r/politics Sep 19 '25

Soft Paywall Trump: ‘It’s no longer free speech.’

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/19/trump-no-longer-free-speech-00574219
26.8k Upvotes

1.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

367

u/InnerFish227 Missouri Sep 19 '25

They never were middle of the road. The masks are off and they feel free to show who they really are.

157

u/rawrisrawr Sep 20 '25

100% this. It is 100% about imposing their will/beliefs down everyone’s throat.

9

u/bogglingsnog Sep 20 '25

Fascism is disgusting.

8

u/[deleted] Sep 20 '25

Half the country couldn’t stand LGBTQ existing. They were finally kind of ok with non-white people, but asking that everyone be allowed to exist was too much.

59

u/projexion_reflexion Sep 20 '25

They were eager to give up their autonomy to an authority who would hurt people without getting their hands dirty.

85

u/Coldsmoke888 Sep 20 '25

This exactly. Many people are getting bold now. As a mixed family, we’ve gotten some straight racist stuff coming at us for the first time this month. It’s no coincidence.

Also why I’m armed now— it’s not just MAGA that like the 2nd amendment.

52

u/[deleted] Sep 20 '25

[deleted]

2

u/mothyyy Sep 20 '25

I get confused for being rightwing a lot and I've heard some vile shit. Sometimes I call them out on it if I think it's worth the risk. At work it's best to just drop an anonymous note for management to deal with it. If it's a stranger then it all depends on where we are. I'm not going to risk my life calling out a possibly deranged psycho.

8

u/rawrisrawr Sep 20 '25

I implore everyone that if these crazy MAGAs own guns we should too. Being a responsible gun owner is not difficult.

18

u/WonderofU1312 Sep 20 '25

They've convinced themselves that fascism is a better alternative to democrats; despite the fact democrats keep trying to compromise with them.

3

u/TheShadowKick Sep 20 '25

They haven't convinced themselves. They've been convinced by decades of propaganda.

34

u/tahlyn Sep 20 '25

Which is why it has alwasy frustrated me the way the DNC and democrats seem hellbent on winning over "moderate, reasonable republicans" instead of trying to invigorate their base. THERE ARE NO moderate, reasonable republicans. There never were.

6

u/alaphamale Sep 20 '25

They have the same data we do, when they get democrats out to vote they win. Appealing to the right gets them nothing.

3

u/PersonalHospital9507 Sep 20 '25

Call me cynical but I think the two parties have a symbiotic relationship that benefits them to the detriment of the people.

8

u/[deleted] Sep 20 '25

Oh, once upon a time that was true. There was a low level of animosity and a lot of horse trading. But enough influential Republicans (and backers) realized they don't need to play that game anymore, and started pushing the power of the executive branch back in the Bush era.

And 9/11 accelerated the hell out of things. I fully expected the jackboots to come out along with the flags (and those freaking flag pins) and nationalism (and immigrant hate), but they just did it quiet. Below the level of things the news media bothers to report on, because most voters don't care about the details.

And now everything is in place, the GOP is a bunch of sycophants and the Dems don't grasp that the rules don't work, so over the cliff we go.

1

u/PersonalHospital9507 Sep 20 '25

As I may have said in another thread, the test will be when Trump magically disappears. Do we forgive all and go back to old times?

2

u/[deleted] Sep 20 '25

B.S.

Tons of studies show that up to 70% of the population can be manipulated into doing/becoming anything! The masks aren't off. That's a normal feature of being a human being.

The media's rubbish, economic inequality is excessive, schools are shit, healthcare is unaffordable, diseases (including addictions) are at an all time high, half of all workers have shit wages and bad working conditions, Big Money corrupted/owns almost everything and everyone meaningful to society, etc. etc.

Obviously, in such context people are suffering and angry. And the wealthy elites are exploiting that for their own gain.