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Any time you read anything having to do with this administration, remember: The behavior will continue until an effective negative stimulus is given. Then imm
by lenerdenator 2y ago
Any time you read anything having to do with this administration, remember:
The behavior will continue until an effective negative stimulus is given.
Then immediately stop reading. The details don't matter at this point.
- jfengel 2y agoIt has to be a stimulus they feel as negative. Losing office is about the only unarguable one. Barring a coup, that isn't happening any time soon. Practically any other stimulus will be perceived as positive.
- delusional 2y agoI think what the commenter says is more dire than that. Even after this administration, this is going to keep happening until a major event happens. It's not just about the ghouls in there now, it's about the ghouls that will follow.
- simonh 2y agoA lot of people seem to think this is an anomaly, but they thought that about the first Trump term. Fundamentally Trump is a symptom. When he goes, all the voters that voted for him will still be there, and they’ll still have all the reasons they voted for him.
- throwawaygmbno 2y agoIt is more dire than that. The south was basically completely forgiven for starting the civil war and fighting for slavery. Then as soon as they were given a little bit of leeway they enacted Jim Crow laws, began erecting statues of the losers of the Civil War, and started the KKK to drive out black people they could no longer use as slaves. Many of the people you see in films and photos furiously protesting the civil rights act, picketing with signs against MLK Jr, lynching people during that time, putting glass in the seats of children because the schools were forced to end segregation, etc are still alive. Trump was grown and had started college when the Civil Rights act passed. Its time to start just forgiving them because they never seem to forget.
- david422 2y ago> When he goes, all the voters that voted for him will still be there, and they’ll still have all the reasons they voted for him. IMO this is a problem with the Democratic party not connecting with voters. Voters voting for Trump don't feel represented by Democrats, and that is something Democrats should be solving for.
- dralley 2y agoIt's many things, and that is certainly one of them. But a crazy percentage of voters thought the economy was literally in a recession. Not even that it was doing poorly, but that there was a recession. Some people just live in an alternate reality.
- scarface_74 2y agoI agree partially. But there is a large part of the MAGA movement who hate anyone that is not a Christian White Straight male getting ahead. The Democrats will never get those people. The Democratic Party is not blameless. They are seen as being soft on immigration now. Obama deported more people than Trump. They forgot the lesson that allowed Bill Clinton to win - “It’s the Economy Stupid”. And no matter how you feel about it. There is a large part of the United States, even among the LGB crowd who don’t want biological men in women’s sports. DEI the way it is framed is toxic to millions and I as a Black guy rolled my eyes at much of the indoctrination and “ally” nonsense I had to endure during my stint at BigTech. No matter how you feel about this either, it takes a remarkable amount of lack of self awareness by the DNC not to know how toxic this attitude is to a large swath of American voters. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/02/dnc-meeting/681548/ https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/02/dnc-mee... > The rules specify that when we have a gender-nonbinary candidate or officer, the nonbinary individual is counted as neither male nor female, and the remaining six officers must be gender balanced
- monkeyfun 2y agoOut of curiosity: how come only LGB? I'm trans, and I'd be quick to complain about how bad the narratives are there. Especially in terms of people over-focusing on such a small issue when hardly any trans people are in competitive sports and there's issues 1000x more important to our daily lives and safety that need to be handled sooner than "competitive sports teams". I'm not the only trans person like this, so it seems odd to exclude a whole group from even the possibility of agreement.
- gopher_space 2y agoYes, but we’ve seen how easily they can be controlled by playing to their hatred.
- wat10000 2y agoThat’s what really depresses me. What’s the point in fighting this stuff when half the voters think it’s ok? It’s one thing to take down an unpopular leader causing trouble, quite another to take down tens of millions of people.
- zombiwoof 2y agoI’m convinced they don’t think it’s okay, they just think whatever Fox News tells them endlessly is what’s okay If Fox News tomorrow changed their tone and message all those sheep would change It’s that simple
- wat10000 2y agoFor sure. It took about two seconds after USAID got wrecked for people to come out of the woodwork saying “oh yeah, USAID was notoriously corrupt, everybody knew that forever.” When I’m pretty sure they didn’t know the place existed the previous day.
- budududuroiu 2y agoHearing your average Joe suddenly start talking about USAID using the same talking points and tone as a Twitter Marxist Leninist tankie was indeed wild
- ethbr1 2y agoThe most ironic part about the entire USAID debacle was the complete failure of the new right to understand why American soft power was engineered that way, and what it was doing. It was like an even more hamfisted change management process than the neocons upsetting their apple carts, before they understood how things were balanced on them. Not to say anything shouldn't be changed, but jesus... folks need to have a little humility and curiosity -- try to understand what the folks before them were attempting to do and how.
- 2y ago
- throw__away7391 2y agoTrue, but I think this misses the deeper dynamic nature of such things. Trump is the symptom, but these voters were also reacting in their turn. It is highly unlikely that this exact sequence of triggers will immediately repeat themselves.
- isleyaardvark 2y agoEarlier than the first term. "The fever will break": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBvoG7pBc1A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBvoG7pBc1A
- stevage 2y agoI think that's what effective means.
- mmooss 2y agoHigh-aggression is a negotiating tactic with basic goals - to intimidate the other side into thinking you are implacable, and to make you seem unstoppable. It's a tactic. Like everyone else, they have interests and goals and needs, and they can be deterred in the same way. The problem is, nobody really tries. The Democrats keep doing the same ineffective things - a demonstration of being cowed and intimidated. For example, the Dems have almost no ability to communicate with the public. Whatever Trump and the GOP say are effectively true because there is no counter voice (beyond some third parties). The Dems don't do anything about it; they just keep communicating in the same way. The Dems have no talking points. A few of them are organizing now around 'economic populism' - in other words, they are completely cowed and will avoid all the major threats to freedom, democracy, the rule of law, safety; the corruption, cruelty, and hate. They are going to their safe space - economic policy!
- curt15 2y ago>For example, the Dems have almost no ability to communicate with the public. This +100. Even B Clinton as a 25+yr citizen communicates better with the public than 99% of active Dem politicians.
- brightball 2y agoWhen people can see their social accounts copying and pasting the same content it does look a little…disconnected/inauthentic.
- trhway 2y agoEven when it is directly connected - ie. the people will see much higher prices copy pasted everywhere due to the Trump’s import taxes while Trump will be giving to the billionaires the tax cut financed by the tariffs - and the people will still cheer up on Trump.
- mmooss 2y agoBecause the policy is not the issue. Trump has never been consistent or carried through much on policy; he lies to everyone. It's the politics and ideology - extreme reactionary politics of destroying 'liberals' regardless of the cost.
- caycep 2y agoIn theory, Congressional investigation w/ power of subpoena and an ability to hand out prison sentences. Also in theory, if they lose office, subsequent admin needs to be able to prosecute. Assuming we can vote again in the future
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- nerdponx 2y agoWe literally have a Supreme Court decision saying that the President has immunity as long as he was acting as part of his official duties. So while any clear-minded person will see that, say, running a protection racket on law firms from the White House is blatantly illegal and a crime, all Trump has to do is argue that he did so in his official capacity as president and not as a private citizen, and he is instantly 100% immune from consequences.
- caycep 2y agohence the "in theory". I do realize GOP/Unitary Prez court packing has been an issue and does need to be addressed as well...
- nerdponx 2y agoThat's the thing. Regardless of whether or not you think the Court was unconstitutionally packed (due to the Senate running out the clock on the Garland nomination under Obama), it doesn't matter, because SCOTUS rulings are precedent and therefore effectively law. So it's no longer true even in theory, unless Trump v. US is overturned.
- JeremyNT 2y agoA truism, but: There are a lot of Trump supporters on HN. More data points that highlight how incompetent or corrupt this administration is might eventually sway them. Midterm and special elections are real points where negative stimuli could occur. If polling gets bad enough, swing state Republican politicians might start sweating sooner. So maybe for you this is just obvious confirmation of what you already know. But by reporting and following up on this story, maybe some people will learn and understand something they did not before.
- pjc50 2y agoTrump supporters are unswayable. The same rule about negative stimulus applies. Nothing you can say makes a difference, but if they start losing money eventually they might change behavior. Or they radicalize further.
- Workaccount2 2y agoThe dems paid an insanely heavy cost to appease the 1% of the population that is chronically on twitter. They lost mountains of votes to trump over that.
- NickC25 2y agoIt's just odd to me. I mean, yeah the Democrat party sucks. Here's this "macho tough guy" that wears a diaper, lifts, and makeup...who's famous for bankrupting a casino (twice), and was known for decades as a cartoon character, a clown, a moron. They hear the "on day 1" promises that won't ever get resolved. They see what happened the last time this guy took the wheel. And they want more of it? Unswayable indeed. I thought America was immune from fascism because it generally took the form of an idiotic leader that had charisma. I thought my fellow countrymen and countrywomen were smarter than that. Of all the people to succumb to, it's this fucking guy? Seriously?
- mgdev 2y agoIf people you respect are swayed, ask yourself (or better: them) what they see that you don't. I doubt it's a matter of intelligence, so much as perspective. If no one you respect has been swayed, you should know: the other side is making the same baffled judgements about you.
- alaxhn 2y agoDoes this sentiment extend more broadly than a single administration? Can we broadly expect many potentially problematic behaviors to continue until an effective negative stimulus is given? It's interesting to me why this perspective is popular when applied a certain administration but not popular when applied to other things such as * Poverty \ * Drug Addiction \ * Homelessness \ * Obesity \ * Undocumented Border Crossings
- kelipso 2y agoThis is what I find so funny about the oh so serious protests about the current administration that people make in these comments. When other administrations do the same thing, it's one excuse after another, or just silence. These people are just mindlessly posting based on political memes, they're simply not serious.
- sorcerer-mar 2y agoWhich other administration filed executive orders banning specific law firms from federal buildings and their customers from winning federal contracts because the law firm once employed a lawyer who once investigated or sued that administration? I’ll wait.
- kelipso 2y agoBiden went after Trump using the judicial system and I am certain you were not complaining about that. I doubt you were even aware of it. I guess you were waiting for another administration so you can start protesting again.
- lenerdenator 2y agoYou mean they convinced a grand jury to charge him, and then convinced a jury of his peers to convict him of 34 felony counts, all while he had legal representation that most of us could only dream of?
- sorcerer-mar 2y ago
- djeastm 2y ago>Then immediately stop reading. The details don't matter at this point. That's truly an absurd suggestion. I hope you're just attempting to make some kind of point, but not suggesting people actually ignore "the details"
- lenerdenator 2y agoPeople have been doing nothing but reading "the details" for the last ten years. Where are we?
- mmooss 2y agoI'd say it's the opposite. They are flooded with misinformation, disinformation, and disruptive trauma, and don't read the facts.
- lenerdenator 2y agoHe's President. He was convicted of 34 felony counts and got no sentence. Like I can do nothing but list stuff for the next hour. It makes no difference. If you still need to read about it... jeeze.
- lazystar 2y agobingo. i have nothing to add, just chiming in to let you know theres others out there who are at the point of not reading about it any longer. if the people who are in a position to do something about it arent doing anything about it, then reading more about it is as useful as watching porn.
- mmooss 2y ago> I can do nothing The far right and Trump's biggest support is people acting helpless and spreading their dogma of helplessness. It's surreal to see how effective their propaganda is - this is right out of psyops playbooks. It's truly unmaerican to throw up your hands - nobody is going to do it for you, and anything is possible. That's part of freedom.
- the_optimist 2y agoYou have remarkable authority on this. Can you tell us more about it?
- zombiwoof 2y agoWell said Stimulus