Comment on Do you think that Trump is the most hated U.S. president?
darthelmet@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I guess it depends what you mean exactly. Hated by people now? Hated by contemporaries? Hated by specifically American voters vs anyone affected by them? Total number of people who hate? Proportion of population? Intensity of hatred?
There’s also the extent to which media plays a role in this. We’re constantly aware of all the horrible shit Trump is doing, but the average person probably wouldn’t know much about say, The Trail of Tears at the time and it’s hard to say if they’d care given the way natives were portrayed to them. As for how people today look back on these people… maybe it’s just recency bias, but people don’t seem to really emotionally “hate” historical presidents as much as you’d think they should just based off what they’ve done. Slave owners, war mongers, and genocidal maniacs. People mostly know about the big stuff but… they always seem kind of disconnected from the horror of it.
So Idk. Trump is definitely up there, but depending on exactly what we’re talking about, we could probably make a good case for a few other monsters of the past.