I'm Canadian and can't vote in any American election.
I hear more about Trump than I hear about all of our politicians combined.
I just don't understand how people can get so excited all the time about this stuff. Like, being so invested in some rich assholes life that you'll commit treason and break into Congress to wander around aimlessly?
Why are you like this? Make politics boring again.
Trump isn't going away, even if he doesn't win. That's what people thought in 2020. Now that Biden's president, Trump will just disappear, right? Wrong.
And yes, I know he said that he won't run again in 2028, but I don't believe it. His cult would beg him to run again, and he'd do it.
He did go away for a while, but not by choice. He was banned from Twitter, his reddit group quarantined, and news stations fucking finally decided to stop reporting on his every stupid statement
Of course he won't run again in 2028, he'll be dead. The dude looks like he's knocking on heaven's hell's door right now.
We can all hope, and this time we're probably gonna be right.
But the Republicans aren't running out of people.
There's no reason to think Trump's end will make the bad half of America stop this push. There's a relatively good chance they'll find a sufficiently appealing new leader or puppet. If that falls, maybe you can rest and go back to casually provoking the religious right, playing catch with your rights, and still stay safe for a while. Members of the LGBT community dropping "Live and let live." in favor of "Use the right pronouns!" was a potentially fatal mistake.
Yeah we thought that about Biden and the fascist xunt still ran again, destroying the primary, and eventually appointed one of the least popular politicians in US history in his stead.
This person makes a great point. It's amazing how vapid and meaningless our common discourse has become. Long has it been since edifying conversation has been the norm.
Trump voters want to talk about making towns safe, permanently removing people who cause problems or don't play along properly, and make a society where white men to a greater extent can do some kinds of horrible abuse behind closed doors with everyone knowing, most people tolerating it, and only a few authority figures able to do anything about it if they want to or are pressured to.
Thinking that Harris is not the same fascist as trump is very naive. all politicians are psycho murderers, or they would not be politicians in the first place
That's such a childish view. The world is not black and white, and neither are politicians. If you can't figure out the difference between Harris and Trump then I'm not sure you're mature enough to be talking about politics in the first place. You should learn nuance first.
The internet you remember before he came around is dead, never to return. It's not his doing, it's the complete and utter corporate takeover of the internet, and the funneling of 95% of the traffic to 4 sites. It's the algorithmic content presentation, and the curtaining of real friendship content. It's these platforms refusing to show you what you want, and only showing ads and boosted content, which is essentially an ad. The Internet is dead. Long live the Internet!
Voting him out will not remove him from your feed. You will hear about how the election was stolen again. About how his disciples tried to destroy the capitol or the white house or whatever, again. You will hear about how he was out on trial again. You will hear about whatever new crap he comes up with.
Imagine thinking that once the loudest symptom of fascism is no longer visible, the decades long multibillion dollar Republican project to undemocratically seize power just goes away. That all the structural issues with America go away.
Imagine thinking that once the loudest symptom of fascism is no longer visible, the decades long multibillion dollar Republican project to undemocratically seize power just goes away.
What? You're telling me that what happened in 1933 with the business plot to overthrow the government and no one of importantance being held accountable allowed fascism to continue to grow. That is..... That actually tracks with America. We have a terrible short term memory.
Agree with the sentiment for sure, but would also add that a lot of Americans like him, they LIKE what he said, he was heavily supported at last count. Even now he is supported substantially.
That is something many people need to think about. What happens next election? He won't be the last.
Others don't seem to have the hold over those clowns as he does. Meatball Ron fell flat. Vance wouldn't maintain this level of support for 5 minutes. Hawley can't. Horse face green is just a clown and not a serious candidate.
I think his losing again would snap some people out of it.
I think the party would bail on him. Especially if he causes losses down the ballot. They won't back him for another election.
That was not the claim. Just that Trump news are nasty and Trump is one of the few Republicans who has enough charisma to end up in the news. If he gets voted out, there is a good chance of him never running again and fading away into the background. It means the Republicans need a new leader and whoever that is, is probably going to fail.
I know what you're saying. That the environment that gave us Trump would still exist. Sure. All the issues, both illegitimate (white resentment, racism, propaganda) and legitimate (wealth disparity, disillusioning political figures, late stage capitalistic despair), would still remain.
But that also gives too little importance to Trump's unique place in this. He is a uniquely cynical, sociopathic trigger that is exploiting this populist anger, while being so incompetent that he fails to solve any of those issues underlying it.
He thus is simultaneously perpetuating those issues, while feeding off of them - both creating and burning the fuel of populist anger. DeSantis, Vance, Hawley, all the other toe-headed power-simps who would step in to take his place would fail to hold that paradoxical balance for long - they think they can learn it, but Trump is built for it. That is Trump's unique skill, his singularly destructive, delusional, sociopathic egomania.
Like a wildfire - yes, when there are dry hot conditions, many things could start one. But it's also true that you may have been almost through the dry, hot season when a wildfire hits. And if you could have prevented that first fateful spark a week - maybe a day - longer, you could have avoided catastrophe and tragedy.
I think that's where we were in 2016, and we failed to contain it. It spread so far, that we were barely able to contain it in 2020. But if we can avoid it in 2024, if we can prevent Trump from sparking another wildfire, maybe the season could change.
But that also gives too little importance to Trump’s unique place in this. He is a uniquely cynical, sociopathic trigger that is exploiting this populist anger, while being so incompetent that he fails to solve any of those issues underlying it.
Nah he's just a dude. Maybe you should quit swallowing his mystique as well, it empowers the guy.
people younger than him are already driving a lot of his public policy pronouncements, so those policies might as well be attributed directly to them. if they left diaper don to his own devices, much of his following wouldve evaporated by now save for the racial extremists.
Imagine being privileged enough to know that another Trump term won't affect you.
Imagine not giving a shit about all the women and queer people that will lose their basic human rights, because you know you are safely insulated behind your wealth, sexuality, gender identity, and/or sex.
Imagine pretending that Trump, who has urged Netanyahu to "Finish the job quickly", is the less genocidal option in two weeks.
Imagine thinking that Kamala Harris is going to do a thing to claw back the rights of women and queer people or stop murdering Palestinians when she won't even acknowledge the issues beyond pointing out that roe v wade was overturned because it makes the other side look bad and she only has to have better optics than the other side to get your vote. Nevermind that it happened under her democratic predecessor who also did nothing to stop it while she was vice president.
Imagine thinking a candidate, when their power is no longer at stake, is going to magically stop pandering to conservatives and stop taking progressive votes for granted, when they're already setting up to blame those same progressives for their campaign strategy; of abandoning their base in both messaging and policy at every possible opportunity and just being generally feckless; failing miserably.
Imagine the polls being this close against donald fucking trump who has a mountain of evidence that you can use against him, clear strategies and talking points to counter message against, a significant number of his own voters having voluntarily defected from him with no further convincing needed, and not having a single moment of introspection on your own party's initiative or lack thereof to guarantee their victory by throwing a single material bone to their left wing and engaging the working class through positive reinforcement rather than fear campaigns that disillusion voters and depress outcome all the way down the ticket.
Imagine thinking there aren't any actors seeking to negate any leverage that you have as a class by letting your candidate take your vote for granted instead of being pressured to give you anything more than the hopefully maybe bare minimum to win exactly 51% of the electoral college.
No no lets just blame voters for being irrational actors influenced by "tankie nonsense" and Russian bots that definitely only stoke one side and aren't just sowing general discord so americans will reject their class interests in favor of culture wars. That's not a convenient or shallow or played out explanation with any historical analog that suppresses engaging with logic at all, and actually is evidence that can justify only one true reality with definitely only the most genuine and non-trumpian of intentions or obvious conclusions. It's actually the most rational explanation of real true and objective reality I think.
Oh and if you disagree with me you love Trump and think he should be president again and Palestine should be wiped off the map and I will just say this over and over again in different ways of varying length instead of actually engaging with any of your arguments because for some reason I assume that saying it enough times will mean the argument is settled and I win.
There's more than a couple reasons a lot of westerners don't really see Gazans as victims, some of them aren't even racism.
Would be way easier to argue their case if October 7th didn't go the way it did.
It was just a really bad decision.
I'm personally in favor of cutting ties with Israel as well, considering they've strayed so far away from civility and are indeed killing a shitload of people. But I have very little compassion for the people of Gaza, given what they largely want and support. They want to fight and thresh and kill until one side is dead and gone, and we all know which side that will be. Everyone knows, except them.
The problem isn't Trump (in this case), the problem is social media. Get off social media. Find better alternatives. Even at the best of times, when are people ever having a civil conversation about art, movies, music, etc?
I don't use apps unless they allow creation of block lists. My news RSS app has loads of keywords blocked (including Trump, Harris, etc). My Lemmee block list is huge. Items like this post get through when they don't trigger my keywords, but this makes me think I really should add on "USA".
Getting rid of Trump doesn't have to solve anything. I'll still feel good to know he didn't get something he wants. That's petty, and that's fine. So is he.
I find myself disliking him less this time around than I did in 2016, and I don’t exactly know why. Sure, there’s a ton I disagree with him on, but that applies to both candidates. I guess I have some sympathy for the people in the center who were pushed away by the left and ended up on the right.
No need to worry though - I’m not a US citizen, so I’m not voting for him.
I don't understand this sentiment at all. I know it's a popular one - but how in the hell does instigating a violent coup attempt improve people's views of the man?
You seem to be implying that is the reason I find myself disliking him less now than in 2016 which couldn't be further from the truth. That's among the most pressing arguments against him.
That's equally unfair as me saying 'I don't see how Harris supporting gender-affirming surgeries for undocumented immigrants in custody' makes people want to vote for her.
Ah yes let's hear about genocide, it's so much better.
Nobody cares about their election spam. These people are unhinged butchers. The american mind is totally ok with the genocide they commited to the natives in america. The american mind is totally ok with genocide in the middle east. The westoids care more about Trump being bad than actual americans deed. They care about what brand of bullshit they are gonna swallow for the next four years, they dont give a fuck about the people killed by their bombs.
How will he make it worse? Biden and Harris are already committed to giving Israel everything they want. What's Trump going to do? Give them more than what they want?
History isn't going to look kindly on the people who voted for the lesser genocide. It's going to look kindly on the people who voted for no genocide.
They don't hate Trump for what he does. They hate him because he says the quiet part out loud.
The Harris genocide is preferable to the Trump genocide because Harris will express sympathy for all the people being killed while she sends more bombs over. Trump will chortle gleefully while he sends bombs over. See what a difference that makes?
Over 5 of the top50 fortune-400 are us-american "healthcare" - companies amassing a combined profit of over 1.5t$ in 2024. Companies that should COST money for a civilized nation, not make a profit for a handful douches.
But yeah, you guys are wondefully distracted by the clowns-election that would change nothing in either way, whichever clown gets to be the top-clown.