Bill Maher's prediction about Trump's "slow coup" could easily happen

[Mindysan33]

Plus, he’s an asshole who has been happy to give platforms to bigots to get ratings. Bill Maher only cares about Bill Maher’s bank account.

[Melizmatic]

So everyone ‘loses’ and everything is just irreparably fucked?

Nah, I just can’t get with that way of thinking; it reeks of lazy defeatism to me.

@Mindysan33

Bill Maher only cares about Bill Maher’s bank account.

[Brainspore]

One would hope the “better to let Trump burn everything down than to compromise our ideals by letting a pragmatic centrist take power” crowd would have reconsidered that position after Trump’s first term, but apparently they weren’t the ones who bore the brunt of the harm from his policies.

[gracchus]

Exactly. Unlike other supporters of progressives like Sanders or Ocasio-Cortez, white cis-het brocialists never have enough skin in the game to learn when it’s time to drop the purity tests and virtue signalling.

[chenille]

@impious

If we want to counteract Trump, we need to convince people that politics can actually improve people’s lives, which is an uphill battle because in recent memory, it hasn’t.

The pandemic and recent supreme court decisions have made an extremely clear demonstration of just how much difference politics makes to people’s lives. The uphill battle is because too many of the people who know that best are having their votes taken away. Fighting that would make a big difference.

[tachin1]

Putting aside how the prediction got viral, it is happening and people should be aware that even supposedly moderate Rs are enabling it.

Here they are talking out of both sides of their mouth.

CNN panel reacts to Bill Maher's bleak election prediction

This is right out of the alt right playbook.
Relevant bit 0:00 to 3:42
“You’re always yelling at me but never at each other”

The Alt-Right Playbook: The Card Says Moops

[Melizmatic]

As ever, those least affected are the least concerned.

If we ever end up on ‘Fury Road,’ Maher’s name goes on the list with every other rich selfish asshole who enabled and facilitated the downfall of society.

[Mindysan33]

It’s all a philosophical exercise to them, not real fucking life that has actual consequences for actual people.

[Melizmatic]

Read my edit; if I’m one of the survivors, I will remember and I will make sure others do too.

[Brainspore]

@Melizmatic

So… what’s the solution then, in all your infinite wisdom?

Some keyboard warriors seem to be laboring under the delusion that “I won’t be part of this problem by supporting a less-than-perfect candidate” is the same as “I am part of the solution to this problem.”

[Melizmatic]

SSDD;

They don’t stand to suffer any real consequences if it all goes to shit… at least so they think.

Nothing is ever “a real problem” until it negatively impacts some people directly… and by then it’s usually too late.

[MildBill]

[Melizmatic]

Composting.

[Papasan]

Did I miss something?

[impious]

@Melizmatic

Because the current state of the world somehow isn’t bad enough for you yet?

It seems you are implying that the democrats haven’t had a hand in the current state of the world.

[Mindysan33]

@Melizmatic

Dems are corrupt and often useless, but the GQP seems currently hell bent on destroying society itself in the pursuit of full-on oligarchy.

@Brainspore

Voting for Biden in the 2020 General Election was an extremely important part of the solution to stop the Republicans from dragging the country ever-further into fascism.

[lava]

@chenille

since they are doing their best to bring about an era of death and despair in order to help make the top 1% even richer.

In all fairness the Democrats are also helping make the top 1% even richer. The GOP is just trying to prove that they can be better at it than the Democrats.

[dreamofthedarkstar]

@impious

If we want to counteract Trump, we need to convince people that politics can actually improve people’s lives, which is an uphill battle because in recent memory, it hasn’t. Biden could do a lot of progressive things with executive orders if he wanted to. Getting out of Afghanistan was a good and surprising start, but ultimately we elected Biden, and his signature promise was just to keep the neoliberal ideology of the Obama administration going.

I think you are overlooking the most important (only) driver of a large segment of the voting block, especially every single person who votes republican (without exception): mainly that they do not want government to make people’s lives better, because that might have the unwanted side effect of making life better for people they hate. No privation is too much if it hurts certain people they dislike. And further, they can then blame those privation and hardships on the very people that they were trying to deny improvement to in the first place. The only thing they want is for the government to make other people they don’t like suffer. This is not about the politics of “having a working country/economy/society”, this is all politics of spite.

[KathyPartdeux]

I need to start acting like Elizabeth actually won the election.

[impious]

@dreamofthedarkstar

The only thing they want is for the government to make other people they don’t like suffer. This is not about the politics of “having a working country/economy/society”, this is all politics of spite.

I believe this as well, but I also think this is the kind of thing most of those voters wouldn’t be aware of without the help of a therapist. I think they honestly believe it’s within the government’s power to make people’s lives worse, and that this is the only kind of change it’s possible to effect. And to a certain extent, that’s not completely irrational if they’re going by their own experience and the way that capital amplifies their own signal when they want something evil.

I wonder what the entire staff of OAN would be doing if AT&T wasn’t dumping tons of cash into their laps.