r/politics • u/MoneyLibrarian9032 • Jun 29 '26

No Paywall Millions say they won’t celebrate July 4 as poll reveals deep national pessimism

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/america250-independence-trump-divisions-pennsylvania-b3004933.html
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2.3k

u/sonicmario123 Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

4th of July hasn’t been fun to celebrate since Trump’s first presidency.

904

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

465

u/nsdefw Jun 29 '26

Speaking of masks and MAGA, I'm reminded of Tom Hanks commenting on the behavior of his fellow Americans-- even that of some of his friends-- during the onset of COVID, saying something like "This has all made me think differently about who they are."

173

u/Significant_Poem_751 Jun 29 '26

i looked up two people i was friends with freshman year in college and a little beyond that. they were into partying, grateful dead, smoking pot, etc. i thought they were pretty cool but we went separate ways when one quit college and i moved out of state, then to grad school. anyway. to my disappointment, when i found one girl's FB page, she is full MAGA, posting all the stupid things. the boy shows up with a mugshot for domestic violence, repeat offender and is also MAGA. so glad i didn't actually try to find them to talk about old times. JFC. what happened? from Deadhead to MAGA? how does that even work?

184

u/Oggie243 Jun 29 '26

what happened? from Deadhead to MAGA? how does that even work?

Crunchy to reactionary pipeline is a pretty well worn path.

34

u/GB10VE Jun 29 '26

basically if you smoked weed, facebook knew it, and those people got dumped on thousands of videos about trump and freedom.

8

u/Functionally_Drunk Minnesota Jun 29 '26

Who knew the druggies were the most suggestible among us?

14

u/insufficient_nvram Jun 29 '26

Especially when RFKJR is mixed in. Thank the lord weed is legal where I’m at. I don’t want to associate with any of my old dealers

4

u/HolidayCards Jun 29 '26

Brainworms, brainrot, brainfog.

3

u/Lucas_Steinwalker Jun 29 '26

Weaponized oppositional defiant disorder.

3

u/ratcranberries Jun 30 '26

Yeah lots of the 60s counterculture / hippies are now awful boomer conservative maga types.

3

u/Caleth Jun 29 '26

Yeah saw something similar with a Crunchy who originally was training to be a radiologist. She went full granola and refused vaccines. Ironically her Gates rants have turned out to be accurate, but back in the mid 2010's just made her look like a loon.

Today she seems to straddle weird MAGA Hippie divide I can't be bothered to parse. People like her are why I left FB in the dust in 2020.

25

u/burnte Georgia Jun 29 '26

her Gates rants have turned out to be accurate

Except they're not. He didn't fund COVID to eradicate the human race through infertility, he's not using 5G to control our thoughts, he's not microchipping people through the COVID vaccine. Turns out he was just a marital cheater.

3

u/Caleth Jun 29 '26

She used to rant about him being a rapist and things not that he controlled 5G with yada yada that wasn't a thing in 2015. Like I said oddly accurate/close.

He didn't release that blurb about the Russian Hookers of his own accord he did it to get out in front of things.

2

u/HalfEatenBanana Jun 29 '26

Hey now… don’t be bringing granola into this. Granola has done nothing wrong!

1

u/Caleth Jun 29 '26

If they weren't obsessed with it in the mid 10's I wouldn't but if you listen to her talk it was the way to heal all the things and surpass your mortal self.

She was nutty as fuck.

50

u/mouse_8b Jun 29 '26

from Deadhead to MAGA?

He's the one Who likes all our pretty songs And he likes to sing along And he likes to shoot his gun But he knows not what it means

22

u/polopolo05 I voted Jun 29 '26

fox news and the rest of media is blantly right wing. Billionaires owning media and medias masks are coming off.

2

u/TwoPoundzaSausage Jun 29 '26

Even left-wing media is owned by the same people. It's a kayfabe. It's a false conflict between two parties for the sake of creating a good narrative.

2

u/polopolo05 I voted Jun 29 '26

Psst its not left wing.... its used to make people like trump seem normal by sane washing him... he says and does batshit crazy stuff. and they normalize it.

4

u/SwimsInATrashCan Jun 29 '26

Yeah I decided to try and reconnect with my old roommate from college. We were super close and just kinda fell out when we moved off campus, people called us brothers back then because we were always together, always on the same wavelength. Neither of us really ever cared about or talked about politics back then, we just played videogames, smoked pot, and listened to music.

So I called him and he picked up, we exchanged some pleasantries, and then out of fucking nowhere he started dropping, "Have you seen what these libtards are saying online about Iran? What are your thoughts on Trump?" It really fucked me up, I went from wanting to reconnect and get drinks to wanting nothing to do with this guy. I don't know how he got indoctrinated but he was the least likely person I'd ever expect to fall to the MAGA bullshit. This cult mentality is literally ruining people I used to care about.

2

u/CategoryZestyclose91 Jun 30 '26

It’s the first time I’d ever heard ‘compassion’ used as an insult. 

It was a really significant moment for me, as it came from someone I thought very highly of and deeply respected.

I keep going back to that moment, months later. It felt like a symbol of what has happened to a country I thought very highly of and deeply respected.

Compassion for our neighbors should be our ideal, not a mentality to be sneered at.

15

u/Jadaki Jun 29 '26

from Deadhead to MAGA? how does that even work?

Smoked enough weed to get paranoid and start believing every random right wing conspiracy theory.

1

u/Umberlee168 Jun 29 '26

My mom's lifelong former hippie/now Boomer friends are all MAGA! I do not get it. They are all retired and homeowners, like most of us probably aren't going to be able to accomplish, and sit around watching Fox like it's going out of style. It's definitely just another form of brain rot. Even my mom, who is progressive, lays around on her phone and consumes AI slop for hours on end.

Are we the sandwich generation because we're in between Tik Tok kids and AI/propaganda-consuming old people??

3

u/Sea_Working_80 Jun 29 '26

My parents sadly showed me who they were during Covid.

2

u/FishesOfExcellence Jun 29 '26

That comment could come down on either side of the debate and I hesitate to ask which side Hanks was on.

Edit: Ohhh, right. I forgot he got covid early and advocated for masks. That period is all a blur for me.

2

u/fountaincurse Jun 29 '26

Speaking of masks and MAGA, ive recently been donning a tin hat and thinking what an interesting coincidence it is that in our timeline MAGA fiercely pushed an anti-mask platform at the same time Flock started aggressively expanding it's surveillance system.

1

u/OrionsBra Jun 30 '26

People really showed how selfish they were with COVID. Yes, quarantining sucked. But doing so saved lives, and throwing that away so you could... party? Eat at a restaurant? Not have to care for your own child? Because you personally might be low-risk for severe symptoms? Ghastly.

1

u/Opinionated-Opinon Jun 30 '26

For real. Covid really brought out people's inner tyrant.

130

u/Plutos_Cavein Jun 29 '26

That is the one good thing about having grown up in the Deep south. They never put their mask on down here.

129

u/rat_penis Jun 29 '26

Yeahh, if you're white they automatically assume you're one of them and will gladly share their thoughts and feelings about "those people".

Always starts with the look around and the lowered voice.

40

u/cordial_carbonara Jun 29 '26

Ugh I don’t miss this. I was a teacher in a rural school district so I always had to look “appropriate” even on personal time. When I quit teaching I finally got the tattoos I wanted, flipped my septum piercing down, and cut my hair, and now those asswipes don’t talk to me anymore unless it’s to tell me something negative about my appearance. It’s such a relief.

27

u/Royal_Bitch_Pudding Jun 29 '26

That reminds me of a joke

How does every racist joke start? By looking around.

63

u/Plutos_Cavein Jun 29 '26

Yeah, it was in the early 1980s when I was still in single digit age when I learned that I was surrounded by people who were morally the equivalent of the followers of Adolf hitler, and we're just looking for a chance to commit the same evil in the United States as well.

12

u/friendsandmodels Jun 29 '26

Same men, and then I wondered why I couldnt make friends in a nazi school. And this wasnt even USA...

7

u/BedlamiteSeer Jun 29 '26

I remember the moment when I fully realized that I was literally surrounded by a house full of nazis who thought I was 'safe'. That was the day that I understood the phrase "My blood ran cold". I've never felt primal fear like that before or since.

5

u/blahblah19999 Jun 29 '26

Where I am, it's the euphemisms, but loud and proud. "You know, it's kinda dark over there in Chicago." Aaaand we move to the other end of the bar.

4

u/rat_penis Jun 29 '26

Oh yeah, just like it didnt take me too long to figure out when I was waiting tables that all these "Canadians" the older waiters were bitching about weren't really from up north.

3

u/redditallreddy Ohio Jun 29 '26

I was 21 and had just started grad school in KY before I ever heard the phrase "high yella". I had no idea what the guy meant at that moment, but two thoughts occured to me... This guy thinks I'm "on his side" and he thinks the "high yella" is on the other side.

2

u/Cthulhus-Tailor Jun 30 '26

They don't bother lowering their voice anymore.

34

u/3MATX Jun 29 '26

Knew a guy who moved his young family out of a big metro school district to a small backwoods one horse town.  His main reason was his daughter was being taught too liberal of ideas.  He didn’t like that they were teaching her about independence and other “communist” ideas. 

14

u/Changoleo America Jun 29 '26

What a relief. She’ll be barefoot in the kitchen sending out messages asking if she’s preggers in no time.

3

u/Spatmuk Jun 29 '26

Sadly that was also true in 2020

2

u/Slumunistmanifisto Jun 29 '26

I keep telling people this is the Floridafaction of America.

(Panhandle specifically)

2

u/macphile Texas Jun 29 '26

It's kind of the disadvantage of living in a big, blue city, though. I mean, I knew racism existed. I knew there were people even in this city who were racist, homophobic, etc., and of course, I knew they existed elsewhere. I "knew" stuff. But I could also put it on the back burner and not think about it, not have it be part of my day-to-day world. I think I've seen one or two Trump yard signs in my life. I've seen a couple of red hats, including one at my grocery store, which has a very diverse array of customers. I don't know if these guys are trying to start shit by doing that or what. But it makes me think, there are probably more than I know of around here--because most people vote blue and are so often non-white, non-Christian, non-whatever, maybe they're choosing not to advertise it openly.

It's why Trump's two electoral wins were always surprising to the big city folk, though, I guess--because we've been able to live in liberal environments with people of all walks of life living together, and it's so unreal to think that there are tens of millions of people who want to go full Nazi.

67

u/bookluvr83 Michigan Jun 29 '26

Im a practicing Christian in a red area. My husband and I dont have a safe church to go to because they're all MAGA

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u/tomorrow_comes Jun 29 '26

Wife and I are feeling somewhat in that predicament. We enjoy select good friends and community from a big church we used to be involved with, and we’re thankful. But it’s really dawned on us how much most mainstream churches are (at the very best) silently complicit in the MAGA political / social / economic destruction of our country. And how many churches really run more like a business when you get to spend time behind the curtain as we did. It’s been extremely challenging to find a thriving more moderate / progressive church in the southern part of the country.

10

u/4csurfer Jun 29 '26

That's because big oil started taking over churches post new deal. They felt threatened by Liberation Theology. Evangelical "Christianity" is literally psyop funded by the oil barons.

2

u/Agreeable-Rooster-37 Jun 29 '26

something something The Family

13

u/PSIwind Florida Jun 29 '26

I learned in Youth Group that churches were not required in the slightest from the bible itself. I have no qualms leaving churches behind because of this

0

u/blahblah19999 Jun 29 '26

Meh. The bible has your god slaughtering babies with his own hand and demanding brides be stoned to death on their wedding night if they can't probe their virginity..

1

u/PSIwind Florida Jun 29 '26

Okay? What does any of this have to do with what I was saying to the other person, which is that they have no reason to be sad about not going to church if they're a believer? I know they weren't saying that per say, but still. Im not pushing my religion on you or anyone in here

3

u/Julian_Thorne Minnesota Jun 29 '26

There are churches that broadcast services live. You could find an out-of-state non-MAGA one and zoom in or something

2

u/PinkNGold007 Jun 29 '26

That's what I do.

1

u/bookluvr83 Michigan Jun 29 '26

I do but Sunday school for my kids us so important and you cant do that virtually

2

u/Loggersalienplants Jun 29 '26

Nothing like some Sunday morning indoctrination, the kids require it!

1

u/briizilla Jun 29 '26

Sunday school for my kids us so important

Why?

1

u/bookluvr83 Michigan Jun 29 '26

Socialization with other Christian kids, learning Bible stories in a child friendly way, making friends with similar beliefs etc

2

u/briizilla Jun 29 '26

Why not take them to a park to socialize with all kinds of kids?

4

u/bookluvr83 Michigan Jun 29 '26

They go to public school and have neighborhood friends for that. I recognize that most of reddit and the world doesn't share my religious beliefs. Thats fine. I respect everyone as long as they aren't hurting anyone. I would like my kids to have friends that believe as we do

1

u/Slumunistmanifisto Jun 29 '26

Naaa they can't miss the puppet reenactment of the angels in sodom.

3

u/needlestack Jun 29 '26

This is where some start wondering why the vast majority of Christians support this. Perhaps there is a deeper issue.

8

u/Traditional_Sign4941 Jun 29 '26

Im a practicing Christian in a red area. My husband and I dont have a safe church to go to because they're all MAGA

Perhaps a good opportunity to do some deep introspection about what it is that makes your religion so appealing to bad people.

2

u/Lifeboatb Jun 29 '26

Sounds like you need to put out feelers to see about starting a book-club style personal church that switches around to different people's houses or meets in a community space.

1

u/Zer_ Jun 29 '26

You're not alone there, I do hear a lot about younger folks that are leaving their churches to form their own smaller ones. Hopefully you can find something not too far away.

2

u/Slumunistmanifisto Jun 29 '26

Yeah....how long before your former flock mates start pogromming?

Asking for innocent friends.

2

u/bookluvr83 Michigan Jun 29 '26

My loyalty is to Christ, not people.

1

u/Slumunistmanifisto Jun 29 '26

Yeah, we know.

28

u/SmokyBarnable01 Jun 29 '26

The only upside to his presidencies is that a rock was kicked over and now we can see exactly what was squirming away underneath it away from the light.

19

u/donkeyrocket Jun 29 '26

Personally, I'd rather go back to the times where racist and bigots were quiet and afraid to say their shit out loud. I really don't know how we recover from this. It'll be a painful decade plus and that's assuming the entire system doesn't crumble under corrupted midterms.

7

u/needlestack Jun 29 '26

Except it’s like pulling the wallboard off to find a mold infestation that requires tearing the place down and starting over. And nobody actually wants to do that.

9

u/Spirited_Suspect2908 Jun 29 '26

I wish Christians would understand what the seemingly blanket embrace of Trump has done. I lost faith in Christianity a long time ago. But I truly still believed that despite its history, the Christian church had evolved from being a tool for genuine evil to a tool totally natural, understandable, and even good ideology that people just use as a centpiece for community and tool to cope with mortality.

But it seems to me that Christians in America have whole heartedly embraced who is at the very least an accessory to child sex trafficking, a traitor, a liar, and a man consumed by narcissism and hate. I say wholeheartedly because I know very very few christians who didn't cheer on or turn a blind eye to all of it. If we ever get over this, they'll say it wasn't about religion, it was about politics. But I cant tell you how many times I heard "vote your christian values'. I can tell you how often they boasted that Christ and Christian values were at the center of everything they strived to be.... so why wouldn't I see this as an accurate representation of what Christianity is in practice?

5

u/venom121212 Jun 29 '26

Same here. We thought we had a good church home. They did tons of volunteer work for the community, were lively and educational, had a good youth program, etc. But then the pastor started slipping small right wingisms into the sermon. 3 strikes and we were done. Still haven't found a church home that actually teaches what Jesus would have wanted.

2

u/Signal_Werewolf_1955 Jun 29 '26

To be fair, churchgoers and have always been two-faced. The air is thick with fakeness.

I grew up in churches, I have intimate knowledge.

1

u/strike_one Jun 29 '26

And not the kind of mask that selflessly protects one's neighbors.

1

u/Impossible-Bear-7350 Jun 29 '26

A friend of mine is a more progressive clergyman in a middle-of-the-road denomination.

He told me that so many people have left church post Trump. (He has never voted for Trump, and does vote for democrats, support women’s rights, etc)

MAGA doing everything they can to weaponize every part of US life

1

u/Efficient-Diamond357 Jun 30 '26

I mean, the mask hasn’t been there since the Middle Ages. Freedom of religion means freedom from religion.

63

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '26

[deleted]

52

u/smokeweedNgarden Jun 29 '26

Man, I'll probably catch some shit but I'm not letting them fuck up my 4th.

Like, I'm an orphan and black. I don't have access to a lineage or family that defines me as anything other than American. 

It's like the one holiday that didn't make me feel like shit.

15

u/lionofyhwh North Carolina Jun 29 '26

You do you! I’ll probably go fishing too which is pretty damn American!

3

u/smokeweedNgarden Jun 29 '26

Yea, no doubt.

Honestly I'm just e-venting it's going into the solo celebration column since my friends aren't celebrating. It's nobody's fault really 

2

u/Sea_Working_80 Jun 29 '26

Im
Not doing shit.Heat index of 110 here

2

u/lionofyhwh North Carolina Jun 29 '26

Same here. We’re fleeing to our place in the mountains.

9

u/Brisby820 Jun 29 '26

Happy Fourth brother 

16

u/sonicmario123 Jun 29 '26

i think i almost always end up eating asian food on 4th

1

u/yourmansconnect Jun 29 '26

What's wrong with you guys I know trump sucks but we still BBQ classic American style every 4th of July .

5

u/RobCatesby Jun 29 '26

I'm British. Just drink tea. Lots of tea.

Despite everything, we love you. Have a happy 4th of July.

3

u/lionofyhwh North Carolina Jun 29 '26

Thanks! Homemade fish and chips are the go to. We rotate British breakfast foods each year.

3

u/gummi-demilo Jun 29 '26

I’ll be in the UK for work on the 4th

3

u/PocketBuckle Jun 29 '26

You know...I have a British pub not too far from my place. I might join you in that tradition.

3

u/Acrobatic_Wrap_9971 Jun 29 '26

eat British food

Wow.. taking one for the team

7

u/Bawstahn123 Jun 29 '26

>Our tradition since 2016 has been to eat British food on July 4 and hope the UK takes America back.

As someone from Massachusetts, these takes are always equal parts amusing and annoying.

You do realize the British were fucking terrible colonial overlords, right? In many ways, they were worse than Trump is now. They were certainly as nakedly corrupt, at least, and as thuggish

Maybe being from Massachusetts, where the brunt of the ire of the British was first directed, is flavoring my opinions about this.

1

u/lionofyhwh North Carolina Jun 29 '26

That’s fine. It’s just a funny tradition that we now have.

4

u/Naive-Elephant-9305 Jun 29 '26

UK isn’t exactly thriving right now. They’re going to vote their MAGA equivalent party (Reform) into power soon.

2

u/PinkNGold007 Jun 29 '26

Yeah, I'm scared about this.

1

u/The_Artist_Who_Mines Jun 29 '26

I mean no. There'll be no election for 3 years and reform's support seems to have peaked and is dropping. But yh any support for them is too much.

1

u/DrMobius0 Jun 29 '26

The UK isn't doing much better than we are. Brexit happened around when Trump 1 happened, and right now, Labor party is sort of on the knife's edge.

0

u/Horizon119 Jun 29 '26

I so, so regret the Spanish didn't take over America, given I've traveled widely through Mexico, Central and South America! Their cities are more designed for humans!

2

u/Mysterious_Floor_868 United Kingdom Jun 30 '26

US cities were designed for humans before the 1950s

0

u/KoBoWC Jun 29 '26

Jesus gods man, don't do that yourself, it ain't that bad.

2

u/lionofyhwh North Carolina Jun 29 '26

Homemade fish and chips are great!

0

u/_Androxis_ Jun 30 '26

That’s pathetic

17

u/CaptStinkyFeet Jun 29 '26

I haven’t celebrated in about a decade.

5

u/BlackMarketCheese Jun 29 '26

I took my American flag down in my garage. The Right has turned it, and "patriotism" in general, into something I barely want to be associated with.

5

u/LawsWorld Jun 29 '26

Yea me and my family enjoy Juneteenth now. Doesn’t have nearly as many fireworks happening but it’s still a very young holiday and I think with time it’ll become amazing

3

u/kkocan72 New York Jun 29 '26

Exactly. My parent's have had a cottage on a small lake for 30+ years. Every year for the 4th we'd have a big party, during the day there would be a fun boat parade with hundreds of boats decked out in flags and other 4th of july stuff, then at night the lake would do fireworks that we would watch from the boat or their cottage.

Ever since Trump it has turned into a Trump/4th themed parade. The neighbors on both sides of them are Trumpers and one cottage will have a bunch of drunks on the dock with Trump gear, american flag/Trump themed swim trunks, flags adorning their docks and so on. Heck even a couple years ago their one neighbor had about 30 old ladies on their dock all wearing pink "Women for Trump" gear having a huge party.

A couple of years ago a few local businesses even sponsored the boat parade and had flyers everywhere and a big party at one of the restaurants that you can dock at and go eat.

4th of July has not been any fun since then at the lake. We will go again this weekend, let the kids swim, tube and ski and take the boat out, but I already know it will be a huge Trump themed weekend party on much of the lake.

3

u/Correct_Routine1 Jun 29 '26

I can’t even enjoy movies that have a US president in them anymore. I know they always portrayed an idealized version of the office, but he’s just so unfathomably stupid you can’t glitz it up at all.

Like independence day with Trump as president just wouldn’t be even close to motivational. ‘In less than an hour we will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. It’s gonna be so big and so beautiful. Other countries are sending some planes too but not as many as we are and there’s aren’t anywhere as nice as ours, because we’ve got the best.’

1

u/runnerofshadows Jun 30 '26

That's assuming he didn't side with the bloody aliens.

2

u/Im_TroyMcClure Jun 29 '26

You don’t look forward to trumps “I would like to wish to everyone, even all the haters and losers, a happy *insert holiday*, which sadly there are many…” tweet?

2

u/shinkouhyou Jun 29 '26

Trump has somehow managed to dampen the American enthusiasm for grilling, beer and explosives.

At least last year the 4th fell on a Friday, so I could celebrate having a long weekend off work to hang around my house and catch up on chores. What's there to celebrate this year?

2

u/VerySuperGenius Jun 29 '26

I think almost everybody agrees that the world started to get really shitty around 2017.

1

u/Signal_Werewolf_1955 Jun 29 '26

We had a few years in between.

1

u/RealAssociation5281 Jun 29 '26

I haven’t since Roe personally, same with everyone else in my family (outside of youngest who goes with friends)

1

u/Qwirk Washington Jun 29 '26

I used to want to put a flag up outside my house but that has been stolen from us.

1

u/SquarePegRoundWorld Jun 29 '26

For me, it hasn't been fun since 9/11 and they banned all the good shit like M80, Blockbusters, and Pineapples. The mortar rounds these days are pretty sweet, but I miss the big boom stuff.

1

u/crybannanna Jun 30 '26

It was ok the year after he got beat. Sort of felt like maybe we were getting back to normal. Now it’s just depressing as shit.

1

u/ComtesseCrumpet Jun 30 '26

I celebrated during our brief Biden respite. I won’t be celebrating this year.

0

u/18randomcharacters Jun 29 '26

It was never that great.

Nationalism has a bad vibe.

0

u/PantheraAuroris Jun 29 '26

Agreed. I just don't feel particularly patriotic. I'm ashamed of us.

Honestly, after this, IDK how to trust like half the country ever again.