62% Say the Political Climate (US) Prevents Them from Sharing Political Views | Hacker News Reader

62% Say the Political Climate (US) Prevents Them from Sharing Political Views

cato.org

This is strange.

In some place like Mainland China you might get hassled by the cops for expressing your views. That can happen in America too but you have to at very least hassle your neighbors first.

The problem in the us is you can say what you want and nobody cares. Go ask for investment in broadband and the cable company will hang up the phone.

I think many Trump voters are ashamed to speak their views because they are personally ashamed of those views. If you are an evangelical Christian for instance you pray to God for forgiveness every day. One of them asks Trump when was the last time he prayed for forgiveness and Trump said "never".

Of course if Trump had ever gone to a church service and participated he would have said the Lord's Prayer and asked for forgiveness. He probably sat through it 10 minutes before he was questioned.

Trump would not ask for forgiveness because he would never believe he did anything wrong. George Floyd was "born again" and for him it changed his life for the better, and I am sure Floyd asked God for forgiveness the day that he died.

And that is it, you have some people who are normally very concerned about right and wrong, witnessing, leadership and people's character and they have gotten behind a person of very poor character and they feel cognitive dissonance and it hurts.

Conservatives suffer the same dissonance with the Coronavirus because conservatives are more afraid of filth and sickness and contamination than liberals, not to mention they tend to defer to authority figures such as the medical establishment.

It causes them a lot of suffering to be part of a tribe which violates what they believe in and if they were forced into a real conversation and values clarification they would not find it easy.

As someone who voted for Trump in 2016(and won't this year)... This doesn't sound right to me. I'm not afraid to speak my political opinions because I'm ashamed. I'm afraid to speak my political opinions because the Overton window has narrowed to the point where discussing beliefs could affect my career prospects very negatively. Ideas like wanting the deportation of illegal immigrants, like thinking affirmative action is racist, like that states should be stronger than the federal government or that we shouldn't outsource absolutely every single job we can, these ideas are somehow interpreted as racist, sexist, or <whatever>ist.

These are pretty standard beliefs held by most conservatives, but I _still_ would risk my career by stating them publicly. Because of this, I don't speak up. But I do vote.

I think your assertion that Trump voters are ashamed of their views (or ashamed of sharing their views) is totally incorrect.

The Trump supporters that I've spoken with stand by their views 100%, but don't think it's worth the hassle of arguing with progressives. Most recognize that Trump is not a good guy, but they feel his campaign platform was what the country needed. For many right-leaning people, I personally think many who voted for him were voting for what they considered to be the lesser of two evils.

In my experience if you have an opinion that doesn't fall in line with progressives then you're labeled (as TheAdamAndChe noted) an *-ist. We figure its easier to avoid the headache of being shouted down and labeled something we aren't.

As an example of this, wecan agree with the sentiment "black lives matter" but disagree with the BLM organization then we're called racist. All of this despite the fact that our reasoning could be the fact that the organization's leaders are self-admitted "trained" Marxists or that it pushes intersectional/identitarian politics with its platform. What's more, any attempt I've made or seen others try to make at having a conversation with those that we disagree with ideologically ends in shouting, ad hominem attacks, and in some cases pushing false narratives to our employers in an attempt to (quite literally) ruin our lives. Ironically the ones that refuse to have civil discourse with us seem to pride themselves on how tolerant and open-minded they are. And all of this happens because we disagree on a few key issues.

Liberals somehow think Conservative Evangelicals are horribly conflicted about voting for Trump. But we don't have to fool ourselves into thinking Trump is a paragon of virtue -- we just have to believe that voting for him is better than voting for Democrat X.

Is Trump crass, ignorant, and embarrassing? Yes. But we like him for the same reason the Liberals (really) hate him so much: He is advancing the conservative agenda much more effectively than any President in decades. Even John Roberts is trying to put on the brakes!

One piece I found particularly fascinating "The share of moderates who self‐ censor increased 7 points from 57% to 64%, and the share of conservatives rose 70% to 77%, also a 7‐ point increase. Strong conservatives are the only group with little change. They are about as likely now (77%) to say they hold back their views as in 2017 (76%)."

I do wonder the effect this has on polling in the U.S. - if conservatives are the ones most unwilling to express their true opinions, say on who they are voting for, then someone like Trump might be underestimated in the polls again and liberals might be in for another shock come November.

It’s true. I would like to feel free to exercise my constitutionally protected right to protest in public, but instead I must now worry about being kidnapped by government goons in unmarked vehicles. This is an actual, textbook, flagrant 1st amendment violation.

Oh, wait, we’re you talking about people saying mean things about conservatives on Twitter again? No, I’m not such a delicate flower that I would let that bother me in the slightest.

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