2024 Election Discussion General

[Fearey]

8 minutes ago, hundreth said:

It's true. All of these events immediately leading up to the election are meaningless. What if Kamala did interviews, what if Kamala this, what if Kamala that. 

Kamala was never going to win. She never earned her primary. The election was over when Joe Biden didn't step down in early 24. Kamala wasn't going to win an open primary.

There might be an alternate universe where someone else does. Maybe it would have been Gavin Newsom, but he would have lost as well. 

If the dems came out with someone fresh, it might have worked.

It is interesting, because logically speaking, any candidate should have overwhelming odds against an insurrectionist, convicted felon and a rapist. That Trump somehow became the second coming of Christ for hardcore Christians is nuts, when he's the polar opposite of every Christian virtue.

It tells me that the general US population is on a steep cognitive decline, to the point where the majority of people have become completely incapable of forming their own opinions or do their own independent research.

Edited Tuesday at 04:10 PM by Fearey

[hundreth]

Just now, Fearey said:

It is interesting, because logically speaking, any candidate should have overwhelming odds against an insurrectionist, convicted felon and a rapist. That Trump somehow became the second coming of Christ for hardcore Christians is nuts, when he's the polar opposite of every Christian virtue.

The Christian thing is also a red herring.

I know tons of people who voted for him, in New York no less.

It really comes down to the economy. They blame Biden for inflation. Most people have no idea how things work. It's a very simple calculation for them, I felt I was earning more money under Trump.

It also has to do with foreign policy. With the wars happening, people are scared.

Dems are FINALLY waking up to the fact that most voters prioritize the economy. The dems did a horrendous job selling their economic wins and policies. They said nothing about inflation. Instead they spoke about "joy" and not being Trump. They just don't get it.

[Fearey]

13 minutes ago, hundreth said:

Dems are FINALLY waking up to the fact that most voters prioritize the economy. The dems did a horrendous job selling their economic wins and policies. They said nothing about inflation. Instead they spoke about "joy" and not being Trump. They just don't get it.

Yeah... that's true. And then Trump says he will tariff everything, goes to speak at the Economic Club of Chicago with a tone that screams "I'm the smartest person in the room", in a room full of subject matter experts, making the most outlandish, unreal, crazy claims. And they just don't seem to challenge him on any of it. Is it out of fear? Fear of losing their career? Who knows.

I don't think Trump can say or do anything wrong in the eyes of the majority of his following. When he can do and say so many outrageously stupid things, on a daily basis, and it doesn't reflect negatively on his support, that's quite concerning. There has to be something deeper going on causing this mental decline in such large parts of the general population.

Edited Tuesday at 04:25 PM by Fearey

[Husseinisdoingfine]

Official Election Update

GOP has a majority in the House of Representatives.

Edited Tuesday at 04:32 PM by Husseinisdoingfine

[hundreth]

11 minutes ago, Fearey said:

Yeah... that's true. And then Trump says he will tariff everything, goes to speak at the Economic Club of Chicago with a tone that screams "I'm the smartest person in the room", in a room full of subject matter experts.

I don't think Trump can say or do anything wrong in the eyes of the majority of his following. When he can do and say so many outrageously stupid things, on a daily basis, and it doesn't reflect negatively on his support, that's quite concerning. There has to be something deeper going on causing this mental decline in such large parts of the general population.

Yeah it's very scary. It has a lot to do with conspiratorial thinking.

Trump undermines experts and authority figures. All news is fake, the deep state is after me, etc etc.

Trump didn't create this penchant for conspiratorial thinking, he feeds on it and uses it to his advantage. You saw this during the last cycle when he pandered to QAnon.

Because his supporters have no bedrock or foundation from where to get reliable information, they revert to basic instincts and go purely off vibes and primitive emotions.

Where did all this conspiratorial thinking originate from? That's the deeper question. I think it has a lot to do with media and pop culture.

If you look at the majority of the films being produced, they all revolve around conspiracies. The government is a conspiracy. Aliens are a conspiracy.  The masses don't know what's REALLY going on. Those are the messages being promoted in every film, and society eats it up. The protagonist is always some kind of figure who sees through the fog and discovers the deep dark truth.

We don't have much media which shows the other side of things. We don't have films which make us see the complexities of governing and how it actually plays out in real time. We don't have films about our own self deceptions and how we make sense of the world. I believe we need more of that. 

There should be films about how dumb & confident people easily influence people as opposed to well informed smart people, who are careful with their words. 

Articles don't do justice. People don't read. You need a medium which evokes emotion.

Edited Tuesday at 04:34 PM by hundreth

[Nemra]

Here’s a list of who Trump has selected so far.

• Susie Wiles, chief of staff
• Mike Waltz, national security adviser
• Tom Homan, ‘border czar’
• Elise Stefanik, United Nations ambassador
• Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff for policy
• Lee Zeldin, Environmental Protection Agency

Read more on AP News: Here are the people Trump has picked for key positions so far

Edited Tuesday at 04:35 PM by Nemra

[Terell Kirby]

27 minutes ago, Fearey said:

It is interesting, because logically speaking, any candidate should have overwhelming odds against an insurrectionist, convicted felon and a rapist.

There’s nothing logical about how the majority of people choose their leaders. It’s emotional and highly oriented towards survival and selfishness. Logic serves as a tool to rationalize selfish acts.

Edited Tuesday at 04:36 PM by Terell Kirby

[Buck Edwards]

29 minutes ago, Fearey said:

It is interesting, because logically speaking, any candidate should have overwhelming odds against an insurrectionist, convicted felon and a rapist. That Trump somehow became the second coming of Christ for hardcore Christians is nuts, when he's the polar opposite of every Christian virtue.

It tells me that the general US population is on a steep cognitive decline, to the point where the majority of people have become completely incapable of forming their own opinions or do their own independent research.

I thought the same. There has to be something seriously wrong. It shows serious dependency for cultists and gullibility in decision making and even delusion because a lot of these people believe in conspiracy shit. That's when you know something is skewed. I'm not sure if it's psychological or just lack of education. A serious lack of rationale and logic for which sadly there is no known cure. I mean how are you supposed to convince a conspiracy theorist that they are objectively wrong when they even deny factual evidence? 

[zazen]

2 hours ago, Nemra said:

It wasn't just invalid; he straight up wanted to overturn the election based on lies.

It's amazing how you view that as not a big deal but then talk down on Kamala's character.

Wikipedia article: Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election

Yeah, like I said its illegitimate. He's a sore loser who can't accept defeat and loves the spotlight. But its different to being Hitler 2.0 or Mussolini thats all. I think Its one thing to be corrupt, another to be a facist tyrant who will gun down dissent using the state - if he was we'd be well aware of it as we feel the boot on our necks. I'm just saying the language both sides are using need to be more accurate, although theres a time and place to have some fun and speak freely and vividly like on forums. It's just as wild and absurd when the right call the left baby killers because they are pro-choice or call Democrats closet communists lol.

So many Trumpers are fuming over some of his picks already and feel duped if all is true. Out with old Warhawks but in with the new, just a cosmetic change. Allegiance to Israel remains the same and intact as ever which doesn't bode well for the conspiratorial minded anti-semites.

Edited Tuesday at 06:05 PM by zazen

[Mel B]

@Leo Gura if we wanna evolve fast as a collective some strong negative polarization could be useful.

Today’s world order was built because of fascism. If the nazis never tried to take over the world and got defeated ( the devil always destroys, including himself ) we definitely wouldn’t have the prosperity and peace we enjoy now.

[Scholar]

7 minutes ago, zazen said:

Yeah, like I said its illegitimate. He's a sore loser who can't accept defeat and loves the spotlight. But its different to being Hitler 2.0 or Mussolini thats all. I think Its one thing to be corrupt, another to be a facist tyrant who will gun down dissent using the state - if he was we'd be well aware of it as we feel the boot on our necks. I'm just saying the language both sides are using need to be more accurate, although theres a time and place to have some fun and speak freely and vividly like on forums. It's just as wild and absurd when the right call the left baby killers because they are pro-choice or call Democrats closet communists lol.

So many Trumpers are fuming over some of his picks already and feel duped if all is true. Out with old Warhawks but in with the new, just a cosmetic change. Allegiance to Israel remains the same and intact as ever which doesn't bode well for the conspiratorial minded anti-semites.

What do you mean? If Trump could, he'd gun down anyone who stood in his ways. Hitler wasn't a violent authoritarian for most of his career, stop comparing the two as if Trump had been given the same chance to rule a country as Hitler did.

Trump and the republican party have possibly irrevocably damaged the US democracy, and will continue doing so. If you are not highly sensitive to such things and react to them with vehement resistance, including calling out fascistic tendencies, then you are the one who has lost his mind.

[Nemra]

@zazen, well, Trump isn't a fascist like Hitler yet.

I would say that Trump

• admires dictators
• thinks that others owe him
• loves to manipulate the public too much
• takes others' disagreements as a personal attack

[Terell Kirby]

1 hour ago, Buck Edwards said:

There has to be something seriously wrong. It shows serious dependency for cultists and gullibility in decision making and even delusion because a lot of these people believe in conspiracy shit. That's when you know something is skewed. 

You can coin the term ‘epistemic rot’. The minds of the US populace have rotted-due to multiple factors like social media, click/rage bait, YT shorts, TikTok propaganda, Alex Jones, right wing media conspiracies, backlash against SJWs & trans. Vilifying globalist/elites. All of this fueled by crony capitalism, military industrial complex and lobbying. It’s much more twisted/sinister than we realize. Trump is only going to take us deeper into this.

[Jodistrict]

24 minutes ago, Terell Kirby said:

You can coin the term ‘epistemic rot’. The minds of the US populace have rotted-due to multiple factors like social media, click/rage bait, YT shorts, TikTok propaganda, Alex Jones, right wing media conspiracies, backlash against SJWs & trans. Vilifying globalist/elites. All of this fueled by crony capitalism, military industrial complex and lobbying. It’s much more twisted/sinister than we realize. Trump is only going to take us deeper into this.

The mainstream corporate media was overwhelmingly anti Trump yet 51% of the voters gave their middle finger to the mainstream media and voted for Trump.  This shows that people don’t believe what they are being told by the establishment.  The majority of people don’t trust the corporate media.  Trump’s interview with Joe Rogan got 38 million views.  Joe Rogan gets more views than CNN, yet Kamala Harris declined to interview with him.  This just shows her arrogance and her complete reliance on the establishment media to carry her message.   It didn’t work.  With the Internet, the establishment can no longer define reality.

Edited Tuesday at 07:09 PM by Jodistrict

[Scholar]

3 minutes ago, Jodistrict said:

The mainstream corporate media was overwhelmingly anti Trump yet 51% of the voters gave their middle finger to the mainstream media and voted for Trump.  This shows that people don’t believe what they are being told by the establishment.  The majority of people don’t trust the corporate media.  Trump’s interview with Joe Rogan got 38 million views.  Joe Rogan gets more views than CNN, yet Kamala Harris declined to interview with him.  This just shows her arrogance and her complete reliance on the establishment media to carry her message.   It didn’t work.  With the Internet, the establishment can no longer define reality.

Every single incumbant party of the G12 lost the elections, independent of if they were conservative, liberal or progressive.

The reality is that this is most likely happening because of inflation, because people are to uninformed and uneducated to realize who is causing inflation and how effective their own governments are in dealing with it. All they see is prices going up, they get frustrated and vote for another party in hopes to fix the cause of inflation, which they attribute to the current government.

[Terell Kirby]

33 minutes ago, Jodistrict said:

The mainstream corporate media was overwhelmingly anti Trump yet 51% of the voters gave their middle finger to the mainstream media and voted for Trump. 

Mainstream media being anti Trump is an overstatement. They simply fact checked him on his constant lying-Trump brainwashed his base to look at fact checking as fake news.

33 minutes ago, Jodistrict said:

Joe Rogan gets more views than CNN, yet Kamala Harris declined to interview with him. 

Alternative media like Joe Rogan is not in the business of fact checking, he’s in the business of getting clicks and views. 38 million views doesn’t make any it more truer or fact based than any other mainstream news source with less subscribers on YouTube.

Which points to another issue with how people go about sense making, taking clicks/views/subscribers as a signal of truthfulness. It’s as stupid as it gets.

Edited Tuesday at 07:40 PM by Terell Kirby

[PurpleTree]

10 minutes ago, Terell Kirby said:

Mainstream media being anti Trump is an overstatement. They simply fact checked him on his constant lying-Trump brainwashed his base to look at fact checking as fake news.

Didn’t most late night shows constantly make jokes about Trump? I didn’t watch them but my mother does watch them often and told me even she (who hates Trump a loooot) got tired hearing those jokes.

[Nemra]

Quote

President-elect Donald Trump will nominate former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel, Trump announced Tuesday.

Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel and his intended nomination comes as Trump has promised to align U.S. foreign policy more closely with Israel’s interests as it wages wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

...

AP News: Trump picks former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be ambassador to Israel

Wikipedia: Mike Huckabee

This is him:

Edited Tuesday at 10:08 PM by Nemra

[zazen]

2 hours ago, Scholar said:

What do you mean? If Trump could, he'd gun down anyone who stood in his ways. Hitler wasn't a violent authoritarian for most of his career, stop comparing the two as if Trump had been given the same chance to rule a country as Hitler did.

Trump and the republican party have possibly irrevocably damaged the US democracy, and will continue doing so. If you are not highly sensitive to such things and react to them with vehement resistance, including calling out fascistic tendencies, then you are the one who has lost his mind.

@Nemra

True, you guys are right actually - it’s more important to be wary of things slipping into the facist territory before it’s too late, even if they aren’t already at that level.

Just because there was a successful transition of power, doesn’t mean it was peaceful - and that is important enough in a healthy democracy that it should be protected.

Also, just because Trumps rhetoric doesn’t translate into action, doesn’t mean that rhetoric isn’t corrosive to the country, only polarizing politics further which is bad. We need plurality, not excess polarity - though I also think the far left ruin it for the Democrats by dominating the discourse too much.

Edited Tuesday at 08:35 PM by zazen

[Nemra]

Key figures in Donald Trump’s orbit:

• Susie Wiles, Longtime Florida-based Republican strategist who ran Trump’s campaign in the state in 2016 and 2020.
• Lara Trump, Donald Trump’s handpicked choice to serve as co-chair of the Republican National Committee.
• Dana White, President of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Trump’s longtime friend.
• Linda McMahon, Co-chair of the president-elect’s transition team and Trump’s longtime friend.
• Howard Lutnick, Co-chair of Trump’s transition team helping to find the team for Trump's administration.
• Boris Epshteyn, Lawyer who has been coordinating with Trump’s various legal teams.
• Stephen Miller, Served as the president of America First Legal, and now as the deputy chief of staff for policy.
• Richard Grenell, Trump’s former ambassador to Germany and former acting director of national intelligence.
• Elon Musk, Trump has said he will give Musk a role in his administration running an efficiency commission.
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Anti-vaccine activist and environmentalist.
• Brooke Rollins, Trump’s former domestic policy chief and CEO of the America First Policy Institute.

Read more on AP News: A guide to key figures in Donald Trump’s orbit

Edited Tuesday at 10:02 PM by Nemra