A_Man_Who_Tries wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2024 1:40 pm

Wood Goblin wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2024 12:40 pm Speaking of which, it’s heartening to see how many people finally decided to cancel their Twitter accounts this morning.

If you haven’t yet, what’s the holdup?

It's not heartening at all. It's lily-livered look-at-me whining from feckless milquetoasts, desperate to be seen to feel long after the 'do something' horse has bolted.

Sorry, but that's what that is.

Yeah. Just now cancelling Prime and X? The evidence has been there for years.

A_Man_Who_Tries wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2024 1:40 pm

Wood Goblin wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2024 12:40 pm Speaking of which, it’s heartening to see how many people finally decided to cancel their Twitter accounts this morning.

If you haven’t yet, what’s the holdup?

It's not heartening at all. It's lily-livered look-at-me whining from feckless milquetoasts, desperate to be seen to feel long after the 'do something' horse has bolted.

Sorry, but that's what that is.

Agreed.

Trump is still a protest vote, just as he was in 2016. Doesn’t matter that he’s whatever he is, to voters he’s outside of the normal political establishment and doesn’t act like them or play by their rules. It’s not difficult to see how that appeals to people who feel marginalised for whatever reason and to whatever degree of legitimacy.

dumbass wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2024 1:40 pm I think a right-wing populist winning an election when the country is struggling to make ends meet is literally the most predictable thing that could have happened.

ok... where is your country making ends meet!?

like literally!?

its not and folks will continue to struggle most likely for the worse under trump.

Lu Zwei wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2024 1:55 pm

dumbass wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2024 1:40 pm I think a right-wing populist winning an election when the country is struggling to make ends meet is literally the most predictable thing that could have happened.

ok... where is your country making ends meet!?

like literally!?

Well, when inflation skyrockets from faux-populist Don the Con's tariffs, they can avoid grocery bills by eating each other.

zorg wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2024 9:38 am I've been doing some thinking on this, because I do get a lot of questions from colleagues in other countries curious about the cult of personality in American politics. The best I can equate it to is that the average American (of late) regards their political candidate the same way that a football club supporter might. Win at all costs. Cheat, brag, threaten, wear the colors, fight at the pub. Was it a good game? Is the striker a rapist? Did the club get sold to the Saudis? Did they deserve to win? It's not even a question, blind loyalty is all. But why this convergence? The declining standard of living, wealth gap, and because they feel more and more disenfranchised, so this is their best chance to opine and lash out. Not a good formula for a functional democracy.

This is an analogy I have also used for the last couple of years: the majority of Americans have their "team", it goes through roster changes and coaches on a regular basis, people may not even like the new players/coaches, but it doesn't matter because they are your team and you will support them no matter what.

It's not a perfect analogy because the DNC continues to employ tactics that failed in 2016, and have failed them yet again (pivoting away from wildly popular economic rhetoric by pressure from business interests to "Trump bad, democracy in danger!", trotting out ghouls like Dick Cheney to try and win over republicans, etc.), although now there is more evidence that misogyny is playing a role; could the election have been different if the DNC actually bothered to engage with people on the issues they truly care about? We'll never know because these past few election cycles have made it clear that they will never attempt it, they would rather lose.

dumbass wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2024 1:40 pm I think a right-wing populist winning an election when the country is struggling to make ends meet is literally the most predictable thing that could have happened.

Krev wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2024 1:31 pm I think the Dems would have needed the endorsement of some rapey, toxic UFC type to court the Gen Z male vote.

Weird how all the Trump flags were flying over nice homes with F-150s parked in front. Or on vacation homes. Or boats.

Trump supporters aren’t “struggling to make ends meet.” They’re garden variety fascists.

They're monied hicks that want a corrupt fascist theocracy where their chosen undesirables are bullied into submission. If that requires a raving lunatic at the helm, so fucking be it.

Krev wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2024 9:23 am If you want to be more depressed:

https://davekarpf.substack.com/p/what-t ... 1JHg9C-uog

To me, the most depressing thing is the ending:

...It’s going to be a long road to unwind the damage this second administration will cause. A very long road. Anyone who says “we’ll beat him at the midterms” isn’t taking this seriously. This will get very bad for a great many people, and many of the effects will be locked in for decades. But it won’t last forever. There will come a time when we can rebuild.

...

This is an ending, but not the end. We can, one day, build something better.

We can't build something better, not with the U.S. Constitution, more people need to realize that; when you read the convention notes, and what these rich assholes talked about, it really isn't a far cry from what Trump and people like him talk about all the time--hell, James Madison's personal crusade during the convention was to ensure that debt relief for poor people would never be possible. I wish Patrick Henry could see where everything has ended up; almost everything the anti-federalists feared about the constitution has come to pass, albeit not in the way they imagined.

That has been a severe source of frustration for me. I’ve read the constitution, the federalist papers, seen how the government has operated under it, and there is no fucking way that piece of shit document is compatible with any real kind of liberation of marginalized people. This has been evident for well over 100 fucking years yet not a single major organization with political influence will fucking admit it.