Trump is creating global instability. If anyone reads an article like this and thinks things are fine, they either suffer from severe mental illness or are insulated to the point that they don't care about the fact that their bloviating flesh bag of a president is dismantling western democracy before our eyes.
It is no longer left vs right. This is about the end of an empire and shifting global power balance. Trump's brand of isolationism and arrogance is pretty much a carbon copy of what every empire of the last 2000 years looked like shortly before they fell.
But who needs to look to history and see it repeat itself when we can just blame the intellectual elite libtards, Mexicans, or Muslims?
john bodega · Member since
"blame the intellectual elite libtards, Mexicans, or Muslims"
I'll take the last two and raise you a lesbian comedian!
Dr Magus · Member since
Dr Magus · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]john bodega wrote:[/b]
"blame the intellectual elite libtards, Mexicans, or Muslims"
So you can't get an abortion, have to pay to deliver a baby, and you'll pay for formula because the Republicans are going to start trying to convince the public that breast milk is unsafe.
And the poor continue to vote Republican.
Americans are fucking dumb. 3/4 of them vote Republican or not at all.
Saint Jiub · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b]
Americans are fucking dumb. 3/4 of them vote Republican or not at all.
[/QUOTE]
3/4? Really? LOL
Then why did Trump get <50% of the popular vote?
The Real Wizard · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]Panchgani wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b]
Americans are fucking dumb. 3/4 of them vote Republican or not at all.
[/QUOTE]
3/4? Really? LOL
Then why did Trump get <50% of the popular vote?
[/QUOTE]
"or not at all"
If the voter turnout was a bit over half, that means only about a quarter voted for someone else.
Saint Jiub · Member since
I redacted my trolling hyperbole of my paraphrase of Real Wizard's statement:
[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b]
Americans are fucking dumb. 3/4 of them vote Republican or not at all.
[/QUOTE]
magicalfreddiemercury · Member since
As a royally embarrassed American living in the heart of New York City, I say Americans are Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Independents, Communists, Socialists, and more. Above all, Americans are lazy and entitled. Americans are shortsighted and insular. Americans are arrogant and ignorant, believing politics are local, that raising a torch will get them what they want - and what they want is for their personal worldview to become law for everyone.
Americans have no patience for another side's opinion or point of view; instead, Americans demand to have their side heard, understood and followed.
Compromise? What? Why?
Beyond all that, Trump is a pig and a traitor. He's always been a fraud and a liar. He's a narcissist and a cheat. New Yorkers have known this about him for decades - *anyone* paying attention has known this for decades. He's also angry and stupid and will do anything to benefit himself. Followers love everything about that animal because he's 'not like the others'. This moron promises chaos, and he always delivers.
Americans who want what they want for themselves don't give a damn about how the world crumbles as long as they 'win'. They're of the Steve Bannon mind - the mind that longs to take down the establishment. The one that believes anyone in need is simply looking for a handout. The one that believes people who don't look like them, speak like them, worship like them or think like them are 'infesting' their world.
I'm fortunate to live in a richly diverse community, yet, sadly, even here there are people who cheer the traitor occupying the White House. There's a reason Don the Con said he "loves the poorly educated". Americans have proven themselves to be just that - in great numbers and with greater pride.
Trump alone is nothing. Trump with a complicit GOP, a base of ignorant tikki-torch bearing bigots, an opposition notorious for sitting out mid-term elections and waiting for a ‘perfect’ presidential candidate is a nightmare from which we're not likely to soon wake.
The Real Wizard · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]magicalfreddiemercury wrote:[/b]
As a royally embarrassed American living in the heart of New York City, I say Americans are Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Independents, Communists, Socialists, and more. Above all, Americans are lazy and entitled. Americans are shortsighted and insular. Americans are arrogant and ignorant, believing politics are local, that raising a torch will get them what they want - and what they want is for their personal worldview to become law for everyone.
Americans have no patience for another side's opinion or point of view; instead, Americans demand to have their side heard, understood and followed.
Compromise? What? Why?[/QUOTE]
And it makes sense when you consider the tenets of the American Dream.
This dream is one where you can pursue your own wealth and happiness on your terms, with minimal interference from the government. And if everyone works hard enough, they'll all achieve it. And if you don't work hard enough, you don't deserve what people who worked harder than you have earned. Obviously any thinking person can easily find countless flaws in this idea where everything is a zero sum game (and where everyone is assumed to have the same position at the starting gate). For one to win, others must lose. It's treating prosperity like sports. So much nuance is lost, particularly the idea of creating an equitable society for all, which is how literally every other civilized country works.
As George Carlin said: "the American Dream - you have to be asleep to believe it."
But for most Americans it's my way or the highway, because they have had a sense of personal and nationalistic superiority bred into them since they were six. Virtually every American classroom has a giant map of the USA, but not a globe humbly showing America's place amongst everyone else. This arrogant exceptionalism permeates so much of American life. Combine this insular worldview with the current protectionist politics, and the result is a country well on its way to isolating itself from the rest of the world.
But its beginnings are humble and had the best of intentions. It's pre-French revolution, so Europeans saw it as a utopia and made the trip across the pond. But eventually greed will take over in unbridled capitalism, which is why over half of America is now living in third world conditions despite still being the biggest economy in the world.
Something went desperately wrong these past 50 years, and most Americans are just too stupid to even know how to ask why, or to even know that anything is wrong. The rest of the world just doesn't exist to them (2/3 of them don't even have passports, after all). It's sad to watch a once great empire fall.
Saint Jiub · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b]
over half of America is now living in third world conditions
[/QUOTE]
Really??? Hyperbole perhaps?? Source??
The following source on "percent below the poverty line" might be closer to reality ... US is 15% (comparable to much of western europe (and a far cry from 50%)
www.indexmundi.com/map/?v=69
Saint Jiub · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b]
Something went desperately wrong these past 50 years, and most Americans are just too stupid to even know how to ask why, or to even know that anything is wrong.
"How high has the poverty rate in the U.S. been historically?Historically, the official poverty rate in the United States had ranged from a high of 22.4 percent when it was first estimated for 1959 to a low of 11.1 percent in 1973. Since its initial rapid decline after 1964 with the launch of major War on Poverty programs, the poverty rate has fluctuated between around 11 and 15 percent."
magicalfreddiemercury · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b] For one to win, others must lose. [/QUOTE]
This is a theme I see in the average trump supporter. Their fear seems to be that when others gain freedoms, they lose theirs.
[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b] As George Carlin said: "the American Dream - you have to be asleep to believe it." [/QUOTE]
I get the point of this but believe the opposite – to believe in the American Dream you have to keep your eyes open and work for it –and not just for yourself but for your community as well. Imagine if we all did that.
[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b] But for most Americans it's my way or the highway, because they have had a sense of personal and nationalistic superiority bred into them since they were six. Virtually every American classroom has a giant map of the USA, but not a globe humbly showing America's place amongst everyone else. This arrogant exceptionalism permeates so much of American life.[/QUOTE]
And any reference to the fact that we are but a part of a whole rather than the roots, trunk and branches, is met with scorn.
[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b] Something went desperately wrong these past 50 years, and most Americans are just too stupid to even know how to ask why, or to even know that anything is wrong. [/QUOTE]
Because Americans rush from bed to work to home to bed to work to home to bed to work. Some of the hardest working people I know, the ones with so much to lose as well as those barely hanging on despite holding multiple jobs are trump supporters. It’s easier to blame others for our own difficulties than to take a deeper look at our own choices and make a change. With someone else to blame, we’re able to redirect our fatigue and frustration thus making us feel better about ourselves. It’s US vs THEM. It’s disgusting but it’s true, and it works, and there’s no shaking common sense into those who buy into the idea.
[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b] It's sad to watch a once great empire fall. [/QUOTE]
What's sad and shameful is not just watching it fall, but seeing how backs are deliberately turned to allow it to happen.
magicalfreddiemercury · Member since
I'm sorry there are no quotes attributing your words to you in my post above, Real Wizard. I tried to format it properly but didn't see the option to quote (or to edit my own post for that matter).
EDIT: Fixed it thanks to tcc. :)
tcc · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]magicalfreddiemercury wrote:[/b]
I'm sorry there are no quotes attributing your words to you in my post above, Real Wizard. I tried to format it properly but didn't see the option to quote (or to edit my own post for that matter). [/QUOTE]
The icons for Edit, Reply, and Reply with Quote are still next to the time line of the post.
They are just invisible but if you place your cursor after the time of the post, you can see the words for the invisible icons for Edit, Reply and Reply with Quote
