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People like Putin and Trump play dirty because they think that's what you have to do to win

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
grugagag 6y ago
To win what? Lets not forget what the stakes are, the countries where all these narcissistic psychopaths were either elected or self imposed dictators for life were held back. Who wants a president who considers winning a personal gain? It is extremely harmful for the short and long term as well. A president has to inspire unity for the country and most dictators suppress and hide the fact that they don’t even have half the country supporting them using different tactics from rigging elections to squashing the opposition.
- anigbrowl 6y ago
  Sure, but supporters don't mind as long as they get some rewards. This can be as simple as feelings of higher status than their opponents or some out group. Even if supporters themselves are objectively worse off, as long as someone else has it worse again, then they feel like winners.
- rsynnott 6y ago
  I think it's possibly actually different motivations. Trump wants to be re-elected because he's an egomaniac. Putin wants to be re-elected because his _best_ case for political retirement is being prosecuted.
lazyjones 6y ago
And what makes you think Navalny plays any other way?
cmrdporcupine 6y ago
It doesn't matter why they play dirty. The question is how they get away with it. What are the motivations of the people who back them up and enable them? Someone like Trump would fade away as a kind of comical narcissistic egomaniac sideshow (which he was before 2016) if it wasn't for the fact that there are powerful people benefiting from him being in the Whitehouse. That combined with identifying real grievances among working class people, which the so-called "left" in the US promises but fails to remedy ... it's a recipe for disaster. Hitler rose to power from the virulent fear of communism combined with the chaos and ineptness of the Weimar republic. Trump has risen to power because of the latent racism in the United States combined with the incompetence of the two political parties in the US and the fallout from the 2008 crisis. Among other things. Playing dirty only happens when there's nobody there to stop you. This we all know from the elementary school playground.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

To win what? Lets not forget what the stakes are, the countries where all these narcissistic psychopaths were either elected or self imposed dictators for life were held back. Who wants a president who considers winning a personal gain? It is extremely harmful for the short and long term as well. A president has to inspire unity for the country and most dictators suppress and hide the fact that they don’t even have half the country supporting them using different tactics from rigging elections to squashing the opposition.

anigbrowl 6y ago
Sure, but supporters don't mind as long as they get some rewards. This can be as simple as feelings of higher status than their opponents or some out group. Even if supporters themselves are objectively worse off, as long as someone else has it worse again, then they feel like winners.
rsynnott 6y ago
I think it's possibly actually different motivations. Trump wants to be re-elected because he's an egomaniac. Putin wants to be re-elected because his _best_ case for political retirement is being prosecuted.

lazyjones 6y ago

And what makes you think Navalny plays any other way?

cmrdporcupine 6y ago

It doesn't matter why they play dirty. The question is how they get away with it. What are the motivations of the people who back them up and enable them? Someone like Trump would fade away as a kind of comical narcissistic egomaniac sideshow (which he was before 2016) if it wasn't for the fact that there are powerful people benefiting from him being in the Whitehouse. That combined with identifying real grievances among working class people, which the so-called "left" in the US promises but fails to remedy ... it's a recipe for disaster. Hitler rose to power from the virulent fear of communism combined with the chaos and ineptness of the Weimar republic. Trump has risen to power because of the latent racism in the United States combined with the incompetence of the two political parties in the US and the fallout from the 2008 crisis. Among other things. Playing dirty only happens when there's nobody there to stop you. This we all know from the elementary school playground.