Adult Content Warning

This community may contain adult content that is not suitable for minors. By closing this dialog box or continuing to navigate this site, you certify that you are 18 years of age and consent to view adult content.

Elephants and Jackasses...

Discussion in 'Permanent Threads' started by Nettdata, Oct 14, 2016.

  1. Juice

    Juice
    Expand Collapse
    Moderately Gender Fluid

    Reputation:
    1,474
    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2009
    Messages:
    14,115
    Location:
    Boston
    Well said, to that end, I think people also forget that there a is a full spectrum of possible emotions/reactions to Trump that exists between being a blind MAGA 2020 supporter and having a full-blown trauma-response to anything he tweets.
     
  2. downndirty

    downndirty
    Expand Collapse
    Emotionally Jaded

    Reputation:
    511
    Joined:
    Nov 18, 2009
    Messages:
    4,658
    Agreed. I am with you that the confidence the Democrats have right now is a little unfounded.

    One thing that I have read several times in the last few weeks is the inability to predict Trump, and the incumbency is a huge advantage.

    This is far from settled, despite how fervently people want the Trump administration to end.
     
  3. Binary

    Binary
    Expand Collapse
    Emotionally Jaded

    Reputation:
    458
    Joined:
    Oct 21, 2009
    Messages:
    4,377
    I think you read a lot into my statement that wasn't there.

    Science, compassion, societal wrongs... These things require nuance and understanding and explanation. Your Coronavirus example is a good one, actually: of course most people didn't review literature. But there is a gaping chasm between people who assembled a bunch of (possibly biased, possibly sound-bite-driven) news into an evolving view of the world, and the ones I saw posting memes about how viruses are small so masks are stupid. The latter simply isn't interested in assembling bits of information into a larger picture, and they aren't interested in even considering where their information came from.

    This is literally who Trump is. Even his own cabinet acknowledges that it's impossible to get him to pay attention to anything thoughtful; they feed him punchy soundbites like he gets from Fox News and that's what drives his decision-making. That level of knowledge requires black-and-white decision making, because you simply cannot arrive at nuanced decisions with tiny amounts of information.

    Thus, the kind of person that thrives on that level of information is the perfect Trump supporter. He talks their language. I'm not suggesting that this is unique to republicans, or painting all conservatives with that brush. Just that it's not surprising when you have a consistent experience with the loudest type of Trump supporter: they are like him. So of course they like him.

    As for the rest... I agree in some areas, disagree in others, but it's not really related to my original point.
     
  4. xrayvision

    xrayvision
    Expand Collapse
    Emotionally Jaded

    Reputation:
    538
    Joined:
    Oct 22, 2009
    Messages:
    6,497
    Location:
    Hyewston
    I just think the attention span of the average american dipshit is so short and their ability to process critical information in a meaningful way is so poor that they really just exist through facebook memes and trolling. A lot of older boomers I know don't read a single fucking thing. My MiL cannot articulate her thoughts on politics or topical issues outside of her feelings and biases. My own mother who is a single-issue liberal voter is the same exact way. Zero facts or nuance. It is just easier to keep peoples' attention through overly simplistic phrases and cutesy pictures and just blast out videos of riots(even if they are from Spain). Its easier to not read and be told what to think and if what you're being told comports with your preexisting feelings, its just a bonus.

    But I think the overly simplistic non nuanced perspective skews heavily towards the Trump side of things. Liberals are guilty of using the same tactics, however I see more people on the liberal side push real news articles, books on topics of race and social injustice, documentaries exposing complicated topics.

    Something else I find interesting is that Trump tends to do really well with non-college white people. As soon as a demographic achieves any kind of education beyond high school, the numbers tend to lean towards dems. I'm not saying people who don't go to college are stupid. But is there a reason the GOP tends to attract the lower educated?
     
  5. Juice

    Juice
    Expand Collapse
    Moderately Gender Fluid

    Reputation:
    1,474
    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2009
    Messages:
    14,115
    Location:
    Boston
    It’s actually a fairly new phenomenon, it just doesn’t seem that way. Trump specifically campaigned towards that group in 2016, and the demographic makeup of each party was already dramatically shifting around that period. Trump caught it at just the right time.
     
  6. xrayvision

    xrayvision
    Expand Collapse
    Emotionally Jaded

    Reputation:
    538
    Joined:
    Oct 22, 2009
    Messages:
    6,497
    Location:
    Hyewston
    To claim the Dems only focus on identity politics without mentioning the whole “liberal elites vs the rest of us” and “Christian conservative” style of the GOP isn’t right. Both sides use that culture war aspect of politics to shore up easy votes from incurious constituents. It’s how you can get entire swaths of the country to vote against their own interests while being an Ivy League educated conservative railing against elites and get people to actually believe it.

    I think the Dems lost the blue collar folks because of their focus on catering to higher educated people from larger cities. They created a vacuum that the gop successfully seized upon with their whole “you’re the real Americans” Salt of the earth bullshit.
     
  7. Crown Royal

    Crown Royal
    Expand Collapse
    Just call me Topher

    Reputation:
    1,001
    Joined:
    Oct 31, 2009
    Messages:
    23,339
    Location:
    London, Ontario
    That’s why we have the NDP (NEW Democrats) up here. You cannot squeeze daylight between them and the unions. They look out for the type of people who like macho-posing on forklifts.
     
  8. Aetius

    Aetius
    Expand Collapse
    Emotionally Jaded

    Reputation:
    864
    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2009
    Messages:
    9,375
    Let's be honest, the Dems lost the rust belt by being honest. Clinton had a massive policy proposal for coal country, but it contained the bitter pill of acknowledging that coal jobs aren't coming back. Same thing with manufacturing. The United States isn't hurting for lack of coal or manufacturing capacity, but it's doing it in other places and with fewer workers. Most of our coal comes from Wyoming, and while GM's factories in Detroit have declined, Toyota's factories in Mississippi have grown. Trump promised that nothing would change and that these jobs would come back, and then they just didn't.
     
  9. Juice

    Juice
    Expand Collapse
    Moderately Gender Fluid

    Reputation:
    1,474
    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2009
    Messages:
    14,115
    Location:
    Boston
    Anyone else have primary voting today? MA has an open primary and since I’m unaffiliated, I can vote in either party primary. I don’t know shit about the Republican candidates other than Shiva Ayyadurai is legitimately insane. I’ve never heard of the other guy. As for the Democratic candidates, Ed Markey is the co-author of the Green New Deal with AOC, so that immediately makes me think he’s too retarded to continue in the Senate. I’ll probably vote for Kennedy on that basis. And I’m tired of old people running the country. I don’t really care that he has to ride the cock of his grandfather’s ghost all the way to victory, the Senate needs more soulless gingers.
     
  10. doomrider7

    doomrider7
    Expand Collapse
    Disturbed

    Reputation:
    11
    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2011
    Messages:
    264
    Location:
    Some fucking place in the US
  11. GcDiaz

    GcDiaz
    Expand Collapse
    Emotionally Jaded

    Reputation:
    107
    Joined:
    Nov 10, 2009
    Messages:
    1,580
  12. Revengeofthenerds

    Revengeofthenerds
    Expand Collapse
    ER Frequent Flyer Platinum Member

    Reputation:
    1,080
    Joined:
    Feb 26, 2011
    Messages:
    13,451
    he also claimed that fighting std’s while dodging the draft was his “personal Vietnam”
     
  13. Crown Royal

    Crown Royal
    Expand Collapse
    Just call me Topher

    Reputation:
    1,001
    Joined:
    Oct 31, 2009
    Messages:
    23,339
    Location:
    London, Ontario
    Hey, HE’s the tough guy not them, just ask his supporters if you don’t believe me. Those cowards get shot in wars and wear masks in public. Fags.
     
  14. bebop007

    bebop007
    Expand Collapse
    Emotionally Jaded

    Reputation:
    59
    Joined:
    Jan 12, 2010
    Messages:
    707
    Location:
    Chicago
    I'm surprised no one is mentioning the interview Trump had with Fox News where Laura Ingraham tries (and fails) to coach him through the interview and not sound insane - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/01/donald-trump-laura-ingraham-fox-news-interview

    Trump: Shooting a suspect is like missing a putt
    Ingraham: But you're not actually saying that, because........
    Trump: No..............BUT IT'S LIKE MISSING A PUTT!

    Also, I need to be living in mortal terror of shadow people now? Between them, abuelas crossing the border, North Korea, socialists, and Antifa - I'm getting a little exhausted of all the things that are supposed to make me live in mortal terror.
     
  15. Rush-O-Matic

    Rush-O-Matic
    Expand Collapse
    Emotionally Jaded

    Reputation:
    1,363
    Joined:
    Nov 11, 2009
    Messages:
    12,570
    And, dying of the Covid! Don't forget that.
     
  16. bebop007

    bebop007
    Expand Collapse
    Emotionally Jaded

    Reputation:
    59
    Joined:
    Jan 12, 2010
    Messages:
    707
    Location:
    Chicago
    I mean, I know a couple of people that had COVID. One has permanent lung damage. The other is, well, dead.

    That, to me, is a bit scarier than Antifa doing Antifa stuff.
     
  17. doomrider7

    doomrider7
    Expand Collapse
    Disturbed

    Reputation:
    11
    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2011
    Messages:
    264
    Location:
    Some fucking place in the US
    I consider you guys a lot smarter and more wizened to this kind of shit so I'd like your thoughts on it.

    Thanks Obama | Why Obama is a monster who you should not celebrate.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1LLnZ-0zyHg

    I know the video guy is UBER popular with socialists, communists, leninists, and other lefties of that brand.
     
  18. malisbad

    malisbad
    Expand Collapse
    Town Drunk

    Reputation:
    33
    Joined:
    Mar 25, 2020
    Messages:
    425
    Never heard of him, but Obama was shit.
     
  19. ODEN

    ODEN
    Expand Collapse
    Emotionally Jaded

    Reputation:
    152
    Joined:
    Oct 23, 2009
    Messages:
    1,357
    To me, Obama was a Neoliberal/Neocon marketing campaign after W. This is personal opinion of course; I don't see a lot of space between W, Obama, Clinton, Biden, McCain, Romney, etc. W as a President was atrocious, when held up next to Bush, Obama was not a bad choice before taking office based on the marketing. Hell, I voted for him the first time. In practice, the things this guy says in the video are all true (some of his conclusions I don't agree with but that is personal politics) and Obama tended to be an extension of the Bush years - even Obamacare was really just Romneycare in Massachusetts rebranded. Obama didn't hold anyone responsible for the market crash even though the opportunity was there. Obama didn't end any wars, he started more. How he never had to answer for all of the droning of "terrorists" is still beyond comprehension, Several large Federal organizations were politicized and weaponized to go after enemies during his tenure, that didn't get covered in this video.
    .
    There are a lot of bad things that happened, everything in this video is true, and unfortunately, the media gave him cover at the entire time. If the media had treated him the way they treat Trump, I like to think that things likely would have been a little different.
     
  20. xrayvision

    xrayvision
    Expand Collapse
    Emotionally Jaded

    Reputation:
    538
    Joined:
    Oct 22, 2009
    Messages:
    6,497
    Location:
    Hyewston
    The reason Trump gets treated the way he does is purely his own doing. He tries to act like the words of a president do not matter. His inability to strategize and think through a situation causes him to needlessly undermine himself and his congressional allies. When he gets called out for it, he yells fake news. When he’s caught saying fucked up shit or standing idly by while foreign adversaries do harm to the country, he just can’t find the word to say something in our defense. I don’t think comparing Trump to any other president is a worthwhile exercise.