Not from the US and I don't understand why one would support a candidate just because he survived an assassination attempt. Can somebody explain the logic behind this?

[–] Fisch@discuss.tchncs.de 41 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I guess it made him look stronger or cooler or something. He'll probably also use this to say that Democrats are trying to kill him, insinuating that they don't mind killing people to achieve their goals.

[–] tacosanonymous@lemm.ee 28 points 4 months ago

It does seem weird that a felonious rapist would get a boost from not dying. Even more baffling that he’s likely a pedo.

But lying and spinning by a corrupt machine can go along way in a country full of ignorant assholes.

[–] Anyolduser@lemmynsfw.com 14 points 4 months ago (3 children)

American here, I haven't heard one peep about Trump getting more support because of this outside of Lemmy.

Whether or not the Trump campaign can spin this in their favor depends entirely on the motive of the assassin. If they were just some nutjob, there really isn't much they can do.

If, on the other hand, the assassination attempt was politically motivated, there are two ways I can see this whole thing being spun:

"The other side knows I'll win and the only way to stop me is to kill me. If you don't like them, vote for me because I scare them and they hate me."
"The other side is so evil and vile they would stoop to try to kill me rather than have a fair election".

In the event that the assassin wasn't some flavor of crazy, spin number one is more likely than spin number two, but they're hardly mutually exclusive.

[–] chicagohuman@lemm.ee 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Does it matter if it's true? It hasn't in the past

[–] Anyolduser@lemmynsfw.com 2 points 4 months ago

Not to the "base" of either of the major parties, no. Those voters are already committed to their candidates.

This election is likely to come down to independents and undecided voters. Where that messaging could matter is with people who are unsatisfied with the Democratic party AND dislike Trump.

The idea that "they hate me enough to kill me" might be compelling to someone with a strong dislike of the Democratic party, perhaps enough to get them to hold their nose and vote for Trump. That being said, I wouldn't even venture a guess at how many people that would be.

[–] Evotech@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

PredictIT increased the chance that trump would win to 66% from 60.

[–] Uplink@programming.dev 2 points 4 months ago

I don't think the motivation matters. They will just spin it in any way they think it will benefit them.

[–] GBU_28@lemm.ee 12 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

It's not a purely American phenomena. It paints a candidate in a human light, as they "survived" a very public "tragedy", yet are still strongly pursuing what they think is right.

It's a humanizing event.

This is not a pro trump comment.

Edit but this is certainly not a pro violence comment either

[–] TokenBoomer@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago

This is the truth. This is what everyone has been trying to communicate.

[–] EtherWhack@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Depending on how the event is spun (story-wise), an attempt like this could make the other candidate's party seem unhinged enough that one of their members would do (and apparently fail badly at) this. This, making the target, and their party by association, seem more noble than thay may be.

To a lot of people, whether the shooting is or isn't affiliated doesn't really get questioned no matter what they hear, as what party would hurt itself? They'll immediately think there is some conspiracy (the human psychology loves these rabbit holes) to make it seem like any favoring affiliation to the target's political side is staged by the other.

[–] Kaboom@reddthat.com -3 points 4 months ago

Voting against the people who got their base that riled up