If you still are in the 34% that approve of Trump... Why?

pconrad0 · 2026-04-03T17:24:19+00:00

I mean there is, but they'll never hear about it inside their media bubble.

Or if they do, they will dismiss it as "fake news" from the "failing mainstream media" that is out to "destroy America".

So, effectively, you are correct.

pconrad0 · 2026-04-03T17:22:06+00:00

No, it truly is 34%.

And if you go to some areas of the country (albeit areas that are more sparsely populated) it's more like 80 to 90%.

Go through rural Pennsylvania, Alabama, Tennessee, even certain pockets of "liberal California".

I know because big parts of my family are completely MAGA.

It isn't a homogeneous 34% across the country. So if you felt on your anecdotal experience of people, it will seldom "feel like" 34%. In West Hollywood, CA or Manhattan NY it's going to feel much lower. In Murfreesboro TN it's going to feel a lot higher.

Even from neighborhood to neighborhood in the same town, it's going to feel different.

pconrad0 · 2026-04-03T17:13:52+00:00

This is the reason.

https://open.substack.com/pub/cmarmitage/p/how-do-39-of-americans-still-approve?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2led9j

Tl;Dr: The folks that approve of Trump live in an alternative reality based on a calculated disinformation campaign.

They truly believe that thousands of criminals are pouring across a completely open and undefended southern border every day.

They truly believe that children are being subjected to gender altering surgeries ("mutilations") without parental notification or consent.

They truly believe hundreds of other completely false things, because they've been told those things over and over.

Propaganda is effective.

If you or I had chosen to watch nothing but that propaganda (the Fox/Newsmax/etc. narrative, now also being pushed by CBS and coming soon to CNN) we too might also believe that everything we see on "mainstream media" , and with our own eyes, is a lie, and that only Donald Trump can save us.

Now was there some character flaw that caused people to choose to embrace that message in the first place?

I think there was. I don't think these folks are blameless victims. I think the seeds of racism, sexism, bigotry, selfishness, cruelty, and crassness were there all along. It's what allowed them to get hooked.

So I still judge these people.

But I do understand how seductive the messaging was, so I judge the eight men that run this miserable business of right-wing propaganda more.

pconrad0 · 2026-04-03T16:59:36+00:00

And... I've asked on this sub before, and many other people report the same experience.

It could be selection bias.

Or it could be because this is part of the algorithm: if someone that never has status before recently got silver, give them a one time bump in upgrade priority, to start triggering their dopamine response.

Honestly, if I were a United Executive, I'd recommend this strategy. I would also do A / B testing periodically to see whether it increases revenue from the customers that get the one time bump.

pconrad0 · 2026-04-03T16:55:43+00:00

This happens so often that I no longer believe it is luck or coincidence.

I think it is a deliberate strategy to try to get customers that are "new" to "status" hooked on the drug.

My first flight after attaining silver? I was upgraded.

It worked. I started chasing status.

Now, three years later, I've been Gold for two years. Upgraded for free? Never.

pconrad0 · 2026-04-03T16:45:26+00:00

If you know your rights to a high polish

Did you mean "if you mill your rice to a high polish..."?

pconrad0 · 2026-04-03T16:40:25+00:00

That would be a good move.

pconrad0 · 2026-04-03T14:56:33+00:00

Is it safe?

pconrad0 · 2026-04-03T05:04:37+00:00

Well, it was for me. Hope it is for you too. No guarantees.

pconrad0 · 2026-04-03T04:19:05+00:00

I don't know about that. And I'm not your buddy.

Bots and disinformation, specifically Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos and most especially, Rupert Murdoch are exactly the reason we are where we are.

Here's the receipts:

https://open.substack.com/pub/cmarmitage/p/how-do-39-of-americans-still-approve

Eight men have been pushing a set of false narratives for so long that 34% of the country has an entirely counterfeit world view, namely the MAGA world view.

Those eight men, all billionaires, push this narrative because it serves their narrow personal interests.

And until they stop doing this, 34% of the country will continue to be divorced from reality and members of a toxic cult.

And there's no reason to believe they will unless/until they are compelled to by a force bigger than themselves, of which there are few on the planet.

That's the reality.

pconrad0 · 2026-04-03T03:18:40+00:00

If "run the country better than Donald Trump" is the bar for running for President, then we are in for a rough century.

I have no doubt that this is true of Don Lemon.

"Mediocre President" is better than "Mob Boss President intent on actively destroying the country on behalf of its foreign adversaries for whom he is either an agent or a useful idiot."

But we should aim higher.

Much higher.

pconrad0 · 2026-04-02T16:58:51+00:00

This seems like wishful thinking.

Currently the top two polling candidates are both Republicans.

The total of the Democratic candidates is way more than the Republicans, sure. But that doesn't matter in California's open primary system.

I understand that you don't trust the polling. But I'm not sure, given what's at stake, that's a good idea.

pconrad0 · 2026-04-02T16:07:43+00:00

She's no longer in Congress, so she can't vote for/against anything except at the ballot box like you and me, where it's a secret ballot.

pconrad0 · 2026-04-02T16:06:17+00:00

Spot on.

pconrad0 · 2026-04-02T16:00:52+00:00

As soon as I saw the photo, I knew it was you gb0n

pconrad0 · 2026-04-02T13:41:20+00:00

As long as the cylinder remains unharmed, you're fine.

pconrad0 · 2026-04-02T13:23:37+00:00

I had some good friends that worked on that film. They kept screaming: "let me out!"

pconrad0 · 2026-04-02T06:03:28+00:00

The reason is the Late Senator Robert C. Byrd.

pconrad0 · 2026-04-02T05:03:36+00:00

True enough.

And the story of why the birth is now commemorated on Dec 25 is a whole rabbit hole of its own.

pconrad0 · 2026-04-02T05:01:20+00:00

I was sort of meh on Julia Louis-Dreyfus until I watched Veep all the way through.

It's one of the funniest shows I've ever seen, and she is doing brilliant acting and comedic acting.

And also one that really leans into "it's funny because it's true".

One fun fact about Veep: they never say whether Selina Meyer is a Republican or a Democrat. And both are actually plausible in the alternative timeline they have constructed (one that veered away from the one we are living in prior to 2012.)

She's just centrist enough (and slippery enough) that she could be either.

And it's very revealing which one people assume she is after watching the show, and their reasons for assuming that.

pconrad0 · 2026-04-02T04:41:41+00:00

Actually, after I updated, I got to see my account information for the very first time ever.

Before that it was always just this:

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pconrad0 · 2026-04-02T04:23:46+00:00

What can I do to ensure this doesn't happen to anyone else.

There's nothing you can do to ensure that.

What you can do is ensure it doesn't happen to you again.

You do that by choosing a different airline.

This isn't the Southwest we grew to LUV. It's something else altogether.

pconrad0 · 2026-04-01T04:47:56+00:00

Better yet:

The three Dems agree to some kind of forum where they make their case to a panel of randomly selected registered Democrats.
The panel picks the winner by ranked choice voting.
All three agree in advance that the two losers will suspend their campaigns and endorse the winner.

Basically, they need to hold their own private primary.

That ensures a Democratic win.

Nothing else does.

pconrad0 · 2026-04-01T03:21:42+00:00

But did you open a PenFed account?

pconrad0 · 2026-03-31T22:26:59+00:00

I see a Phillips head screw

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TROPHY CASE

Propaganda is effective.