Trump's Death Cult Explained

[Elok]

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.

[Ted Striker]

I understand your frustration but I think the analogy is a pretty big stretch considering the once in a century stakes on the line. This isn't about the two real housewives of the OC complaining to the waiter because their steak was overcooked.

The lack of outrage is what bothers me the most.

People have their bread and iphones and are mostly content and lazy and so won't speak up.

Speaking up is our duty. It's plugged into the Bill of Rights.

Sitting there and letting Trump define the narrative isn't gonna fly. Cuomo is making good points.

[Elok]

Governor Cuomo tired of playing games and roasts Trump, who totally deserves it.

I know there were points earlier about not feeding the outrage news cycle, but there's also statement about what we as a society value.

Then there's just plain accountability.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-a9471381.html

This piece of **** works FOR the people, he is not the boss of the people. Somehow he forgot he is a public SERVANT.

*******

Honestly, this--like so much else I encounter in the news in this age of social media--reminds me strongly of my time substituting middle schools. It's talk about talk. Becky's group talked **** about you, so you have to talk **** about them, and people excitedly ferry your slams back and forth so we can all keep precise track of how much **** has been talked and people can argue about which of you *****es is more out of line. Bugger that. "We, as a society" are not twelve-year-old girls, on average, and do not have hormones as an excuse.

[Uncle Sparky]

Since we've had a few 'gun' posts, another line of thought the NRA can utilize, care of The Beaverton:

https://www.thebeaverton.com/2020/04...rGnI6iZzjgrnMg

FAIRFAX, VA – In light of the fact that this March marked the first month without a school shooting in the U.S. since 2002, the National Rifle Association released a statement claiming “Guns don’t kill people, schools being open kill people.”

“Seems like the only thing that changed from February to March was that kids weren’t allowed to go to school because of the pandemic, not an absence of guns,” said an NRA spokesperson. “Maybe the real killer is having these crook schools open 10 months of the year.” ...

[Jon Miller]

I don't think Trump has ever thought of himself as a public servant. I expect that his supporters fall into two groups: those too naive to understand this, and those (And there is always a significant portion of the populace that desires this) who really want a king (who is on their side).

JM

[Ted Striker]

Governor Cuomo tired of playing games and roasts Trump, who totally deserves it.

I know there were points earlier about not feeding the outrage news cycle, but there's also statement about what we as a society value.

Then there's just plain accountability.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-a9471381.html

This piece of **** works FOR the people, he is not the boss of the people. Somehow he forgot he is a public SERVANT.

*******

[Jon Miller]

I should have used the word progressive there and not liberal.

JM

[-Jrabbit]

I see shadows that seem to go in opposite directions, so it's very likely that's a photoshopped image.

[-Jrabbit]

I also recommend Heather Cox Richardson. She's a historian and does an excellent daily summary on Facebook.

[giblets]

Despite Vox trying to present itself as a challenger for CNN, I actually include it as part of the Liberal media (with Jacobin et al.).

Fivethirtyeight (ABC) does a much better job.

I used traditional instead of unbiased, liberal, conservative, or so on. For sure the traditional media is not liberal, however. You can see in their response to Bernie et al.

JM

Bernie Sanders isn't liberal, he's socialist.

[BeBMan]

I haven't done the math on 1-3

[Elok]

How many people do you believe there are who

1. Follow Trump's tweets and such
2. Believe them, and
3. Follow up by looking around for persuasive rebuttals?

I suspect this group is vanishingly small. There are a lot of people who believe his nonsense and will refuse to look for or consider refutations. There are a lot of people who read the rebuttals eagerly because they derive some species of satisfaction from being reminded what a big fat stupid poophead is holding the nuclear football. And there are a lot of people, including many Trump supporters, who wish he would shut his frigging cakehole, think he's stupid, and don't look at either.

[BeBMan]

Whenever Trump acts Trumpy and the media react with fact-checking outrage, Trump wins, and all his stupid ugly troll supporters get bolder and more excited because LOL the n00bs got pwned and [consult zee for whatever else useless internet people say under these circumstances].

I think it's a difficult balance. Yeah the media outrage on basically everything T does or sez is overdone, and may be counterproductive. These days, outrage is everywhere, no just about T, regardless if justified or not.

Otoh, what would be the right media reaction to his endless barrage of nonsense and/or outright lies? If everyone shrugs it off it would essential mean he succeeds in rewriting/distorting everything.

It doesn't matter what facts are if a critical mass of ppl doesn't care anymore, or is too exhausted to care due to an endless barrage of nonsense and/or outright lies (troll-wars of attrition, not invented by T, but he's at it certainly). In such an environment he (and similar types like him 'round the globe) have it easier to plow on with the same type of nonsense...

[Elok]

I don't mean to imply that guns specifically were a reason for Trump's appeal over other GOP options; that had more to do (AFAICT, don't get the appeal personally) with deep-seated dissatisfaction with the status quo, both militarily and economically, combined with a generalized hate for respectability. But now that Trump has succeeded in making himself the face of the GOP--which, yes, is stupid--gun rights are as much a part of his schtick as any other Republican's. I picked it as a more or less random example of a subject where Blues tend to be both condescending and ignorant about something important to Reds. But there's a more general disinterest in understanding where all the conservative passion/anger/paranoia on any given subject is coming from and chalking it up to something simplistic and self-justifying like "racism." And yeah, there is a lot of racism going around now, but I don't think it's ever as simple as just racism.

Well, not for the majority of the GOP, anyway. Some of their voters really are washed-up little fascists who waste a lot of time watching YouTube conspiracy videos about Jews before supporting this dude with a Jewish family. But that bloc thankfully isn't big enough to be a major constituency.

[Jon Miller]

Urban guns and rural guns are entirely different things (which is where some of the gun divide comes from). But the pro-gun crowd was there in 2000 and 1990 and 2008, why are they voting for and supporting Trump now? There were many other pro-gun people for them to choose from. And other Republicans do not favor or do the terrible things that Trump does.

JM