Comment by gigatexal
9 days ago
Things really are getting scary.
Tech people with bold ideas. Don’t go to America. Don’t build your companies there. Don’t employ Americans. Build it anywhere else.
America ain’t what it used to be. It’s slowly but surely becoming a dictatorship and it’ll be run by the dumbest American to ever live: Donald J Trump.
> the dumbest American to ever live: Donald J Trump
While like many, I can't stand him, I'm not sure if that's an accurate statement. He (or his handlers) have done an amazing job of leveraging the anger and fear of tens of millions. He's built a "tribe" that those pitching all those podcasts and courses a few years ago could only dream about.
Much of my anger is actually for the minds behind project 20205 and the decades long effort by a cabal of people to basically create a king and dunk on the libs at the expense of everything America used to stand for.
I also legit hate the orange idiot in office now. But that’s maybe a me thing.
Also the eroding of the rule of law is very very disconcerting.
There was a viral post on this topic recently: https://old.reddit.com/r/thebulwark/comments/1ljbvtw/hottest...
But ... the whole reason Trump got elected is the fact that the electorate has split into us-vs-them group identities, he works through polarization. And although this post captures how one group (let's call it the "internet generation") feels about the world, it's probably not helping with polarization.
You have to admire, in fact, how smart Trump is. Look at the central "problem" according to that post:
"But see, not everybody was thinking that Hillary Clinton was an alien, that global warming was a Chinese hoax and that what America needed most of all was a plywood wall stretching from Texas to California. Only the stupid people were"
Holy crap this is polarizing. AND WE DON'T EVEN DISAGREE ON THESE. These sort of statements are the exact opposite of what we need to defeat Trump. Because no, this is NOT a difference between "smart" and "dumb". If you abstract just a little bit ...
Hillary Clinton is an unpopular war hawk. Would you like her as president? I wouldn't, just about the only big positive I see in her is that it's long past time for a female president. But please: not her. She IS an alien in that I don't know who this woman represents. Not me, certainly, and I frankly don't see or know any group that she does represent. I'd MUCH prefer AOC, but frankly, I'd prefer Nikki Haley over her.
"Global warming is a Chinese hoax". This is the one I would most describe as "dumb". But ... not really global warming policy has not worked for 50 years. This is, of course, not a reason to give up on it, but it probably is time to change course bigtime. And, sorry, the protests about global warming ... are equally dumb as Trump's (made-in-china) MAGA caps.
"what America needs most ... wall stretching from Texas to California". Obviously "dumb" Americans like this because life has become ever more difficult and immigration (specifically pressure on the job market and housing market) is a huge and growing problem. Trump only gets points because he does something.
The ("our") internet generation is getting old. Perhaps not dying yet, but we are not young anymore. And the train has definitely left the station: nobody's growing up to be internet generation anymore. The only thing that is happening to the internet generation is that people are leaving it. Not in great numbers. Not yet. But we'll only be shrinking from 5 years ago forward. Yet another reason to find a way to agree with Trump's electorate.
I feel like these viewpoints (I hope) represent "the internet generation". My conclusion is Trump got elected because he convinced me and the "real Americans" that we disagree. We don't. These are superficial, not worth having a fight over and CERTAINLY not worth having a president like Trump over.
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I honestly don't get this take. It treats US as special outlier. Right wing populists have won elections in many countries. While in other places RW populism is finding some foothold.
Truth is people all over the world are frustrated by how their lives are turning out.
On one hand they see politicians who want to keep the status quo and make promises which wouldn't change their lives. That is the Democrats in US. Too comfortable with their power.
On the other hand Right Wing populist promise simple answers to complex questions. Many of these populist leaders are seen as "outsider". Many places are seeing rise in anti-immigrant and anti-poor sentiments. Because that is the simplest answer - outsiders/freeloaders are to blame for all the issues.
By the time people realize that they have been fooled by the RW simplistic answer it is already too late. Either there is catastrophic damage (ex.. Brexit) or dictatorship (ex. Hungary).
Nearly every country thinks it is unique and can come out of this unscathed. But no one can escape the damage. Some people still think that Trump as a dictator is long shot. But that is what is happening. And people cheering him on have something to gain or they have fallen for the simple answer - "outsiders are to blame".
Why is the answer right wing populists though? Look at the policies of Zadani in NYC. I’d take a liberal populist over a xenophobic autocrat every day and twice on Sunday.
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I think you mean his cronies and conspirators: Steven Miller, SCOTUS, Russel Voght, et al.
Trump will eventually go away. What's really concerning is the replacement being someone much more intelligent and competent. Some of whom are already running the show behind the scenes.
The people behind the scenes running the show rarely migrate to center stage. They just find the next performer to manipulate from behind the curtains.
The fact that Trump will eventually go away is precisely why people should avoid the US until he does. At age 79, he probably doesn't have enough time left to massacre too many citizens, but he's got plenty of time to send immigrants who displease him to CECOT. I'm not saying people who already have a life in the US need to flee, but if you don't the US will still be here whenever he's not.
Also, he’s pretty dumb but the real problem is his absolute and total lack of empathy. What a sociopath.
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