Asking my Trump-voting Navy dad about this, wish me luck fam
What I've found works in exposing their bias and letting you know you'll never get an honest opinion is reversing the positions.
When news came out in his first term that Trump was having Lou Dobbs on conference call during important meetings I asked my dad "did you hear that Obama used to have Anderson Cooper on conference calls during important meetings?" and naturally he says "of course he would, that's pretty messed up they shouldn't allow that kind of stuff." then I apologized for lying and said "it was actually Lou Dobbs and Trump." again naturally he then changes his tune "oh, well Lou Dobbs is a respectable journalist, that's different..."
Ok thanks dad, I now know I can never trust your opinion. It changes based on whether it's your team or not.
"Did you hear biden's son in law was the ambassador to Ukraine? And right after he stepped down from his position, Ukraine invested 2 BILLION dollars with his company? Yeah that's messed up. Oh whoops, it was Jared kushner and Saudi Arabia, my bad."
I hit a guy with that one. I actually got him to say yeah they should investigate that.
That's normal though. Obviously not saying it's okay, but that's just how our brains work. You're never going to change someone's mind by "checkmating" them like that. You're just going to get them to get angry with you and double down.
inb4 "she must have been up to something, they wouldn't just fire her for no reason"
Clearly an unqualified DEI hire, luckily she'll be replaced by a 'qualified white male'
/s cause that made me vomit.
Ooo... Do provide an update.
Checking in for later
I did the same with dad and grandpa..I get it, sorry my dude.
Religion is a hell of a drug, these are guys who were some rambunctious fuckers back in the day and now just vote the party line despite the whole conservative platform being pissing on everything about the Constitution except the 2nd and 13th amendments.
To be fair, we have a former actor and comedian as the president. The difference is he isn't a fascist piece of human garbage, not so much in the career paths.
I ponder that sometimes. I wonder if a comedian has made such a solid leader because a comedian's role to society is to speak truths that go unheard, and to make unbearable times bearable. I find myself questioning if every leader shouldn't be a comedian
Entirely Unironically:
AOC for Pres, Jon Stewart for Vice Pres, 2028.
This campaign would stand a chance at actually winning.
AOC and Stewart are both well known, basically celebrities.
AOC is actually capable of recreating the mix of genuine charisma combined with well articulated, meaningful actual policy points that Obama did in 07.
Jon Stewart is obviously no stranger to politics, and is possibly the literally ideal 'attack dog' that the VP usually plays in a campaign, for an anti corporate / billionaire campaign.
Let AOC be as principled and erudite as JFK and Stewart be as cutting and 'no bullshit' as Lyndon Jonhson.
...
Are either of them perfect?
No.
Are they basically the best possible options?
Well, Bernie is awesome, but he's too old.
Absolutely utilize him as much as possible during the campaign, be at every rally, fucking have him be the head of a leftist version of what Elon is, god knows by the time 2028 rolls around, the executive will have formally and informally assumed way too much power.
Put Bernie in charge of purging the Trump/Elon pukes, directing the revokation or countermanding of everyone of Trump's executive orders, undoing Citizens United, and reassembling the checks and balances.
...
Other than that... are any other democrats or leftists anywhere near as well known and widely, generally liked by non fascists? Who aren't bought and paid for by corpos?
Reminds me of this character in Watchmen. Calls himself the Comedian, but never makes "jokes" in a classical sense. He is cruel, overly patriotic, violent against protesters, seems to enjoy massacres in Vietnam. Only one other person understands that he is actually against these things and tries to show them this hyperbolic mirror of their own totalitarian views. But everybody else doesn't understand it, they take it face value and admire his "patriotism". He never breaks role until the last moment (or even then just in the movie?).
Al Franken was an amazing senator and I would abso-fucking-loutely support him running for president. On the other hand, Joe Rogan is also considered a comedian 🤮
From what I've read, Zelensky as comedian made intelligent political and anti corruption criticism. Making jokes about the bad things in life, highlighting them, setting the stage for something being done about those problems. Broader than his on screen personality, he had middle class beginnings and on the back of his comedy work, he build a successful career as TV producer/executive. You probably know more about this than I do.
Trump as TV personality looked more like the most clueless person in the room, while all the actual work was done by others behind the scenes. No intelligence, no social commentary. Before his role in the apprentice, Trump had started his business career as a Nepo baby, and as a businessman he had failed every venture that he had tried, each time leaving a bloodbath of unpaid bills behind, a reverse Midas. And once his face was known from TV, he started with large scale scams like Trump University.
Those are 2 very different career paths.
There's a timeline where Jon Stewart is POTUS and he and Zelensky have already put Putin where he belongs in the Hague.
John Oliver is the ambassador from the UK and between Jon and John every 9/11 responder gets lifetime care and UA gets every bit of Soviet killing machinery we have lying around Europe along with a carrier full of 35s for them to train on, training paid for by cutting off aid to Israel and sending it to Kyiv instead.
The last supposedly Ukrainian person I talked to here was very anti Zelenskyy and wanted him to just lay down arms. What's your opinion on the matter? Do you want your country to keep fighting? Do you qualify for the draft yourself?
Those seem to be quite loaded questions.
I myself would be neither for nor against Zelenskyy, if it was peace time. Normally, there would have been elections last year, so there would be a non zero chance we would have had a different president already, if not for the war. But, since that's legally not possible right now, here we are, and I'm not about to go protest in the streets demanding to have elections as soon as possible.
That said, I am very much against being occupied and invaded. While also not willing to be drafted myself, since I know I would be quite useless on the battlefield. So the best I can do right now (to help in the war, that is) is to keep donating money for the equipment for our army.
I recognize I'm being hypocritical, since I wish to be protected without having the resolve to enlist myself. But I also recognize that, were I to enlist, my value in actually protecting Ukrainian lives would be very low.
Given the current state of Ukraine as a going concern, I can't imagine anyone seriously bragging about their vote for Zelenskyy.
Gave us a good hard look at what the Jon Stewart Presidency would have looked like.
Ah yes, because clearly Zelenskyy is solely to blame for the current state of Ukraine. I guess he's mind controlling half of the world leaders simultaneously and playing 5D chess with everyone.
One would think you're his biggest fan the way you're giving him credit for everything that's happening in the world.
And You know what's even worse? They did it a second time. After he fucked them over the first time.
This is what's really amazing to me, his whole 1st term, which culminated in a year so bad it was a running joke and then a coup, was completely forgotten about by so many, and practically never brought up by the (D) side. I live in a swing state too, and while I don't watch many ads, I certainly saw a bunch the last 6 months, and don't remember one that even brought up his first term at all. Some had some footage of J6 with no context/explanation of what it was (I know, most know/should know, but still), but then it was all pretty generic crap. Political malpractice, once again, have to wonder if the good cop/bad cop conspiracy is true and they don't really want to win.
Democrats should be free to run whoever they wish. Just as 3rd parties deserve to run who they wish on a even playing field.
I personally don't see either legacy poltical party surviving true electoral competition being opened up to 3rd parties. They've used First-past-the-post voting as a crutch for so long their muscles have atrophy and they cannot walk unsupported. Much less sprint in a race to the finish line.
Fortunately for the two mainstream parties, the public at large are heavily influenced by Stockholm syndrome and a giga sunk cost fallacy.
Nothing lasts forever...
If we traveled back in time 10 years and started showing people these headlines, they'd put us in a mental hospital.
No, 10 years ago was after the birthers and Palin. Call it 20
Lol "the birthers" as if that wasn't mostly trump.
During the Bush administration? Still not that crazy. Man, we suck.
Man, it is hard to find a positive outlook headline lately. I wish it was half as depressing as it is.
Just lobotomize yourself then all these headlines will fill you with glee just like the rest of the lobotomites.
Just a reminder: the Nazis went after the "infirm" first.
Imagine putting a fucking bird on your chest for forty years, saluting a piece of fabric, sacrificing your family and shit.
40 years of putting on that clown makeup and they just stick the nose on someone else.
I don't personally believe in what she believes in, but it's perfectly reasonable for someone who grew up during this country's Reagan era to truly and genuinely believe that serving in the military is a valuable and fulfilling purpose that's greater and more important than the needs of a single family.
Maybe it's clown makeup, but wouldn't it be nice to feel some sense of purpose in your life rather than spending it shit talking people on the internet?
What kind of bird, though? Like, we talking a chickadee? A northern flicker?
Ravens are pretty cool. Metal AF.
That took a turn for the based at the end.
Bruh, if they keep doing this, Olympus Has Fallen's plot is gonna seem realistic
(Can we just get Morgan Freeman instead of whatever this dumpsterfire we got?)
I think you mean Civil War (2024).
a large portion of the electorate doesn't choose anything. they do what their televisions command them. who controls the targeted messaging platforms which have been poisoning people's minds? they are the real enemies of The People.
Nevermind the consequences of gerrymandering, targeted disenfranchisement, and winner take all electioneering.
Trump won the GOP primary in 2016 in no small part because our electoral system rewards name recognition over policy or popular support.
You either submit to media manipulation or you are statistically removed from the voting rolls.
This. I've had heated discussions with people who can't believe someone from outside of their country knows more than the average citizen (read: himself) knows about the country's politics.
It's called educating oneself in preparation for consequences of having an elephant in a china shop. It's also what prudent, sensible adults do. Smfh.
Hopefully this'll convince more people to turn out for the midterms and do their due diligence.
Many of them are the same people who think a podcast made by the former host of Fear Factor is informed and intellectual.
"But he'll interview anyone!"
-Those idiots
10 to 1 the voters didn't make that choice.
Are you talking about eligible non-voters?
Yep, dems chose a garbage candidate. Then they gonna blame their victims for how long?
Can't wait for the conspiracy theory that Hitler is alive to turn out to be true, and he just comes out of hiding, thanks Trump, and takes over.
As much as Trump would like to, that dumb fuck bitch would be 136 by now. That fucker is long dead, even if he did fake his suicide.
Twice
Guy who washed out of the seals thinks he's more important than the commander of the Chinese theatre because he was a penis.
I'd even say he was a dick
that guy sounds familiar.
For all these dumbshits talk about military readiness and effectiveness being butchered under Democrats.
Oh the readiness is still part of the plan, it’s just the ‘other’ they’re trying to frame as the new target, trying to fire everyone who won’t put the jackboots on.
Well they need to prepare the military for domestic use.
Man am I glad I don't work for the federal government.
Work your whole life for your country just to get fired by a braindead twerp in the entertainment industry.
And spend the rest of your life living amongst the dipshits responsible for that being possible.
Regular jobs be like that too. It's normalised.
Knowing the "muh meritocracy" type of people:
They see white skin color as a sign of competency, they see being male as a sign of competency, they see constant smiling as a sign of competency, they see wearing suits as a sign of competency, they see confidence as a sign of competency.
I want Pete to go on a 24hr stream and not drink alcohol. Show us you don’t have withdrawal syndrome you sick bastard. Prove to us you are not addicted bro.
Hey the best people are the ones who toe the line
Let's not pretend it was ever anything different
My understanding is that Obama encouraged frank expression of different opinions in the Cabinet. Not every leader values blind obedience.
I have very little time for people who try to blame voters for a fascist coup engineered by US and russian elites.
I don't know man, that shit (fascism) was out in the OPEN since at least Jan 6.
Fascism is a disease that humans are unfortunately susceptible to, especially when deprived of resources and education.
I would no more blame trump voters enmasse than I would blame the addicts huddled under bridges for the horrors of the drug trade.
The people to blame are those benefiting by exploiting the weaknesses of the human animal that make the lies of fascism seem appealing.
Yeah the state has been supporting genocide for like 1.5 years. It's almost like fascism is a fundamental part of this evil empire and not just a "one party" problem.
I blame capitalism, the voters, and fascist rich fucks. Sure the trump voters were manipulated but it's like they didn't even try to think critically for a second.
The power of media saturation can't be understated. Bezos owns the WaPo, Musk owns Twitter, Gates owns NBC, the Murdochs and the Coors Family and The Kochs and the Sinclairs have a strangle hold on local news.
Literally where do you go to get serious journalism in an age where WikiLeaks is a criminal enterprise and The Espionage Act has been invoked against more journalists in the last fifteen years than the prior fifty.
Blaming voters in an era of industrial misinformation seems wildly misguided. You have people utterly saturated in war propaganda and blood libel. Even the liberals don't know who to support anymore.
Not "elected" once, but twice.
I'm pretty sure soliciting a foreign adversary to interfere in US elections twice isn't being elected, it's committing treason. I'm hoping to buy his gallbladder off eBay for scientific research once the lynching is over
Firing imperial Navy commanders is a good thing
So its the rebel Navy commanders we want to keep?
Yes the Yemeni commanders are the good ones
Now she is
Imagine believing the military is the "best people". Libs worshiping imperialism/genocide/MIC is half of the fascist problem.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_religion
We still have a genocidal leader, it ain't gonna change just because of a new president. What kind of a make belief world are you trying to paint for yourself.
Correction, we have a much more genocidal leader.
🤡
Hey look, one of the dipshits who either didn't vote or voted 3rd party and made our current situation possible.
That's why I have them tagged as dipshit! Don't even need to read their comments.
Meh, she was a willing member of a brutal organisation that terrorized multiple countries in wars of aggression. If you have more reverence for her then for, say, a Russian naval officer, then you don't have principles, you just have rump nationalism.
edit: damn, didn't realize there were so many fans of the Russian navy here.
I mean, certainly more than a news reporter.
