
62% Say the Political Climate (US) Prevents Them from Sharing Political Views - atlasunshrugged
https://www.cato.org/blog/poll-62-americans-say-they-have-political-views-theyre-afraid-share
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PaulHoule
This is strange.

In some place like Mainland China you might get hassled by the cops for
expressing your views. That can happen in America too but you have to at very
least hassle your neighbors first.

The problem in the us is you can say what you want and nobody cares. Go ask
for investment in broadband and the cable company will hang up the phone.

I think many Trump voters are ashamed to speak their views because they are
personally ashamed of those views. If you are an evangelical Christian for
instance you pray to God for forgiveness every day. One of them asks Trump
when was the last time he prayed for forgiveness and Trump said "never".

Of course if Trump had ever gone to a church service and participated he would
have said the Lord's Prayer and asked for forgiveness. He probably sat through
it 10 minutes before he was questioned.

Trump would not ask for forgiveness because he would never believe he did
anything wrong. George Floyd was "born again" and for him it changed his life
for the better, and I am sure Floyd asked God for forgiveness the day that he
died.

And that is it, you have some people who are normally very concerned about
right and wrong, witnessing, leadership and people's character and they have
gotten behind a person of very poor character and they feel cognitive
dissonance and it hurts.

Conservatives suffer the same dissonance with the Coronavirus because
conservatives are more afraid of filth and sickness and contamination than
liberals, not to mention they tend to defer to authority figures such as the
medical establishment.

It causes them a lot of suffering to be part of a tribe which violates what
they believe in and if they were forced into a real conversation and values
clarification they would not find it easy.

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whammywon
I think your assertion that Trump voters are ashamed of their views (or
ashamed of sharing their views) is totally incorrect.

The Trump supporters that I've spoken with stand by their views 100%, but
don't think it's worth the hassle of arguing with progressives. Most recognize
that Trump is not a good guy, but they feel his campaign platform was what the
country needed. For many right-leaning people, I personally think many who
voted for him were voting for what they considered to be the lesser of two
evils.

In my experience if you have an opinion that doesn't fall in line with
progressives then you're labeled (as TheAdamAndChe noted) an *-ist. We figure
its easier to avoid the headache of being shouted down and labeled something
we aren't.

As an example of this, wecan agree with the sentiment "black lives matter" but
disagree with the BLM organization then we're called racist. All of this
despite the fact that our reasoning could be the fact that the organization's
leaders are self-admitted "trained" Marxists or that it pushes
intersectional/identitarian politics with its platform. What's more, any
attempt I've made or seen others try to make at having a conversation with
those that we disagree with ideologically ends in shouting, ad hominem
attacks, and in some cases pushing false narratives to our employers in an
attempt to (quite literally) ruin our lives. Ironically the ones that refuse
to have civil discourse with us seem to pride themselves on how tolerant and
open-minded they are. And all of this happens because we disagree on a few key
issues.

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atlasunshrugged
One piece I found particularly fascinating "The share of moderates who self‐
censor increased 7 points from 57% to 64%, and the share of conservatives rose
70% to 77%, also a 7‐ point increase. Strong conservatives are the only group
with little change. They are about as likely now (77%) to say they hold back
their views as in 2017 (76%)."

I do wonder the effect this has on polling in the U.S. - if conservatives are
the ones most unwilling to express their true opinions, say on who they are
voting for, then someone like Trump might be underestimated in the polls again
and liberals might be in for another shock come November.

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iron0013
It’s true. I would like to feel free to exercise my constitutionally protected
right to protest in public, but instead I must now worry about being kidnapped
by government goons in unmarked vehicles. This is an actual, textbook,
flagrant 1st amendment violation.

Oh, wait, we’re you talking about people saying mean things about
conservatives on Twitter again? No, I’m not such a delicate flower that I
would let that bother me in the slightest.

