Wait, wait, wait, so half of Americans are happy subsidizing Musk's Starships that cost $200 million each to just blow up, but think healthcare for everyone is wrong?
That is so messed up.
@MeanwhileinCanada No, no, they're hoping he'll be on one of them
@henstridge @MeanwhileinCanada I'd be okay with 'under'.
@henstridge @MeanwhileinCanada Actually...
That's basically it. It's this big step forward in the progress of mankind if he gets to buy himself a ride to Mars. In the meantime, he's going to fix our government for us. He's a very nice, very brilliant man to sacrifice his time like that.
@henstridge @MeanwhileinCanada Wait, isn't that the other half?
@MeanwhileinCanada most Americans think they have a better chance at being a millionaire than getting debilitatingly ill
We’re an optimistic nation
these days, both are possible to the same person, a million is barely enough to cover some conditions.
@Katylou @MeanwhileinCanada "stupid", the word you were looking for is "stupid". The American school system has been engineered to produce consumers, not citizens, for decades.
@MeanwhileinCanada we let right wing propaganda torch this country unfortunately.
@rockmastermike @MeanwhileinCanada 2025: the year I playing Incubus's Crow Left of Murder album on repeat, 24/7.
@MeanwhileinCanada A staggeringly huge proportion of Americans have had their brains fucked with. And that's even without Skum's brain chip. 
@Eetschrijver This is under-rated.
I am still breaking free from the programming I grew up with. The rest of my family is still in it even though they are dependent on the entitlements on the verge of being cut. Conservatives have played a very, very long game.
@solitha
They have. It's all profoundly sad.
@MeanwhileinCanada
@solitha @Eetschrijver @MeanwhileinCanada ye get wee kids to pledge allegiance to a flag and hang up photos of your presidents everywhere. That’s not a conservative thing. You’re ALL in the star-spangled cult.
@allancavanagh I personally don't recall the PoA after elementary school (the Cold War) and can't speak to current frequency. I don't doubt it surged after 9/11. I also disagree with having children recite it by rote and kids have the right to sit it out.
1/2
@allancavanagh I haven't a clue where you got the idea we have photos of our presidents everywhere.
I wouldn't have the faintest idea offhand where to find one. I'd have to look up some place with a historical connection to a particular POTUS, and even then it would likely only be a photo or painting of that one.
2/2
@Eetschrijver
@MeanwhileinCanada
And they weren't even very bright to begin with.
#
@MeanwhileinCanada roughly 1/5th, actually.
Only 140 million people voted of 340 million people (though, to be clear, not every one of the 340 million is eligible to vote), and of them roughly half (about 70 million) voted for trump (and, by extension, musk).
Of course, that means that there are 70 million people walking around who think that healthcare is for quitters and _any day now_ they're going to become rich.
@b4ux1t3
I honestly don't think the group of people that expect to get rich is that large. Most of that 70 million actually (at least for now) have access to suitable health care and don't have the ability to put themselves in other's shoes to empathize with them. It's a campaign of fear that keeps them where they are more so than dreams of rewards.
It honestly comes down to fear propaganda (mainly on social media) that keeps them in their right-wing echo chamber.
@MeanwhileinCanada
@bobkmertz @b4ux1t3 @MeanwhileinCanada Many MAGA voters are affirmatively racist and will be very happy if people of color suffer.
@VirginiaHolloway
I agree... That is also a factor.
@b4ux1t3 @MeanwhileinCanada
@b4ux1t3 @MeanwhileinCanada
Please don't make the mistake of counting abstainers as non-Trumpers.
They are "don't cares", which means they accept whatever the people who _did_ vote decided.
Non-voters are equally responsible for the result by their absence, and can only be counted on the winner's side, whoever that may be.
@IcyBee @b4ux1t3 @MeanwhileinCanada
Republicans have put an enormous amount of time, money, and effort on voter suppression which has played a huge factor. Democrats have not made it a priority to combat that despite the fact that it would dramatically increase their voter base.
Instead, their focus has been to incorporate more and more conservative planks to their platform.
Why do you suppose that is?
@MeanwhileinCanada Not that this is great either, but I cannot overstate how few American voters have any idea that is happening. I am not at all joking that in the week before the election, internet searches for whether Joe Biden was still running were popular.
@MeanwhileinCanada Also, bc of gerrymandering/voter suppression/electoral college/etc, what an actual majority of citizens is in favor of is generally irrelevant. For ex, a robust majority of Americans support legal abortion and have for decades*, but elected republicans have been acting like they have a mandate to ban legal abortion nationwide, pushing state-level bans across the country and floating the idea of a national ban that virtually no one wants.
@MeanwhileinCanada@ohai.social
THAT is America.
Why do you think the dump is so jealous of & wants to control you?
Probably just for easier access to Alaska, but you can never tell with that degree of Lo-IQ dingbat.
@MeanwhileinCanada
Part 2: so that Musk can develop the technology to build a slave empire on Mars.
@MeanwhileinCanada not half. less than ⅓ of the population. USA’s voting system, especially for POTUS, has never been democratic.
@blogdiva @MeanwhileinCanada Broken by design.
@MeanwhileinCanada
Most Americans have been convinced they think that, because right-wing extremists keep telling them they do.
It makes no sense that the only place you can buy insurance is through an employer.
@MeanwhileinCanada That's probably not how they would frame it (because their framing is a product of #ConservativePropagandaMatrix bullshit).
In the USA, access to services, both public & private, is determined by skin color, gender, and ethnicity.
Segregation wasn't just in the Deep South.
MAGA billionaires bought an election to keep it that way.
Timothy Mellon is the patron of RFK Jr because he hates a century where black & brown people are permitted rights.
https://popular.info/p/the-reclusive-plutocrat-who-became
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/06/timothy-mellon-texas-border-wall/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/17/timothy-mellon-donor-trump-rfk/
@Npars01 @MeanwhileinCanada I thought it was Musk!?
@allynkhine @MeanwhileinCanada
Timothy Mellon funded Trump and RFK Jr.
Musk shares his Apartheid-era views with Peter Thiel, Larry Ellison, Timothy Mellon, Charles Koch, Barre Seid, Tim Dunn, Farris & Dan Wilks, & the Uihleins.
Billionaire bigots, every one.
They all hanker for a bygone era where rich white men ran the world.
@allynkhine @MeanwhileinCanada
Musk contributed as heavily as #KochNetwork and Tim Mellon.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/31/elon-musk-trump-donor-2024-election/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/23/big-oil-445m-trump-congress
https://www.opensecrets.org/elections-overview/top-organizations
https://www.opensecrets.org/elections-overview/biggest-donors
Destructive billionaires were so scared of Biden's progress in a global minimum tax, antitrust, Russian sanctions, climate action, & regulatory oversight, they banded together to fund fascists into office.
https://www.opensecrets.org/elections-overview/donor-demographics
@MeanwhileinCanada @DemocracyMattersALot More like half of Americans get their news from Faux & other BS sources & have no clue how much tax money the melon gets.
@MeanwhileinCanada everything about America is messed up right now. It's disgusting.
@MeanwhileinCanada day 3 of waiting for your sources regarding Wendy’s donations.
I think the problem is most people in America neither know what's happening nor care to find out. They're just floating along, working, eating, sleeping, mostly oblivious.
@MeanwhileinCanada facts aren't spelled out in any rational way to the American people. Even the US congress, apparently, isn't aware how money is allocated or where it goes? Musk is gonna find out! Now people think their hard earned $ is being sent to a pool of dead people because explaining how a DB grows over time doesn't soundbite well. Better turn all those chips into blips on a blockchain. That'll fix ya!
@MeanwhileinCanada I’m fine with taxes paying for govt contracts for spacex if they make sense, but I don’t think anyone other than musk is paying for starship development
Although there was one nasa contract a few years ago for starship, about 3 billion dollars I think it was
@MeanwhileinCanada
The problem is that politicians don't want to rock the boat when it comes to those healthcare companies ripping people off. Because... you know... if everyone got helathcare then that would be "radical left wing Marxist communism" instead of making sure that people get the care they need and are healthy. We are in fact brainwashed. And Musk is a douche. He is destroying the environment right now with those rocket launches... He doesn't care at all.
@MeanwhileinCanada Stupidity is a lifestyle choice.
@MeanwhileinCanada If by “happy to”, you mean “forced to”, then yes.
More accurate to say:
- 34% approve of Musk
- 33% despise Musk
The remaining 33% of American voters are either disenfranchised or so distrusting of the system that they've checked out and don't vote. If just a small percentage of those folks had re-engaged in the last election we have a nice smart woman running the country right now instead of Mango Mussolini and Manic Musk.
Elections matter!
@MeanwhileinCanada Yeah, the other half is pissed.
I mean, I support space spending. And yes, rockets blowing up can provide valuable information.
But healthcare for everyone would actually SAVE money, but it would mean insurance CEOs would make less money, so it must be, by US definitions, evil. Hardships must only be borne by the poor, never by the wealthy.
@MeanwhileinCanada What is your source for this data?
@MeanwhileinCanada even most of the folks that voted for him arent' in favor of subsiding large corporations.
@MeanwhileinCanada a lot of people begrudgingly vote for Republicans because of the abortion issue only.
it's awful here i hate it
@MeanwhileinCanada no not half. 22.7% of total pop voted for trump vance
@MeanwhileinCanada there is a lot of propaganda in our country that demonizes the “lazy poor,” while idealizing “genius billionaires.”