the kind of people who dont give the least bit of fuck about pretty horrible things until it happens to them after which they love to play the victim
I like to look at it this way: There are not many bad people but weak people who fall for propaganda. The real bad people are just a few but those are the ones manipulating the weak.
I know a lot of people who are pissed off and struggling yet don’t blame minorities for their troubles while actively voting against their best interests at every possible turn. I also know people who, even if it took some time, realized that conservatism is actually fucking awful. I even know some conservatives who are just really stupid or bad at economic policy but who are genuinely good people(so long as he can see you or even just hear that you’re a friend of someone he knows my dad will give you his shirt, and he doesn’t have ill-intentions towards minorities, for example).
Trump people are just fucking terrible. Their entire “ideology” is so rooted in being terrible that even if they were just weak morons sweat away by the propaganda I still cannot fathom how they weren’t tipped off by any of the thousands of moments which gave them the opportunity to reflect.
All this is not new. It started with Reagan and I’m confident you will soon have it worst than Trump, given that your country managed to fall lower 3 times already.
You nailed it though. They lack the ability for introspection and self reflection
Glad you started this conversation. Allow me to just add: if we are to repair our republic and restore our constitution, we are going to have to find a common ground where these feeble minded followers can see that the world they reject is one that benefits them more than the dystopia they embrace.
This is going to require restraint and tolerance on our part.
You don’t have to be stupid to follow an authoritarian. In fact, your characterization is a huge driving force in their radicalization. People with legitimate grievances watched globalization leave them in the dust in pursuit of a multicultural, pluralistic society. This left them vulnerable to narratives that espoused their “historical” superiority amongst other groups and their subsequent entitlement to world primacy. It’s more a function of a lack of diverse perspectives as a result of continued divestment from public services and goods, as well as geographical concentration of wealth and resources and other confounding variables.
I agree that the world before Trump was marginally better for these voters than the alternative they’ve elected, but your heirarchical paradigm is condescending, reductive, simplistif, obnoxious, short-sighted, and exemplifies why so many people swung that way to begin with.
Also, I can’t underestimate how incredibly dumb and dense you have to be to consider that the previous paradigm was good for anyone outside of the West who was not already someone of considerable financial means.
Looks like one of us already has that common ground I was talking about in abundance. Thanks for leading the way.
Too weak to have any morals? I doubt it. They are just given permission to let their inner racism out.
That’s too easy and excuses us from the work needed to rescue these people, content in our own moral superiority.
Nah, a lot of people are cunts.
Tetraethyl Lead has a lot to answer for, but yes, a lot of people are just selfish arseholes.
How many inbred people, even trump hates
They were always here.
I escaped from the south to the coasts, but I always tried to warn people how vile the worst of us were.
Nobody coukd believe it, but remember, Hitler wrote about the south as the model for Germany in mein kampf, and the nazis copied the Nuremberg Laws from Jim crow almost verbatim.
It’s not just the south.
I’ve lived in much of the country, and I’m not white.
There is racism everywhere.
But the South is like going from Lebanon to the deepest reaches of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
They’re monsters, and proud of it.
Cool islamophobic analogy,
Imagine equivocating the Taliban and Muslims in general.
That’s not Islamophobic, the Taliban literally are misogynist, homophobic monsters.
To PHR’s knowledge, no other régime in the world has methodically and violently forced half of its population into virtual house arrest, prohibiting them on pain of physical punishment.[238] — Physicians for Human Rights, 1998
The Taliban have committed a cultural genocide against the Afghan people by destroying their historical and cultural texts, artifacts and sculptures.[89]
The Taliban are about as Islamic as the Nazis are Christian.
Monsters are just monsters.
The also took inspiration from the Catholic Church and the inquisition. The Church did ethnic cleansing long bef the Nazis.
Wherever there is a state, there is fascism.
The also took inspiration from the Catholic Church
Not just inspiration but also direct material support.
The pope at that time looked the other way.
Depends on which pope you are talking about. One of them got allied planes in his sights to get shot down.
Nazi legal theorists saw the U.S. as a “pioneer” in racist legislation.
James Q. Whitman, in his book “Hitler’s American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law”,
I believe they got some of their ideas from American eugenicists.
You just know that guy on the left has a swastika tattoo somewhere on him.
Yeah, it’s right there on his throat. It’s just the v2.
ඞ
Dude looks like a Mike Meyers character.
Fat American bastard, but that’s redundant.
Thank you, someone had to do it o7
It is escapable. It’s propaganda. Show them different news and they are communists.
The worst part of the Trump era is the realization of just how few people don’t fall for the divide and conquer manipulation.
One of the good things about living in the bay area is seeing these people on TV, it’s like seeing an NPC in a video game. It’s hard to believe they are real. The 1st time I saw an IRL maga hat was 2020, and I’m pretty sure it was a tourist at the beach I had to point and laugh. The 2nd time was last month, and I gave that bitch the bird. She was wearing the cringe ass Elon Dark Gothic Maga hat.
It’s also amazing just how incredibly tacky the MAGA movement is.
The Nazis were evil, but at least they wore clothing designed by Hugo Boss. At least they borrowed from impressive looking Roman-style banners and eagles. They understood how to use colour, light and so-on to project strength. Even if you acknowledge that the Nazis were evil, at least you can sort of understand why the German people were drawn in.
But the MAGA movement is so weak, so tacky. Even if I were somehow 100% aligned with their beliefs, I wouldn’t want to associate with them in public because their whole aesthetic is so embarrassing. I can’t understand how anybody can look at Trump and see competence, intelligence and strength. I also can’t understand how anybody can look at a typical MAGA rally and see anything other than a design scheme that would make even Wal*Mart cringe.
They had propagandists that used actual skilled artisans and people actually the “best” in their fields. Not drunk Uncle Jim and AI slop.
In modern day America, it seems like 99% of artists are anti-Trump. That isn’t really surprising because fascism is about conformity and falling in line, whereas art tends to be about self-expression and challenging norms. So, it seems like in the modern world, very few artists or other creative people are willing to work with the Trump admin. I wonder if back in Hitler and Mussolini’s time that wasn’t the case.
Oh, I’m so glad you pointed it out. I thought I was going nuts thinking they were gaudy and in poor taste and I wasn’t reading anyone saying it. 😂
The Mar-a-Lago face alone, and the gaudy golden shoes, statues, chandeliers and shit. Yuck lol
I wouldn’t know how to look it up, but I really wonder what the average German or Italian who didn’t support the fascist governments thought about them. Did they see the governments as strong, organized and competent, but didn’t support them because they trampled on people’s rights, etc? Or were Mussolini and Hitler seen as clowns and their supporters as tacky idiots?
As someone who wasn’t alive back then, and who doesn’t know anybody who was (at least not in those countries), it seems like they were probably seen as competent, powerful and organized. But, I really hope everyone knows that outside of the MAGA movement, they’re seen as tacky, incompetent, weak, stupid and embarrassing. I would hate for a historian in 2100 (assuming humanity survives long enough for that) to be writing about MAGA saying that their aesthetic was powerful and intimidating, when it’s much more reminiscent of a circus.
In the UK a fascist movement took off at the same time as Nazism. It failed because their bullying tactics didn’t wash with Brits, especially with what was going on in Germany. They were seen as the thugs they were, basically. Antifascists halted an attempted parade through the largely Jewish east end of London, “the Battle of Cable Street”. After that the govt banned paramilitary uniforms etc. Once the war started of course that was it - the party was proscribed and most fascists were interned for the duration.
Meanwhile… https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_American_Bund
At least you can identify them easily. Bumper stickers, license plates and hats.
Without a doubt this is the worst part. It was an immediate and irreversible swing from being an optimist who believes in the good of people to the complete opposite. I now believe humanity is fundamentally flawed and will destroy itself.
Watched too much Star Trek as a kid I guess.
I once proudly said “when the internet is cheap and easy, everyone will have full access to all information and it will be effortlessly easy for people to stop believing falsehoods and it’ll start a swing towards reason!”
I just want to hug teenage me.
30-yo me was just as naive. Jesus, what have we done.
To tie star trek into an admittedly foolish level of hope: I believe there was a catastrophic war and social failing that, eventually, led to their pseudo-utopic future… right?
Well it was WW3. Which started there in 2026. Sooo… good news?
Wow, that’s kinda on the nose, isnt it?
I used to think similarly. The outright hatred, apathy, hostility… its sickening.
But I stand by Mr. Rogers’ message. Look for the helpers.
Humanity has always grappled with its angels and demons. No fictional evil could ever compare to the cruelty and apathy of real humans being real shit. But despite all that, humans keep trying, and have always kept trying.
This isn’t the worst it’s ever been. This isn’t even the worst it’s been here. This isn’t even the worst it’s been, here, in living memory.
If know someone over the age of 60, you know someone older than the civil rights act.
Even in a life where discrimination wasn’t possible so much as it was fundamental in society, John Lewis and MLK Jr. still had faith in humanity. They still believed in its potential. They still had faith in the face of all of that hatred and ignorance. Faith that a better nation and a better future could be forged in their lifetimes.
And you know what? They were right.
Even today, with all of these threats to return to a time when America was “great”… even now, this is still a better nation than the America of 1963. That is undeniable truth, and it is in large part thanks to heroes like them.
If they could believe in the potential of humanity, I think it’s arrogant of us to disagree.
“John Lewis and MLK Jr. still had faith in humanity”
Those guys were under the boot heel, and had no direction but up. I’d be more optimistic for the future of humanity if they were white dudes with everything to lose, agitating for an oppressed minority.
That’s the entire point. They were under the boot heel, but still looked up.
To suggest that a bunch of agitated white people would be more inspiring than those historical heroes is… it’s beyond words. It really is.
Please reconsider… everything.
You completely missed my point. I wasn’t minimizing your heroes, and I’m not American. We don’t all think like Americans. Please expand your world view…
How exactly did I miss your point? Was it the part where I linked a list of agitated white people with something to lose, who were fighting for an oppressed minority? Was there some other point that I missed?
Did you read about the agitated white people who were shot and killed defending oppressed minorities? Did that give you more faith in humanity, than stories of Martin Luther King Jr., and John Lewis?
I really cannot stress this enough: please reconsider everything. For someone who doesn’t think like an American, you sure are talking like one.
My entire point was that if people who were “crushed under the boot heel” could still be optimistic about the future of humanity - could still successfully improve the future of humanity - then you can too.
But you, instead, want to hear about white people.
I really do appreciate the words and the sentiment. I would normally agree but right now my faith is still shattered. I think there are good and amazing people, who have done magical and wonderful things. I just think that small and petty tyrants are more common and more indicative of humanity as a whole. That the righteous have to look up from underneath the bootheel of those who deserve to be crushed under one themselves. Instead, those type get to run the show, and obviously always have.
This weekend has been bad mentally. I hope I can find some optimism again. I’m just so tired of expecting the worst and being proven right.
Living in a southern state that is solid red - it’s just difficult to exist. Much more than half of the people I interact with would not view me as a human being if I weren’t stealth about my transness - if I didn’t pass. These people voted against my rights and safety. I’m surrounded by people who think people like me are subhuman.
And I’ll bet that every one of them calls themself a Christian. Fucking joke religion that doesn’t even follow its own tenets.
I am born and raised in a small rural town in northern Nevada, and from my personal experience people have always been this level of unhinged in someway or another. With the rise of the Internet and Trump. It just became more easily accessible to talk to and listen to other unhinged individuals.