Trump: Impeach is the new Orange

[eny]

Arf!


Charlie Kirk got Terhuned...fell for it left right and sinker!


https://x.com/BrentTerhune/status/1851978646115782690


Garbage Force 1

[Snowy]

I must confess, I don't get this

Sorry Mark!

[eny]

Lol, Brent Terhune is a comedian who became famous during covid for his parodies with his MAGA character who railed against the "deep state" and always ended his videos with a covid cough....lots of people fell for it because he is so good at it. Trump did a garbage truck stunt this week....and Terhune released a video from the "trump supporting driver" perspective....and Charlie Kirk — a well known shit-grifter on the trump side — fell for it...tweeting favour, then deleting it when he realised.


https://x.com/RexChapman/status/1852046740494651573

[Snowy]

Thank you, that makes a lot more sense now

[Alan]

Season finale of America tomorrow!

How the fuck is it still a toss up?

[Raid]

I've been watching quite a lot of US election coverage, albeit mostly from left-leaning semi-satirical outlets (The Daily Show, Last Week Tonight). The common theme I've picked up on is that Kamala hasn't really taked a great deal about the economy, and the economy is (as far as I can tell) a much bigger talking point in the US than it traditionally is here. It doesn't help that she's also part of the outgoing administration, and so every little thing that people have against Biden also applies somewhat to her.

But it's really difficult not to think that a sizeable chunk of Trump's voter base just aren't very bright. I know that's incredibly reductive, but it's just so absurd that he's still considered a viable presidential candidate when he's a convicted felon, hugely racist, definitely a massive misogynist and probably a rapist, so obviously a populist that will say anything if he thinks it'll please that specific crowd, absolutely obsessed over his ego... there are *so* many things that should make him unelectable, but it's one day before the election and the polls are about as tied as they can be.

[eny]

Lee Atwater began that particular focus on the dumber segment of society, which is why we have Trump and why he appeals to that segment. He talks plainly about the only things they care about, and then you have a money-captive media that exacerbates the polarity between what Biden has achieved and what popularism would have those followers believe. The right wants to privatise democracy, that is what we are seeing worldwide, because NOT investing helps their cause, the sicker, poorer and uneducated the populace is, the more they can get away with the shit Putin, Yong-Un, Orban et al manages to.

[Wrathbone]

But it's really difficult not to think that a sizeable chunk of Trump's voter base just aren't very bright.

While I think that's evidently true, I place more blame on the extensive use of propaganda to outright lie to people. Kamala can't decide what race she is; the Democrats want to murder babies after they're born; Sleepy Joe let in more murderous, job-stealing immigrants than anyone in history. They're eating the cats and dogs! But don't worry, because Trump has a plan to make everyone rich, stick it to Mexico and China and Putin, end all wars, build the wall that he claimed was already finished and then stop the need for any more of these soul-destroying elections.

Sadly propaganda works, and it's not entirely a question of intelligence as to whether someone buys into it. People believe what they choose to believe, regardless of reason, and the one thing Trump is great at is pulling at those threads of fear and then offering literally anything (possible or not) as his personal Trump-brand solution.

I think Harris will win, but I'm genuinely quite scared that we're somehow in the situation where Trump could still win. That should never have been an option.

[Animalmother]

Looking at the bright side, if Trump looses then that'll be his second loss in a row and he's finished politically. John Oliver pointed out he'd be 82 before could try and run again and that's unlikely. I'd be more worried that one of his utterly disgusting children will try running in the future.

[Raid]

When I said "not very bright", I was alluding to an overall lack of critical thinking skills, of the ability to look outside of their own echo chamber to fact check the statements they're being fed. This isn't a problem that only affects the US, it certainly occurs in the UK too (albeit I think to a lesser extent), but I suspect the issue is that politics over there are *so* polarised that nobody trusts alternative sources because it's too easy to think it's a lie from the other side. Trump's been blaming the media for telling untruths for so long now that it's almost certainly been internalised by his supporters, so all he needs do is declare a source "fake news" and it's immediately disqualified.

I saw an astonishing statistic at some point during the last few months stating the percentage of the US population that believes one or more conspiracy theories (I forget the exact stat, but it was to the tune of 50-75%). That goes both ways of course - let's face it there's a good chance we're all guilty of it ourselves (the Golden Shower tape that the Kremlin has, Trump is a KGB agent, that sort of stuff), but I just wonder how exactly you're meant to fight that mindset and restore some sense of (what I'd consider) normality.

I don't really see much good news coming out of tomorrow. If Harris wins, yes it'll be a relief internationally, but Trump will declare the election rigged and there's a decent chance that'll lead to civil unrest (businesses in Washington have spent the last few days building fences and putting boards over their windows to protect them, this isn't an idle worry) - although this'll likely be preceded by constant recounts and the drawing out of the process even further. If Trump wins, it could be the end of NATO, the end of US support for Ukraine, maybe even the uncorking of the bottle for Putin.

[Wrathbone]

When I said "not very bright", I was alluding to an overall lack of critical thinking skills, of the ability to look outside of their own echo chamber to fact check the statements they're being fed. This isn't a problem that only affects the US, it certainly occurs in the UK too (albeit I think to a lesser extent), but I suspect the issue is that politics over there are *so* polarised that nobody trusts alternative sources because it's too easy to think it's a lie from the other side. Trump's been blaming the media for telling untruths for so long now that it's almost certainly been internalised by his supporters, so all he needs do is declare a source "fake news" and it's immediately disqualified.

It's worse than that. Time and time again I've seen non-Trump people present Trump supporters with simple, hard facts that contradict what they believe, and they're just not interested.* They don't need Trump (or anyone else) to validate whether the facts are accurate because they don't care. They continue to believe what they choose to believe because that's where they place the most importance: faith. Not necessarily in religious terms (though that's certainly a factor), but in the sense that having faith in an idea or a person or a statement is more important to them than the evidence to support it.

They believe in Trump. Critical thinking is far beyond the horizon. Best I can tell, most of them only stop believing in Trump when his actions unquestionably and directly ruin their personal circumstances, and even then it's not a certainty.


* There are a handful of cases in the last four years where I've seen a Trump supporter stop and consider the information or reasoning that's been presented to them, and in some cases they actually state that they may need to reconsider their support, but it's really rare. Hopefully there are more people in that situation who won't admit that they were misled by him, but at least won't vote for him again. Not convinced that's a widespread situation, though.

[Alan]

He gave his mic a blowjob a few days ago and the fucking idiot Christians are still laying hands on him like he's Christ returned. A massive swath are unflinching republican voters but it's the folk in the middle that are the real nutjobs that should be swayable but still aren't. It always gets me when its folk in the rust belt where the social security programs of the dems literally figuratively throw money at them and yet they think the republicans are going to do more for them. Nutjobs.

[eny]

Even more worrying is that a third of American voters do not vote...

[eny]

Jesus...looks like America is going to learn the hard way, goodbye dollar, hello fascism. Only hope is that the Blue Shift of Urban counts pulls it back...but my god what a mess if not.

[Alan]

Well this will be an interesting few months.

Senate gone, White House likely gone, house a toss up still. The reelection of Ted Cruz is the one that gets me though, how, why, what?

There will always be the question of if Harris was a white guy how would it have gone… Well a white guy with his faculties intact.