Two-thirds of Americans say that the country is “pretty seriously off on the wrong track,” while just under a third say the country is moving in the right direction, according to an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll conducted using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel.
Overall, Americans seem unhappy and anxious, with a slim majority saying the economy has gotten worse since President Donald Trump took office and majorities saying that both major parties and the president are out of touch. A majority of Americans are also growing increasingly concerned over the government shutdown.
I think it’s more that a huge chunk of the population have externally defined morality and thus are very malleable. Many many people do not enjoy the hard work of figuring out their own self-consistent views of right and wrong. So they let their culture define it for them, which the people in charge are more than happy to do. So when the prevailing culture told them it was wrong to be racist against black Americans, they believed it. And now that the culture they stew in tells them (e.g.) black Americans are lazy moochers, they believe that.