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Trump is worse than Reagan? Trump is just stupid, Reagan was actively evil.
Dismissing Trump as 'just stupid' is dangerous as fuck. He is incredibly successful at damaging the US, strengthening our enemies, and commiting evil - and then playing the village idiot card to skirt accountability.
Dude's the closest thing irl to the fucking Darth Jar Jar theory.
I must say, I disagree. I've never gotten the vibe from him, that he actually knows what he's doing or is aware of the consequences. I 100% think he is the village idiot, but is being manipulated by smarter people to do their bidding. I am not American, tough.
He definitely acts like an idiot - while I'm inclined to agree that it's most likely sincere, I refuse to treat him like one. He needs to be held accountable as though everything he did was lucid and calculated, even if he is just Putin's sock puppet.
I don’t want to give him too much credit for more competence than he shows, but how has he gotten this far? It’s not like he’s even had strong people manipulating g him - his family is more corrupt and incompetent than he is. And almost as narcissistic. Something got him into the presidency, somehow. Something’s got him a cult-like following despite acting against his own followers, somehow.
When it comes to world leaders, I take the opposite approach as Hanlon's Razor: Never assume stupidity when malice is a plausible explanation.
Notice how the party of 'the cruelty is the point' is also full of blundering idiots. That may be in part because actual blundering idiots are attracted to that bullshit; but it's also likely because it's a successful strategy in that political environment.
I don't really care that they're just stupid - the problem is they're evil.
Reagan may have done a lot of things people here disagree with, but he was successful at being wildly popular and he did do a lot of things that projected strength and leadership in the US. Compare that to Trump being extremely divisive, self-enriching, self-serving, corrupt, actively damaging the US government both internally and on the world stage. Even if we agree that Reagan perpetrated evil that has lasted decades, that is a kind of success that Trump will never know