Just to say it out loud: in the days after the election and call, Putin is amassing 50,000 troops for a big push. This is propaganda to make his eventual "negotiate peace by letting Russia keep whatever they have at the date of cease-fire" plan more palatable.
ReallyActuallyFrankenstein
joined 1 year ago
Good job - we picked the candidate favored by the KKK, Nazis, the Taliban and Putin.
Where even am I anymore.
I would have posted this as a post if not violative of Rule 1, but Jon Stewart's The Weekly Show posted a great episode yesterday with a very thoughtful political theorist guest. It focuses on why the disinformation campaigns are responsible for this election.
In short: We have already reached a point where real policy and positions is no match for propaganda. Political power was decisively proven this election to derive from creating and exploiting a false reality, with multiple groups in Trump's coalition directly and decisively voting against their interests because they simply believed Trump more than reality. In Russia this is called "political technology" and Trump followed that playbook exactly.
Is it even possible to learn that lesson in time? I don't think so - I think we missed our last chance. Because Trump's campaign so effectively recognized this, we can also expect them to recognize that media cannot be allowed to be independent and control of the media is how they maintain that false reality. Like Hitler, like Putin, like Xi, expect that Trump's team - given free rein by his sycophantic House, Senate and Supreme court - will ruthlessly crack down on free press. I'd be shocked if it doesn't happen in the first few months.
We're about to enter a very dark time, and by the midterms, it's likely that even with a "free and fair" election, it will be so tainted by state-sponsored misinformation there is no hope of the public voting out the right.
This is infuriating.
Nothing has changed re: Trump's status as a regular citizen, and the DOJ's memo only applies to sitting presidents. The DOJ and Jack Smith were prosecuting criminal conduct. In winding down these cases now, they are voluntarily refusing to prosecute someone they believe is a criminal when their role was to do so on behalf of the people. Likewise, the judge is voluntarily abandoning his duty to expediently seek justice on behalf of the people.
The proper course here would be to continue to treat him as a regular criminal, not delay anything, and on January 20th, decide then if you want to quit.
This preemptive compliance is doing 90% of Trump's work in creating an authoritarian state where he is above the law. Don't just roll over, you hacks, do your jobs.
It's Russia. It was always going to be Russia.
24 hours ago I hoped Trump would be out of my life forever in less than a day. Right now I'm watching the House races in ever-slimmer hopes that Trump won't have control of the presidency, the Supreme Court, and Congress in January.
The US Enabling Act seems certain to follow if that happens.
They're voting for Trump because they've vaguely heard he's a good businessman (From who? Who possibly could be the source of this reputation?). It's just voting based on the general feeling of hearing the words "good businessman" and "better for the economy" alongside Trump.
The logic is more like, "I like leopards, I like to eat, and I like my face. I know who I'm voting for."
I'm physically ill by this result, but this isn't an option. You can't save democracy by discarding democracy.
Trump could do it because he's a fascist - he wants to discard democracy. A healthy system would have checked him not just then, but barred him from running again. We haven't had a healthy system in a long time.
I can feel the anxiety the entire way from the bottom of my stomach up to my throat.
I guess we should be happy that they didn't make it, "I made America great again!"
The tragedy we've been living through needs a biiiiiiiiig catharsis to make it worthwhile.
This is the best "metaphor" I could come up with as well. The voters are abuser enablers who trapped us in a house with our abuser. They don't see his abuse because they tune it out and don't pay attention. If you raise the abuse to them, their response is, "Stop being so dramatic, he's good for you."
But the thing is, the fact that he's actually a real narcissistic sociopath who feeds on our attention is not just apt for the metaphor - there is actually no metaphor. He's simply, actually in an abusive, non-consensual relationship with half the country. And his voters are simply, actually delusional enablers.