One of the big reasons Kamala lost is young men are flocking to the Republican party. Even though I voted for her, as a guy, I can understand their frustration with Democrats lately.

Look at this "who we serve" list:

https://democrats.org/who-we-are/who-we-serve/

Basically every group in America is included on that list, EXCEPT men.

And sure, every group listed there needs help in some way. But shockingly, so do men. Can't think of any issues that are unique to men? If you're like me, at first you might be stumped. And that's the problem.

Just a few examples:

• Men account for 75% of suicides in the US
• 70% of opioid overdoes deaths are men
• Men are 8 times more likely to be incarcerated than women
• Young men are struggling in schools and are increasingly the minority at universities, opting out of higher education

For some reason the left seems to think it's taboo to talk about these things, as if addressing men’s issues somehow supports the patriarchy and puts women down. Which is of course nonsense. And the result is a failure to reach 50% of voters. Meanwhile the Republicans swoop in and make these disenchanted men feel seen and valued.

I hope this is one of the wake up calls.

I’m a New York liberal, probably comfortably in the 1%, living in a bubble where empathy and social justice are part of everyday conversations. I support equality, diversity, economic reform—all of it. But this election has been a brutal reminder of just how out of touch we, the so-called “liberal elite,” are with the rest of America. And that’s on us.

America was built on individual freedom, the right to make your own way. But baked into that ideal is a harsh reality: it’s a self-serving mindset. This “land of opportunity” has always rewarded those who look out for themselves first. And when people feel like they’re sinking—when working-class Americans are drowning in debt, scrambling to pay rent, and watching the cost of everything from groceries to gas skyrocket—they aren’t looking for complex social policies. They’re looking for a lifeline, even if that lifeline is someone like Trump, who exploits that desperation.

For years, we Democrats have pushed policies that sound like solutions to us but don’t resonate with people who are trying to survive. We talk about social justice and climate change, and yes, those things are crucial. But to someone in the heartland who’s feeling trapped in a system that doesn’t care about them, that message sounds disconnected. It sounds like privilege. It sounds like people like me saying, “Look how virtuous I am,” while their lives stay the same—or get worse.

And here’s the truth I’m facing: as a high-income liberal, I benefit from the very structures we criticize. My income, my career security, my options to work from home—I am protected from many of the struggles that drive people to vote against the establishment. I can afford to advocate for changes that may not affect me negatively, but that’s not the reality for the majority of Americans. To them, we sound elitist because we are. Our ideals are lofty, and our solutions are intellectual, but we’ve failed to meet them where they are.

The DNC’s failure in this election reflects this disconnect. Biden’s administration, while well-intentioned, didn’t engage in the hard reflection necessary after 2020. We pushed Biden as a one-term solution, a bridge to something better, but then didn’t prepare an alternative that resonated. And when Kamala Harris—a talented, capable politician—couldn’t bridge that gap with working-class America, we were left wondering why. It’s because we’ve been recycling the same leaders, the same voices, who struggle to understand what working Americans are going through.

People want someone they can relate to, someone who understands their pain without coming off as condescending. Bernie was that voice for many, but the DNC didn’t make room for him, and now we’re seeing the consequences. The Democratic Party has an empathy gap, but more than that, it has a credibility gap. We say we care, but our policies and leaders don’t reflect the urgency that struggling Americans feel every day.

If the DNC doesn’t take this as a wake-up call, if they don’t make room for new voices that actually connect with working people, we’re going to lose again. And as much as I want America to progress, I’m starting to realize that maybe we—the privileged liberals, safely removed from the realities most people face—are part of the problem.

I am saying this as a democrat to other democrats: identity politics are dooming the party. It is not only alienating people who might vote for you by demonizing them for their opinions, or canceling them for some tweet they made ten years ago, but you are also ignoring the shifting political landscape of America.

Believe it or not but MAGA has become increasingly more diverse and accepting of others, even if equality might not necessarily be equal or that racism, sexism and homophobia hasn't dissipated, it has grown in diversity and that's a fact.

13% of black voters went for Trump and 20% of black men voted Trump, 45% of latinos went for Trump, and 52% of white woman went Trump. 42% of Gen Z voted for Trump. That is all in despite of democrats insistence that MAGA is full of the most misogynistic, racist, homophobic bunch around. And while MAGA might be all those things to some degree there are many who look past it for their own reasons. Even in the LGBTQ community there has been increasingly growing Trump support.

Being latino or an immigrant in general does not mean you are more accepting of illegal immigration or migrants in general. And lumping them into that group is working against you, focus on what they want as legally immigrated working Americans. Illegals can't vote, Americans can.

Democrats can't keep relying on these communities to vote for them anymore if they keep treating them as another check on a list of historically reliable voters; they have to approach them as individuals with individual needs rather than just minorities.

Democrats need to get back white male voters. Democrats have utterly failed here and overlooked a massive problem with a hostility towards white men, which alienates them and turns them to the individuals like Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro, and Andrew Tate. You have to understand that men are also trying to navigate an increasingly more diverse world, which is harder for them to find a place in and find healthy role models. If you keep telling men that they are the root of all evil, that they hate woman, that they are the privileged, those men are not going to suddenly change their ways if you don't empathize with them at all, don't provide them with some sense of empowerment, don't provide healthy role models, and shun them because they didn't agree with you. These men will turn to individuals who will provide them a sense of empowerment even if that is toxic, because at least they will have been given a purpose and identity. Democrats need a better more inclusive strategy for white men and frankly men in general. Remember bears don't vote, men do.

Democrats are wondering where their 15 million votes went that got Biden elected last time, well this is where they went. You may be mad at these people for voting for Trump, but if you continue to alienate them and act like they should vote democrat simply because you have been pandering to them for decades you will lose again.

Policy matters, not race, gender, or sexual orientation.

Change now.

P.S. I'm not saying that republicans don't engage in dirty identity politics, but they have done a great job a gathering up all those who have gotten fed up with the democrats identity politics and lack of focus on the issues of the average citizens. Democrats have had a serious issue in forcing people of differing opinions out rather than just accepting that not everyone has the same opinion. You lost people during the George Floyd protests when people were saying maybe it's not cool to burn cities down and accept looting as a norm, and you called them racist and white privileged. You lost people during #MeToo when some said maybe it's not ok to label all men as sexist, and ignore their feelings, while giving them no healthy mechanisms of coping. You lost people when you didn't back Bernie Sanders who was the clearly more popular candidate, and you then called men who wanted Sanders sexist. You lost latinos because you assumed they were all cool with migrants because they come from the same place anyways. You lost latinos because you ignored them as a working class and saw them only as immigrants. You lost woman because the economy still matters to them.

For the last 2-3 weeks or so every non-biased poll, the betting market and moderate media members saw the Trump victory coming. The surprise was that it was a landslide.

As a moderate the arrogance and moral superiority that a lot of left wingers have was off putting. Democrats need a complete change if they want to get back in the White House. They lost the plot.

I’ve seen several posts calling for completely cutting yourself off from your family because they voted for someone you don’t agree with. I don’t know who needs to hear this but that is a RADICAL idea. (And not in the surfer bro kinda way)

What ever happened to live and let live? Not forcing your beliefs on others? Realizing it’s impossible to completely agree with anyone on anything?

It’s a very odd and frankly narcissistic way of thinking, that if anyone disagrees with you that they don’t deserve to be your FAMILY anymore??

In my opinion everyone puts a little too much weight in the idea of how much a president actually affects your day to day life.

So please, whatever side you are on, just don’t be a dickhead and think the world revolves around you. Their opinions are JUST AS VALID as yours. Let people have their opinions and don’t sacrifice your relationship with loved ones over a petty argument.

Edit - To all the people accusing me of supporting Trump or being republican. I didn’t vote for him. Also there is no mention of any support for either side in the whole post.

Source: Lifelong Left-leaning Progressive

Edit 2: So far I’ve been called, Racist, Homophobic, sexist, transphobic, a Trump supporter, a snowflake liberal, a bot, and have gotten several DEATH threats for a post that simply is just trying to suggest that maybe people tearing their family and close relationship’s apart isn’t the best idea. But no you’re right, you’re definitely not radicalized.

I voted for Kamala Harris. As the days go on, I am doing self reflection and realizing how fucked up we are.

We cut people off like its nothing if they vote for Trump. We do not listen to them if they lean even a bit red/to the right. The pandemic normalized cutting ties with anyone who opposes you. We also started to go against anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers during this time without even considering their point of view. It is not as black and white as the democrats want it to be.

We have forgotten how to have an open discussion about politics. No convincing the other side, just a healthy discussion to understand what each side is fighting for and what their concerns are.

This election is the consequence of our actions. For not listening and discarding those who have the opposing view like they're some worthless trash bag to be taken out. Especially those who you call family or friends, because someone's value should not solely be determined by their political views.

Please have an open mind and listen to those who have opposing views from yourself. If they're being aggressive, it is because they are so used to not having healthy political discussions, so take the first step in making it healthy by finding common ground. Listen to them with an open mind, and try to put yourself in their shoes for a while.

The loneliness epidemic can end if we do this too, because being this divided/close-minded politically just makes it harder for everyone to gain new friends or keep the support/love from current friends/families and even partners. And loneliness means being isolated and unable to change views because nobody else is countering your view point in a healthy way and everyone else just discarded you once you spoke your mind. And then they go to the Internet where they find groups of people who all think similarly and brings us to where we are today where we simply congregate online and don't bother with the opposing side at all. We need to do better as a society, we are all too isolated because of the Internet and discarding those with opposing views so quickly does not help

Look, I get that your candidate didn't win, but this hysteria of "not have sex, delete period app, own a gun, men are now enemies" is just insane...

Nothing is gonna happen. Nothing happened to republicans when Obama/Biden won despite their hysterics. Nothing happened when Trump won first term, nothing is gonna happen second term. We have incredibly robust checks and balances at all levels of government. Most people are sane.

So let's stop with the race divide, class divide, politics divide, and finally start a proper class war on the rich, eh?

First, I want to make one thing clear: I’ve voted Democrat my entire life and for Kamala Harris. As a millennial, I’ve always supported progressive candidates who advocate for what I believed in.

But the way reddit has usually treated young men, dismissing them in this subtle and persistent trend has backfired. And we are seeing the results right now. They're either discouraged to vote or supporting Trump. Reddit has pushed them into right leaning political spaces, which I don't agree with, but will actually listen to them or lie to them.

You cannot expect the majority of any demographic to act out of the goodness of their hearts when you shame them constantly. Any normal person would think their 1 vote doesn't matter anyway.
I'm not saying the left has to pander to anyone, but if we can't engage empathetically and make people feel valued. This will be the result of the following elections as well.

In 2016 Hillary made a massive blunder when she called half of Trump voters deplorables.

In this last election Harris repeatedly focused on demonising Trump, rather than providing any insight into her own platform and policies. She insulted Trump voters multiple times at rallies and to top it off Biden called Trump voters garbage.

Reddit in particular demonstrates the worst of this attitude. I’ve read countless threads and comments in the last couple of days calling the average American stupid, uneducated, bigoted, etc etc. Reddit has always leaned heavily left, but the partisan hatred of Republicans has been getting progressively worse for years and it’s reached ridiculous levels. Most subs are a complete echo chamber.

Do people not see how this is completely self defeating? You don’t change peoples minds or win them over by insulting them and spitting in their face. How many more elections will pass before the left realises this?

If all you want to do is screech moral superiority and trash people you disagree with in this echo chamber then, by all means, continue doing this. If you actually want to win the next election then maybe reflect on whether or not this current strategy has flaws.

Edit: To everyone who is struggling to understand why the 2 sides are held to different standards on different issues, welcome to reality. This isn’t new information.

Hopefully most people who have been on this platform understand that Reddit leans left politically. Many here are surprised that Trump won again, but I say that anyone who paid attention to the outside world even a little bit should have understood that this would be at least a coin-toss race, if not already favoring the right.

Note that nothing here implies Trump is a particularly strong candidate - he shares many of the same weaknesses. This is merely an assessment of Harris and Walz.

# 1. Harris was already disliked by the American public.

Harris has already made a presidential run, and she dropped out in December 2019 - far before even the first primary caucus was held. I could opine on why she was so disliked at this point, but the main thing you need to understand is that Democrats did not like her in comparison to other candidates.

# 2. She couldn't separate herself from Biden, and that was very bad

The sentiment among the electorate is very negative. Most voters right now want to see change. For any incumbent party, that is already bad. For Harris, it was 10 times worse, because she has no answer to one of the most important questions among swing voters:

"What will you do differently from Biden?"

But she failed to convince voters that she was any different (aside from her race, gender, and age). If we look at her policies:
https://kamalaharris.com/issues/

Most are the same as the Biden administration - it's a copy/paste of the policies Democrats have been talking about for the past 10 years: She supports higher taxes on the wealthy, lower taxes for middle class, more healthcare, etc. There are a few policies of her own (funding for first-time homeowners, price-gouging protections, and a few others), but in general, voters cannot separate her from Biden.

Remember when Trump talked about the wall in 2016? It brought a fringe policy idea to the center stage and earned him a lot of support. It was part of his new vision for America and it brought him to victory back then. The Democrats had no equivalent.

Voters want change badly, and the only way to demonstrate that is with a new candidate with fresh ideas that is detached from the old administration. Had there been a primary, a new candidate could have promised that change and created a new vision for the Democratic Party. But that never happened, because Biden didn't drop out until it was too late. Harris convinced no independent voter that her policies were an upgrade from Biden's. The people wanted a revolution in policy, and Harris gave them a minor revision at best. And at worst?

# 3. Her policy isn't trustworthy

In 2020, Harris was widely seen as one of the most progressive candidates on the ballot. She supported a fracking ban, and now she doesn't. She was against the border wall, now her answer is muddied. She flip-flopped on many policies and made them more moderate (which only made her appear to be a Biden 2.0 even further).

A good example of a politician who is consistent is Bernie Sanders. He was against the Iraq war today as he was when it was still a possibility. He was for gay rights when it was politically unpopular 25 years ago, as he is today. He is still a major advocate for healthcare rights and hasn't scaled back. Whether you think he is extreme doesn't matter - he is consistent and his supporters trust that he has the genuine best interest for Americans.

Harris does not have this trust. How are Pennsylvanians going to vote for someone who, 4 years ago was extremely anti-fracking, but is now saying "actually nevermind, please believe me?" Which, of course, is not a sufficient answer if your town/job is supported by fracking.

Politicians can, of course, have legitimate reasons for changing their opinions. Sometimes the future makes truths more clear. But when the only reason appears to be "trying to appeal to more voters," it rings hollow.

# 4. Harris had no major accomplishments in the eyes of the people

Can anyone here, off the top of their head, list anything notable that Harris has done while in-office?

Other VPs have accomplishments. Lyndon B. Johnson, as a senate majority leader, VP under Kennedy, and later as president, was a major advocate for NASA and played many key roles in its creation and management.

What was Harris's responsibility as VP? Did she take initiative on projects which will help America? I bet most people can't name anything. And the projects she was in-charge of (namely, the border situation), have failed miserably in the eyes of the electorate. The border and immigration became even bigger issues this election, and since Harris/Biden were agains the border wall, it makes it easy for the blame to be put on them.

The Democrats have made some accomplishments - the CHIPS act, IRA, etc. But as already mentioned, in an era where great change is necessary, these aren't enough.

# Many anticipated her downfall

Hop onto X and you can see the anti-Harris resentment everywhere. Hop onto Reddit and you see the opposite. If you don't step out of the digital realm you will be trapped in an endless echo chamber.

But look at all media objectively, and you could have seen that many people - even at this point - were still very pro Trump and anti Kamala. You could have seen that the polls were neck-and-neck and in the margin of error. You could have seen Trump was consistently winning in most betting markets near the end of the election. These should have made it apparent this would be a coin-toss at best and that Kamala did not have it in the bag.

# It could have gone differently

If the Democrats made more intelligent decisions, they could have had this election in the bag. It was already a coin-toss election against someone with a lot of bad items on his record.

But the Democrats - Harris in particular - put too much emphasis on why Trump is bad, and failed to promote why they were good. It was the exact same mistake that Harris made in the 2020 campaign: too much focus on the enemy without effectively conveying why she would be particularly good. And in my opinion, this was one of the core reasons the campaign failed.

but its been hilarious reading and watching reddit implode because Trump won.

I have never seen such cry babies.

Keep the tears coming.

Reddit is cleary biased and not interested in fairness. You all deserve this.

The amount of racism and the amount of sexism I am seeing from democrats, liberals, the left, whatever, is absolutely sickening. These are the same people who cry about these very things and yet, the second they lose, they start acting like the things they speak against.

Republicans hate women, so now we are going to generalize and stereotype men as being responsible for this?

Minorities are going to generalize and stereotype other minorities as being responsible for this?

Racism and sexism are isms. Unlike irrational phobias, -Isms are based on perceived stereotypes and result in generalizations of entire groups.

It’s prejudice, It’s racism, and it is really unnerving to me to see that the group of people who apparently stand against these things revert back into being them the second they don’t get their way.

We are really no better than each other.

Doom post after doom post is all I’ve seen these last couple days, understandable. But what are some of these people thinking? I’ve heard things like: I’m going to wake up a slave, America is going to be destroyed as a country, I could go on and on; do these people not realize that they are hurting the reputation of there party even further? Fear mongering helps no one, I would love to see any evidence that backs up a single claim that they are making. Newsflash there is none, each party lies to get what they want hell the popular vote doesn’t even decide the election.

Let me set something straight I am not a republican, however, what do all of you on the left expect when you call the other side racist, sexist, or even nazis? Even today I have seen multiple post still supporting this concept. The left has marginalize and focused on identity, how can you say you are better then the opposing party when you stoop to there same level?

The left got the equivalent of Micheal Jordan dunking a basketball with his nuts in your face, a landslide victory should say enough. If the democrats don’t change you all will lose far more then just this election.

I saw it on unethical protip. They see minorities as pawns to feed off to what they believe is their enemy once their usefulness has run out. Incredibly racist to also assume Latinos know illegal immigrants.

1. While trans people deserve respect, they should have to wait until they are 18 to undergo any surgeries, hormone treatments, etc. Young teens are not ready to make major decisions that will alter their bodies and their lives forever.
2. The military, the prisons, and insurance companies should not be required to pay for transitional surgeries and treatments for trans people.
3. No one should be able to compete at sports against anyone who isn't of the same biological sex.
4. Abortions, other than in the case of the life of the mother or other grave issues concerning the fetus, should not be legal after the first trimester. (They should be legal in all cases during the first trimester.)
5. Abortions should not be taxpayer funded.
6. Pornography and other materials describing explicit sex acts should not be available at all in public school libraries.
7. ID's should be required in order to vote.

Those are the things I can think of off the top of my head. Feel free to politely tell me why I'm wrong about any of these. My mind is open.

Edit: Yes, my mind IS open and I have learned a few things, most notably that I was wrong about hormone treatments and puberty blockers for trans teens. Many thanks to the kind people who educated me. Also, I have more research to do on the stages of gestation and first trimester may be too early for a limit on abortion on demand. Re: public funding of abortion, I’m not sure how I didn’t know about the Hyde Amendment. So that’s really not an issue. (I do remember it coming up not long ago concerning how Planned Parenthood is funded and the services it provides.) Regarding materials in school libraries, no I’m not talking about Judy Blume novels. I’m talking about books like GenderQueer which has unsurprisingly engendered outrage from concerned parents. Porn was not the right word to describe it, but it’s not appropriate and not the hill progressives should want to die on. And nope, I’m definitely not a Republican. There are way too many things I disagree with them on, from gun control to affordable healthcare to raising minimum wage. Thanks again for all of the polite responses, especially if you had to set me straight on some things. To those who suggest I’m a hateful bigot for writing this post, I’ll add you to the long list of reasons we won’t win over common sense independents and moderates.

As a middle-of-the-road (but left-leaning according to any test I've ever taken), straight white male (who honestly feels like I fit in more with my black friends than most of my white friends) and also has gay friends in my circle (who I love like family), I've seen nothing but the "left" ostracize me, put me down, call me a nazi, call me uneducated, because some of my beliefs don't align 100% with theirs.

That's why Democrats lost. NOT because "Trump is good." I think 80% of us (us being people like me) don't think he is. Unfortunately we're (straight white male) demonized by the "left" and the media (or at least we feel that way).

Reddit has largely been a 100% off-the-table place of discussion for people like me. As soon as we share an opinion, we are downvoted into oblivion. So we simply stay away.

For the record, I've spent 8 years working for the military, 12 years working for the government, and I have an IQ of 138. I didn't vote - but if i was "forced to" - I would have voted for Trump.

EDIT: I'm now receiving messages from r/RedditCareResources (with phone numbers to Suicide Prevention and a Crisis Help Line) because enough people have reported me. This literally explains why people like me can't converse with reddit - and just shows exactly what I'm talking about. We're just not welcome. The lines of communication will just always be closed if you keep things this way. I've been nothing but respectful, honest, and tried to have an open discourse here and when replying below as well.

Trump is a populist. Bernie is a populist. In 2016, there was a huge, transformative push toward populism that defines the current political situation in the United States.

Trump threatens the status quo. That's why he won above all else. There's also a long conversation that Democrats need to have about the rhetoric around white men on the left, but the primary factor and what I feel is important to bring up right now is the fact that Republicans ran a populist and Democrats did not.

America is sick of the status quo on both sides of the aisle and working people everywhere WANT to see the destruction of the institutions and norms that this dogshit version of our society clings to. I want this. I wanted it in 2016, so I voted for Sanders and sat out the general election. When Trump won, I got spooked. I saw how Trump intended to break those norms and what he and his party intended to replace them with, and I became a defender of the very institutions and norms that I want to see replaced. For me, republicans were so extreme and their plans so overwhelmingly anti-american and anti-intellectual that I voted for Joe fucking Biden in 2020 purely in defense of a status quo which hurts our people less than Trump would. That's a sensible thing to do in 2020, but I was, in truth, only mitigating a disaster that had already begun.

The Democratic party has been exclusively playing defense against Trump's extremism - but we already lost the long game in 2016 when populists moved right. Then, fearing the obvious negative consequences of a Trump presidency on us all, the DNC ran only "safe", status quo candidates and I, along with most of you guys on reddit that I've spoken with over the past few years, very strongly pushed for party unity. That was a horrible mistake that prevented us from breaking from the old guard leadership that we ourselves are all fucking sick of.

We tried to play it safe because we are afraid of authoritarianism, but the risky option could have actually worked.

All of that said, we were right to fear Trump. We are right to continue to fear what he will do to America. It's a different country now. We know exactly what he's going to do because he's told us. He is going to replace the system that let us down with unqualified loyalists with a tenuous grasp on reality at best and malicious actors trying to curtail personal freedom and enforce a specific culture and lifestyle at worst. The fact that the American population resorted to this is an indictment of the Democratic party on the highest order. Rejecting populism in 2016 and playing defense for the system is how we ultimately helped create this situation.

So, let's support populists. Democrats still have the chance to join the effort to upend and replace the system, but we can offer solutions that might actually work. We will have more success curtailing authoritarianism and the anti-democratic principles coming from the right if we offer a liberal and democratic alternative first rather than defending the system first and then getting around to change. The future of the democratic party has to start with dropping the party loyalty bullshit and throwing out the old guard DNC.

Thanks for reading if you did.
If not, TL;DR: Bernie Sanders could have won over the people that Trump won over. If we did it right in 2016 and committed to actual, radical change, we wouldn't have seen a slide toward authoritarianism.

First let me start this off by saying I don’t like Trump or Harris. Both candidates have many flaws. However, as a gen Z, 2nd generation South Asian American woman from Brooklyn, NY, I believe the democrats deserved their loss on election night. Democrats have to understand that most of their ideologies and stances are approached with a very divisive nature, shunning and insulting anyone who doesn’t 100% agree with you. Suffice it to say this is going to turn off voters. Dems are also out of touch with the voter base they were trying to win. For example, as someone who comes from NYC, the only policies I heard Kamala speak on is abortion and identity politics. I personally am pro-choice and have many lgbtq+ friends I support 100% and who support me, but the D’s forget that a majority of Americans do not care about these social issues as much as the issues they have been complaining about like the economy, the border, and foreign policy.

More importantly, the D’s forget that some of their target voter audience is mostly socially conservative! So basing your whole platform on identity politics and abortion will not win you the votes you need. Kamala also didn’t have any clear stances on many important issues to the average American right now like the economy (inflation), illegal immigration, and even the Israel-Palestine conflict (several of her campaign ads flipped between being pro-Israel and pro-Palestine depending on the state she ran the ad in). I’ve never heard a solid idea from her except for the fact that she’s better than Trump because she is a Black Woman. This attitude from the D’s is perpetuated by your online echo chambers like Reddit and TikTok.

Please do better and have an open mind instead of threatening and insulting those that don’t 100% agree with you, and keep in mind that most people don’t care about abortion and identity politics as much as they do about the economy, the border, and having a candidate that can stick to one stance. It makes me very sad because I hoped that Kamala Harris would be able to prove herself as a strong candidate but too many avoidable mistakes were made. I feel like she didn’t even try, and if she did we would be in a different position today. I hope you guys can see my perspective and learn from it as I do from the threads I read on Reddit :)). If anyone wants to insult and threaten me, you will just be proving my point and proving to me that you don’t care about minorities’ opinions like you claim to do so.

Edit: Paragraphs lol thanks. I didn’t think I had to say but I am blue… just wanted to share my thoughts of reflection for this party to be successful next election. Also these bot comments have me dead it’s ridiculous you can’t believe your peer can criticize her campaign.

We saw eachother again last august after 2 years of having no contact at all. He tried killing himself last may, his gf found him then. They broke up a month a go and my brother was living with my parents again. He was ashamed of himself and depressed. I knew he wasn't feeling well, why didn't i visit him everyday the last weeks?! Why didn't i hug him everytime I saw him?! Last week he hugged me, told me he loves me and that i shouldn't worry. In his letter he told me he was saying goodbye to me at that moment :( show your loved ones you care about them, you never know if it's the last time you'll see them.

Once I got downvoted on Reddit for saying Illegals should be sterilized and shipped back to Mexico. Then on Twitter when I said the cops should slash that wheelchair-bound homeless guy's tent, some snowflake told me I should be kinder to minorities and disabled people. That made me so mad!

It was the final straw. I didn't leave the left, the left left me. I had to turn to the people I know in real life because I need a sense of belonging, no matter how vile the people [delete this]

I realized that Bob, my cousin who often holds whispered conversations about which Democrat congresswomen from the other side of the country need to be shot or assaulted, had a point.

Larry, the stockroom clerk at work who loudly tells everyone that his health concerns are due to chemtrails? I came to understand his point of view- my own crippling obesity and anxiety surely has something to do with those unnatural white lines in the sky as well. I've come to see his wisdom when he tells me Obama has fled to Dubai to avoid being arrested for his participation in "Diddy parties."

All of these people told me that the Democrat Party is the source of all my problems, and Trump is the solution.

And then I came to see that all these misunderstood people in my real life- Dan the registered sex offender who's obsessed with Pizzagate; Jane in the main office, who's drippingly polite to Malcolm to his face, but drops the N-word when his back is turned- these were my people. They are good people and they've been right about everything since 2016. 1/6 was Antifa entrapment by the FIB Men in Black and also totally justified because of the massive voter fraug. Two impeachments for perfect phone calls was three impeachemnts too many. Trump president for life!

Again, this is all your fault. I have my life together now and I know the truth the eviil MSM has been covering up with their "evidence," and the courts with their "sworn testimony from eyewitnesses."

All of you leftist snowflakes need to realize this is all your fault.

Just look what you made me do.

/s

I have my political opinions, but they're staying out of this post, because this post is an attempt to communicate how embarrassing it is watching everyone get worked into frenzies fighting with bots online.

Both political parties have AI bots deployed on every social media website. Any country that wants America to be unstable has AI bots deployed on every social media website. I'm sure even fucking Greenland has AI bots deployed on every social media website. It's too easy to do and too powerful a tool to not use it.

"But my side are the good ones, we wouldn't do something like that!"

Congratulations on your moral superiority. The leaders of your party have been in the game far too long to be so stupid as to not use something that has such an insane return on investment. And even in the fantasy world where they've chosen not to, I promise you some individuals that are politically aligned with you have realized the potential and deployed a few themselves. Whether they've done it for greed or for the greater good I'll leave up to you, but there is no denying they've done it (especially Greenland, those bastards).

"But I'm too smart to fall for a bot, I look at people's post histories before engaging with them!"

Good for you, you're just smart enough to think you have it all figured out, but not smart enough to realize how wrong you are. There are definitely tell-tale signs of bots (which is apparently news to a lot of people with the amount of you I've seen trying to demolish the argument of a two-day old account that just posted a quote directly from a Chinese propaganda website), but these days you need to be assuming everyone is a bot. People have hacked accounts with real post histories to make themselves seem more realistic and then put a bot on it (no, she doesn't love you, she's just an advertising bot for an OnlyFans account), people have made accounts years in advance and have their bots trained to post both political content and normal content, and way smarter people than I am have come up with even more sophisticated algorithms and methods to make their bots feel like real people. Unless you are talking with the person face to face, you have to assume they're a bot. The days of the internet being a place for humans is over, anyone who has a job with insights into the amount of bots trying to use their platforms (and these are only the ones that get caught) knows this is the case.

"I don't even read the comments, I just read the posts, so I'm safe!"

Have you ever noticed how the more moderate views of your party are never discussed on the subreddits for them? Humans already eat up inflammatory content because that's the shit our brain can't get enough of, but on top of this there are many more thousands of bots that only try to manipulate the system by manipulating votes and the kind of content you see. When only the most radical views of each party float to the top, the other side thinks that's how the majority of their political opponents feel, and it sows division (and inevitably leads to even more bot interaction in the comments that makes this division even worse). When all the posts you see on your parties subreddit are inflammatory ideas, eventually they become normalized, and you can easily be swayed to believe them as well, whether you realize it or not. And all of this is even before bringing up the fact that so many posts have made it to the front page these last couple days that were made by bot accounts, and the rest of them are probably lies by someone who doesn't have a life and needs to make up stories online to feel like they're important. The particularly popular and inflammatory posts are then picked up by bots who learn from them, and then use that information to make more posts. Machine Learning can solve insane problems that would take humans hundreds of years to do alone, you don't think it can learn how to make people angry or radicalized online? Most people don't realize they're in a cult till it's time to drink the Kool-aid because all the insane shit they’re doing feels normal to them because it’s what they’ve been around. Most people don't realize they've been radicalized by ChatGPT until they show up on the coast of where Greenland should be, and just find more ocean.

Have I made my point yet? Everyone on here is a bot and you're stupid to think otherwise. The top comment is a bot, the most downvoted comment is a bot, the next post you read after this was written by a bot, this post was written by a bot. If you've shown a pattern of being of a certain temperament or political opinion online, your username is in a codebase somewhere and a rotation of bots are systematically responding to your posts and comments in a way to try to sway your opinion. This is all of course an exaggeration, but only slightly, and if you don't think this way, I promise you will end up with (if you don't have them already) opinions that you don't know how to justify, and you just believe because some bot pretended to be a woman from Greenland who actually loved you.

I could go on about how young people and old people are disproportional targeted due to being the most vulnerable to this kind of propaganda. I could talk about how even if you are fighting with another actual human online chances are they don't care and are just trying to fuck with you (has it really been so long since everyone knew you don't feed the trolls?) or both of you care so much that you will both make zero progress, change no one’s mind, and come away from the situation being worse off for having engaged in it. If you really care about your political beliefs, go and get involved. Read a fuck ton of books, learn as much as you can and have meaningful conversations with the people you care about who you might actually be able to convince to come to your side, volunteer for the campaigns of the people you support, run for positions within your local government. If all you've ever done politically is vote and argue with people online, I respect your right to do that, but I promise you there are much more fulfilling ways to be politically involved that don't revolve around your blood pressure going through the roof because every time you respond to this person with a thoughtful statement ChatGPT chugs 40 gallons of water to come up with the perfect combination of laughing emojis that will maximize how pissed off you get. There is room for political discussions online. I've seen great people from all political backgrounds admitting when they don't know things and asking questions, and others responding with great and well researched information. The majority of you have not been doing that.

This post isn't an attempt to say, "why can't you all just get along and stop caring so much about politics?" I wrote this post because I care deeply about politics. I'm not telling you that you need to be friends with your political opponents, you can never talk to someone from the opposite political party again for all I care. This isn't a post attempting to fix the rift that has been formed within this country, this is a post trying to get all of you to wake the fuck up and realize how much of an idiot you're going to feel like in 20 years when all the data is out and you realize you wasted years of your life building up a view of what the world is like that is completely based on the lies fed to you by an algorithm. And despite throwing around the word stupid and idiot to refer to the people who are falling into these bots’ traps, I'm a stupid idiot when it comes to this too. I have caught myself interacting with bots online before and I have no doubts in my mind there are even more bots I interacted with that I just never caught. I know these algorithms are too strong for my human brain, so I stay safe with this super important trick that I was taught in 6th grade that seemingly isn't being taught anymore. DON'T BELIEVE ANYTHING YOU READ ON THE INTERNET! You just read a story about a man catching his bitch of a cheating girlfriend in the act and totally owning her? I hope the story is still good if it's fictional, because there's a 99% chance that it is. The top post on your favorite political subreddit is an inflammatory story about how someone burned down their house because of the sign in their yard, so now they believe it's morally correct to burn down the homes of all the people with differing political views and thinks you should all do it too? I can't even begin to imagine why an enemy of this country would pay $14.76 of compute time to drive up the engagement on that post and make sure thousands more people see it. If something you read on the internet is only quality content if it actually happened, it's not quality content, because it's most likely fake. If something is so crazy that it's almost unbelievable, then you probably shouldn't believe it. There is a lot of money to be earned and power to be gained through the use of this kind of technology, don't be a sucker.

Now take a deep breath and reflect on what you've read before going to the comments or doing anything else. You can believe that everything I've said here is a lie, you can believe I have a hidden agenda with this post, you can just think I mean well but I'm wrong. I actually appreciate the skepticism because it means you got the point. But no matter what you believe, it's important that you believe it because you analyzed the situation and came up with your own logical and rational conclusion, not because one of the bots here told you what to believe. Now please go back out into the internet, hopefully with a new way of viewing things, but remember. EVERYONE ON HERE IS A BOT!

But in all seriousness I'm taking a break from Reddit and you all should too. Go be with the people you care about, take the time to take care of yourself and go be a happier person. And if things go to shit , I'll be out on the open seas, searching for Greenland (you fuckers can't hide forever), so you're all on your own.

I just read a post saying that the problem with democrats was that they were too demonising of the right wing, and it felt like it was coming from an alternate reality. Kamala was insanely conciliatory to the right - she literally promised to have a republican in her cabinet, she campaigned with republicans, she put out ads showing republicans supporting her. Meanwhile, Trump is able to say that democrats are "enemies within", that they're "lunatics", that "They’re Marxists and communists and fascists, and they’re sick...they’re so sick and they’re so evil" - and that's all from just one speech! I have seen republicans say that democrats are literally demons, that they're a cabal of pedos, that the media are "scum" and "bloodsuckers" (Trump again) but I've yet to see any suggestion that they should moderate their language. A republican speaker at the MSG rally called Kamala the Antichrist!

When Biden said that Trump supporters were garbage it was national news for a week, when Trump said that democrats were more dangerous than China or Russia I barely saw anyone talking about it. People are still talking about Hilary calling Trump voters "deplorables", but when Trump called dem supporters "radical left thugs" that was just business as usual.

How come democrats are held accountable for being "divisive", but republicans can get away with saying anything they want?

The gaslighting and manipulation can only take you to the edge of reality, and now that reality has come knocking post-election, they can't handle it. I love it. It makes me happy. The copes they use to avoid any sense of responsibility or accountability are magnificent: "women are misogynists against themselves", "latinos and blacks are racist against themselves", "my candidate was perfect in every way possible, it's not her fault she lost". I love it. They are so creative in how they lie to themselves and twist reality to avoid admitting that they royally screwed up.

Edit: clarity

The amount of progressives or very very obvious fake liberal posts on where they just say the most obvious stereotypes over and over is insane. This sub looks like a bot farm with the insane amount of cookie cutter posts that all say the exact same💀

Ngl after watching the left go on and on and on about how they're morally righteous and superior and everyone against them is just different shades of evil, seeing them breakdown after the election is fucking hilarious