless of political background, should be able to easily identify the cost of living being worse under this administration, or they’re ignorant or willfully so. The signs are clearly there, plain as day, everywhere you look. I’ll die on that hill.
Edit - I just read your spoiler. For what it’s worth, I’m glad you chose life. I’m sorry you had to go through that.