this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
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Summary

Rep. Chuck Edwards’ North Carolina town hall erupted in chaos as constituents furiously protested DOGE, a Trump administration initiative tied to mass federal job cuts and Elon Musk’s growing influence.

Attendees, including laid-off government workers, jeered at Edwards over employment losses and reduced federal funding.

Constituents raised concerns about federal job cuts affecting veterans' services, national parks, and Hurricane Helene recovery efforts.

Edwards struggled to respond but remained unfazed. The GOP downplayed the unrest, calling it staged, though independent voters like veteran Martin Downie say they feel directly targeted by their own government.

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[–] TheFonz@lemmy.world 87 points 6 days ago (6 children)

Where the fuck was all this rage in November, my fellow Americans? We already had four years of Trump, January 6 insurrection, a disastrous reduction in foreign relations. But I guess that wasn't enough???

[–] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 37 points 6 days ago

These are MAGA morons, deplorables if you will, who are now upset that they're being affected by project 2025 because they had it in their heads that they would be spared as being good whites and it would only affect minorities and liberals because they're racist deplorables.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 27 points 6 days ago (1 children)

You do not understand the power of ~~the dark side~~ propaganda.

[–] Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee 23 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Marketing, as an industry, should be stamped out of existence. It's just professional lying.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

But this is what I don’t get - Trump isn’t even good at lying. Practically every word is a lie but fails on logic and he’ll usually say the opposite soon enough. How do people even fall for it? Do they actually listen to him?

It must be just cherry-picking: if he says enough lies you can usually find one you like. But how could you reconcile that one thing you think you agree with out of a vast ocean of lies?

[–] Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee 13 points 6 days ago

There's zero expectation of discernment in a cult. And MAGA is a political cult.

[–] unconfirmedsourcesDOTgov@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I understand where your anger is coming from here, as I was just recently raging about lies in modern day advertising, but I'm having trouble following the line here.

Let's say we "stamp out of existence" all activities relating to marketing. Practically speaking, does this make all products commodities? When I walk into a grocery store, is every shelf just a plain brown box with a minimal description of its contents? "cane sugar 1lb", "laundry detergent", "vegetable soup"? Further, marketing includes identification of where there is demand for a certain good, so we should be shipping ice melt to Florida in July and sun screen to Montana in January?

Can I suggest that perhaps what we actually need is better regulations around marketing practices and enforced penalties when companies go over the line?

[–] monkeyslikebananas2@lemmy.world 19 points 6 days ago (1 children)

No need to guess, it wasn’t enough. I think in hindsight, Covid is going to seem like a pleasant nostalgic time.

[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 26 points 6 days ago (1 children)

It already does.

Especially the first part of it where we were baking bread or whatever.

[–] oppy1984@lemm.ee 23 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I know a ton of people died, and countless more where hurt, and it hurt the economy, but as an introvert hermit, GOD DO I MISS LOCKDOWN.

I do my best to keep up the life style, but I'm still expected to go into the office every once in a while for my wasted day as we all call it.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago

And even the bread … I got so fat and my cholesterol sky rocketed

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I'm told it's all the Democrats fault that the Republicans are fucking awful people trying to steer this country into a fascist dictatorship. I mean, just LOOK at what the Democrats made the Republicans do!

If the DNC and the candidates had only listened to these arbiters of wisdom, all would be well, I am told.

If you think that Chuck Schumer selling us out to the Republican double-hitler funding bill this week isn't on some level indicative of the DNC putting a ball-gag in our mouth and bending us over, I really don't know what to tell you.

[–] rational_lib@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

Most Americans have little clue what's going on in government. They just know they're angry about things and blame whoever they perceive as being in charge.

[–] newthrowaway20@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago

These were the people that voted for this.

[–] Saint_La_Croix_Crosse@midwest.social 39 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Breaking: Democrats might still be electable in the future, through no virtue of their own!

[–] TomAwsm@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago

You should write for The Onion.

[–] Doctor_Satan@lemmy.world 20 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

For anyone who is not familiar, Asheville is a very Left-leaning city in a deep red state. Last time I saw that many granola crunching hippies was in my mom's photo albums of the Haight-Ashbury district in '69. I'm not saying the town hall was full of Democrats, or that Asheville doesn't have its fair share of dyed-in-the-wool conservatives. I'm just saying that the general mindset in Asheville leans much further Left than the rest of NC, and that may explain why Edwards was getting so much shit from the public. Buncombe County (where Asheville is) voted 61% for Edwards' Democratic opponent Caleb Rudow in 2024.

Here's a pic I took of some graffiti while I was up there not long ago.

[–] Doctor_Satan@lemmy.world 18 points 6 days ago

Fuck it. More graffiti. Some trippy cats.

[–] Cosmonauticus@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago

North Carolina is not a deep red state. It's actually more purple than ppl realize. Especially with the influx of ppl from the Northeast moving there in mass.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago (2 children)

But others, like Downie, aren't necessarily on the left end of the political spectrum. He's a registered independent who served under presidents of both parties during his time in the Army.

"independent"

How to say you are voting Republican but not exactly proud about it...

[–] frog_brawler@lemmy.world 11 points 6 days ago

Nah, 100% fuck that. After I moved to where I live now I registered as an independent because after 23 years of being a democrat, I’m now embarrassed to say that about myself and I also largely disagree with their capitalist bullshit.

[–] tomkatt@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Nah, this isn't true. I'm a Coloradan and registered independent. I generally vote blue, and am very socially liberal and a big believer in safety nets and social programs, providing a floor, and I'm a proponent for the idea of a national basic income, universal healthcare, and free or subsidized education. I just don't feel that the Democrats have actually represented me or my interests in a very long time. I was originally a registered democrat, but have been a registered independent now for well over a decade.

If we had an actual progressive party that would be something, but this milquetoast middle-of-the-road Democratic party we have today is essentially the Republican party of my youth. The dems are very conservative these days, and only left-seeming because the Republicans have continually shifted toward insane alt-right extremism since the mid/late 2000s.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world -2 points 5 days ago

Eh, I'm sticking with it. Sure, there are of course legit independents as you appear to be. But all too often I witness someone claiming they are an "independent", they nearly immediately go on to at least "both sides" the left and the right (thus enabling the right's very worst behaviors), if they don't outright parrot some magamaniac talking points, which they often do. It's almost as reliable as someone that starts off a sentence with "I'm not a racist, but...." - "I'm an independent...." - I'm usually bracing myself for what comes next. Sure, sometimes someone proves that they are actually independent, but that's rare.

I always thought it was rather sus, but then, post-teabagger, it went off-the-chart sus, when a zillion people were claiming they were in the "tea party" (not a real thing; the teabagger party is as much a "party" as doge is a real department of government) and never even heard of this Bush guy, even when in many instances I knew they had voted for him, 2x.

[–] JacksonLamb@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago

It's just the screaming of some faces being eaten by leopards. The leopards are "reckoning with" it just fine. They don't care.

[–] Beetschnapps@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago

Meanwhile, Stupidity knows no bounds. Meanwhile they will still vote for them.

We love our oppressors.

[–] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 125 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I guess it's good that non-political people are starting to get involved. Shame they didn't spend 5 minutes to check which way the wind was blowing in November last year.

[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 52 points 1 week ago (2 children)

They'll still vote for fascism. They're just angry it's impacting them directly.

[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

In the end it will always affect them directly. So they'll remain angry until they get half of a fucking clue about the issues.

[–] TexasDrunk@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

So they'll remain angry until they get half of a fucking clue about the issues.

Then they'll be even more angry. I know I am.

[–] GreyEyedGhost 5 points 6 days ago

I think the only way I could be associated with Texas is if the association included drunk. Hope you're doing okay.

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[–] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 111 points 1 week ago (3 children)

This was a fun one to watch. Edwards said that he was proud to vote for the budget resolution and was booed hard. He smiled in response, like a goddamn sociopath, further enraging the people. A veteran stood up, shouted louder than the crowd and was forcibly removed by police. At the end of the town hall, Edwards hid inside the building for almost an hour, waiting for the crowd to disperse. Not only were they all waiting for him outside, they surrounded his car and made him sit in the center of a parking lot protest for 20 minutes until the police broke it up. Fuck any public servant that refuses to represent their constituency.

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago (1 children)

20 minutes?

It should be 20 fucking days.

Surround his fucking house.

[–] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 18 points 6 days ago

They stayed until the police forced the protesters to allow him passage.

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