Trump's Death Cult Explained

[-Jrabbit]

The thing that drives me crazy about the "how and why of Trump's latest lie" coverage is that the process ends up repeating those lies in great detail, and spreading them to a wider audience.

[Egbert]

Trump seems to deliberately target and provoke the lefties and the woke crowd. Their reaction seems to play into his hands.

Hillary describing Trump supportets as deplorables ead good for Trump and bad for Hillary. It portrayed her as condescending and allowed Trump to frame himself ad opposing these arrogant lefties.

SOC attacking Trump is hood for Trump because he can frame her as a loony lefty and frame himself as protecting America from loony lefties.

I sm not libingbin America fk I may er be mistaken. That is my impression of Trump.

I think Trump speaks to the emotions of his listeners and gives careful though to what he says. I think there is a method to his madness.

[Elok]

Ted, I'm not saying let the president DO whatever he wants. Just ignore the stupid crap he SAYS. Suppose he tweets (or says, or whatever) "Senator AOC is just mad because I raised the tariffs on beans. These Mexicans come to our country and won't buy American beans. Sad!"

There are so many things wrong with this statement that it's hard to say where one would start, but I don't doubt that Vox, WaPo, NYT, CNN, and everybody else would exhaustively cover it from every conceivable angle, expending hundreds of man-hours between them cataloguing all the ways Trump is wrong. These rebuttals would be read almost exclusively by people who already think Trump is a worthless jackass. And when they were done, Trump would just shrug and say something else wrong, restarting the whole cycle. Nothing would change, nothing has changed, nothing will change. And while everybody is focusing on arguing with weird racist gibberish, they're not paying as much attention as they should to actual significant events and policies. Taibbi says the COVID stimulus package has utterly massive favors for the rich buried in it, for example. If all those people who are currently busy barking at tweets worked on refocusing public attention like stuff like that, we might have at least slightly saner fiscal policy.

[dannubis]

I thought bernie sanders stepped out of the race?

[giblets]

When he was voted in it was closer to 45/45 (approval/disapproval). The election was actually 46.1/48.2 (with Clinton about 2% ahead). I have been pretty sure that the 42/52 approval numbers that he usually has been at would be enough for 2020 to go against him, similar to how 2018 went against the Republicans (but was close).

I would feel more comfortable if it was more like his low (36.5/57.5) then his recent high of 46/50 because some who disapprove will not vote Democrat.

The generic congressional ballot has stayed at around 41/49 in favor of the Democrats which is another pointer to a Democrat victory in November. In 2018, the generic ballot was between +6 and +9 in the Democrat's favor, so it looks like we are looking at a similar go this time (Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Arizona went Democrat in 2018).

JM

However the Democrats are going to nominate someone who is borderline senile and can't explain what he wants to do as president. Snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory.

[Ted Striker]

He’s the most powerful person in the world, not some small time internet troll.

Speaking up is a Constitutional designed check and balance and is a duty, not a personal Facebook gossip conflict.

“Whilst men are linked together, they easily and speedily communicate the alarm of any evil design. They are enabled to fathom it with common counsel, and to oppose it with united strength. Whereas, when they lie dispersed, without concert, order, or discipline, communication is uncertain, counsel difficult, and resistance impracticable. Where men are not acquainted with each other’s principles, nor experienced in each other’s talents, nor at all practised in their mutual habitudes and dispositions by joint efforts in business; no personal confidence, no friendship, no common interest, subsisting among them; it is evidently impossible that they can act a public part with uniformity, perseverance, or efficacy. In a connection, the most inconsiderable man, by adding to the weight of the whole, has his value, and his use; out of it, the greatest talents are wholly unserviceable to the public. No man, who is not inflamed by vain-glory into enthusiasm, can flatter himself that his single, unsupported, desultory, unsystematic endeavours, are of power to defeat the subtle designs and united cabals of ambitious citizens. When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”

–Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents 82-83 (1770) in: Select Works of Edmund Burke, vol. 1, p. 146 (Liberty Fund ed. 1999).

And this guy was a conservative!

[Donegeal]

Disagree. There is no way in hell 5 minutes would cover EVERY stupid thing he says in a day. That's a brief summary at best.

[Elok]

Far from it. The whole point is that most of what Trump does--blather--is irrelevant, because he doesn't persuade anyone either. He says something asinine, and hordes of uninformed people (sorta) believe it, though TBH I'm pretty sure you're underestimating the size of the "I wish he'd shut up but he's our bulwark against the leftists" crowd. But the opinions of these people don't matter except insofar as they affect who those people will vote for, which isn't changing. Everyone says he's lowering the discourse ... and the answer to that is to ignore. the. stupid. ****. he. says. Focus on the few things he actually does, and you'll be using the time more effectively without giving Trump control of the conversation. You won't, of course, for the same reason everyone here couldn't stop engaging BK and Kid. The temptation to play one-hole whack-a-mole is apparently just too tempting to most people.

[Uncle Sparky]

I stopped listening to Trump a couple of years ago. I never did appreciate his style, and felt his content more distressing because he had established politicos enabling him. I agree with Aeson… seeing Trump through a filter really helps.

[Aeson]

Like I can go on Twitter and in 5 minutes know every absurdly moronic and dishonest thing that our Commander in Chief said and did for the day, without watching hour after hour of press conferences.

[Uncle Sparky]

I'm surprised that you are trying your hand at satire... It didn't work.

[Aeson]

I personally like seeing people make fun of Trump because it saves me the hassle of personally wading through the soul destroying mass of lies and babbling to get to the funny parts. (Also true of those who point out pertinent policy points. Just not necessarily as funny.)

[Ted Striker]

Apparently this guy was a counterprotestor. I stand corrected, unless we get more info on what actually happened.

[Ted Striker]

Why? You've been kvetching about Trump for three years. What has it accomplished? His approval rating has hovered around 40-45% the whole time per 538. I think the same people who hated him in 2016 hate him now, with little margin of error. Who are these people performing for, other than their bases? Who listens to them, other than their bases? Is anyone convinced, or even impressed, by anyone they didn't already agree with? I can tell without bothering to Google that there will be heaps upon heaps of pro-Trump pieces calling Cuomo a ... cuck, or whatever the hell diehard internet Trumpists are calling people these days. Performance art. Trump defines the narrative--for Trumpists. And also, to a good extent, for anti-Trumpists; who endlessly react, and react, and react.

As for the stakes, yelling at Trump will not move him, or anyone on his side, to behave in a more helpful fashion on the coronavirus or any other issue. As a matter of fact, there's not much you could ever do to make Trump act in a helpful way, beyond constant flattery, and that's not reliable even if you could stomach it. And the people with bread, iphones, beer, or whatever else they like better than listening to you guys go at it again, are not going to find this hectoring fascinating all of a sudden.

That sounds pretty defeatist.

Basically we should not normalize his behavior. It's not normal. People should continue to speak up and not just "it is what it is."

[Jon Miller]

When he was voted in it was closer to 45/45 (approval/disapproval). The election was actually 46.1/48.2 (with Clinton about 2% ahead). I have been pretty sure that the 42/52 approval numbers that he usually has been at would be enough for 2020 to go against him, similar to how 2018 went against the Republicans (but was close).

I would feel more comfortable if it was more like his low (36.5/57.5) then his recent high of 46/50 because some who disapprove will not vote Democrat.

The generic congressional ballot has stayed at around 41/49 in favor of the Democrats which is another pointer to a Democrat victory in November. In 2018, the generic ballot was between +6 and +9 in the Democrat's favor, so it looks like we are looking at a similar go this time (Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Arizona went Democrat in 2018).

JM