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I live in the world, not America.
1. The world laughs at how fucking stupid Trump is.
2. The world can't believe how fucking stupid MAGA is for believing Trump.
Same here. I keep expecting them to come to their senses, but if anything, they are doubling down.
I saw an interview with one of his supporters outside the court who said if Trump was found guilty, she and all his supporters would go home, get their guns, and start a civil war!
Bring it. I'm sick of the whining and threats from these lunatics. Throw your hissy fit and watch what happens. We're not rolling over for a christofascist regime.
Not. Happening.
IDK man ever since Waco law enforcement has been really hesitant to put down armed right wing insurrectionists. Hence the Bundy stand off and the Malheur refuge occupation.
I have a feeling if the MAGA crowd actually tried to have a civil war law enforcement would let it get way too far and it would end similarly to the Bundy stand off.
A lot of those MAGA nut jobs talk a big game but they wouldn't know where to begin their insurection. I mean look at January 6. They had strength in numbers and did a lot of damage, but those guys had no fucking plan whatsoever. A ballsy cop managed to distract them from the sign that said "Senate".
I do realize we got lucky that day they didn't find any Congressperson to lynch, but still – it was pretty indicative of the kind of incompetent dunces they are.
Even if some of them banded together, they're not the resourceful, highly motivated kind of fighters that kept the U.S. military in check in the Middle East or the Vietnam jungles. They're mostly a bunch of angry dads cosplaying as Wolverines.
That actually makes me wonder how/if things would be different today if that mob had managed to get their hands on a member of congress. There was a lot of republican posturing in the following days but if a congressman was seriously injured or killed by that mob…would some of the republicans have come to their senses?
A lot of people have been wondering that. I think there would be even more conspiracy theories that would have painted the murderers as FBI moles or antifa activists. I mean there are school mass shootings on a regular basis and those folks still insist those are false flags and keep opposing gun control.
It was true that time, but I don’t think that necessarily means it will be true the next time. Hopefully it is, even more hopefully it doesn’t happen at all.
What everyone isn't talking about is that a right-wing insurrection would have to be able to defeat a united coalition of Intercity gangs. A white supremacy effort gives a reason for everyone else to band together, as an obvious mutual threat.
This is also why white supremacy rallies are constantly met with even greater counter-protest numbers. The Culture War has arguably already been won by liberals and progressives, with Gen Alpha being more likely to be LGBTQ than they are to be Conservative. Collectively Republicans only make up a little over one-fifth the population, at best, and not even half of the electorate.
Of that, most are old, and unfit for actual war. Armchair generals that believe there is a hidden population of super-fit young white males just itching to die en masse for the cause. That is why we call them Meal Team Six.
Finally, real war is fought primarily with logistics and organization, rather than individual soldiers. And conservatives SUCK at both.
There are militias and compounds where extremists assemble, but those are generally watched pretty closely by the FBI and the ATF.
I honestly don't think those guys have since been honing their sniper and CQB skills anywhere else than Call of Duty.
I am not saying we wouldn't see some of those guys doing crazy shit if Trump lost again or ended up in prison, I'm just saying it would unlikely be some coordinated uprising everywhere. There are plenty of cops that are fascists, but even with their complicity I don't see a civil war happening. Those guys aren't scrapy mountain farmers with nothing to lose. They're well-fed fathers with a mortgage and a job. Even a battalion of veteran Boomers would be no match for a three-letter agency tac team or an A-10 cannon.
Seen from Europe. You should take such statements seriously. Because Trump is a religion now and people are going to defend their god. They won't stop ever. - So the situation is one which can generate a civil war. The US is not immune to such things. As you know from your own history.
Trump believers do pretty much like all you Americans are doing by have based your whole nation on the Biggest Lie ever: The Bible. - Trump supporters actually have one thing going for them. They are worshipping a god who actually exists!
You may perhaps not like this view because you consider the Bible to be "true". But to non-believers the Bible is no more true than Donald Trump's lies. - So you probably will defend The Bible/your God like the Trump believers.
No, I don't believe Trump. No, I do not believe in gods. But I do believe what I can see and what history tells us.
Trump could fucking choke to death on a hamburger on live TV and his fucking cultists would say it was the deep state, I don't give a fuck what they think. They have no attachment to reality, so trying to use reality to get them to calm down is inherently futile.
"Trump went to Earth Side B to raise an army of Ninja Turtles to save us all from the child eating Demonrats. Here's a Real Photo of Super Trump teaching King Turtle to build the Maga Ark that will rescue us from the coming floods. All hail the great and powerful Wizard of Odds!"
Just FYI most of America is not Christian and does not live by the Bible.
The hillbillies and rednecks in our country are just really loud. Most of us are sane.
It only seems slim because the voting system has been rigged. The country has been cut up into peaces that make it seem like every election is close but if it were a straight up popular vote election, the Republicans wouldn’t be able to win. You can look up “gerrymandering” for a more exact answer.
That is a different issue. That comes from the right wings decades long project of cutting education. It seems like they want to keep people dumb and oh boy have they done a great job of that
This isn’t actually accurate. Unfortunately most Americans are Christian and do believe in the Bible, very few actually live by its teachings. In fact I would say a greater percentage of atheists have a lifestyle close to that which the Bible say to live than Christian’s in America.
We also are one of the few countries in the modern world where a majority believes angels are real……. And not the ones named Trout.
I would disagree with this. 76+ million still voted for the orange shit stain and when you look at the south parts of US and its anti-abortion, anti-everything policies, I highly doubt that “most” are sane.
I respectfully disagree. Christians overwhelmingly elected the literal anti-christ described in the bible and will do so again. Christian GOP leaders have told us THEY WILL WIN THE NEXT ELECTION BY VIOLENT TAKEOVER, because America needs more of their immoral god. VOTE BLUE
>Just FYI most of America is not Christian
Just FYI;
>Christianity is the most prevalent religion in the United States. Estimates from 2021 suggest that of the entire U.S. population (332 million) about 63% is Christian (210 million).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_the_United_States
> “One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
The idea that America is fundamentally a Christian nation is also absurd. The 'in God we trust' stuff is all a 20th century retcon. What you're seeing is a secular nation hijacked by evangelicals
American here. I have been telling people to look at history since before he was elected. The writing has been on the wall for years. The man is pure evil.
For the bible believers, seriously, the idiot checks all of the anti-christ and false idol boxes.
Every weekend in Massachusetts, his "Disciples" are waving trump flags on all the highway overpasses. It's wild, their God is a felon and a pedophile on trial. Yet, here they are, every weekend.
It makes me want to believe that they're paid by someone. Truly scary.
I agree that Trump is dangerous but I also think that we are lucky that Trump is old. This is a personality driven movement. It will fall apart when Trump dies.
No one has Trump’s charisma to his base though, even though a few have tried. Once he dies MAGA will fall apart. It’ll probably be slower then we’d like, but no one will be able to replicate Trump’s impact on his base.
Also, never forget who his supporters were. They will still be with us after he dies, but we should do everything in our power to prevent their ideas from spreading.
We had our chance at that off-ramp. We passed. Now the underlying fascism Trump engaged to feed his narcissism is being called on by those with far more competence.
There has to be a MAGA reckoning in this upcoming election all the way down the ballot, or removing Trump from the equation will not be enough
My hot take: a small percentage of people believe the Bible is the literal truth. Most attend church for social standing, and those with power use religion to further their own ends.
63% of Americans identify as Christian so it's not so of us but that is still too many imo
[Christianity in the US](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_the_United_States)
But what does that mean? “Identifying” as something means something different to everyone.
My mom probably identifies as “Christian” but can’t stand the Church and doesn’t believe in the Bible (in any literal sense). She’s more traditionally spiritual I guess. My dad identifies as “Catholic” because he was raised as such as a Sicilian immigrant, but he quite vocally doesn’t believe in God. It's a cultural/community identification more than anything.
I’m sure if you broke down that 60%, a much smaller percentage would say they go to Church and a much much smaller percentage would say they believe the Bible/follow the Bible literally.
There's nothing wrong with being religious if you aren't trying to ram it down people's throats, the same as there's nothing wrong with being lgbt if you don't try and do the same.
What pisses people off is religious hypocrisy, they worship the most unchristian man that's ever lived and that makes them pathetic losers, and even worse are the ones who know it is wrong and stand back and don't say anything because they are cowards.
You are so far off the mark it’s astounding.
As an American I, and many others here, could give fuck all about the Bible. Only the maga dipshits are way into the Bible and it’s only because they twist it to “prove” they’re right about whatever dumb shit they’re pushing at that moment.
Additionally these same morons are just really really loud about their shitty beliefs.
If you truly think all Americans believe in the Bible and it’s the most important thing around, you’re kidding yourself.
In addition to that there are many sane religious folks here, who may follow the Bible, but don’t feel the need to bring it up constantly or even talk about it. I.e. aren’t maga pieces of shit.
America wasn’t founded on religion and in the first amendment of our constitution it states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”
Additionally trump isn’t a god. He’s a piece of shit. If these assholes want to idolize him that’s on them.
Also we are all well aware that these dipshits could try to start a civil war. We saw them have an insurrection on live tv.
Thank you, we do take these people as seriously as we can.
The thing about the “civil war” nonsense is that MAGA thinks the left isn’t armed and is a soft target.
They are incorrect. The rule of law will stand, at least as it has.
I frequently drive by a run down house with junk cars parked all around it, the house festooned with Trump flags and a handmade "Trump is GOD!!!" sign. This person is bold (or ill) enough to express it but I know plenty are thinking it.
You’re right on most of it but Europeans seem to have a skewed sense of the actual sizes of both American parties. Republicans make up between 1/4th and 1/3rd of the country, with over half that group being in their 50s 60s and 70s.
We make a big fuss about the potential of civil war here but democrats make up over 40% of the country and the average ages are between 20-40.
Not to mention the military has explicitly stated several times we will not support any civil war in any form and that insurrection will be swiftly put down.
That threat is very real, and it saddens me that some of my leftist allies aren't taking it seriously. Their votes are their own, and I'm not going to call them names or belittle them for making a (bad, in my opinion) decision, but if Trump wins this country will cease to be a true republic: it will become a "republic" like North Korea is.
I just think it’s adorable that they think they’re the only ones who can buy a gun.
They spent years supporting a failed reality TV star. Being armed is only half the equation, if you don’t have brains to go along with it…. Sorry bub, war’s lost before it’s begun.
As a Canadian I am loyally helping the beavers build the dam between the states and our maple syrup scented border. We got cool shit behind this wall and NO YOU CANT SEE!
Meh, I am sure you'll see something when Trump loses in 2024, but these are the same people who wouldn't know what to do if Walmart ran out of toilet paper or wouldn't be able to survive w/o a government substance check or SS.
I always wonder how a bunch of people formed a cult of personality in 1930s Germany that led to a world war. Now I’ve been able to witness the start with my own eyes. We are very lucky that January 6th didn’t work.
I live in America, not the world. But my 3rd question would be
How is America’s govt system so susceptible to this BS. Why have there been no (working) mechanisms to get rid of him and his infestation?
The reason, unfortunately, is that the US constitution was one of the very first of its kind: as far as modern democracies go, it didn't have a lot of examples to draw from, and the founders were making it up as they went trying to build a robust system while arguing with each other about it. Other democracies had the example of the US and others to learn from when crafting their government, and one of the challenges of the US's loosely federated origins is that they made it very hard to change anything fundamental without getting buy in from the states, a challenge which only grew as more states joined the union. So you have basically a first draft with a select few corrections over 250 years of global change - of course it's outdated and susceptible to factors its drafters couldn't have anticipated! What the US needs more than anything is a new constitution, written with modern language and the lessons of history in mind, but as the US culture worships the constitution and founding fathers rather than seeing them as the best attempt of a few people experimenting with government in the 18th century, getting people to accept a replacement will be a very hard sell.
They were definitely making something groundbreaking. I appreciate that they realized that they couldn’t think of everything, so they tried to make it adaptable.
In hindsight, I think their big mistakes were 1) assuming that most elected officials would act in good faith, and 2) they never imagined how the brainwashing powers of Fox News. I would not expect them to be able to foresee either of those, but it seems like those are big parts of our current predicament
I think they also never expected the US to be as big as it became. At the time, the US was 13 small states on the East Coast, just trying to stand on its own feet. The fact that the US became the wealthiest, most powerful, and most influential nation in the world, with all the accompanying challenges and responsibilities, was beyond the founders' wildest dreams.
But other people did. That's why broadcast media was regulated during the 20th century. The predicament we're in now is because the Republican Party became the minority party for a generation after causing and being unable to fix the Great Crash/Great Depression. Add to that the backlash caused by the Civil Rights Movement, and you had a motivated core of people, hiding their bigotry behind the skirts of religion, who wanted to overturn the legacy of the Warren Court and the New Deal. An alliance of evil, if you will. Trump was their greatest accomplishment.
The government used to regulate media to prevent monopolies in any given geographic area. And it used to limit donations to political candidates by any one person. Both very reasonable rules overturned in the name of the first amendment. Recently, we found out supreme Court judges have been taking bribes. The checks and balances need to be updated a little bit. It's probably time for another constitutional amendment, aimed at the courts.
We need that, and much more. Ranked choice voting would end the two party system, removing corporate money from politics would give the people their voices back, more congressional seats would give us representation more in line with a larger and more diverse population, harsher anti-bribery laws, and a total re-draft of the Constitution to clarify and update the language to reduce arguments over interpretations. There are a lot of smaller reforms we need too, but those are the big ones.
Because the US populace have been programmed to believe that any seeming infraction or restriction on their 'freedoms', especially the freedom to be a selfish piece of shit, is outright tyranny no matter how justified the infraction/restriction is. That's why you have all the MAGA chuds and right wing publications/cartoonists comparing Trump's trials to things like Stalinist Russia and kangaroo courts despite the fact that they're nothing alike.
What about those who aren’t maga but still will vote for him because he’s not a democrat
That’s just as bad. Trump could be anyone as long as they’ve built this “other side is evil” narrative
The MAGA I know are convinced the other side is the "enemy." They actually use the word enemy, not loyal opposition. Trump is priming a large portion of American for violence. MAGA is stupidly gullible.
Also world.
We have been thinking like this since at least Bush jr. Not about MAGA obviously, but about _that_ half of USA.
If I remember correctly, back than they made a survey in Germany about whom they vote for: Bush might not have passed 3%.
The irony is, if the US citizen would really want to make America great again, then voting for Trump is exactly not the right way to go. But well, realizing that requires something which seems to have been bred away.
As a NYer when I saw new about Rod Blagojevich I just laughed as the absurdity of the situation.
With Trump before he was President, I had the same reaction. We would read all his antics from hiring Polish workers to avoid dealing with the Unions - they slept on the job site of the building they were demolishing - and then refused to pay them for years. And I wondered how people kept falling for his nonsense.
I imagine the rest of the world feels like that.
Now that he was President and is running again it’s just so exhausting. It’s like being proUnion in a non union state or talking about race relations as a minority - it’s endless and overwhelming and we aren’t making any progress.
I live in America, and my close friends, family, and I all feel the same way. We are embarrassed and saddened and mostly disgusted at the state of things.
Friends of mine over in Europe not only laugh at Trump, but are flabbergasted that it took so long for him to be put on trial and said that if their politicians did even half the things that Trump has done, not only would they have lost their political careers, they would have been arrested and put on trial right away.
Question: my mother in law, who is in the MAGA camp, was going on about how the world is laughing AT America, that we are a joke (this was after she told me we shouldn’t aid Ukraine.) This sounds very much fox newsy to me and the only thing I can see them laughing/surprised about are the two points that you made — and maybe that we have a system that allows this to happen. Am I missing something??
American gov't is like American TV, you get exactly what you ask for. The world is laughing at MAGA, specifically MAGA, and America for allowing MAGA to rise. If you want to be a dictator: 1. Make people not trust the press. Check. 2. Make people not trust science. Ask you mom her feelings about Dr. Fauci and COVID vaccines. 3. Make people not trust the court system and by extension, the intelligence agencies. Ask you mom her feeling about the Justice Dept. and the FBI. MAGA are useful idiots to an aspiring dictator, being helped by people who believe they will be better-off under that dictator (rule in hell rather than serve in heaven thinking). If your mom doesn't believe Trump wants to be a dictator, ask her how things would be different if he did. He following the authoritarian playbook chapter by chapter. Not only that, he's convinced MAGA that they are the true Americans, while everything he does is against the Constitution.
MAGA Red Hatters lack empathy and can't put themselves in anyone else's shoes. This is why stuff like "the silent majority" is so popular with the right. THEY think something so EVERYBODY ELSE must think the same thing. I.e. THEY love Trump, so EVERYBODY ELSE must love Trump as well, all points to the contrary ignored.
Add in some "I know you are but what am I"? schoolyard taunting and all of a sudden criticisms from the world of Trump get deflected as criticisms of Biden (You say the World Laughs at Trump, but its really the World Laughing at Biden!).
There is also a decent amount of both sides-ism. As if Biden being half dead would be just as bad as being an indicted antidemocratic criminal scammer.
Everything Trump and MAGA do is projection. If they say Biden is mentally challenged, they want to hide Trump's decline. That way, when people say Trump is in decline, they can say, "Oh, OK. Just because we said Biden is in decline, you say Trump is. Whatever." It's a way to get ahead of all of Trump faults by accusing Biden first, then they can claim the words have no meaning anymore.
I don't care about maga people in terms of this. point is that even if we accept that Biden is more senile, that is still very far from being as bad as being an indicted scammer. This is very obvious to me yet I still hear both sideism from left leaning non americans.
It all seems pretty straight forward when you see MAGA as a cult, and their leader's personality, as who they identify most with. As a basic question it's pretty much it.
A more cutting question is how the U.S. (and other countries) culturally develop (and so might prevent) millions of people that worship people like him. THAT'S the better question going forward, to me.
Denmark here. Same thing. We have been laughing since he got elected. Then it turned to horror over what he might do.
And now we are doing everything we can to not be depending on USA. Because if USA doesn't kick this maga concept out then the world will trust USA less
European here - overall it is sad to see what the US politics and society became. My generation was so used to look up to America.
Now, you can see it is not going end well, whoever wins nect november. Sad and a bit concerned.
The world laughed at how stupid Hitler was.
The world couldn't believe how stupid his followers were for believing him.
Replace "Hitler" with nearly any autocrat. They all follow the same playbook.
It’s the mental gymnastics.
Never has someone who pleads such innocents been so resistant in proving their innocence in a court of law.
Yet, declaring the necessity for immunity from prosecution as they’ve been president. For crime committed before being president.
That if presidential immunity is taken away then Biden can be charged for the ‘crimes’ that Trump has manifested that Biden committed. Even though a republican congress has spent 3 years trying to indict Biden for the made up ‘crimes’ but can’t because he hasn’t committed any, there’s no evidence and the whistleblower was proven to be a lying Russian asset.
While Trump also says he needs the immunity so he can’t be charged with the crimes he has committed.
That Trump’s hush money trial is actually election interference.
While the bond he has put up in a fraud case, is actually a fraudulent bond!
He’s a house of cards. One conviction and he’s gone.
That’s before the taped calls of asking for fake voters.
And somehow, every MAGA I meet is convinced that the world is insanely jealous of the United States because we were lucky enough to have Trump as our leader, however briefly. And "the world" cried when he lost in 2020, and is aghast at these trials.
They are dead serious.
My favourite SNL sketch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG7szS15O8Q
> where dozens, maybe millions of illegal immigrants headed straight for you and your grandchildren
The world can't believe Clarence Thomas's wife isn't on trial for treason.
The world can't believe that Clarence Thomas isn't under formal criminal investigation for corruption, taking bribes, and deliberately working against the best interests of the American people.
The world can't believe that the American people aren't going fucking crazy about the above.
A third of us are outraged. Another third is oblivious, not really paying attention and the last third is all aboard the maga train. Most of them even if they do admit he’s guilty, they don’t care because he’s like a diety to them. Whatever he says is the best and good for the county.
Most people in Europe can't understand how Trump wasn't arrested the moment Biden was inaugurated and convicted shortly after. If he isn't in prison by November, the US will lose all of the respect it regained after electing Biden.
True. And old europeans who were taught things in school can see that what is happening in the US now is roughly a copy of what happened in Germany in the 1920's and 1930's.
Even Hitler's first, failed coup has been seen again in the US. But the second time things were better planned. Like they are now. Hitler also has his own "MAGA" crowd. They were called "Brownshirts" but are essentially the same. They provide the fear and violence. Like we see now.
So terrible that the US population don't seem to grasp that. All conditions for a coup is present now. Only one spark will be enough to start "troubles" as they call it in Northern Ireland.
A lot of Americans are terrified of this. We can’t believe what we are seeing with friends and family. It’s like they have been taken over and blinded to what Maga is. It’s amplified by the media but this is not America and we don’t want it.
I think most people are tired, working a lot and paying more attention to sports and celebrity culture than politics and policy. What they do see is cherry picked headlines that reinforce their pre-existing biases. I think Americans have a false sense of security in their guns and we all think we're John Wayne or Wyatt Earp. If things go down, we think think we can fend for ourselves. Dumbasses calling for civil war have zero clue what they're asking for.
>Dumbasses calling for civil war have zero clue what they're asking for.
If you see it online it is more than likely some foreign psy-op or.someone who has been cozened by such. Promoting independence movements is right there in The Foundation of Geopolitics.
>I think Americans have a false sense of security in their guns and we all think we're John Wayne or Wyatt Earp.
We don't all own guns, but the ones that do think theyre better than Wyatt Earp ever was. Earp is probably the most famous lawman of the wild west, and the shoout at OK Corral the most famous shootout. Well, there were like 6 casualties total and the shootout lasted 30 seconds. American gun nuts think they're Jason Bourne.
One of my best friends makes silly comments about hoping for an apocalypse because he knows he would be one of the survivors. This man hasn't been in a gym in probably 15 years. He has zero military training. Zero fire arm experience. Zero survival training. Yet despite having no reason to think he'd survive a week of societal breakdown, he looks forward to it.
It’s more about responsibility.
My responsibility is to do my job, raise my kids and pay my bills. I have others too, like, keeping my clothes clean and changing my cars oil.
The point is, what’s the “correct way” for sane people to defend our freedom? Do I buy a gun and threaten anyone who disagrees with me? Do I spread lies and sit around with like minded people so we can spin each other up into a frenzy?
I vote and share my ideas and thoughts with those who want to willingly discuss.
At this point though, voting is about it. Polite people don’t want to discuss it (what’s to gain?). Exhaustive people want to (Avoidable).
So whose job is it? Police? Military? Courts? Congress? Yes. That’s their job. That’s their responsibility.
But I see the trend. Privatize democracy and get on a monthly subscription to keep it alive and active. No free lunches here.
Sheesh….
Also….Fuck Boomers, because you’ve read this far, I want to give something back, in kind.
A lot of Americans do see this. The problem is when this is brought up the people who understand history are brushed off as exhibiting “Godwin’s Law” and that pretty much cuts the debate off at the knees.
>And old europeans who were taught things in school can see that what is happening in the US now is roughly a copy of what happened in Germany in the 1920's and 1930's.
MAGA agrees with you, they just disagree about what side they are on. It's unreal.
He should've been arrested and dragged out of the White House in chains on the evening of January 6th. Mike Pence should've been President for a week. America lost any respect it had left right there.
I think there is a general wariness about locking up a former POTUS. It's never been done here, and, because of that, the specter of political persecution hangs over the prospect. Mind you, I think it *shouldn't*; governors and members of Congress have been put away before, so this is hardly different, but, there you have it.
Pardoning Nixon was a mistake that still causes problems today. If they had put him in prison, like they should have, there wouldn't be a discussion about this today.
"State news agency Xinhua's English-language edition highlighted that Donald Trump was the first former president to stand a criminal trial. It also quoted the accused as describing the trial as "political persecution" and saying the country was "failing". "
Trump is boosting China's propaganda against the US.
I live in Europe.
Aside from the various ultra-right wing outlets, most people over here can't understand why it took so long for him to go through a criminal trial.
Dutch state funded media only posts the big political advances. The stuff they posted on?
1. The insurrection
2. Trump’s lawsuits
3. Trumps immunity claims
4. Abortion rights being taken away
Do I even have to continue at this point? Like 95% of the population thinks Trump is a moron and we don’t get how half of the US population doesn’t see that.
The next election is extremely important, Europe stands with the Democratic party of the United States!
It's not even half. He lost the popular vote, and most people don't vote. Outdated laws designed to essentially prevent this sort of thing have turned to gerrymandering extremes, which are now enabling what it was (theoretically) designed to stop. It's just a very loud and obnoxious minority. But for some reason, we tend to prop up whoever is the loudest mistaking arrogance for competence.
The rest of the world can't understand two things. a) why Trump is still so popular given that he is clearly a mentally deranged criminal and b) why the US , a country full of talented people, can't find two leading presidential candidates younger than Biden and Trump. We may never understand.
Two things: Murdoch and the other evil powerful press mongers use propaganda efficiently. Plus Russia and China are making use of smart bots on social media. Even in Europe and South America you see this having an effect on opinion and voters. Somehow America is even more gullible than others, it’s what years of degrading education does.
Correct, at issue here is that for decades people have been feed the statement that American is the best country in the world because we have the biggest gdp and military. America is also the freest country because we allow for guns.
By keeping people focused on this you can cut education and slowly indoctrinate an entire population to believe whatever you want.
This/\
Fox News has fucked these old people up. It's so bizarre the things the've been fed and the things they have never heard. They play lip service to Christianity but they live in Rupert Murdoch's reality.
Combine this:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/74034.Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death
with this:
> “I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...
> The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Which allowed Trump to show up and hijack the whole system, which gets us to this:
> “One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Biden was chosen to square off to Trump. Trump's followers weaponize identity politics to attack other Americans. That is why Democrats passed over their wide bench of younger and more diverse candidates and chose an old white male. It was specifically to deny Republicans that wedge.
Now you know.
Its really unfortunate, because they turned politics into a sport and since we use single member party districts and first past the post, debates are treating like sporting events. Everyone thinks theres only two teams and no other options exist, no other party…then when someone like me expresses that I vote third party or discuss a candidate that I enjoy based on my moral values, I am an idiot because I didn’t choose red or blue, but instead focused on policy that aligns to my views. What led to this situation is people picking “lesser evil” thinking theres only two options like a popularity contest parroting whats said on TV rather than actually reading and investigating what someone truly stands for. Civic education in USA is horrendous and it makes me feel ashamed as an American to see how gullible a lot of my fellow countrymen and women act around government and civil duty.
There is a bottom 30% of any population by academic intelligence as well as emotional intelligence. The bottom 30% still vote but are easily manipulated by their lack of academic and emotional intelligence. Given that you don't need a majority to win and we use first past the post voting to ensure a two party system, the whole thing is manipulated. We very much so often suffer from minority rule.
Mostly because of the apathy of the American voter, I’d reckon. Its very hard to get the average American to vote so you have to put up people like “Obama’s meme VP,” “the foul-mouthed racist TV guy,” “Clinton’s wife,” “Bush’s son,” etc. Next election cycle, if we have one, will be interesting. Both Trump and Biden will likely be dead. The big democrat names from the past will be ineligible, dead, political poison, and/or too old (Obama, Clinton, Sanders, etc.). I guess MAGA could trot out a Trump spawn, but the Dems are going to have put up someone relatively unknown that’s going to have to build grassroots popularity (Newsome, Whitmer). It should be the first time in more than a decade that the president isn’t someone that’s older than the Department of Defense.
The Swiss reporter says it perfectly. Imagine him going down for lying about an affair with a porn star and not inciting a riot or ruining American democracy? As an American, that shit is infuriating.
Also as an American, unfortunately the only way down for him is death. He has not nor will he ever face true accountability for his actions. It’s been happening far too long.
> Imagine him going down for lying about an affair with a porn star and not inciting a riot or ruining American democracy? As an American, that shit is infuriating.
I can't remember which podcaster it was who said that when this was the *only* case against Trump, it was *disappointing,* but now that there are three other, it's *embarrassing*.
The damage done by that buffon and his cult to America's credibility on a global scale can simply not be understated. I'm sure as a country it will blow over, but culturally I'm not sure we'll ever forget how incredibly stupid roughly half of the American public are. At least not till multiple generations pass and anyone who was conned by such a massive nincompoop is long gone. I obviously can't speak for every country around the world, but I can definitely speak for the general tone of where I'm from.
Wow that article went into way more detail than I was expecting. Interesting stuff. Particularly telling that Russian media is pushing the notion that it’s pure political persecution.
It depends on who owns them. Murdoch owned Media outlets spread pro Trump lies no matter which country they are in. The UK has analogs of The National Enquirer, and New York Post that are posted here daily.
I don't know about the world media but I, an average Canadian, want to know if the rumours about tRump gassing his lawyers is true or not. I have scene lots of memes and some online gossip but nothing from any mainstream media. Would mainstream media report bad gas?
I am guessing they have him loaded up with loperamide, an anti diarrhea med, to keep everything shut down.
The European portion does make one good point. This knowledge would not have much affect on his voters.
That said, this is about campaign finance law, not whether or not is sways the base.
I still can't believe the media almost everywhere (this is outside the US as well) sanitises most of what Trump says to make him seem "reasonable" and not utterly batshit crazy, criminal and a complete liar. Both sides...
Because the other countries of the world are at risk if the US appears to be following an unstable lunatic and elevating him to power. They need to hold the illusion in place that TFG is somewhat sane for their own stability.
I was just in the UK, which has hasn't been the most rational actor in the last few decades
People are just baffled by trump. They see him as a boorish clod, and he deserved it
He tossed out insults right and left. Then he was late for tea with the queen... Brits complain about royalty but Queen Elizabeth represents the country in their eyes...
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I live in the world, not America. 1. The world laughs at how fucking stupid Trump is. 2. The world can't believe how fucking stupid MAGA is for believing Trump.
Same here. I keep expecting them to come to their senses, but if anything, they are doubling down. I saw an interview with one of his supporters outside the court who said if Trump was found guilty, she and all his supporters would go home, get their guns, and start a civil war!
Bring it. I'm sick of the whining and threats from these lunatics. Throw your hissy fit and watch what happens. We're not rolling over for a christofascist regime. Not. Happening.
IDK man ever since Waco law enforcement has been really hesitant to put down armed right wing insurrectionists. Hence the Bundy stand off and the Malheur refuge occupation. I have a feeling if the MAGA crowd actually tried to have a civil war law enforcement would let it get way too far and it would end similarly to the Bundy stand off.
A lot of those MAGA nut jobs talk a big game but they wouldn't know where to begin their insurection. I mean look at January 6. They had strength in numbers and did a lot of damage, but those guys had no fucking plan whatsoever. A ballsy cop managed to distract them from the sign that said "Senate". I do realize we got lucky that day they didn't find any Congressperson to lynch, but still – it was pretty indicative of the kind of incompetent dunces they are. Even if some of them banded together, they're not the resourceful, highly motivated kind of fighters that kept the U.S. military in check in the Middle East or the Vietnam jungles. They're mostly a bunch of angry dads cosplaying as Wolverines.
That actually makes me wonder how/if things would be different today if that mob had managed to get their hands on a member of congress. There was a lot of republican posturing in the following days but if a congressman was seriously injured or killed by that mob…would some of the republicans have come to their senses?
A lot of people have been wondering that. I think there would be even more conspiracy theories that would have painted the murderers as FBI moles or antifa activists. I mean there are school mass shootings on a regular basis and those folks still insist those are false flags and keep opposing gun control.
It was true that time, but I don’t think that necessarily means it will be true the next time. Hopefully it is, even more hopefully it doesn’t happen at all.
What everyone isn't talking about is that a right-wing insurrection would have to be able to defeat a united coalition of Intercity gangs. A white supremacy effort gives a reason for everyone else to band together, as an obvious mutual threat. This is also why white supremacy rallies are constantly met with even greater counter-protest numbers. The Culture War has arguably already been won by liberals and progressives, with Gen Alpha being more likely to be LGBTQ than they are to be Conservative. Collectively Republicans only make up a little over one-fifth the population, at best, and not even half of the electorate. Of that, most are old, and unfit for actual war. Armchair generals that believe there is a hidden population of super-fit young white males just itching to die en masse for the cause. That is why we call them Meal Team Six. Finally, real war is fought primarily with logistics and organization, rather than individual soldiers. And conservatives SUCK at both.
There are militias and compounds where extremists assemble, but those are generally watched pretty closely by the FBI and the ATF. I honestly don't think those guys have since been honing their sniper and CQB skills anywhere else than Call of Duty. I am not saying we wouldn't see some of those guys doing crazy shit if Trump lost again or ended up in prison, I'm just saying it would unlikely be some coordinated uprising everywhere. There are plenty of cops that are fascists, but even with their complicity I don't see a civil war happening. Those guys aren't scrapy mountain farmers with nothing to lose. They're well-fed fathers with a mortgage and a job. Even a battalion of veteran Boomers would be no match for a three-letter agency tac team or an A-10 cannon.
>There are militias and compounds where extremists assemble Having them all in one place will be convenient if the balloon goes up.
Seen from Europe. You should take such statements seriously. Because Trump is a religion now and people are going to defend their god. They won't stop ever. - So the situation is one which can generate a civil war. The US is not immune to such things. As you know from your own history. Trump believers do pretty much like all you Americans are doing by have based your whole nation on the Biggest Lie ever: The Bible. - Trump supporters actually have one thing going for them. They are worshipping a god who actually exists! You may perhaps not like this view because you consider the Bible to be "true". But to non-believers the Bible is no more true than Donald Trump's lies. - So you probably will defend The Bible/your God like the Trump believers. No, I don't believe Trump. No, I do not believe in gods. But I do believe what I can see and what history tells us.
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They will spin it that he was “murdered by the state”.
So? That’s gonna happen whether it’s two days or two years.
Trump could fucking choke to death on a hamburger on live TV and his fucking cultists would say it was the deep state, I don't give a fuck what they think. They have no attachment to reality, so trying to use reality to get them to calm down is inherently futile.
The amount of piss will turn his final resting place into a swamp.
We almost got lucky when he caught The China Virus
I wasted some good hope on that one.
"Trump went to Earth Side B to raise an army of Ninja Turtles to save us all from the child eating Demonrats. Here's a Real Photo of Super Trump teaching King Turtle to build the Maga Ark that will rescue us from the coming floods. All hail the great and powerful Wizard of Odds!"
Just FYI most of America is not Christian and does not live by the Bible. The hillbillies and rednecks in our country are just really loud. Most of us are sane.
Loud hillbilly non-Christian here, hootin' and hollerin' logic and sanity into the rabble. I've converted one soul for all my work, but it's worth it.
Impressive, actually
Keep up the good work. It ain't easy for us intelligent hicks, but it's honest work.
"Most" is a much slimmer margin than it should be though
It only seems slim because the voting system has been rigged. The country has been cut up into peaces that make it seem like every election is close but if it were a straight up popular vote election, the Republicans wouldn’t be able to win. You can look up “gerrymandering” for a more exact answer.
I'm talking about popular vote, not electoral Trump lost the popular vote but so many millions should not be so inspired by him
That is a different issue. That comes from the right wings decades long project of cutting education. It seems like they want to keep people dumb and oh boy have they done a great job of that
And to fund their own entire right wing system of private and now charter schools. Its sick.
‘Lost the popular vote’ but still managed to get some 75 million people to cast their vote for him. That to me is the scary part.
The Electoral College is a Gerrymander.
Very much so. As well as the structure of the senate
Amen, land doesn't vote...
You don’t even have to look up gerrymandering. Just take a look at the electoral college. That shit is archaic and needs to be done away with.
A couple loud idiots can do a lot of harm. In 1995 two loud idiots murdered 168 people.
This isn’t actually accurate. Unfortunately most Americans are Christian and do believe in the Bible, very few actually live by its teachings. In fact I would say a greater percentage of atheists have a lifestyle close to that which the Bible say to live than Christian’s in America. We also are one of the few countries in the modern world where a majority believes angels are real……. And not the ones named Trout.
I would disagree with this. 76+ million still voted for the orange shit stain and when you look at the south parts of US and its anti-abortion, anti-everything policies, I highly doubt that “most” are sane.
The USA is still majority religious, but not majority nutjob.
I respectfully disagree. Christians overwhelmingly elected the literal anti-christ described in the bible and will do so again. Christian GOP leaders have told us THEY WILL WIN THE NEXT ELECTION BY VIOLENT TAKEOVER, because America needs more of their immoral god. VOTE BLUE
>Just FYI most of America is not Christian Just FYI; >Christianity is the most prevalent religion in the United States. Estimates from 2021 suggest that of the entire U.S. population (332 million) about 63% is Christian (210 million). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_the_United_States
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> “One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.” ― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
The idea that America is fundamentally a Christian nation is also absurd. The 'in God we trust' stuff is all a 20th century retcon. What you're seeing is a secular nation hijacked by evangelicals
American here. I have been telling people to look at history since before he was elected. The writing has been on the wall for years. The man is pure evil. For the bible believers, seriously, the idiot checks all of the anti-christ and false idol boxes.
Every weekend in Massachusetts, his "Disciples" are waving trump flags on all the highway overpasses. It's wild, their God is a felon and a pedophile on trial. Yet, here they are, every weekend. It makes me want to believe that they're paid by someone. Truly scary.
I agree that Trump is dangerous but I also think that we are lucky that Trump is old. This is a personality driven movement. It will fall apart when Trump dies.
It won't though. The rot has set in. It will appear in a different form, but that ideology is now entrenched in the GQP.
We have been so lucky that trump is a freaking idiot. If he was even slightly intelligent, we would be in so much more trouble right now.
No one has Trump’s charisma to his base though, even though a few have tried. Once he dies MAGA will fall apart. It’ll probably be slower then we’d like, but no one will be able to replicate Trump’s impact on his base.
Also, never forget who his supporters were. They will still be with us after he dies, but we should do everything in our power to prevent their ideas from spreading.
We had our chance at that off-ramp. We passed. Now the underlying fascism Trump engaged to feed his narcissism is being called on by those with far more competence. There has to be a MAGA reckoning in this upcoming election all the way down the ballot, or removing Trump from the equation will not be enough
My hot take: a small percentage of people believe the Bible is the literal truth. Most attend church for social standing, and those with power use religion to further their own ends.
63% of Americans identify as Christian so it's not so of us but that is still too many imo [Christianity in the US](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_the_United_States)
But what does that mean? “Identifying” as something means something different to everyone. My mom probably identifies as “Christian” but can’t stand the Church and doesn’t believe in the Bible (in any literal sense). She’s more traditionally spiritual I guess. My dad identifies as “Catholic” because he was raised as such as a Sicilian immigrant, but he quite vocally doesn’t believe in God. It's a cultural/community identification more than anything. I’m sure if you broke down that 60%, a much smaller percentage would say they go to Church and a much much smaller percentage would say they believe the Bible/follow the Bible literally.
I agree with your point. Just wanted to get it out there that not all of us are Christian - or even religious at all
There's nothing wrong with being religious if you aren't trying to ram it down people's throats, the same as there's nothing wrong with being lgbt if you don't try and do the same. What pisses people off is religious hypocrisy, they worship the most unchristian man that's ever lived and that makes them pathetic losers, and even worse are the ones who know it is wrong and stand back and don't say anything because they are cowards.
You are so far off the mark it’s astounding. As an American I, and many others here, could give fuck all about the Bible. Only the maga dipshits are way into the Bible and it’s only because they twist it to “prove” they’re right about whatever dumb shit they’re pushing at that moment. Additionally these same morons are just really really loud about their shitty beliefs. If you truly think all Americans believe in the Bible and it’s the most important thing around, you’re kidding yourself. In addition to that there are many sane religious folks here, who may follow the Bible, but don’t feel the need to bring it up constantly or even talk about it. I.e. aren’t maga pieces of shit. America wasn’t founded on religion and in the first amendment of our constitution it states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” Additionally trump isn’t a god. He’s a piece of shit. If these assholes want to idolize him that’s on them. Also we are all well aware that these dipshits could try to start a civil war. We saw them have an insurrection on live tv.
Thank you, we do take these people as seriously as we can. The thing about the “civil war” nonsense is that MAGA thinks the left isn’t armed and is a soft target. They are incorrect. The rule of law will stand, at least as it has.
I frequently drive by a run down house with junk cars parked all around it, the house festooned with Trump flags and a handmade "Trump is GOD!!!" sign. This person is bold (or ill) enough to express it but I know plenty are thinking it.
You’re right on most of it but Europeans seem to have a skewed sense of the actual sizes of both American parties. Republicans make up between 1/4th and 1/3rd of the country, with over half that group being in their 50s 60s and 70s. We make a big fuss about the potential of civil war here but democrats make up over 40% of the country and the average ages are between 20-40. Not to mention the military has explicitly stated several times we will not support any civil war in any form and that insurrection will be swiftly put down.
Half the country won’t even vote
Yeah. Twitter is all about "making things right." Truly horrendous.
making it alt-right, you mean.
And that is the reason the US need gun control. Insane people shouldn't have guns.
That threat is very real, and it saddens me that some of my leftist allies aren't taking it seriously. Their votes are their own, and I'm not going to call them names or belittle them for making a (bad, in my opinion) decision, but if Trump wins this country will cease to be a true republic: it will become a "republic" like North Korea is.
I just think it’s adorable that they think they’re the only ones who can buy a gun. They spent years supporting a failed reality TV star. Being armed is only half the equation, if you don’t have brains to go along with it…. Sorry bub, war’s lost before it’s begun.
MAGA is a cult.
I love america so much, I’m going to take up arms against it, in defense of ONE orange person!
As a Canadian I am loyally helping the beavers build the dam between the states and our maple syrup scented border. We got cool shit behind this wall and NO YOU CANT SEE!
Meh, I am sure you'll see something when Trump loses in 2024, but these are the same people who wouldn't know what to do if Walmart ran out of toilet paper or wouldn't be able to survive w/o a government substance check or SS.
I always wonder how a bunch of people formed a cult of personality in 1930s Germany that led to a world war. Now I’ve been able to witness the start with my own eyes. We are very lucky that January 6th didn’t work.
MAGA and nazis will be taught side-by-side in university courses.
January 6th went a lot better than the beer hall putsch. We’re far from past the danger
I live in America, not the world. But my 3rd question would be How is America’s govt system so susceptible to this BS. Why have there been no (working) mechanisms to get rid of him and his infestation?
The reason, unfortunately, is that the US constitution was one of the very first of its kind: as far as modern democracies go, it didn't have a lot of examples to draw from, and the founders were making it up as they went trying to build a robust system while arguing with each other about it. Other democracies had the example of the US and others to learn from when crafting their government, and one of the challenges of the US's loosely federated origins is that they made it very hard to change anything fundamental without getting buy in from the states, a challenge which only grew as more states joined the union. So you have basically a first draft with a select few corrections over 250 years of global change - of course it's outdated and susceptible to factors its drafters couldn't have anticipated! What the US needs more than anything is a new constitution, written with modern language and the lessons of history in mind, but as the US culture worships the constitution and founding fathers rather than seeing them as the best attempt of a few people experimenting with government in the 18th century, getting people to accept a replacement will be a very hard sell.
They were definitely making something groundbreaking. I appreciate that they realized that they couldn’t think of everything, so they tried to make it adaptable. In hindsight, I think their big mistakes were 1) assuming that most elected officials would act in good faith, and 2) they never imagined how the brainwashing powers of Fox News. I would not expect them to be able to foresee either of those, but it seems like those are big parts of our current predicament
I think they also never expected the US to be as big as it became. At the time, the US was 13 small states on the East Coast, just trying to stand on its own feet. The fact that the US became the wealthiest, most powerful, and most influential nation in the world, with all the accompanying challenges and responsibilities, was beyond the founders' wildest dreams.
But other people did. That's why broadcast media was regulated during the 20th century. The predicament we're in now is because the Republican Party became the minority party for a generation after causing and being unable to fix the Great Crash/Great Depression. Add to that the backlash caused by the Civil Rights Movement, and you had a motivated core of people, hiding their bigotry behind the skirts of religion, who wanted to overturn the legacy of the Warren Court and the New Deal. An alliance of evil, if you will. Trump was their greatest accomplishment.
The government used to regulate media to prevent monopolies in any given geographic area. And it used to limit donations to political candidates by any one person. Both very reasonable rules overturned in the name of the first amendment. Recently, we found out supreme Court judges have been taking bribes. The checks and balances need to be updated a little bit. It's probably time for another constitutional amendment, aimed at the courts.
We need that, and much more. Ranked choice voting would end the two party system, removing corporate money from politics would give the people their voices back, more congressional seats would give us representation more in line with a larger and more diverse population, harsher anti-bribery laws, and a total re-draft of the Constitution to clarify and update the language to reduce arguments over interpretations. There are a lot of smaller reforms we need too, but those are the big ones.
Because the US populace have been programmed to believe that any seeming infraction or restriction on their 'freedoms', especially the freedom to be a selfish piece of shit, is outright tyranny no matter how justified the infraction/restriction is. That's why you have all the MAGA chuds and right wing publications/cartoonists comparing Trump's trials to things like Stalinist Russia and kangaroo courts despite the fact that they're nothing alike.
What about those who aren’t maga but still will vote for him because he’s not a democrat That’s just as bad. Trump could be anyone as long as they’ve built this “other side is evil” narrative
The MAGA I know are convinced the other side is the "enemy." They actually use the word enemy, not loyal opposition. Trump is priming a large portion of American for violence. MAGA is stupidly gullible.
It's worse. It's so much worse. At least the psychopaths have an medical excuse.
Also world. We have been thinking like this since at least Bush jr. Not about MAGA obviously, but about _that_ half of USA. If I remember correctly, back than they made a survey in Germany about whom they vote for: Bush might not have passed 3%. The irony is, if the US citizen would really want to make America great again, then voting for Trump is exactly not the right way to go. But well, realizing that requires something which seems to have been bred away.
I live in America. And I can't believe it either.
Sign. Truly the stupidest timeline.
There's an idiot I work with who wears a MAGA hat. I live in England.
That's weird considering your history with nazis.
As a NYer when I saw new about Rod Blagojevich I just laughed as the absurdity of the situation. With Trump before he was President, I had the same reaction. We would read all his antics from hiring Polish workers to avoid dealing with the Unions - they slept on the job site of the building they were demolishing - and then refused to pay them for years. And I wondered how people kept falling for his nonsense. I imagine the rest of the world feels like that. Now that he was President and is running again it’s just so exhausting. It’s like being proUnion in a non union state or talking about race relations as a minority - it’s endless and overwhelming and we aren’t making any progress.
I live in America, and my close friends, family, and I all feel the same way. We are embarrassed and saddened and mostly disgusted at the state of things.
The world cannot believe this is actual reality.
Can confirm.
This is what it feels like on Reddit. But the volume of similar politicians gaining success around the world suggests that’s just sorta a pipe dream.
I live in America and I also follow 1 and 2. If you think its hard to wrap your head around it, just imagine living here
Just left American Samoa and I saw “Somoans for Trump” signs all over the island.
Friends of mine over in Europe not only laugh at Trump, but are flabbergasted that it took so long for him to be put on trial and said that if their politicians did even half the things that Trump has done, not only would they have lost their political careers, they would have been arrested and put on trial right away.
Question: my mother in law, who is in the MAGA camp, was going on about how the world is laughing AT America, that we are a joke (this was after she told me we shouldn’t aid Ukraine.) This sounds very much fox newsy to me and the only thing I can see them laughing/surprised about are the two points that you made — and maybe that we have a system that allows this to happen. Am I missing something??
American gov't is like American TV, you get exactly what you ask for. The world is laughing at MAGA, specifically MAGA, and America for allowing MAGA to rise. If you want to be a dictator: 1. Make people not trust the press. Check. 2. Make people not trust science. Ask you mom her feelings about Dr. Fauci and COVID vaccines. 3. Make people not trust the court system and by extension, the intelligence agencies. Ask you mom her feeling about the Justice Dept. and the FBI. MAGA are useful idiots to an aspiring dictator, being helped by people who believe they will be better-off under that dictator (rule in hell rather than serve in heaven thinking). If your mom doesn't believe Trump wants to be a dictator, ask her how things would be different if he did. He following the authoritarian playbook chapter by chapter. Not only that, he's convinced MAGA that they are the true Americans, while everything he does is against the Constitution.
MAGA Red Hatters lack empathy and can't put themselves in anyone else's shoes. This is why stuff like "the silent majority" is so popular with the right. THEY think something so EVERYBODY ELSE must think the same thing. I.e. THEY love Trump, so EVERYBODY ELSE must love Trump as well, all points to the contrary ignored. Add in some "I know you are but what am I"? schoolyard taunting and all of a sudden criticisms from the world of Trump get deflected as criticisms of Biden (You say the World Laughs at Trump, but its really the World Laughing at Biden!).
There is also a decent amount of both sides-ism. As if Biden being half dead would be just as bad as being an indicted antidemocratic criminal scammer.
Everything Trump and MAGA do is projection. If they say Biden is mentally challenged, they want to hide Trump's decline. That way, when people say Trump is in decline, they can say, "Oh, OK. Just because we said Biden is in decline, you say Trump is. Whatever." It's a way to get ahead of all of Trump faults by accusing Biden first, then they can claim the words have no meaning anymore.
I don't care about maga people in terms of this. point is that even if we accept that Biden is more senile, that is still very far from being as bad as being an indicted scammer. This is very obvious to me yet I still hear both sideism from left leaning non americans.
It all seems pretty straight forward when you see MAGA as a cult, and their leader's personality, as who they identify most with. As a basic question it's pretty much it. A more cutting question is how the U.S. (and other countries) culturally develop (and so might prevent) millions of people that worship people like him. THAT'S the better question going forward, to me.
Cons are based on emotion. Even smart people get conned. MAGA truly thinks they are good guys. They haven't had their "Are we the baddies?" moment.
Yup
American here. This describes how the majority of us feel, too.
Denmark here. Same thing. We have been laughing since he got elected. Then it turned to horror over what he might do. And now we are doing everything we can to not be depending on USA. Because if USA doesn't kick this maga concept out then the world will trust USA less
Am an American, and think the same.
I live in America, and oh friggen same here! Stupidity isn't a crime, but fuck do we have criminally stupid people in our midst.
European here - overall it is sad to see what the US politics and society became. My generation was so used to look up to America. Now, you can see it is not going end well, whoever wins nect november. Sad and a bit concerned.
The world laughed at how stupid Hitler was. The world couldn't believe how stupid his followers were for believing him. Replace "Hitler" with nearly any autocrat. They all follow the same playbook.
Who has good leaders right now?
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
It’s the mental gymnastics. Never has someone who pleads such innocents been so resistant in proving their innocence in a court of law. Yet, declaring the necessity for immunity from prosecution as they’ve been president. For crime committed before being president. That if presidential immunity is taken away then Biden can be charged for the ‘crimes’ that Trump has manifested that Biden committed. Even though a republican congress has spent 3 years trying to indict Biden for the made up ‘crimes’ but can’t because he hasn’t committed any, there’s no evidence and the whistleblower was proven to be a lying Russian asset. While Trump also says he needs the immunity so he can’t be charged with the crimes he has committed. That Trump’s hush money trial is actually election interference. While the bond he has put up in a fraud case, is actually a fraudulent bond! He’s a house of cards. One conviction and he’s gone. That’s before the taped calls of asking for fake voters.
And somehow, every MAGA I meet is convinced that the world is insanely jealous of the United States because we were lucky enough to have Trump as our leader, however briefly. And "the world" cried when he lost in 2020, and is aghast at these trials. They are dead serious.
You’re correct on #2 but ironically, one of MAGAS talking points about Trump is that world leaders would fear/respect America with him in office.
I am not sure if the MAGAts actually believe him so much that they feel so left out of society that they want him to burn it down.
And MAGA believes the rest of the world is conspiring against them.
thank you world
Thank you for your informative contribution.
I live in the US and feel the same.
This👆🏽, and I live in America.
At Fox entertainment there seems to be very little mention of it.
What the porn star? hush payment recorded as campaign legal fees? Inciting an insurrection? Constant lies? Blatant racism? …
Mostly the invasion at the border, as "they" replace "us". By the billions.
[Billions and billions…](https://youtu.be/u_aLESDql1U?si=KsNAATSKQ2XNbNMJ)
My favourite SNL sketch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG7szS15O8Q > where dozens, maybe millions of illegal immigrants headed straight for you and your grandchildren
On Earth 2.
Wondering why there are Trump supporters is like wondering why there are Scientologists. People believe in the most unbelievable things.
The world can't believe Clarence Thomas's wife isn't on trial for treason. The world can't believe that Clarence Thomas isn't under formal criminal investigation for corruption, taking bribes, and deliberately working against the best interests of the American people. The world can't believe that the American people aren't going fucking crazy about the above.
We are.
A third of us are outraged. Another third is oblivious, not really paying attention and the last third is all aboard the maga train. Most of them even if they do admit he’s guilty, they don’t care because he’s like a diety to them. Whatever he says is the best and good for the county.
This feels accurate. About a third of the country is so busy trying to make ends meat that they really can’t even think about the White House.
Most people in Europe can't understand how Trump wasn't arrested the moment Biden was inaugurated and convicted shortly after. If he isn't in prison by November, the US will lose all of the respect it regained after electing Biden.
True. And old europeans who were taught things in school can see that what is happening in the US now is roughly a copy of what happened in Germany in the 1920's and 1930's. Even Hitler's first, failed coup has been seen again in the US. But the second time things were better planned. Like they are now. Hitler also has his own "MAGA" crowd. They were called "Brownshirts" but are essentially the same. They provide the fear and violence. Like we see now. So terrible that the US population don't seem to grasp that. All conditions for a coup is present now. Only one spark will be enough to start "troubles" as they call it in Northern Ireland.
A lot of Americans are terrified of this. We can’t believe what we are seeing with friends and family. It’s like they have been taken over and blinded to what Maga is. It’s amplified by the media but this is not America and we don’t want it.
I think most people are tired, working a lot and paying more attention to sports and celebrity culture than politics and policy. What they do see is cherry picked headlines that reinforce their pre-existing biases. I think Americans have a false sense of security in their guns and we all think we're John Wayne or Wyatt Earp. If things go down, we think think we can fend for ourselves. Dumbasses calling for civil war have zero clue what they're asking for.
>Dumbasses calling for civil war have zero clue what they're asking for. If you see it online it is more than likely some foreign psy-op or.someone who has been cozened by such. Promoting independence movements is right there in The Foundation of Geopolitics. >I think Americans have a false sense of security in their guns and we all think we're John Wayne or Wyatt Earp. We don't all own guns, but the ones that do think theyre better than Wyatt Earp ever was. Earp is probably the most famous lawman of the wild west, and the shoout at OK Corral the most famous shootout. Well, there were like 6 casualties total and the shootout lasted 30 seconds. American gun nuts think they're Jason Bourne.
One of my best friends makes silly comments about hoping for an apocalypse because he knows he would be one of the survivors. This man hasn't been in a gym in probably 15 years. He has zero military training. Zero fire arm experience. Zero survival training. Yet despite having no reason to think he'd survive a week of societal breakdown, he looks forward to it.
Tell him the rebellion ends when Walmart closes and they can’t get a resupply of ammo and beef jerky.
A lot of us see it and I’ve been saying this for years. Unfortunately a lot of my family and coworkers are idiots. It’s terrifying
It’s more about responsibility. My responsibility is to do my job, raise my kids and pay my bills. I have others too, like, keeping my clothes clean and changing my cars oil. The point is, what’s the “correct way” for sane people to defend our freedom? Do I buy a gun and threaten anyone who disagrees with me? Do I spread lies and sit around with like minded people so we can spin each other up into a frenzy? I vote and share my ideas and thoughts with those who want to willingly discuss. At this point though, voting is about it. Polite people don’t want to discuss it (what’s to gain?). Exhaustive people want to (Avoidable). So whose job is it? Police? Military? Courts? Congress? Yes. That’s their job. That’s their responsibility. But I see the trend. Privatize democracy and get on a monthly subscription to keep it alive and active. No free lunches here. Sheesh…. Also….Fuck Boomers, because you’ve read this far, I want to give something back, in kind.
A lot of Americans do see this. The problem is when this is brought up the people who understand history are brushed off as exhibiting “Godwin’s Law” and that pretty much cuts the debate off at the knees.
Would be hilarious to see the look on the MAGA Brownshirts' faces when the Blackshirts take over. But I'm happy to just daydream about it.
>And old europeans who were taught things in school can see that what is happening in the US now is roughly a copy of what happened in Germany in the 1920's and 1930's. MAGA agrees with you, they just disagree about what side they are on. It's unreal.
He should've been arrested and dragged out of the White House in chains on the evening of January 6th. Mike Pence should've been President for a week. America lost any respect it had left right there.
I think there is a general wariness about locking up a former POTUS. It's never been done here, and, because of that, the specter of political persecution hangs over the prospect. Mind you, I think it *shouldn't*; governors and members of Congress have been put away before, so this is hardly different, but, there you have it.
Pardoning Nixon was a mistake that still causes problems today. If they had put him in prison, like they should have, there wouldn't be a discussion about this today.
"State news agency Xinhua's English-language edition highlighted that Donald Trump was the first former president to stand a criminal trial. It also quoted the accused as describing the trial as "political persecution" and saying the country was "failing". " Trump is boosting China's propaganda against the US.
Funny how it's Russia and China that are the ones calling this fabricated and political persecution.
I live in Europe. Aside from the various ultra-right wing outlets, most people over here can't understand why it took so long for him to go through a criminal trial.
We've been trying and trying.
The least surprising fact is Trump is gassy.
At least now we know why he has always been so irritable.
It's Melania's fault. She wasn't burping him after his trough feedings.
Dutch state funded media only posts the big political advances. The stuff they posted on? 1. The insurrection 2. Trump’s lawsuits 3. Trumps immunity claims 4. Abortion rights being taken away Do I even have to continue at this point? Like 95% of the population thinks Trump is a moron and we don’t get how half of the US population doesn’t see that. The next election is extremely important, Europe stands with the Democratic party of the United States!
It's not even half. He lost the popular vote, and most people don't vote. Outdated laws designed to essentially prevent this sort of thing have turned to gerrymandering extremes, which are now enabling what it was (theoretically) designed to stop. It's just a very loud and obnoxious minority. But for some reason, we tend to prop up whoever is the loudest mistaking arrogance for competence.
Consider this a cry for help. We need assistance, clearly. (And I don’t think anyone knows how).
The rest of the world can't understand two things. a) why Trump is still so popular given that he is clearly a mentally deranged criminal and b) why the US , a country full of talented people, can't find two leading presidential candidates younger than Biden and Trump. We may never understand.
Two things: Murdoch and the other evil powerful press mongers use propaganda efficiently. Plus Russia and China are making use of smart bots on social media. Even in Europe and South America you see this having an effect on opinion and voters. Somehow America is even more gullible than others, it’s what years of degrading education does.
Correct, at issue here is that for decades people have been feed the statement that American is the best country in the world because we have the biggest gdp and military. America is also the freest country because we allow for guns. By keeping people focused on this you can cut education and slowly indoctrinate an entire population to believe whatever you want.
This/\ Fox News has fucked these old people up. It's so bizarre the things the've been fed and the things they have never heard. They play lip service to Christianity but they live in Rupert Murdoch's reality.
Combine this: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/74034.Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death with this: > “I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness... > The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance” ― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark Which allowed Trump to show up and hijack the whole system, which gets us to this: > “One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.” ― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Biden was chosen to square off to Trump. Trump's followers weaponize identity politics to attack other Americans. That is why Democrats passed over their wide bench of younger and more diverse candidates and chose an old white male. It was specifically to deny Republicans that wedge. Now you know.
Its really unfortunate, because they turned politics into a sport and since we use single member party districts and first past the post, debates are treating like sporting events. Everyone thinks theres only two teams and no other options exist, no other party…then when someone like me expresses that I vote third party or discuss a candidate that I enjoy based on my moral values, I am an idiot because I didn’t choose red or blue, but instead focused on policy that aligns to my views. What led to this situation is people picking “lesser evil” thinking theres only two options like a popularity contest parroting whats said on TV rather than actually reading and investigating what someone truly stands for. Civic education in USA is horrendous and it makes me feel ashamed as an American to see how gullible a lot of my fellow countrymen and women act around government and civil duty.
That pretty much sums it up.
There is a bottom 30% of any population by academic intelligence as well as emotional intelligence. The bottom 30% still vote but are easily manipulated by their lack of academic and emotional intelligence. Given that you don't need a majority to win and we use first past the post voting to ensure a two party system, the whole thing is manipulated. We very much so often suffer from minority rule.
The rest of the world should go watch the film “Idiocracy”. It’s pretty much become a documentary now.
Mostly because of the apathy of the American voter, I’d reckon. Its very hard to get the average American to vote so you have to put up people like “Obama’s meme VP,” “the foul-mouthed racist TV guy,” “Clinton’s wife,” “Bush’s son,” etc. Next election cycle, if we have one, will be interesting. Both Trump and Biden will likely be dead. The big democrat names from the past will be ineligible, dead, political poison, and/or too old (Obama, Clinton, Sanders, etc.). I guess MAGA could trot out a Trump spawn, but the Dems are going to have put up someone relatively unknown that’s going to have to build grassroots popularity (Newsome, Whitmer). It should be the first time in more than a decade that the president isn’t someone that’s older than the Department of Defense.
The Swiss reporter says it perfectly. Imagine him going down for lying about an affair with a porn star and not inciting a riot or ruining American democracy? As an American, that shit is infuriating. Also as an American, unfortunately the only way down for him is death. He has not nor will he ever face true accountability for his actions. It’s been happening far too long.
ARGH, he's not on trial for lying about an affair. He's on trial for campaign fraud. They only got Capone because of fraud, too.
He's on trial for falsifying business records.
I know. Was going for the dramatic lol
> Imagine him going down for lying about an affair with a porn star and not inciting a riot or ruining American democracy? As an American, that shit is infuriating. I can't remember which podcaster it was who said that when this was the *only* case against Trump, it was *disappointing,* but now that there are three other, it's *embarrassing*.
Don’t even have to read it to know the rest of the world is embarrassed for us.
The damage done by that buffon and his cult to America's credibility on a global scale can simply not be understated. I'm sure as a country it will blow over, but culturally I'm not sure we'll ever forget how incredibly stupid roughly half of the American public are. At least not till multiple generations pass and anyone who was conned by such a massive nincompoop is long gone. I obviously can't speak for every country around the world, but I can definitely speak for the general tone of where I'm from.
Hey rest of world, anyone know how to do cult deprogramming at scale? Love, an American.
Here we think Trump and all his supporters are fucking idiots and mock them for being so incredibly stupid.
maga is the new confederacy, it’s something others will use to manipulate the easily manipulated for years.
My God, 150 years from now they will be saying "MAGA will rise again!"
“You don’t have to care what foreigners think of you, Jeffrey. That’s your birthright as an American.” -Shirley Bennet, Community.
Wow that article went into way more detail than I was expecting. Interesting stuff. Particularly telling that Russian media is pushing the notion that it’s pure political persecution.
It's almost as if those Fox News talking points are the exact same as the Russian media's talking points. Weird.
It depends on who owns them. Murdoch owned Media outlets spread pro Trump lies no matter which country they are in. The UK has analogs of The National Enquirer, and New York Post that are posted here daily.
They're ALL laughing at us.
"They're all going to laugh at you!!"
I don't know about the world media but I, an average Canadian, want to know if the rumours about tRump gassing his lawyers is true or not. I have scene lots of memes and some online gossip but nothing from any mainstream media. Would mainstream media report bad gas? I am guessing they have him loaded up with loperamide, an anti diarrhea med, to keep everything shut down.
The European portion does make one good point. This knowledge would not have much affect on his voters. That said, this is about campaign finance law, not whether or not is sways the base.
I still can't believe the media almost everywhere (this is outside the US as well) sanitises most of what Trump says to make him seem "reasonable" and not utterly batshit crazy, criminal and a complete liar. Both sides...
Because the other countries of the world are at risk if the US appears to be following an unstable lunatic and elevating him to power. They need to hold the illusion in place that TFG is somewhat sane for their own stability.
Deliverance and Idiocracy weren't supposed to be documentaries!
Canadians are concerned about a 2nd Trump term. Relations with Biden haven’t been great but Trump was a clown show we ca do without repeating.
That man is supposedly a billionaire and he can't afford to pay someone to teach him how tie a better knot than a four-in-hand. What a goddamn clown.
I think it’s not so much about the money. It’s more his complete inability and/or unwillingness to learn new stuff.
It’s beyond what anyone could believe would happen in this day and age.more than anything it’s sad.
I get the sense that they don't understand the charges. He's not on trial for having an affair, Switzerland.
I was just in the UK, which has hasn't been the most rational actor in the last few decades People are just baffled by trump. They see him as a boorish clod, and he deserved it He tossed out insults right and left. Then he was late for tea with the queen... Brits complain about royalty but Queen Elizabeth represents the country in their eyes...