5 ms·

I can't believe what a bunch of bollocks this administration is. I couldn't believe it the first time, and this time I thought "Well at least I'm ready, it will

by aprilthird2021 2y ago

I can't believe what a bunch of bollocks this administration is. I couldn't believe it the first time, and this time I thought "Well at least I'm ready, it will be a lot like last time" and it's so much worse

01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y ago
A lot was lost in the midterms and Supreme Court appointments. Hopefully these 4 years energize people to vote. I know protesting and direct action and so on are also important, but the gradient is not negative for voting for every office you can vote for in every election.
- aprilthird2021 2y ago
  Yes, the next elections are all I have to look forward to really.
  - jjav 2y ago
    Given the current government has blown off an unanimous 9-0 supreme court decision, right now I can't feel too optimistic there will even be more elections.
    - hn_throwaway_99 2y ago
      I think there will be more elections, but I think they will be fraudulent, because I think Trump has shown he is adept at turning things around and then trying to pretend that what he's doing is analogous to what the other side has done. For example, a lot of people have forgotten, but the phrase "fake news" originally came about in the wake of the 2016 election about all the (actually false) misinformation that was spread on social media in the run up to the election. Trump adeptly then co-opted the term, so any news he didn't like he could just call it "fake news", and who was to say any news he called fake was any less fake than what people were calling fake before? My guess is the 2028 elections will be marked by fraud, and then when people protest or object, Trump and the Republicans will just say "Hey, you called all those Jan 6 protesters traitors and said the election was secure, how is now any different? Now you're all the traitors." The only belief that gives me hope these days is "History will judge the complicit."
- worik 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - throitallaway 2y ago
    > Trump tells them they are OK. They are worthwhile. The chasm between what Trump says (and what the propaganda says about him) and what he actually does is astounding. Most of his fans are completely uninformed of what he says and does. We've never had a president (and cabinet) with more conflicts of interest. He's been a pioneer at abusing power; tariffs on Canada because of a fentanyl crisis... give me a break!
  - hn_throwaway_99 2y ago
    > The Democrats say "we feel your pain" Fuck them, truly. Voters do not want some Harvard educated lawyer to "feel their pain". Yeah, apparently they want some billionaire who doesn't pay his taxes, who was given millions by his daddy, and who famously stiffed small business contractors at his buildings, to say he feels their pain. That said, I actually upvoted your comment because right now it's heavily downvoted but I actually think there is an important point behind your comment. It may feel insane to me, but Trump is so beloved by his base because he was the first one to really acknowledge their anger and give it validity. "Make America Great Again" is a slogan that works because a lot of people have seen their financial and social position deteriorate over the past 30-40 years and they want to go back and they want someone to blame (even if going back is impossible and they're blaming the wrong people). Trump understood this, the Democrats didn't, or worse, branded anyone who harbored some of this anger as a bigot. This is basically how all fascist leaders come to power - the parallels with Mussolini are uncanny, right down to having a minor body part shot off in an assassination attempt. Relevant recent example to me: a lot of folks can't understand the hypocrisy about bitching about inflation under Biden, but then saying "we'll hunker down" in response to the expected inflation from tariffs. The difference is the Trump base believes he is taking them "back to the promised land", and for better or worse Trump is definitely a man of action, so they're more willing to put up with temporary hardships if they think the direction is right. With Biden and the Dems, they just believe they'll get more of the "slow slide."
    - 2y ago
- Terr_ 2y ago
  I'm scared that elections won't be secure, especially with the way the Republicans are trying to (arguably unconstitutionally) wield federal power to force individual states to change their systems in abrupt ways.
- sofixa 2y ago
  > Hopefully these 4 years energize people to vote You are assuming there will be next elections that are free, fair, and matter. Trump says a lot of things that ultimately doesn't matter, but he has also said, and is the type of brute to believe it, that he intends to stay in power. He and his cronies have successfully dismantled the checks and balances that should have prevented him from doing they, legally. IMO the only way he leaves the White House without stirring trouble is in a casket.
  - the-chitmonger 2y ago
    Let's pray that his health suffers, in that case. I am so unbelievably tired of reading the news and seeing another pillar of civilization dismantled.
    - Onawa 2y ago
      I would rather that he stays alive for the rest of his term. I am more scared of the damage that could be done by Vance. Trump is inept and easy to manipulate, but is fairly predictable in his actions. Vance and his technocrat bros could cause a lot more damage on the other hand. I'll take the devil we "know".
      - Jotra7 2y ago
        [dead]
- xyzal 2y ago
  I fear the situation either ends badly or in a bloodshed. They aren't respecting the courts, so assuming they will accept defeat in elections is naive.
  - MiguelX413 2y ago
    Maybe that's the only way that people can learn.
    - ThatMedicIsASpy 2y ago
      People can learn once the world puts most of its money into education. The unfortunate part is that education is often also part of propaganda and spinning history for said propaganda. These days I wish education had a bigger emphasis on history and history should be looked at from different angles, like how the same thing is being taught from different angles.
      - mrguyorama 2y ago
        >These days I wish education had a bigger emphasis on history and history should be looked at from different angles, like how the same thing is being taught from different angles. It does. In higher education. You cannot force someone to learn something. The mean-spirited bully not paying attention in high school history class and barely getting a C- to graduate didn't exactly learn anything about nuanced topics like "The Nazis didn't start the holocaust right away" and "Fascism is inherently incompetent, and that makes it so much worse" If parents raise their kids to not consider education important (and millions of parents in the US have always done just so, we have an insane level of anti-intellectualism in this country), you won't get educated kids. Every time someone says "I wish school taught <X>", plenty of schools EXPLICITLY DO THAT, and it doesn't work, because the person complaining was one of the kids crying "When will I ever use this" instead of paying attention. The same adults who complain that school didn't teach them "critical thinking" are upset that school didn't walk them through the process step by step, as if you can't balance a check book with fucking basic algebra you learn by 4th grade. Meanwhile, 90% of the uproar about "new math" ends up being parents who can't even manage to understand basic word problems, you know, things which take critical thinking to work through? I've had people complain that school should teach them how to calculate a mortgage, which is funny, because those people sat next to me in Precalculus as we literally did mortgage calculation problems. The USA is struggling with multiple generations of people who have insisted that education is not only useless, but a liberal agenda, or even a devil-run plot to distract you from god. It's insane.
- AlexandrB 2y ago
  > Hopefully these 4 years energize people to vote. This euphemism has to end. I think you mean: "Hopefully these 4 years energize people to vote Democrat". Why not just say it plainly instead of using supposedly non-partisan language? This neutral phrasing seems to be an appeal to a "silent majority" that agrees with you and disagrees with Republican leadership. What if that silent majority doesn't exist?
  - Sohcahtoa82 2y ago
    You're right in that it's possible that the silent majority doesn't exist. But personally, the reason I believe it does exist is two-fold: 1. The "My vote won't change anything" rhetoric only ever gets expressed by left-leaning people. 2. Only left-leaning people require endless purity tests for their political candidates and will refuse to vote for anybody that they don't think is the perfect candidate. These are the ones that talk about being fed up for having to choose between the lesser of two evils, then look like a Surprised Pikachu when Trump wins.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
  - aprilthird2021 2y ago
    > This neutral phrasing seems to be an appeal to a "silent majority" that agrees with you and disagrees with Republican leadership. What if that silent majority doesn't exist? Then we are on course to lose our spot on top of the world, and I should probably plan to get laid off. Idk, I get what you mean, but not agreeing with Democrats (I don't really agree with them much) and wanting a stable country with a good economy are way different things. I can hold my nose and vote for someone who doesn't actively try to tank the economy, the same way many conservatives (especially religious ones), held their nose and voted for Trump
roughly 2y ago
> it will be a lot like last time A lot of people seemed to have had this theory, despite all the evidence to the contrary.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- crazygringo 2y ago
  There wasn't any evidence, that's the problem. It was all opinion. Trump said a lot of stuff before this election, but he said a lot of stuff before his first one too. When people disagreed on what he might do, it was all guesses. There was no evidence to base anything on. Would his second term be restrained by people around him like in his first? That would be an evidence-based extrapolation. Would tariffs be all talk and little action, like in his first term? Extrapolating from evidence, they would be. But 2025 isn't 2017. Things would be different, but how? It's all guesses. It's only hindsight that is 20/20.
  - rs186 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - crazygringo 2y ago
      Well your theory would seem to be directly contradicted by the fact that he's been musing about figuring out ways to have a third term. > Hindsight 20/20? Oh, I saw all of this, and I knew all of this would happen. Great. So I assume you made massively leveraged bets to short the stock market and are now rich? Or maybe you didn't, because talk is cheap, and you didn't actually know anything. Because nobody knew anything. > Stupid Americans. Please take this kind of talk elsewhere. Trump didn't even win 50% of the vote. But regardless, insulting entire nationalities is never called for.
      - deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y ago

A lot was lost in the midterms and Supreme Court appointments. Hopefully these 4 years energize people to vote. I know protesting and direct action and so on are also important, but the gradient is not negative for voting for every office you can vote for in every election.

aprilthird2021 2y ago
Yes, the next elections are all I have to look forward to really.
- jjav 2y ago
  Given the current government has blown off an unanimous 9-0 supreme court decision, right now I can't feel too optimistic there will even be more elections.
  - hn_throwaway_99 2y ago
    I think there will be more elections, but I think they will be fraudulent, because I think Trump has shown he is adept at turning things around and then trying to pretend that what he's doing is analogous to what the other side has done. For example, a lot of people have forgotten, but the phrase "fake news" originally came about in the wake of the 2016 election about all the (actually false) misinformation that was spread on social media in the run up to the election. Trump adeptly then co-opted the term, so any news he didn't like he could just call it "fake news", and who was to say any news he called fake was any less fake than what people were calling fake before? My guess is the 2028 elections will be marked by fraud, and then when people protest or object, Trump and the Republicans will just say "Hey, you called all those Jan 6 protesters traitors and said the election was secure, how is now any different? Now you're all the traitors." The only belief that gives me hope these days is "History will judge the complicit."
worik 2y ago
[flagged]
- throitallaway 2y ago
  > Trump tells them they are OK. They are worthwhile. The chasm between what Trump says (and what the propaganda says about him) and what he actually does is astounding. Most of his fans are completely uninformed of what he says and does. We've never had a president (and cabinet) with more conflicts of interest. He's been a pioneer at abusing power; tariffs on Canada because of a fentanyl crisis... give me a break!
- hn_throwaway_99 2y ago
  > The Democrats say "we feel your pain" Fuck them, truly. Voters do not want some Harvard educated lawyer to "feel their pain". Yeah, apparently they want some billionaire who doesn't pay his taxes, who was given millions by his daddy, and who famously stiffed small business contractors at his buildings, to say he feels their pain. That said, I actually upvoted your comment because right now it's heavily downvoted but I actually think there is an important point behind your comment. It may feel insane to me, but Trump is so beloved by his base because he was the first one to really acknowledge their anger and give it validity. "Make America Great Again" is a slogan that works because a lot of people have seen their financial and social position deteriorate over the past 30-40 years and they want to go back and they want someone to blame (even if going back is impossible and they're blaming the wrong people). Trump understood this, the Democrats didn't, or worse, branded anyone who harbored some of this anger as a bigot. This is basically how all fascist leaders come to power - the parallels with Mussolini are uncanny, right down to having a minor body part shot off in an assassination attempt. Relevant recent example to me: a lot of folks can't understand the hypocrisy about bitching about inflation under Biden, but then saying "we'll hunker down" in response to the expected inflation from tariffs. The difference is the Trump base believes he is taking them "back to the promised land", and for better or worse Trump is definitely a man of action, so they're more willing to put up with temporary hardships if they think the direction is right. With Biden and the Dems, they just believe they'll get more of the "slow slide."
  - 2y ago
Terr_ 2y ago
I'm scared that elections won't be secure, especially with the way the Republicans are trying to (arguably unconstitutionally) wield federal power to force individual states to change their systems in abrupt ways.
sofixa 2y ago
> Hopefully these 4 years energize people to vote You are assuming there will be next elections that are free, fair, and matter. Trump says a lot of things that ultimately doesn't matter, but he has also said, and is the type of brute to believe it, that he intends to stay in power. He and his cronies have successfully dismantled the checks and balances that should have prevented him from doing they, legally. IMO the only way he leaves the White House without stirring trouble is in a casket.
- the-chitmonger 2y ago
  Let's pray that his health suffers, in that case. I am so unbelievably tired of reading the news and seeing another pillar of civilization dismantled.
  - Onawa 2y ago
    I would rather that he stays alive for the rest of his term. I am more scared of the damage that could be done by Vance. Trump is inept and easy to manipulate, but is fairly predictable in his actions. Vance and his technocrat bros could cause a lot more damage on the other hand. I'll take the devil we "know".
    - Jotra7 2y ago
      [dead]
xyzal 2y ago
I fear the situation either ends badly or in a bloodshed. They aren't respecting the courts, so assuming they will accept defeat in elections is naive.
- MiguelX413 2y ago
  Maybe that's the only way that people can learn.
  - ThatMedicIsASpy 2y ago
    People can learn once the world puts most of its money into education. The unfortunate part is that education is often also part of propaganda and spinning history for said propaganda. These days I wish education had a bigger emphasis on history and history should be looked at from different angles, like how the same thing is being taught from different angles.
    - mrguyorama 2y ago
      >These days I wish education had a bigger emphasis on history and history should be looked at from different angles, like how the same thing is being taught from different angles. It does. In higher education. You cannot force someone to learn something. The mean-spirited bully not paying attention in high school history class and barely getting a C- to graduate didn't exactly learn anything about nuanced topics like "The Nazis didn't start the holocaust right away" and "Fascism is inherently incompetent, and that makes it so much worse" If parents raise their kids to not consider education important (and millions of parents in the US have always done just so, we have an insane level of anti-intellectualism in this country), you won't get educated kids. Every time someone says "I wish school taught <X>", plenty of schools EXPLICITLY DO THAT, and it doesn't work, because the person complaining was one of the kids crying "When will I ever use this" instead of paying attention. The same adults who complain that school didn't teach them "critical thinking" are upset that school didn't walk them through the process step by step, as if you can't balance a check book with fucking basic algebra you learn by 4th grade. Meanwhile, 90% of the uproar about "new math" ends up being parents who can't even manage to understand basic word problems, you know, things which take critical thinking to work through? I've had people complain that school should teach them how to calculate a mortgage, which is funny, because those people sat next to me in Precalculus as we literally did mortgage calculation problems. The USA is struggling with multiple generations of people who have insisted that education is not only useless, but a liberal agenda, or even a devil-run plot to distract you from god. It's insane.
AlexandrB 2y ago
> Hopefully these 4 years energize people to vote. This euphemism has to end. I think you mean: "Hopefully these 4 years energize people to vote Democrat". Why not just say it plainly instead of using supposedly non-partisan language? This neutral phrasing seems to be an appeal to a "silent majority" that agrees with you and disagrees with Republican leadership. What if that silent majority doesn't exist?
- Sohcahtoa82 2y ago
  You're right in that it's possible that the silent majority doesn't exist. But personally, the reason I believe it does exist is two-fold: 1. The "My vote won't change anything" rhetoric only ever gets expressed by left-leaning people. 2. Only left-leaning people require endless purity tests for their political candidates and will refuse to vote for anybody that they don't think is the perfect candidate. These are the ones that talk about being fed up for having to choose between the lesser of two evils, then look like a Surprised Pikachu when Trump wins.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- aprilthird2021 2y ago
  > This neutral phrasing seems to be an appeal to a "silent majority" that agrees with you and disagrees with Republican leadership. What if that silent majority doesn't exist? Then we are on course to lose our spot on top of the world, and I should probably plan to get laid off. Idk, I get what you mean, but not agreeing with Democrats (I don't really agree with them much) and wanting a stable country with a good economy are way different things. I can hold my nose and vote for someone who doesn't actively try to tank the economy, the same way many conservatives (especially religious ones), held their nose and voted for Trump

roughly 2y ago

> it will be a lot like last time A lot of people seemed to have had this theory, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
crazygringo 2y ago
There wasn't any evidence, that's the problem. It was all opinion. Trump said a lot of stuff before this election, but he said a lot of stuff before his first one too. When people disagreed on what he might do, it was all guesses. There was no evidence to base anything on. Would his second term be restrained by people around him like in his first? That would be an evidence-based extrapolation. Would tariffs be all talk and little action, like in his first term? Extrapolating from evidence, they would be. But 2025 isn't 2017. Things would be different, but how? It's all guesses. It's only hindsight that is 20/20.
- rs186 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - crazygringo 2y ago
    Well your theory would seem to be directly contradicted by the fact that he's been musing about figuring out ways to have a third term. > Hindsight 20/20? Oh, I saw all of this, and I knew all of this would happen. Great. So I assume you made massively leveraged bets to short the stock market and are now rich? Or maybe you didn't, because talk is cheap, and you didn't actually know anything. Because nobody knew anything. > Stupid Americans. Please take this kind of talk elsewhere. Trump didn't even win 50% of the vote. But regardless, insulting entire nationalities is never called for.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]