Notable majority feel the country is headed in the wrong direction, and only 27% approve of his job performance

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/37869106

Notable majority feel the country is headed in the wrong direction, and only 27% approve of his job performance

Donald Trump’s standing with Hispanic adults has dropped notably since he took office at the start of the year, according to a new poll.

Polling by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research suggests growing unease among a voting bloc that was crucial to his 2024 re-election victory. The October survey shows that 25% of Hispanic adults now hold a “somewhat” or “very” favorable view of Trump, down sharply from 44% in an AP-NORC poll conducted just before he began his second term.

At the same time, the share of Hispanic respondents who believe the nation is headed in the wrong direction has risen from 63% in March to 73% in October.

  • dmention7@midwest.socialEnglish
    91·
    2 days ago

    The flip side of that is that propaganda is used because it’s proven to work. Yes, we should encourage everyone to individually think critically and be alert for propaganda. But I don’t think blaming individuals for falling for a concerted effort to hijack their brains is helpful.

    I find the argument you’re making uncomfortably close to the ones conservatives use to argue against social safety nets and to avoid discussing systematic reform: namely that people need to take responsibility for their success or failure, and that if someone doesn’t succeed its solely due to individual failings.

    In both cases, the idea is that it’s more helpful to address the negative systematic forces than just to blame individuals for falling victim to those forces.

    • krashmo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      61·
      2 days ago

      How are you going to fix those systemic issues without getting people to see through the propaganda?

      • dmention7@midwest.socialEnglish
        3·
        2 days ago

        I think that’s a different question than the point I was trying to make. By all means, educating people as a way to “de-program” and shield them from propaganda is probably the most effective defense, followed by going after the propagandists themselves.

        But however you go about trying to fix those systemic issues, it’s important to remember that falling for propaganda isn’t solely an individual failing. Intelligent and powerful people have been attacking education and unbiased news sources (among other things) for decades, precisely with the goal of making people more susceptible to their propaganda. Maybe they should know better, but a working class person, whose main focus is feeding and housing their family, is at a severe disadvantage in an information war.

        • kelpie_is_trying@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          4 hours ago

          All of this is very true. It’s also worth noting that intelligent people are sometimes more susceptible to propaganda because they often have the ability to rationalize their decisions more cleanly and effectively than others, while remaining just as vulnerable to the hazard as anyone else.

          Holding perpetrators of this system accountable is obviously a must if we want to truly better this situation, but deeming them beyond repair is walking a razorblade of a line that ultimately plays into the very same mentality that got us here to begin with. Imo, odds are real high that this kind of tribe mentality will be the choke point that ensures we never reach any desirable next step in our social evolution.

          It is easy to see things through an absolutist lens, but rarely actually helpful. The real, living world takes place between the black and the white. Every single inch and ounce of it. Until we, as a species, figure that out and start acting accordingly, we will more likely than not continue on our death spiral.