Ever wondered why so many Americans voted for Trump?

[Omegstrat6]

Once upon a time, it was foreigners like Borat that took the p iss out of Americans but these days it seems some Americans are questioning the brightness of some of their citizens for themselves. Following on from "Can you name that country?" (most members of the public interviewed struggled to know where Canada was let alone Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan) is this: (hope link works!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H6tl_9e-2k

[Omegstrat6]

Don't know why this didn't work (though I am something of a technophobe . If you search "Jimmy Kimmel- Will people lie about reading declassified files that haven't been released yet?" it should come up. Even if some of it was staged (and I don't believe it was) it made me laugh

[Leicesterbaggie]

I realise that this is a very sweeping statement but on the whole I do not think that, as a nation, they are over bright. Tin hat time!

[Omegstrat6]

I realise that this is a very sweeping statement but on the whole I do not think that, as a nation, they are over bright. Tin hat time!

How we measure "intelligence" is quite a contentious subject. IQ tests, for example, really only generally reflect the quality of education and resources available so that poorer countries -such as many African ones for example-score much lower than so called "developed" ones. Doesn't mean that Africans are less "intelligent" by any means.

Similarly, whilst many Indians may be leaders in fields such as IT, because India itself has such a high population coupled with high poverty levels, it scores far lower than other Asian countries such as Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong or South Korea which regularly top global rankings for both IQ tests and Student academic results.

As a "developed" country, the United States roughly ranks alongside many Western European nations (though not as high as Canada &#128513 in such scores. Certainly there are many Americans who are intelligent-but it does seem to be far too easy to find those seemingly unable to do much joined up thinking! (Then again, I suppose you can find examples of this in most countries. I mean, think of our own Dingles&#128512

Having known a few who have taught in the US, common complaints against their education system are the very limited world view it can allow students and the impact that politics and religion can have (very much depending on county/state). The level of ignorance amongst some students and aspects of the syllabus were what shocked these tutors most.

[SCOOP115]

I worked abroad for a while and got in with the American expat community and workers from a VERY large organisation that had a facility there. One guy I got on with quite well and had been about a bit (ex Vietnam veteran) fully admitted to me that the average American is lost on "worldly" goings on. They were so insular it was unbelievable. This applied to his own family he admitted.

[Dubbag]

Decent question. Probably fed up funding other countries. Funding mostly NATO. It happens. People feel they want more control and to move away from the spiraling feeling that goes on. Just look at the UK. They wanted out of Europe for more control. It happens.
The world has been moving more and more into a very active state of flux since the Soviet Union collapsed and compounded by the collapse of capitalism in the banking collapse of the 2008 era. Repercussion still being felt.
Dictators are always looking for the weakness in democracy. When democracy weakens, dictators grow stronger as been played out today.
Ask yourself this. Why has no country is Europe gone into war economy mode? Why with a war raging in Europe and in the middle east have countries just been running down stocks of munitions?
Americans may be insular but they are not fools. They have lost hundreds of thousands of young men on European soil in the last century and most likely are not interested in it happening again and who can blame them.
By the way....I am still pyssed that Ireland thinks neutrality is a great policy. Is it fcuk!!
I have said it many times here before....bunker down. It's going to get a lot worse, for sure.

[kettering_baggie]

That’s a good post, Dubs, I really do fear that another European war is inevitable, just a question of when. The main hope is that one won’t break out until Trump is replaced by a more reasonable president. Britain should be spending much more on defence; the defence of the nation is every government’s number one priority but sadly, Starmer and his crew are a bunch of morons. How the hell did we end up being controlled by this idiot?

[wbaliquidator]

My view is that
Yes quite a few of the above but …
Swing voters often like to make a change anyway, that why there are swing states! They feel a level of control, to make a change by swapping to the other party.
Trump appeared more charismatic to many more voters than Harris and most certainly Biden.
Trump worked the social media better, especially with Musk behind him. Trump, Vance, Musk and many MAGA types appeared on massively popular youtube channels like Joe Rogan etc and were able to promote their narrative without out any proper hard interrogation by experienced journalists.

Trump pumped out lies and propaganda that was never really challenged even with the mainstream news outlets. Fox news for example was blatantly bias towards him. He presented USA as a rotten declining country, crime our of control, no job security, galloping inflation all caused by Biden when in reality in comparison they were actually top of the pile with economic growth, markets up, and better than average inflation.
To be honest Narcissists like Trump are very manipulative and believable.

[stargazer_1962]

A very heavy thread and definitely Off topic.
In answer to the question no, I don't know why they voted for him, but that's their concern not ours.

[kettering_baggie]

A very heavy thread and definitely Off topic.
In answer to the question no, I don't know why they voted for him, but that's their concern not ours.

Actually, it is very much our concern. Trump may well do a ‘deal’ with the murderer Putin that could make Europe’s future far more uncertain. The last appeasement deal done in Europe did not go well.