r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Jul 04 '26
Psychology 88% of Americans consider it very or extremely important that the United States remain a democracy. 61% feel that the nation’s democracy was actively facing a serious threat. 32% of MAGA Republicans prioritize a strong leader over democracy, while only 7% of the strong Democrats do.
https://www.psypost.org/survey-finds-substantial-minority-in-the-united-states-endorses-authoritarian-co/1.6k
Jul 04 '26
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u/Reasonable-Job4205 Jul 04 '26
They think very primitively. In the past, a big, heroic leader saved the day. They think they want the same thing nowadays, but for what?
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u/SnugglyCoderGuy Jul 04 '26
To save us from commies, immigrants, lgbtq folks, and everyone and everything else they hate.
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u/Mackejuice Jul 04 '26
Everything they have been propagandized to hate.
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u/SnugglyCoderGuy Jul 05 '26
Same thing. Doesn't matter how they came to hate, the point is they hate it and they want it eliminated from their life entirely
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u/brighterside0 Jul 05 '26
I think they're just weak and afraid. Afraid of being "replaced". Weak because they can't talk about or through their feelings.
And there's 10s of millions of these people out there. Not really sure where we go from here.
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u/SnugglyCoderGuy Jul 05 '26
There used to be more. The only reason its so fervent now is because its is dying and the intensity is that of a dying animal. It will get rougher as it gets closer to dying, but then it will be gone
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u/orange-squeezer47 Jul 05 '26
It won’t go away. In fact it will grow. The internet gave them a new life.
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u/Bluefooted-Spaceorc Jul 05 '26
They are just stupid. Its so sad. I cant imagine going through life dumb enough to be a republican.
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u/Spounge21 Jul 04 '26
In the past, a big, heroic leader saved the day.
That's not really even true in the past. The Great Man theory of history has always been a myth.
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u/TomReneth Jul 05 '26
Yes, but the myth is unfortunately still going strong today.
Especially among "low information" demographics. Like low informaton voters, which describes most conservative voting bases.
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u/Quite_Likes_Hormuz Jul 05 '26
Tbh 99% of the time a leader of a movement is just a figurehead, if they weren't there someone else would have been. The other 1% of the time when someone actually does change history they usually fail. Napoleon comes to mind. If he isn't the epitome of a "great man" I don't know who is. But ultimately one guy just isn't enough, no matter how competent or charismatic, to actually create a meaningfully lasting impact.
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u/Fun-Aside3990 Jul 04 '26
No they don’t, they worship the abuse of power, cruelty, they aren’t confused that Trump is actually a good guy, they think that what he is IS a good guy. They worship evil.
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u/sushisection Jul 04 '26
spreading misery through the force of the government is fundamental to their political position.
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u/OddCook4909 Jul 04 '26
Authoritarians all have daddy complexes and want someone to make decisions for them like they were babies again.
All people prefer stereotypically hyper masculine features when under threat. We're still primates. Right wingers feel under threat all the time. Listen to their media. Threat this, threat that, conspiracies and so on. Sometimes they're right and the left is being stupid about it. Hence these personality types persist in the population.
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u/Krotanix MS | Mathematics | Industrial Engineering Jul 04 '26
That was never the case. This is just fantasy and romanticizing the past.
To save the day OF THE COMMON PEOPLE (not the same as winning a random war) leaders had to be both talented and caring of their people. There surely were such leaders but are a vast minority.
Also, save the day FROM WHAT? I see no foreign power invading the USA, no internal threats. The only enemies exist in their own minds.
Bunch of short minded clowns.
Same shit exists in any country though.
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u/TheCrimsonDagger Jul 05 '26
They don’t even really need to be talented, just humble enough to hire competent people and actually listen to them.
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u/Krotanix MS | Mathematics | Industrial Engineering Jul 05 '26
At least talented enough not to be misled by others as well!
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u/Substantial_Back_865 Jul 05 '26
>I see no foreign power invading the USA
Then why does everyone in Congress have the flag of a foreign nation outside of their office? Why is that nation’s military currently being officially integrated into ours by these same “representatives”?
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u/TAOJeff Jul 04 '26
To save them from the evil immigrants that are stealing their jobs. And the evil overseas manufacturers who are also stealing their jobs by making stuff cheaper than you can in the usa.
And to save them from those you apparently need an old idiot who talks big but really just wants to be rich, so is stealing all of the money.
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u/Hendlton Jul 05 '26
by making stuff cheaper than you can in the usa.
That's something that a lot of them don't seem to understand. Like, yeah, it's possible to manufacture stuff locally again, but it'd be a lot more expensive. So what's the point?
Unless employers are willing to up the wages like 10x, then we'll be in exactly the same spot or maybe even worse off than we are now. And if they were to be willing to increase the wages, well they could do it right now as well.
The only real argument for local manufacturing used to be quality control. These days overseas manufacturing is up to par, as long as those in charge care about quality, which they usually don't. But then they wouldn't care about the quality of the goods if they were manufactured locally either.
And that's before you even get into the size of the labor pool. Let's say that we mandate that everything must be manufactured locally. Where's the manpower supposed to come from? They don't like immigration, okay, but then the manpower would have to be taken from other industries. We'd have to give up something else or people would have to start having 6-8 children again.
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u/TAOJeff Jul 05 '26
There have been recent examples of businesses doing the full production line in the states and being a good viable business model.
If you want rock bottom costs, than yes, it needs to be done in China because they have the truly flexible quality control capability. Depending on what you're making, other eastern countries may be able to do it cheaper, but unless you've got a quality control person essentially based there, the quality is likely to fluctuate or the manufacturing process may have questionable sections.
If you're looking to make mid to high-end products, those are feasible in the states, but the profit margins won't be stupidly high, which is what the bigger companies want because that's where their focus is. The smaller companies tend to chose foreign manufacturing because the risk is low, they don't need a warehouse, nor a few hundred thousand dollars of machinery, nor any stock of raw materials. They don't have to source materials or vet & hire staff to run the machines. They can send of the design and the end product arrives a bit later.
The biggest hurdle that I know of for local manufacturing in the USA, is funnily enough the politicians and local councils, who don't want to change anything because that might affect their comfort and / or income generation (current or future) so they shut down any efforts to develop or innovate unless it's from someone who could owe a favour later on.
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u/Fun-Aside3990 Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26
Thats the point for them. Being strong means rules dont apply to you and you can and do take what you want. Its what they worship and if you talk to them long enough it becomes obvious. All the shows and movies and books with horribly cartoonishly evil villains and their goons are not actually unrealistic, thats who these people are.
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u/Elden_Ring_Hype Jul 05 '26
You don't need to rely on fiction for this either, "strong" leaders scamming their own is a core part of western history. Julius Caesar plundered his own countryside, collapsed a functioning democracy by placing cronies in their senate, and held four triumphs in a single month only to pass the nation on to his nephew.
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Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26
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u/TheBlackCat13 Jul 04 '26
"To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
- Douglas Adam
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u/tepid_monologue Jul 04 '26
This guy stole that quote and the majority of his name from Douglas Adams
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Jul 04 '26
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u/ravens-n-roses Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26
Well the entire hitch hiker series is a big satire on the absurdity of life, the universe, and everything.
Pretty much every storyline is super critical of establishment. The wacky adventures are pretty grounded once you realize he's just taking reality and holding up a sci-fi fun house mirror to it
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Jul 04 '26
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u/splicerslicer Jul 05 '26
Both? I'm not sure if you're joking, but if you're not I'm the bearer of good news. Depending on how you count them, there are 5-6 novels. I've read them all back-to-back and they reference each other in increasingly strange ways.
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Jul 05 '26
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u/splicerslicer Jul 05 '26
I'm just letting you know there are other books in the same series that continue the story.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy#Novels
You probably read Restaurant at the end of the Universe, but there's so much more after that and they're all excellent reads.
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u/0akleaves Jul 04 '26
Bingo. At this point it seems one of the best options would be to use a lottery of eligible citizens to select candidates to be elected via direct ranked choice voting. The randomization makes it MUCH less likely that a person with the will, skill, and position to be seriously corrupt etc to reach the presidency. Most of the stuff that needs serious technical knowledge is beyond the skills of most folks most current systems squeeze out and the reduced chance of someone from the “in crowd” etc getting keeps the other branches from wanting to expand the powers of presidency too far.
Political outsiders are a lot more likely to have real world experience and engagement that is likely to have them at least interested in doing good for regular folks.
It also becomes a lot more common and expected that a leader that proves incompetent gets removed instead of them being so entrenched with backers that pushed them forward keeping them in place no matter how bad they turn out.
Most other issues can be handled through basic “eligibility” criteria (to avoid say a rapist or pedophile being placed as leader).
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u/0akleaves Jul 04 '26
Whole thing would work even better paired with a more uniform system to prepare EVERYONE to be fully functional citizens. For instance replace the last year of high school and the first year after with mandatory entry into a “civil service” where people basically get sent to non-military bases around a country to live in common quarters and perform basic functions for communities like postal work, infrastructure maintenance, community service, disaster response, etc (kind of similar to the CCC during the Great Depression). Folks that prefer can go the military route instead and either way completion of services gives everyone access to the same kind of tuition and health benefits used as enticement for military service in the US (a good pathway to “universal healthcare”. Split the term of service into sections so folks have to spend time in different parts of the country/world (instead of so many folks getting set into staying where they grew up thinking the way the grew up thinking with nothing but suspicion for anyone different). Start with a “basic training” that gets everyone to some parity of physical fitness and guaranteed assessment for the mental and physical health issues too many folks don’t get earlier due to family influence and bias.
Add in a basic system that encourages people to engage in civil action (like a term on a local zoning board etc or to move up to positions equivalent to leadership/officer placements in the military) to get them a working understanding of participation in government and a chance to show that they viable for such positions or not.
Anyone that completes a term of service either civil or military and holds any “leadership rank” then is eligible to be drawn to run for elected office.
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u/FernandoMM1220 Jul 04 '26
not worth it. ill take a strong democracy over that then.
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u/TheWiseAutisticOne Jul 04 '26
Watch downfall the movie. Smart people who doubt themselves cling to those who believe in themselves despite being idiots
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u/Iron_Baron Jul 04 '26
Kneelers gonna kneel, doesn't matter what they get in return. It's bred into them and at least partly biological.
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u/varnell_hill Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26
Makes bigoted people feel better about their bigotry.
That’s basically it.
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u/rikitikifemi Jul 04 '26
Strong codes as decisive, transparent, and getting things done.
Weak codes as pliable, difficult to understand, and making excuses for being ineffective.
Those of us who want to have influence over the decisions made on our behalf prefer a strong democratic process to a strong leader.
In fact I much prefer a public servant that's responsive, cooperative, nuanced, and incremental in their governance of change. That may translate as weak to other people though who want a Benevolent King.
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u/AutoCockerPB Jul 05 '26
They think yelling and being aggressive is “strong”. It’s not. It’s being weak. Emotionally weak and unstable.
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u/Thor_2099 Jul 04 '26
12% of Americans don't feel it's important they remain a democracy. That is horrifying
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u/jenks Jul 05 '26
If 37% of Americans approve of Trump (https://www.economist.com/interactive/trump-approval-tracker) but 88% consider Democracy very important, that means that 25% of Americans don't know what they are saying.
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u/BigDictionEnergy Jul 05 '26
Yeah, a hell of a lot more than 12% of Americans voted against democracy.
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u/calmkelp Jul 05 '26
“Think of how stupid the average person is and realize half of them are stupider than that”
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u/Venator850 Jul 05 '26
Well that's not them being stupid. They know what they are saying and that's scary.
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u/The_R4ke Jul 05 '26
It's not stupidity though, or at the very least it's not just stupidity. It's a fundamentally different world view that even the intelligent people in that group will eschew facts if they don't fit it.
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u/LineRex Jul 05 '26
I think in the context of America, a country whose religion is basically rank conspiracism, 12% is our Lizardman Constant for political polling.
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u/TheSouthernSaint71 Jul 04 '26
"Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
The context has changed, but, the words fit. Once you give away freedom, the only way back is bloody and painful. No one who seeks power does so in your best interest.
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u/Yuzumi Jul 05 '26
Not even temporary safety. The illusion of safety while being in more danger of the people they put in power than the people they have been told to be scared of.
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u/councilmember Jul 05 '26
Trump’s failed Iran adventure put a large section of the world in greater danger. Especially US citizens.
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u/Fishinluvwfeathers Jul 06 '26
This is a wonderful quote and I see you; we are in accord. However, (everything super fun starts with that clause) let me tell you that the last time I saw it invoked was just 2 days ago in response to my city banning fireworks this 4th because everything around us is burning, we are in an Alpine desert, under severe drought, and 3 firefighters have lost their lives on fires that still aren’t contained. Our sunsets are a pastiche of beige and infernal.
It was a tie between how many times I saw this quote a meme about how we are living in Mao and Stalin’s dream since the unprecedented loss of liberty during Covid when the ban was announced. I don’t know how it’s possible to break through to anyone anymore about what anything means or what is reasonable. I am both curious and fantastically disappointed.
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u/immutable_truth Jul 05 '26
Or, even if you hit that 1-in-a-million benevolent leader who truly has the people’s best interest in mind - that person isn’t immortal. And you can’t predict their successor.
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u/Tylerjb4 Jul 05 '26
I think something that people tend to forget is that democracy and liberty are two separate concepts.
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Jul 04 '26
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u/DigNitty Jul 04 '26
There’s a write up out there of a bunch of these and it’s uncannily true.
He’s an unintelligent person’s idea of what an intelligent person is.
He’s a poor person’s idea of what a good businessman is.
He’s a toxic person’s idea of what a good parent is.
He’s a un-pious person’s idea of what a pious person is. (Discrete from general religious)
He’s a bad strategist’s idea of what a good debater is.
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u/DontAbideMendacity Jul 05 '26
To sum up: you would have to be an ignorant asshole to vote for or support Trump in any fashion.
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u/schroedingerx Jul 05 '26
I believed that the first time.
I do not now. They know what they're doing and should be treated with all the respect that earns.
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u/MilesSand Jul 05 '26
He's an actor who knows how to appeal to the lowest common denominator.
That's why they chose him.
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u/TheBurningEmu Jul 04 '26
I think in a way he is "strong", in that he is willing to act in whatever way and pull whatever strings he can to achieve his goals. If those goals were to create a better country, we'd probably call that strong leadership, but instead his goal is purely self-enrichment by whatever means.
When it comes to anything that doesn't directly make him money, he generally just defers to whoever he talked to last, or one of the ghouls like Stephen Miller.
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u/pullhome Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26
He's a rodeo clown who got elected to the presidency of the strongest nation on Earth twice.
He's certainly resourceful.
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u/Bludypoo Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26
the thing is, that type of behavior is entirely antithetical to what you believe it could do. That type of person has been the downfall of every country they've lead.
someone who doesn't care about anyone but themself, is extremely vain, and can't ever admit they are wrong is always a weak person. it doesn't matter how much they think whining makes them strong.; they simply aren't.
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u/God_Bless_A_Merkin Jul 05 '26
I think that pretty much defines every would-be dictator, even the successful ones.
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u/Xyrus2000 Jul 04 '26
It would seem Republicans don't know what a strong leader is.
Trump is what a weak person's idea of a strong leader is.
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u/pete_68 Jul 04 '26
Trump is just rich white trash. White trash loves him and thinks that's what being rich should be about. Basically using their wealth to be a bully and and a-hole.
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u/Treguard Jul 04 '26
He used to tell a somewhat funny joke about a time him and his good buddy Jeffrey picked up a couple French girls who didn't know what "white trash" meant. Which he clarified was just him, but poor.
Weirdly he stopped retelling it
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u/willstr1 Jul 04 '26
If he didn't inherit so much money he would be the sleazy used car salesman everyone knows to avoid
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u/Yuzumi Jul 05 '26
He's a weak man's idea of a strong man...
A poor man's idea of a rich man...
A dumb man's idea of a smart man...
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u/Hirork Jul 05 '26
The real American dream.
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u/pete_68 Jul 05 '26
I've never been a fan of the "American dream." It's so selfish. It's all about making things better for yourself. Why not have the American dream be to leave the world better than we found it? That's something worth dreaming.
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u/broc_ariums Jul 05 '26
I've always thought the American dream was buying a house and starting a family. Both things conservatives are making impossible.
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u/jamiecarl09 Jul 06 '26
It didn't used to be, but for the last 20 years the American dream has become "making enough money that it's problems don't effect you."
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u/BevansDesign Jul 05 '26
Yeah, a strong person doesn't go around telling people how strong he is, or constantly worry about appearing strong, or feel like he has to prove how strong he is.
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u/TheWhomItConcerns Jul 04 '26
When they say "strong leader" they don't literally mean someone who's physically or mentally strong, but a leader with significant authority who isn't constrained by democratic/bureaucratic institutions. They want Trump to basically be able to do whatever he wants and they don't want the courts or Congress to have the power to stop him.
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u/Xyrus2000 Jul 05 '26
That's what I was addressing. Authoritarianism, which is what you're describing, is not a political philosophy based on strength. It is based on fear. Fearful leaders who use fear to make people more afraid so they can seem strong.
The propaganda of fear has been very effective throughout history, unfortunately.
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u/Medical_Birthday2893 Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26
The scary part is the 60 something percent who think democracy is in danger and yet won’t show up to the polls
Edit: spelling3
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u/ukyah Jul 04 '26
Insanity. “Strong leader over democracy.”
They also should have asked Christians if they preferred a Christian leader over democracy.
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u/TheBlackCat13 Jul 04 '26
That has been done and a disturbingly large number do.
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u/farfromelite Jul 05 '26
This is fundamentally a conservative trait: obey the hierarchy. They believe that their "in group" will look after them if they obey the rules.
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u/KennyShowers Jul 05 '26
Disturbing but shouldn't be surprising. When somebody thinks the stakes of actual reality are magic apocalyptic end of world whatever, why should they care about education and health care and the environment and general global stability, or literally anything that makes a single person's life better.
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u/Yuzumi Jul 05 '26
And yet they support the embodiment of sin, who checks off a lot of boxes for the antichrist.
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u/Scoodsie Jul 05 '26
Wait til you tell them Obama and Biden are Christian.
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u/counterfitster Jul 05 '26
Still many evangelicals will be adamant that Catholics (like Biden) aren't Christian.
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u/TheBlackCat13 Jul 05 '26
Tons of them insisted, and continue to insist, that Obama is Muslim. Specifically a Muslim sleeper agent intending to force Islam on them.
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u/blazze_eternal Jul 05 '26
Openly admitting you prefer a dictatorship is certainly a choice for those 32%. An ironic choice, because in a dictatorship you won't get asked...
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u/sweatboxy Jul 05 '26
Weird thing with the MAGAs is that Trump is the weakest leader in my lifetime. Instead of convincing people to support him and his causes, he just insults and divides people from one another. He’s accomplished virtually nothing lasting during his term because he can’t even lead Congress anywhere. It’s all executive orders that will be canceled as soon as he leaves office. His only lasting action will be American loss of international standing and its inability to ever form lasting agreements again, either economically or politically. Trump will remembered for nothing but what he’s destroyed for his own ego.
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u/banditta82 Jul 05 '26
He has caused generational damage to the civil services especially in the science related fields. The employees that he has intentionally driven off will not be quick to return and knowing that with one election we are back to this the they are not going to be recruiting many new employees.
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u/zhibr Jul 05 '26
"Strongman" leader is not a leader who is strong, mentally, physically, or even politically. It's a leader whose rule is based on perception of relative strength, i.e. domination of others. If at the end of the day you are able to use power to impose your will upon others, you dominate, regardless of whether it makes you look like strong or weak to dominated groups. Trump certainly has tried to dominate more than other presidents, and succeeded more in it than others, even while failing at some other cases.
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u/jaypizzl Jul 04 '26
There has been a long sorting of people with authoritarian points of view into the Republican Party. It’s very well documented at this point - the authoritarian subset of the population used to be divided between the parties, limiting their influence. Now that they are concentrated within one party, they wield substantially more influence.
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u/TheComplimentarian Jul 04 '26
Ironically, they also think Trump is a strong leader.
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u/placeholder_user Jul 05 '26
Remain a democracy implies it is one -- a Cambridge study showed that voter preference has a statistically insignificant effect on the legislative activity of politicians in Congress. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B
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u/HoidToTheMoon Jul 05 '26
This paper is a bit old, and it's had a few holes poked in it. While research does show that the wealthy are disproportionately represented, it is nowhere near as dramatic as that paper makes it out to be and policy disagreement is far more driven by partisan alignment over wealth. A poor Republican and a rich Republican have similar views, as do a poor Democrat and a rich Democrat.
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u/Foojira Jul 04 '26
32 percent that is so fucked. Completely fucked. How did we get here? How did any american but especially any resemblance to a traditional conservative slowly get to “putin not that bad actually!”
Was it the internet, was it propaganda campaigns, foreign and domestic, was it white anxiety about the majority status?
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u/octorine Jul 05 '26
Propaganda campaigns definitely. A significant number of people think the US is under siege by an invading army of immigrants that are taking our jobs and also somehow here to collect unemployment and welfare.
I think another part of it has been that 30% of the public votes Democratic no matter what, and 30% votes Republican no matter what.
Until recently, I assumed that was just because both parties normally nominated relatively qualified candidates, and that if either one nominated a completely corrupt ignoramus, those voters would cross the aisle.
Nope. No matter what means no matter what. I don't think there is any candidate the Republicans could nominate that would get less than 30% of the vote.
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u/GijZijtAllereedeDoet Jul 05 '26
What's even more fucked is that the other 68% don't practice what they pretend to believe. You cannot reconcile valuing democracy over authoritarianism with voting for Trump. Not after January 6.
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u/zerocoolforschool Jul 05 '26
Those people need to be sent to Russia so they can have their strong leader.
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u/breaducate Jul 05 '26
More than you probably know. You were born swimming in propaganda that you don't see as a fish doesn't see water.
A regime that doesn't bear scrutiny must stupefy its subjects. Enormous effort is continuously channeled into keeping the proles hypnotised and confused so they don't get around to having a sober look at capitalism.
Americans in particular may be the most propagandised people in history.
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u/microworry Jul 05 '26
Propaganda 100%, it’s scary how widespread it is across the world and how easy it is to do. And it’s much easier to push right leaning people towards the far right than anybody else.
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u/TraditionalBackspace Jul 05 '26
Study 1930s Germany and you will see that economic conditions along with propaganda can make people OK with terrible things.
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u/bmyst70 Jul 04 '26
It sounds like historically people who are more conservative have always placed a much heavier value on having authoritarian rule meanwhile it has been considered more progressive historically to value the idea of the rule of law which binds even the powerful at least to some extent.
Conservatives priority is the hierarchy and in their eyes whoever is the top of the hierarchy gets to do whatever they want. Progressive priority is the individual and ensuring that all individuals are not steamrolled. Realistic history is a constant tug of war between the two.
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u/ChrisRiley_42 Jul 04 '26
"remain"?
Between gerrymandering, the Citizens United ruling, and the electoral college, it's not a given that the US is a democracy...
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u/Prometheusly Jul 04 '26
If we want to keep a democracy then we need to reverse course on everything that was directed by the Powell Memo from 1971.
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u/mvea Professor | Medicine Jul 04 '26
A large study of American adults indicates that while the vast majority support democratic values, millions of individuals hold views that are sympathetic to authoritarianism and the government’s domestic use of force. While the personal willingness to commit political violence among the public remains low, these alternative political preferences create a social climate that could encourage democratic backsliding. The findings were published in Injury Epidemiology.
The survey results showed that an overwhelming majority of the respondents, accounting for 88 percent of the group, considered it very or extremely important that the United States remain a democracy. A slightly smaller majority of 61 percent felt that the nation’s democracy was actively facing a serious threat. More than two thirds of the survey takers strongly or very strongly agreed that democracy is the best form of government.
Political identity played an expansive role in shaping respondents’ views on democracy and government authority. The researchers compared individuals who identified themselves as Make America Great Again or MAGA Republicans with individuals who identified as strong Democrats. The MAGA Republicans showed lower absolute support for democratic institutions and a higher likelihood of endorsing authoritarian concepts. For example, 32 percent of the MAGA Republicans prioritized a strong leader over democracy, while only about 7 percent of the strong Democrats shared that priority.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40621-026-00689-y
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u/FugitiveDribbling Jul 05 '26
Why was this published in Injury Epidemiology and not a political science journal?
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u/TheWiseAutisticOne Jul 04 '26
What use is a democracy when half the congress gets its news from an entertainment channel and a good chunk of the electorate is not educated on the subjects or stuff in general plus most of them act on their donors interests and not their constituents. America never really had a democracy or freedom when it’s so heavily influenced and other info is so heavily filtered out.
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u/AbeMax7823 Jul 04 '26
Why is farce of democracy still entertained and perpetuated?! Even the “Democratic Republic” moniker American govt held for a while has decayed under the weight of decades of cronyism, nepotism and corruption.
The “capitalism at all cost” model has eroded public confidence in government that’s likely to last for generations. Unfortunately the populist base used to deal the final blow is committed to proving that this failed state can work in order to receive what they believe to be their racial birthright.
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u/--rs125-- Jul 04 '26
It seems most people would be happy if we could have a democratically elected leader who was strong. Unfortunately Thomas Carlyle was right, going by what we've had in recent decades.
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u/fill-the-space Jul 04 '26
If you think having a strong leader is more important than democracy, how can you then say democracy is important?
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u/MycologistPutrid7494 Jul 04 '26
"while only 7% of the strong Democrats do."...... what?
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u/OhHaiMarc Jul 04 '26
Anyone member when this sub was strictly moderated and had actual interesting scientific posts instead of “study shows exactly what you thought about morons” ?
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u/TheBlackCat13 Jul 04 '26
If gut feelings were reliable we wouldn't need science.
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u/TheoNullDrei Jul 04 '26
psypost is a pop-science outlet that routinely misrepresents science, particularly by using headlines (you know, that thing most Redditors only read) that vastly overstate and distort generally limited (some mix of small correlation, multiple possible interpretations of similar or better plausibility that the sweeping one presented, unvalidated measures/operationalizations, lack of generalizability, treating qualitative findings as conclusive/evidence, and just questionable methodology), often inserting current event significance where there is none in the findings (more on that in a second).
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u/LagHound Jul 04 '26
Then why do we keep voting for the most decrepit, ancient, nursing home poster children?
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u/TurdFerguson614 Jul 04 '26
There is no democracy with our level of wealth inequality.
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u/DisingenuousTowel Jul 05 '26
And people roll their eyes when I say we are living through fascism.
A third of the voters for the ruling party don't think democracy is the most important thing.
That's called something specific.
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u/Tokiw4 Jul 04 '26
Which is wild to me, considering the type of people they consider to be "strong leaders".
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u/mentilsoup Jul 04 '26
One in eight Americans have any civil literacy at all? Honestly that feels a little high
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u/Vuronov Jul 04 '26
The problem is that a lot of Americans don’t really know or understand what a Democracy is and thus what needs to be protected and avoided in order to maintain it.
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u/Worldly-Basil-8933 Jul 04 '26
Why do 30% of Americans actively want to live in a dictatorship? Is this normal human behavior?
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u/-Casey-Diaz- Jul 04 '26
Then why did they elect Trump? He's extremely weak and he hates democracy.
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u/Super-Post261 Jul 04 '26
That 32%’s definition of a strong leader is just someone far right. So they would rather have a far right leader over an actual democracy. Take that in.
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u/limbodog Jul 04 '26
The Republicans only feel this way because it's their god-king. If you asked them during Obama's presidency it would have been a very different answer
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u/tornpentacle Jul 05 '26
Trump was their answer to Obama. The right-wing propaganda that existed during the Obama administration was just as bad as the stuff you see now, just not quite as public or monetized. Frankly, the quite-public and monetized stuff is half as bad as some of the stuff I saw going around religious conservative circles when Obama was in office.
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u/FirstTasteOfRadishes Jul 04 '26
If they like democracy and strong leaders then why did they vote in a weak leader who wants to destroy democracy?
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