• bitwolf@sh.itjust.works
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    5 hours ago

    They keep talking about “own the libs” but Trump has been the most liberal president we’ve had.

    Its just that he’s not liberal in the sense of leftist values.

  • Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml
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    6 hours ago

    Sanders is controlled opposition, he rolled over and let the DNC fuck us all and if given the chance he’ll do it again

      • HugeNerd@lemmy.ca
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        6 hours ago

        Both require no thinking yet believing you’re correct no matter the evidence to the contrary.

            • Syrc@lemmy.world
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              15 minutes ago

              So if Harris won she would’ve deported all those people to El Salvador without due process?

              • Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml
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                1 hour ago

                Lol no, billionaires and the complicity of both major US parties in the process of regulatory capture are why we have what we have now, although the political illiteracy and complacency of people like you is a significant factor in how that process was allowed to progress as far as it has

        • Baguette@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          5 hours ago

          The slogan was used in direct opposition against Trump and the republican party

          It’s reductionist to complain about the phrase in general because you’ve taken the slogan out of the context it was in. In an ideal scenario the US would have actual candidates that don’t want to dismantle democracy, then the slogan would make no sense. Like in Vermont, where Bernie Sanders offered an independent choice that actually believes in leftist democratic values.

          Unfortunately, when the choice is between fascism from Republicans or the status quo with Democrats, you best believe the US should vote blue no matter who, because the other option is infinitely worse.

  • katy ✨@piefed.blahaj.zone
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    14 hours ago

    the only difference is that stalin hijacked the government and turned it to right wing authoritarianism from a based ruler while trump hijacked it from a mid one.

  • BarneyPiccolo@lemmings.world
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    1 day ago

    The Democrats should OFFICIALLY declare the Republican Party dead, and only refer to the MAGA Party from now on. Do an actual press conference, and make an official announcement - the Republican Party no longer exists, and has been replaced by the MAGA Party. That will make the traditional Republicans absolutely crazy, and the Dems should keep it up.

    Never use the word Republican ever again, refer only to the MAGA, or MAGA Nazi Party. On talk shows, interviews, sound bites, fundraising texts, etc., use the term MAGA Party exclusively. When asked about it, simply say casually and matter-of-factly “The Republican Party is dead, they are the MAGA Party from now on,” and leave it at that. Make the MAGAs cry.

      • Wolf
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        16 hours ago

        I like calling them MAGAts because it just sounds right to me.

      • BarneyPiccolo@lemmings.world
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        6 hours ago

        Politics is ALL marketing/ advertising, and the most important thing a product can do is establish a strong, powerful brand. These aren’t “kindergarten word games,” this is a marketing strategy intended to damage their brand.

        At their core, MAGAs are cowardly and angry, and easy to manipulate. Needle, harass, hassle, tease, humiliate, embarrass, etc. them at EVERY opportunity, and they will grow angrier, and more frightened when they see their intimidation tactics aren’t working. It shows shallow voters that the MAGAs are pathetic, they aren’t strong, and they aren’t to be feared. It shows that they are blustering losers, not to be respected or obeyed. Combine that with a solid brand building strategy for a popular Democratic agenda, and voters will abandon the pathetic MAGAs, and flock to the Democrats.

        Handled correctly, words are powerful tools, and the Pen is mightier than the Sword.

      • Ruxias@lemmy.world
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        23 hours ago

        It won’t help. It’s purely cathartic. It’s meaningless political tribalism. It will keep the commons quibbling and scratching while fascism only strengthens from the misguided and unprincipled rage.

        • BarneyPiccolo@lemmings.world
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          6 hours ago

          I keep reading posts like yours, disparaging protests, disparaging written dissension, disparaging a progressive agenda, etc. People like you somehow think the voters are going to flock to the Democrats just by doing the same weak strategies that they’ve been losing with for decades. It’s time to go after the MAGA Nazi with every available strategy, including words.

          • Ruxias@lemmy.world
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            2 hours ago

            You presuppose a lot of my position and lump me in with a lot of other comments you’ve read. And in a way you’ve supported the original point I was trying to make.

            I applaud all efforts to slow, halt, or reverse fascism. But the “kindergarten word games” mentioned by the above commenter doesn’t really help - and I would argue that it actually hurts since fascism thrives on divisiveness, isolation, and hate. If the takeaway from fascism is to fight it by sowing the same seeds that allowed it to grow in the first place then I fear we won’t have the outcomes we hope for. And the specific words proposed by the original comment don’t illustrate any essential problems to people they’re trying to sway; it does nothing to educate people and see the problem with sober eyes. It’s sole design is catharsis and insult.

            Before the apparent fascism we know today, both parties (knowingly or unknowingly) laid the groundwork for it in service to capital. Fascism IS Capitalism when times get tough. Capital does not benefit from people seeing each other as equals or wanting to understand each other. The divisiveness is by design.

            The Democratic Party as you or I know it is adrift at best; dead at worst. It would require substantive, substantial change in the party for them to “win” in any meaningful, lasting way. But they won’t change in any real way - only branding or rhetoric - because that’s all they’ve ever known and that’s all that is allowed.

            In essence: they are Republicans but with a different veneer. The everyman knows this intuitively. People of all stripes complain of the political, social, and economic system in common ways. The hollow promises of current administration are evidence of this - a lot of people voted how they did based on these hollow promises. However, simultaneously people allow themselves to be bewildered by the “outrage of the week” from whatever media ecosystem they consume. These outrages distract from the common trend lines between the two parties. These trends are evident when you focus attention on the factual reality of both parties actions and ignore their rhetoric and daily outrages.

            And just so we’re clear: not all outrages are equal in this respect. Some are worth our time and attention. But you need to ask yourself why the media cycle flips so rapidly and readily. It’s by design to bewilder - and it’s not just coming from one party or another. It’s coming from a class of people to a different class of people.

            So I’ll leave myself open for the usual comments of “both sides huh?” Because if anyone wants to genuinely have a discussion about that we can. But I’m not here to talk to people who approach in bad faith.

          • Ruxias@lemmy.world
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            22 hours ago

            I have been to a couple but I’m unfamiliar with the protest you’re referencing. I have mixed feelings about the protests I’ve witnessed, but it was nice to see people banding together regardless.

    • BrainInABox@lemmy.ml
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      17 hours ago

      So, in short, behave exactly like the Obama era Republicans that the Democrats have basically become

      • Wolf
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        16 hours ago

        Nah, the Obama Era Republicans put up a fight. The Democrats now aren’t even fighting for the most part.

    • NateNate60@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      The Republicans tried doing a similar thing to the Democratic Party by calling it the “Democrat Party”, but members of the Democratic Party basically just ignored this and treated those who used it as stupid, or offered “helpful corrections” to the user’s “inadvertent mistake”. Eventually, it lost currency because it failed in its goal of upsetting people.

      • BarneyPiccolo@lemmings.world
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        6 hours ago

        I beg to differ. I have seen Democrats like Schumer and Schiff get very angry when a Republican has called them the Democrat Party, and start lecturing about respect, etc., as the Republican sat back with a smug smirk, knowing they got their opponent to wander off the path, instead of discussing the subject that the Republican would like to avoid. Dems take that bait all the time.

        Calling them the MAGA Party, and flat out declaring the Republican Party dead, and then treating it as if it is actually dead, would flip the tables on them.

  • JargonWagon@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Too many people here just blindly hating on Bernie and nitpicking how “Stalinism is technically incorrect”. Where’s the Trump hate? Bring some of that shit out. I’ll start.

    Fuck Trump, MAGA, and their entire cult of personality.

    • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      protip: most of the bernie haters are forum sliders. Mods are even less likely here to do anything about it than on reddit.

      Lemmy should be a place Bernie’s policies are celebrated, but due to shills, bots, bad actors and just trolls, every post about him will be brigaded and turned into a shitshow

      Lemmy is complicit in our march towards fascism and their lack of action is telling of their motivations

      • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
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        20 hours ago

        Or this is just a bad attempt at manipulating conservative rotbrains from Bernie, who knows they don’t mind being called fascists which has led him to the conclusion of calling them communists instead.

        He’s probably right about what will bother them but he’s just playing into their rhetoric in the end.

    • IndustryStandard@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Because turbo libbing is not the solution to defeating Trump. It is similar to saying Israel has the right to defend itself before each statement. Bernie is actively antagonizing commies by repeating US imperialist propaganda and applying it to someone he does not like.

      • Abigaelle@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        1 day ago

        If you feel antagonised when someone criticise Stalin then that’s a you problem though.

        Staline’s Image Cult isn’t “imperialist propaganda”

        • IndustryStandard@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Americans using their global opponents which they demonize in all their media as insults is an all too classic trope.

          I am sure we are all extremely well informed on Stalin because of our unbiased media.

          • Kickforce@lemmy.wtf
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            20 hours ago

            We’re not all from the US, but yes all the western block got anti-Ussr colored info. Still there is little you can find that can make a critical mind see Stalin as anything but a dictator. There are things you can admire in Marx, Trotsky and even Lenin, but if you cannot see how Stalin hijacked the revolution to make his own autocratic empire that while somewhat communism flavored, was structurally not that different of a fascist state, then you are willfully blind. The leader worship, the paranoia, the constant surveillance, those have no place in a communist society.

            It is those aspects precisely that make Sanders equate the republicans to stalinists. I think the comparison is apt.

            • IndustryStandard@lemmy.world
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              14 hours ago

              Stalin did massively advance Russian science and industrialization. But he did so at a massive human toll. Also his role in fighting Hitler is so minimized that people think he colluded with Hitler when the USSR basically defeated Hitler by themselves at Stalingrad and America swooped in afterwards.

              • Kickforce@lemmy.wtf
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                6 hours ago

                The USSR did the greater part in defeating nazi Germany, seriously nobody who knows a thing about the fall of the 3rd Reich could deny that. They did so at a huge cost in soldiers and material. This is something that the world should thank the people of the USSR for, their sacrifice was terrible. However it was not Stalin defeating the nazi’s single handedly. His troops and officers did, nor did Stalin do this out of the goodness of his heart or through personal heroics. It was a fight for survival.

                • IndustryStandard@lemmy.world
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                  5 hours ago

                  The Nazis lost at Stalingrad. Only after their defeat and being pushed back, America swooped in and took over Europe before Russia could.

                  Then they saved the Nazi scientists and officers and gave them top positions in NATO.

          • Abigaelle@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            1 day ago

            Yes, the US has red scare propaganda.

            Historians exist outside of the US, though. We have decades and decades of non-US, non communist-scare historical research to know what the USSR and Stalin did. If you don’t want to recognise the errors of the past, you will repeat them. If the most you can do is aim for Stalin’s USSR but 2025 version, then you’re as much an enemy of the people than capitalists are.

      • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Stalinism isn’t actual leftist politics. It’s sycophantic moronery, just as Bernie used it.

      • MonkRome@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        So when Stalin collaborated with Nazis to kill and chase away my relatives from what is now Ukraine that was imperialist propaganda? Why did so many of my ancestors flee Russia at that time?

        • Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml
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          2 hours ago

          Your ancestors probably fled because they were nazi collaborators, just like the ukrainians marching with nazi emblems right now

            • Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml
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              1 hour ago

              Cool story, but the vast majority of jewish people fleeing Ukraine during Stalin’s time were fleeing from Nazis not Soviets, so either your relatives were lying about being Jewish or lying about why they ran, maybe kulaks? Or you’re lying about your relatives, or maybe you’re just too stupid to remember the details and are filling in the blanks with random propaganda you heard, definitely bullshit of one flavor or another though

        • Oniononon@sopuli.xyz
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          8 hours ago

          Sorry friend, also lost most of my family to communists who then gave the houses and business to officers family. Thankfully the son burned them alive along with the house. Death to ocupants.

        • IndustryStandard@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          You mean the peace treaty he signed with Hitler to stall for time and build weapons after France and Britain refused to join forces with him to fight Hitler.

          Have you considered asking yourself why France and Britain refused?

          It is quite astounding to blame Stalin, the guy who basically fought Hitler all by himself, for the Holocaust.

          • MonkRome@lemmy.world
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            24 hours ago

            https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excess_mortality_in_the_Soviet_Union_under_Joseph_Stalin

            Stalin’s actions killed 7-20 million people, intellectuals, minorities, and poor people. At least a million of which were deliberate deaths. People who defend that for political expedience are unquestionably misinformed or evil, take your pick. My family was fleeing for their lives.

            I am all for some form of socialism, defending evil people is not how you get it.

            • BrainInABox@lemmy.ml
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              17 hours ago

              Damn, that’s a suspiciously wide range.

              Does it include Nazi soldiers killed by the red army in world war two? (Spoilers: yes)

              This person is mad about dead Nazis

              • MonkRome@lemmy.world
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                2 hours ago

                My ancestors were Jewish, they were chased out under threat of death. Absolutely repugnant to claim I’m mad about dead Nazis in that context.

              • Oniononon@sopuli.xyz
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                8 hours ago

                If that is true then trump is based and ice is deporting illegal criminals and rapists.

                Youre a literal palette swapped nazi and deserve the same fate as nazis.

                • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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                  3 hours ago

                  Really telling on yourself that you consider undocumented immigrants morally equivalent to literal Nazi soldiers killed in combat by the people they were invading hitler-detector

                • Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml
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                  7 hours ago

                  Trusting anything the US has to say about it’s enemies is always a mistake, and given how well documented our history of fabricating justifications for our foreign policy is it’s an extremely stupid one

              • MonkRome@lemmy.world
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                12 hours ago

                My Jewish grandparents on multiple sides were told to flee or die by Stalin’s drooling simps. My primary source is many of my great grandparents and the thousands of others that fled Russia at the barrel of a gun. Talk to any reputable Russian historian in the last 50 years and some figure in the many millions is going to come up. We have endless first hand accounts and mountains of historical evidence. To deny this history is like being a Holocaust denier. What exactly is your goal here?

                • Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml
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                  7 hours ago

                  Cool story, unfortunately for you some shit that allegedly happened to your grandparents proves absolutely nothing, and the historians considered reputable on the topic by western powers have been caught making shit up more than once. Trusting what the US has to say about its enemies is always a bad decision, you might be stupid enough to do it but I’m not.

                  And lol@ your holocaust denial comparison, we’ve got a shitload of hard evidence for it and fuck all to support your story

              • Kickforce@lemmy.wtf
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                20 hours ago

                Wikipedia is a better source than most of what you can find on the internet these days. Its articles provide ample sources that you can check if you like. I’d say Wikipedia is one of the best things the current internet has. But if you don’t like it perhaps you would prefer conservapedia.

                • IndustryStandard@lemmy.world
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                  14 hours ago

                  Wikipedia is a bastion of imperialist propaganda. Until recently it claimed that Israel fought a defensive war in 1967 and did a “preemptive attack”. Anyone who actually studied its history knows how blatantly wrong those lies are.

                  Wikipedia is great for science but awful for anything politics related. Especially if it opposes the Western hegemony. The literal CIA propaganda outlet Radio Free Asia is somehow a “credible source” which they frequently cite whenever they need lies about anything opposing the empire.

                • Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml
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                  20 hours ago

                  Incredibly wrong, I had the pleasure of correcting someone else earlier today who posted an excerpt of a wikipedia article regarding financial aid to Palestine as a source, the sole cited source of which was a Times of Israel article which contained no substantiating evidence whatsoever. The only things wikipedia can be trusted to reliably get right are basic scientific articles, anything remotely politically or culturally controversial will be skewed to fit one agenda or another. If the sources for the wiki article are any good then post them directly instead of referring to them secondhand through wikipedia, otherwise you’re just knowingly outsourcing a lie. And lol @ suggesting that any criticism of wikipedia must be from a conservative, swing and a miss kiddo.

      • m0stlyharmless@lemmy.zip
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        1 day ago

        Quite frankly, I think that the voters who would be put off by Bernie stating that MAGA and support for Stalin share similarities are both worthless and minuscule.

      • vivalapivo
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        1 day ago

        You have to make bridge statements in order to reach a broader audience

      • fantoozie@midwest.social
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        1 day ago

        Let’s hope he keeps doing it. Unless commies are out there fighting ICE with fire they can go get fucked.

        • Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml
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          6 hours ago

          Until? Communists are always among the first line to fight an oppressive government, if for no other reason than that they’re always among the first targets

          • fantoozie@midwest.social
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            6 hours ago

            Funny you say that, because every communist I’ve spent significant time with, but one in particular, sits behind a keyboard proselytizing other people.

  • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    I’m over here waiting to see whether the apocalypse is more Matrix, Terminator, or idiocracy. I’m leaning idiocracy, but I’m not giving up on the others.

    • pulsewidth@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      We’re legit too dumb to even build the Terminator or Matrix apocalypses IMO. They both rely on creating genuine artificial life.

      Devastatingly, we might even be too dumb to get to an Idiocracy future. It’s set in ~2500 and the earth is still pretty well habitable.

      I think short term it’s more Handsmaid’s Tale in the US, and globally heading for perhaps Elysium.

      Good times, good times.

    • Wolf
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      16 hours ago

      Whatever it is, expect there to be a healthy mix of “The Stepford Wives” and “The Handmaid’s Tale” thrown in there as well.

  • ☂️-@lemmy.ml
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    1 day ago

    ITT anti-leftism.

    yall not solving fascism with neoliberalism, a capitalist ideology. just saying.

    • Tja@programming.dev
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      It has never worked in the past. Germany, Italy and Japan are famous communist nations, that’s the only way to defeat fascism and Co.

      • ☂️-@lemmy.ml
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        23 hours ago

        what do germany italy and japan has to do with communism?

        apart from a piece of germany being siege-socialist for a short while.

      • itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        23 hours ago

        I legitimately don’t understand your point? What?

        Communism hasn’t prevented fascism from rising, that’s why communism bad?

        The Nazis would likely have never rose to power in Germany had the social democrats not betrayed the revolution to preserve capitalism, btw.

      • subversive_dev@lemmy.ml
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        23 hours ago

        I’m not sure what point you are trying to make here. The American empire sat back and let the USSR and the Chinese communists take the vast majority of casualties to defeat those rival empires then made them into imperial vassals?

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    The GOP has become a Stalinist Party

    They haven’t killed remotely enough fascists to earn this distinction.

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          27 minutes ago

          I meant forced displacement to Siberia. I said deported because no one was asking to get deported and no one wanted to be displaced to Siberia and that most often happened because you were educated and pose “a threat to the regime” and the US is on that track they have deported people who didn’t support their “allies”, which in their minds is also a major threat to them (which it isn’t). Edit: quotation.

  • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I cannot imagine being enough of a sycophant to wear a hat that says “Trump was right about everything”. Nobody’s right about everything, and Trump is less right about things than most people because he’s incredibly stupid.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      So much of the last 30 years of Republicanism (maybe 60 years, if you’re a Nixonian) boils down to Owning The Libs.

      The guy with the “Trump was right…” hat will happily bitch about all the things Trump is doing wrong. He just won’t do it in earshot of anyone he thinks is to his Left.

      Trump is less right about things than most people

      Trump is turning the rhetoric of the Reagan Era into reality. He’s taking the orthodoxy of the party seriously, rather than using it as bait to gull the rubes into another round of tax cuts and privatizations.

      It’s this commitment to orthodoxy that his base loves. Also what makes him look stupid.

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        I agree that the party orthodoxy is stupid and contradictory. But he’s also profoundly stupid which is why he’s such a perfect fit as its mascot.

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          Eh. Intelligence is clearly not how you get ahead in elected politics. Even when Biden wasn’t teetering on the edge of senility, he was still dumb as bricks. Didn’t stop him from being a senior Senator, then a VP, then a President. Meanwhile, the Smarties like Romney and Cruz and Buttigieg and Bloomberg routinely face-plant in the face of even the most mild popular opposition.

          • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            Intelligence is sometimes a handicap in politics. You’re right, and that is especially the case in American politics. As far as Trump goes, I would say his intelligence was never a hindrance he had to manage in any way because he is, was, and always will be abundantly stupid.

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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              1 day ago

              Intelligence is sometimes a handicap in politics.

              Idk if I’d call it a handicap. I’d say it is tangential to the goal of building a large base of supporters, particularly when the “intelligent” move you see before you is to fatten your own wallet or adhere to some big money economic orthodoxy in order to climb the corporate ladder.

              Like, the classic examples of this were Hillary v Obama in 2008 and Hillary v Donald in 2016. Hillary Clinton was clearly smarter - and in many ways more politically savvy - than Trump. She was arguably more experienced and politically educated than Obama. And they were both miles ahead of the rest of the GOP field. Hillary had run circles around her Republican rivals for decades, cultivated networks of plutocrats that would have otherwise been Republican stalwarts, built large organizations throughout the Atlantic Coast and the Southwest to power her ambitions during the Bush Era, and added substantially to her family fortune from historical right-wing sources while at the head of the liberal leadership team in an era when Democrats as a party were on the decline.

              But she got the rug pulled on her in the '08 primary, simply because she refused to admit she was wrong on her Iraq War vote six years earlier. And she got beaten again, by a whisper thin margin, because her business friendly calculus in backing NAFTA for thirty years finally caught up with her.

              As far as Trump goes, I would say his intelligence was never a hindrance he had to manage in any way because he is, was, and always will be abundantly stupid.

              I would argue that Trump was significantly smarter than the median GOP primary candidate in '16 and '24. A lot of folks love to pillar him as stupid, but he clearly has an ability to read a room and reflect those feelings back to a crowd in a way DeSantis and Huckabee and Jeb! did not. He wasn’t afraid to say the Iraq War was a mistake. He regularly bragged about his role in government corruption when it was clear voters assumed everyone was corrupt and considered this a point of transparency. He was more openly racist, when the base demanded more racism, and (often quixotically) more openly LGBTQ+ friendly when the base stopped giving a fuck about villainizing gay relationships. Call it Emotional Intelligence, if nothing else. The man might not even be literate, but he’s clearly clever as a fox and twice as predatory.

              But I also think he’s a product of the historical moment. His popularity is largely a consequence of decades of political orthodoxy on Rich People Being Better Than You, hammered into the heads of his base voters. He was given a big megaphone to say “I’m a rich white guy with a hot wife, vote for me” in an era when being a rich white guy with a hot wife was a great way to build a popular base of voters.

              He lucked into office in 2016 in the same way Obama lucked into office in 2008. In a prior moment, it wouldn’t have worked. In this moment, he was the man that fit what Americans were being sold as Presidential.

              • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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                1 day ago

                I would argue that Trump was significantly smarter than the median GOP primary candidate in '16 and '24. A lot of folks love to pillar him as stupid, but he clearly has an ability to read a room and reflect those feelings back to a crowd in a way DeSantis and Huckabee and Jeb! did not.

                He was a frequent guest on the Howard Stern show. He continually forced himself into the lime light every single chance he got. Even the stupidest of fools is bound to develop a skill or two along the way, and over time he did develop media skills and the ability to read a crowd. But he’s still as stupid as a bag of soup.

                But I also think he’s a product of the historical moment. His popularity is largely a consequence of decades of political orthodoxy on Rich People Being Better Than You, hammered into the heads of his base voters.

                I largely agree with you, but I think his stupidity is a selling point as well. It’s what endears him to “the base”. He thinks like they do: poorly, infrequently…stupidly.

                • mister_flibble@sh.itjust.works
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                  12 hours ago

                  He has what I’ve taken to calling “carnival barker energy”. Certainly not intelligence, and not quite charisma, but a particular kind of stage presence that for some inexplicable reason attracts vibes based morons like flies on shit. He’s basically Cocomelon for manchildren and racists.

                • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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                  Even the stupidest of fools is bound to develop a skill or two along the way

                  “He’s the worst chess grandmaster of the lot. Never stops playing, keeps ranking up, just coasting along on the sheer number of games he’s played badly and learned from. Hands down, dumb as shit, I would only lose to him 99.95% of the time.”

                  Again, I think the term “stupid” is just a pejorative at this point. If he was a democrat who kept winning upset elections and outfoxing supposedly superior opponents, what kind of liberal would talk about him this way?

                  I think his stupidity is a selling point as well

                  He’s not fixated on looking like a braniac, which means he’s not getting caught in the Tucker Carlson trap of “You don’t even know how many people are in Iran! How can you support bombing them?” Trump isn’t claiming he’s got the encyclopedia memorized. Much like Bush Jr and Reagan, he’s focused on what plays well with the audience, not what sounds “smart” to the debate judges.

                  Is that stupid? Not when it accomplishes your intended goals.

                  Incidentally, one of the “dumbest” things Trump did in the wake of his '24 win was that ridiculous cryptocurrency that let him take bribes openly from foreign governments. It quickly restored him from “billionaire on paper” to “real fucking billionaire”. Not because it was so insidiously clever or legalistic, but because the Biden DOJ never prosecuted him when he was out of office. What’s more, the courts that Democrats refused to stack when they had a majority, have given him a free pass on criminal misconduct.

                  You can give a lot of credit for that to Mitch McConnell, as he spent his whole Senate career carefully staking appointed positions and encouraging career hires with Federalist Society flacks. But Trump’s the guy who is going to capitalize on all McConnell’s hard work and Clinton/Obama/Biden’s passivity. So who really looks like the dumb-dumb here?

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    I’d argue it’s a satanist party as well. They’re doing all the shit that was prophesized that the devil would make dumb people do, worshipping false idols, worshipping money, getting the mark of the beast, that sort of shit

    This is coming from an staunch atheist who just notices the irony

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      I was confused on what was Satanic until I realized you were talking about the Christian version on Satanic and not the Church of Satan.

      I was super surprised by the irony after I saw all those golden idols of trump. If I was a Christian I would be highly offended at these people trying to align with me. Those are $100 bills with trumps face on it, that they covered the goat idol. 2 separate events. 1 was a CPAC and 1 was at Mara Lago. 🙄

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    2 days ago

    stalin also evetuanlly purged his own loyalists after becoming paranoid.

    • Jiggle_Physics@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      I mean a less harsh version of that has been going on. Trump has ejected many people that used to be in his inner circle, and has, or has tried, to fire almost the whole federal government, too many people who got there without him to trust

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        Oh don’t worry, he’s still trying to get feds to quit, and they’re drooling at adding sycophantic bullshit to the hiring process. All while eroding union protections, benefits, and pay.

        All while the Democrats vote down attempts to combat Trump, but have all the time in the world to sabotage the primary resultant nominee in NYC. Why have a primary if you’re not going to go with the results? That’s not a primary - that’s just bullshit.

        This country is a fucking joke.

        • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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          Why have a primary if you’re not going to go with the results? That’s not a primary - that’s just bullshit.

          Welcome to the DNC. Their primaries (at least the bigger ones) have been bullshit for a long time. Like, they’re notorious for bullshit regarding primaries. I like to point to my own state in 2016 as an example, where Clinton won the primary despite getting around 35% of the vote while Sanders won in every county and Clinton didn’t even manage second in every county.

          The main difference is that this time the “wrong” candidate won despite the bullshit, so now he needs to lose the general, whatever that requires. Again, welcome to the DNC.

      • squaresinger@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Not exactly. While I understand the satisfaction of seeing these asshats getting their faces eaten by the leopard, the ones being purged are the ones that are most likely to keep him somewhat in check, leaving only scared little yes men behind.

        • tetris11@lemmy.ml
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          2 days ago

          In a one party system that would be a problem. In a two party system, it just drives the ex-communicated into the arms of their past enemy. (Whilst weakening any progressive thought within that party as they bend over backwards to appease the new influx of political support…)

            • tetris11@lemmy.ml
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              well I was hinting at the partisan ratchet effect in the last part of my comment there, but fair