Views of capitalism have gone from 30 points positive in 2019 (57% favorable to 27% unfavorable among registered voters) to just four points positive today (50%-46%).
The poll also shows 65% of voters agree that “the system is rigged to favor the wealthy.” That’s up from 56% in Trump’s first term.
What’s most striking about both data points is that some of the biggest shifts occurred among Republicans.
While 72% of Republicans viewed capitalism favorably back in 2019, that’s down to 61% today. And the percentage of Republican who have a “strongly” positive view of capitalism has gone from 54% to 41%.
I wrote elsewhere
I’m thinking as creatures of habit, when immediate stressors ease, most people revert to their default, which is usually how their childhood caregivers conditioned them. I believe that’s why Southern Reconstruction failed, fascists were readily accepted as “the good ones,” and we settle for concessions, rather than change, then fail* to guard those, so we ended up here in naked fascism, again.
Perhaps I’m too cynical and could lean into a little more faith in people.
Maybe a pinch of optimism can’t hurt… We managed to get here from the caves. We do need to pay as much attention to the inner work as we pay to the outer work, though. Maybe that’s our next evolutionary leap.
We probably won’t get to see, at least through our own current eyes. Evolution occurs under environmental pressures, right? Survival of the fittest speaks to adaptation, not brute force, as far as I understand it. And what may be a seemingly harmful mutation today is tomorrow’s clever adaptation.
Imagine apes’ early emergence of opposable thumbs. I wonder if mothers at first thought they were tumors and left young to die, or chewed the growth off the paw?
I wrote elsewhere
You’re not too cynical. You embrace reality.
Trusting in people — when they’re conditioned as you perfectly stated — is a fool’s errand.
Maybe a pinch of optimism can’t hurt… We managed to get here from the caves. We do need to pay as much attention to the inner work as we pay to the outer work, though. Maybe that’s our next evolutionary leap.
Interesting thought about evolutionary leaps. How is it that some made the leap but not all? Will they ever?
We probably won’t get to see, at least through our own current eyes. Evolution occurs under environmental pressures, right? Survival of the fittest speaks to adaptation, not brute force, as far as I understand it. And what may be a seemingly harmful mutation today is tomorrow’s clever adaptation.
Imagine apes’ early emergence of opposable thumbs. I wonder if mothers at first thought they were tumors and left young to die, or chewed the growth off the paw?
Maybe the fireworks mishap crowd is just a cousin from a previous generation. /s
I appreciate your response. I find this all so interesting. Cheers.
I appreciate the exchange as well. Cheers!
Eta: Maybe the fireworks mishap crowd is just a cousin from a previous generation [full stop, because we all are).
If I were my own cousin I’d be the coolest damned cousin I’d ever seen! Unlike City Ryan, with his opposable thumbs!
15th cousins, 25th removed, I should have clarified!