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For 3rd people like me Trump is very entertaining precisely because he acts with exactly this same disregard for institutions and decorum that our 3rd world pop

For 3rd people like me Trump is very entertaining precisely because he acts with exactly this same disregard for institutions and decorum that our 3rd world populist politicians do, just like Bolsonaro (Brazil), Berlusconi (Italy), Erdogan (Turkey), Kirchner (Argentina), Putin, Duterte, ... Sure, there was a time on the 19th century when all American presidents were all like that. But the U.S. were a very different country back then, the Federal government was a lot less powerful.

gnusty_gnurc 6y ago
I mean, he’s inhabiting the powerful position that the two parties built! Doesn’t help that we’ve had God Emperors like FDR. The American president has also been mythologized. They’re calling all the shots and doing whatever. Unfortunately that means they can trample over the Constitution and only the opposing party usually cares.
- mhh__ 6y ago
  > only the opposing party usually cares. The republicans didn't even ratify any policies at the RNC this year. Obviously you have to support your guy, but if I said to you a majority / near-majority of the speakers at the convention were family and friends of the President would you think of a some backward state or the most powerful democracy in the world.
  - gnusty_gnurc 6y ago
    I actually don't care that much about the parties acting like they're not just clubs with arbitrary rules - they are and always have been. But yea the major party duopoly is gross and has been for a while now. The dynastic families are insufferable.
nine_zeros 6y ago
This is very underrated. Quite often, I see people from developed countries look at poorer countries with pity, despair and wishing the best. We, in developed countries, take our development and good way of life for granted. The tables are completely turned. America has become the country to show pity towards. Unless America changes its way of governance this Fall, 4 more years and what exactly is the difference between America and Brazil?
- claudeganon 6y ago
  Speaking as an American, Brazil is here, it’s just not evenly distributed.
  - jessaustin 6y ago
    Uneven distribution is kind of the point?
- vidarh 6y ago
  Well, in quite a lot of developed countries, the attitude to the US government has been deeply negative in parts of the population for a very long time. I recall, probably in the 80's, an incident where the US government objected to a foreign aid organisation distributing food aid in the US on equal basis to the kind of food aid programs operated in third world countries. Several European countries also refers to "American conditions" as a threat of chaos during political debates. E.g. I grew up in Norway, where the threat of "American conditions" was a common scare-tactic by the left to get people to oppose right wing policies. This was decades ago - the first threats of "American conditions dates back more than half a century.
  - nine_zeros 6y ago
    Well, the difference is that today, even developing, poor countries are talking about "American conditions". Sometimes to justify their own incompetence. Other times to refuse American bullying. More often than not, just out of pity. This is because poorer countries have seen this story before. They didn't need a war to make them poor. Their incompetent leadership over years was enough.
- akhilcacharya 6y ago
  My parents are immigrants from a dysfunctional democracy and they can't agree more. Not nearly as bad as there, but the tenor is strikingly similar for a sole superpower. [0] My greatest fear is Trumpism is a harbinger for a half century or more of American instability and decline, the same way Peronism was. [0]: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/opinion/can-bal-keshav-thackeray-bombay-strongman-explain-trump.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/opinion/can-bal-keshav-th...
puranjay 6y ago
I can't deny it - I'm enjoying it a bit too. Trump's disregard for legal process or even common decency is exactly how I've seen leaders in my country act. BUT I have to say that even in my 3rd world country, President/Prime Minister tier leaders rarely, if ever, succumb to the kind of rhetoric Trump uses. Usually, that's reserved for tier-2 leaders.
ithkuil 6y ago
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_World Italy, Turkey and Russia were pretty much not third world countries when that word had a political meaning. Later on it became a synonym for developing world, which basically rules out most of the rest of your list, since Brazil, Argentina and Philippines aren't on that list either. So I assume you just use it a slur, meaning that those countries have a dysfunctional political systems, with corrupted strongmen; ok, I guess; just say "corrupt, failed, authoritarian political systems"; third world brings too much baggage, needlessly insulting people who live in those countries and who produce vibrant economies that have nothing to do the perception of starving masses associated with the "third world" slur.
- cptskippy 6y ago
  The meaning of the term Third World is different depending on the context. In a bureaucratic sense it has a very strict meaning, but more colloquially it's used as a derogatory to imply that a country is backward or almost savage in comparison to First World countries.
  - ithkuil 6y ago
    yeah, mine was a long way to say that I felt insulted by using such a derogatory term for the country where live; insult our politician, fine; insult your own politicians, fine; don't drag the rest of the populace into that. All of the places listed are full of industrious people who live and work and enjoy their long healthy lives; I wish people would occasionally stop and think about what the words that get out of the mouths actually mean.
rsynnott 6y ago
Call me weird, but I don't find foreign politicians acting improperly _entertaining_, at all. This sort of thing is a threat to everyone.
dontcarethrow2 6y ago
This will always be a mystery to me -- why oh why did we turn to politics into 'entertainment'. I heard it was why Bush was voted in, Gore was 'boring'. It is basic theater- circus for the masses. Decisions makers/show writers don't act in their plays.

gnusty_gnurc 6y ago

I mean, he’s inhabiting the powerful position that the two parties built! Doesn’t help that we’ve had God Emperors like FDR. The American president has also been mythologized. They’re calling all the shots and doing whatever. Unfortunately that means they can trample over the Constitution and only the opposing party usually cares.

mhh__ 6y ago
> only the opposing party usually cares. The republicans didn't even ratify any policies at the RNC this year. Obviously you have to support your guy, but if I said to you a majority / near-majority of the speakers at the convention were family and friends of the President would you think of a some backward state or the most powerful democracy in the world.
- gnusty_gnurc 6y ago
  I actually don't care that much about the parties acting like they're not just clubs with arbitrary rules - they are and always have been. But yea the major party duopoly is gross and has been for a while now. The dynastic families are insufferable.

nine_zeros 6y ago

This is very underrated. Quite often, I see people from developed countries look at poorer countries with pity, despair and wishing the best. We, in developed countries, take our development and good way of life for granted. The tables are completely turned. America has become the country to show pity towards. Unless America changes its way of governance this Fall, 4 more years and what exactly is the difference between America and Brazil?

claudeganon 6y ago
Speaking as an American, Brazil is here, it’s just not evenly distributed.
- jessaustin 6y ago
  Uneven distribution is kind of the point?
vidarh 6y ago
Well, in quite a lot of developed countries, the attitude to the US government has been deeply negative in parts of the population for a very long time. I recall, probably in the 80's, an incident where the US government objected to a foreign aid organisation distributing food aid in the US on equal basis to the kind of food aid programs operated in third world countries. Several European countries also refers to "American conditions" as a threat of chaos during political debates. E.g. I grew up in Norway, where the threat of "American conditions" was a common scare-tactic by the left to get people to oppose right wing policies. This was decades ago - the first threats of "American conditions dates back more than half a century.
- nine_zeros 6y ago
  Well, the difference is that today, even developing, poor countries are talking about "American conditions". Sometimes to justify their own incompetence. Other times to refuse American bullying. More often than not, just out of pity. This is because poorer countries have seen this story before. They didn't need a war to make them poor. Their incompetent leadership over years was enough.
akhilcacharya 6y ago
My parents are immigrants from a dysfunctional democracy and they can't agree more. Not nearly as bad as there, but the tenor is strikingly similar for a sole superpower. [0] My greatest fear is Trumpism is a harbinger for a half century or more of American instability and decline, the same way Peronism was. [0]: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/opinion/can-bal-keshav-thackeray-bombay-strongman-explain-trump.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/opinion/can-bal-keshav-th...

puranjay 6y ago

I can't deny it - I'm enjoying it a bit too. Trump's disregard for legal process or even common decency is exactly how I've seen leaders in my country act. BUT I have to say that even in my 3rd world country, President/Prime Minister tier leaders rarely, if ever, succumb to the kind of rhetoric Trump uses. Usually, that's reserved for tier-2 leaders.

ithkuil 6y ago

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_World Italy, Turkey and Russia were pretty much not third world countries when that word had a political meaning. Later on it became a synonym for developing world, which basically rules out most of the rest of your list, since Brazil, Argentina and Philippines aren't on that list either. So I assume you just use it a slur, meaning that those countries have a dysfunctional political systems, with corrupted strongmen; ok, I guess; just say "corrupt, failed, authoritarian political systems"; third world brings too much baggage, needlessly insulting people who live in those countries and who produce vibrant economies that have nothing to do the perception of starving masses associated with the "third world" slur.

cptskippy 6y ago
The meaning of the term Third World is different depending on the context. In a bureaucratic sense it has a very strict meaning, but more colloquially it's used as a derogatory to imply that a country is backward or almost savage in comparison to First World countries.
- ithkuil 6y ago
  yeah, mine was a long way to say that I felt insulted by using such a derogatory term for the country where live; insult our politician, fine; insult your own politicians, fine; don't drag the rest of the populace into that. All of the places listed are full of industrious people who live and work and enjoy their long healthy lives; I wish people would occasionally stop and think about what the words that get out of the mouths actually mean.

rsynnott 6y ago

Call me weird, but I don't find foreign politicians acting improperly _entertaining_, at all. This sort of thing is a threat to everyone.

dontcarethrow2 6y ago

This will always be a mystery to me -- why oh why did we turn to politics into 'entertainment'. I heard it was why Bush was voted in, Gore was 'boring'. It is basic theater- circus for the masses. Decisions makers/show writers don't act in their plays.