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Trump accuses 'deep state' FDA of slowing vaccine development

16 points by apsec112 6y ago

just-juan-post 6y ago
Calling it now: The US government will buy millions of doses of the Russian vaccine.
mindcrime 6y ago
This is just his way of pandering to the QAnon believers. They see him as this great leader, in an almost spiritual sense, leading the forces of light (them) against the forces of darkness (aka, the deep state, paedophiles, Satan worshippers, and "liberals"). From what I've seen, until recently, he hasn't exactly embraced any of that, but I suspect that since he has been behind in recent polls, he's doubling down on locking in the support of that core base.
anm89 6y ago
I personally think this genie is out of the bottle and will never go back in. A huge portion of the population is extremely receptive to conspiracy theories and is very willing to mobilize behind political movements who embrace these narratives. This is now essentially empirically proven in the Trump Era. I think the concept of a major party catering to these people is an idea we should get used to.
- rsynnott 6y ago
  This isn't really new. The Nazi party is the obvious example; the anti-Semitic mythology they were based on was obvious conspiracy bullshit... and yet people bought in. But the general "half of a country suddenly believes something bizarre" thing happens from time to time. The good news is that it often goes away; the delusion is temporary.
  - cmurf 6y ago
    Millions died first. And if we take a domestic example of mass delusion, the Confederacy, left ~650,000 dead. The idea death cults just casually come and go without chaos and massive asset destruction is at best wishful thinking. People who believe in conspiracies in which the central thesis is the opposition is inherently illegitimate, can't ethically accept losing. Violence is mandatory if the civil process is so corrupt that the outcome can't be trusted. And that's what these people believe. And that's what Trump has encouraged for four years. He stated explicitly four years ago that the election is only legitimate if he wins. If he loses it's rigged. It's not a surprise he's saying this again 4 years later.

16 points by apsec112 6y ago

Calling it now: The US government will buy millions of doses of the Russian vaccine.

This is just his way of pandering to the QAnon believers. They see him as this great leader, in an almost spiritual sense, leading the forces of light (them) against the forces of darkness (aka, the deep state, paedophiles, Satan worshippers, and "liberals"). From what I've seen, until recently, he hasn't exactly embraced any of that, but I suspect that since he has been behind in recent polls, he's doubling down on locking in the support of that core base.

anm89 6y ago

I personally think this genie is out of the bottle and will never go back in. A huge portion of the population is extremely receptive to conspiracy theories and is very willing to mobilize behind political movements who embrace these narratives. This is now essentially empirically proven in the Trump Era. I think the concept of a major party catering to these people is an idea we should get used to.

rsynnott 6y ago
This isn't really new. The Nazi party is the obvious example; the anti-Semitic mythology they were based on was obvious conspiracy bullshit... and yet people bought in. But the general "half of a country suddenly believes something bizarre" thing happens from time to time. The good news is that it often goes away; the delusion is temporary.
- cmurf 6y ago
  Millions died first. And if we take a domestic example of mass delusion, the Confederacy, left ~650,000 dead. The idea death cults just casually come and go without chaos and massive asset destruction is at best wishful thinking. People who believe in conspiracies in which the central thesis is the opposition is inherently illegitimate, can't ethically accept losing. Violence is mandatory if the civil process is so corrupt that the outcome can't be trusted. And that's what these people believe. And that's what Trump has encouraged for four years. He stated explicitly four years ago that the election is only legitimate if he wins. If he loses it's rigged. It's not a surprise he's saying this again 4 years later.