We’re in a pretty extreme situation right now, though, as Trump basically split voters (and the parties) into anti-/pro- fascism groups, and primaries are partisan exercises where, on the Republican side, the most extreme candidates win, now. Republicans sick of the fascism left the party (but didn’t necessarily become Democrats, as there’s a lot of independents). The evidence suggests that, for the foreseeable future, the Republican candidates are going to be (proto-)fascists in the Trump mold.
Thr amount of underestimation of Trump’s performative powers in this thread is mindblowing.
He has 70 million people supporting him - not his party, his principles, his business acumen.
Millions of those people think he’s still the President. Yes, they’re nuts, but they’re specifically nuts for this one dude.
He got thousands of those people to commit “light treason” in his name!
Feel free to sneer at his barbaric populist tactics and obviously the message he’s selling, but he absolutely has a knack for manipulating people.
Luckily as a dyed in the wool daddy-pleasing rich kid narcissist he only cares about two things: winning, and getting credit for things.
They don’t love him. They love the idea of him.
I say again, I don’t underestimate his power to cause harm. He might yet be the cancer that destroys our Republic forever. I just don’t see any evidence he’s some kind of Machiavellian genius or that there is even any real method to his madness.
Except that saying “Trump has millions of dedicated cultists, therefore he must be some kind of brilliant manipulator” is argument from consequence, because on some level it’s more comforting to believe that than to accept that 70 Million Americans could be led this far down the rabbit hole by a raving idiot.
Ah, yes, that’s what I get for skimming while fact-checking!
I wanted to make sure that I remembered correctly that she was both Muslim and a woman, as both are anathema to Republicans in the U.S., so I pulled up something quickly which of course listed her husband first, and as you say, he was born in Turkey. I didn’t bother reading through the whole thing, just thought I’d gotten enough to make my little joke.
You are so right to point out that they are German, of Turkish heritage. Huge difference! So sorry I messed that up. It was not intentional in any way.
If anyone was doing seven-dimensional chess it was Biden’s camp. That was a nifty little maneuver. I don’t know that it’s going to have a significant/immediate effect but it sure has to create a speed bump in some people’s already bumpy heads.
Con men arive in town with the promise of answers, and then move to the next town seemingly just moments before their lies were exposed. The con man long play is to keep conning, the past is the past.
That being said…
Trump was talking about becoming president back in the 80s. In those interviews he had a plan, he understood the wars and their image on the US and how it is all affecting/influencing trade, and he describes why he wants to have the power the president has. He even identifies the types of people that would support him, the people/victims he wound up exploiting for votes.
I’m not claiming he is a genius or even that he would survive or thrive in a normal pedestrian lifestyle. But he has bested the authorities and a lot of smart people along the way. Bankruptcies, endless controversies, guilty verdicts, impeachments and losing a second election and yet here we are wondering how the Republicans will maneuver the orange one back into the presidency.
Bingo. His success is due far more to the gullability of his followers than any plan on his part. I don’t think he’s actually smart enough to have a plan. He just says random egotistical, jingoist shit than happened to resonate with a large number of authoritarian followers. Why that resonates is the real question and the real danger, and I think it goes reaches far back into the history of the country.
Funny, I think the people undermining his intelligence (?) are also searching for comfort. Reminds me of sports fans second guessing the “stupid coach”.
I think that Trump’s success is more a testament to the much greater stupidity (and/or malice) of his followers than to his own intelligence, for which we have seen so very few signs over so many years.
I am not saying that he is a character in Idiocracy or that he does not know how to work people, but if he were intelligent, we would see direct signs of that rather than just the outcomes of failing upward.
I think there are a lot of different ways of measuring intelligence.
Yes, yes, the ability to play golf very well, the ability to drive a motorcycle off a ramp over ten school buses and the ability to get people to believe your lies about winning an election so that they will try to overthrow the government for you are all types of “intelligence” that cannot easily be measured. But I am not talking about measuring; I am talking about signs suggesting that something is there, and I have not seen any.
SEE ALSO: Ron Watkins
You mean like Turkey? I mean, I get your point, but it’s how many of the countries came to be. The alternative seems to be to get in, do some light genocide on the natives, and start a fresh new brand.
I mean like “Deutschland” actually, which name encourages its inhabitants to imagine that people who aren’t proper “Deutsche” should go somewhere else
Maybe name countries after mountains or rivers or something instead
Putting on my history geek and onomastics hat, it doesn’t work like that. Any toponym will be taken up to refer to the inhabitants if it hasn’t already worked the other way around.
Your model works for Scotland (where the Scoti live, where Scoti was originally a word for the Gaelic-speaking people of Ireland), England (land of the Angles), France (land of the Franks, who were a Germanic speaking people), Russia after the Rus, and numerous other places of that pattern, but the counter-examples are sometimes interesting.
“Deutschland” is indeed the land of the Deutsche, but that word goes back to a word which just means “people”.
Ireland is traced back to the name Ériu, which is thought to be a goddess’ name (at least, it doesn’t match with any known people).
Norway is just a description: the Northern Way.
Austria is from Österreich, the Eastern Kingdom.
Japan is, via a tangled path, from Nihon, “Where the sun comes from”.
Then you’ve got places like Australia, Equador, Colombia, Brazil, none of which were named after peoples, and the peoples who since took on identities as Australians, Equadorans, Colombians, Brazilians, didn’t really exist at the time those places were named. But they sure as hell exist now.
If national identity didn’t exist, it would just be reinvented. Like it is and always has been, on a continual basis.
Of course he is delusional and narcissistic and evil and terrible.
But the thing to ding him for is; WHAT TOOK HIM SO LONG? When he was President he had no words of praise for his glorious vaccine that he created that was his.
He’s finally figured out which side he wants to be on. He’s finally saying all this, because he thinks saying this will benefit him. His almost year of silence on the vaccine that he created that was his was because the thought it benefited him to be quiet on the issue. He killed 400,000+ people, through omission, by his silence and reticence.
That would be fascinating if it really were Biden’s comment that triggered Trump into his counter-reaction. We’d need someone deep inside to ever know one way or the other. But militating against that is: Trump had stayed so silent, for so long (even hiding the fact he accepted the vaccine/booster). It just seems like one random comment by Biden wouldn’t be sufficient to cause this much of a sea change.
I think it’s rather that, finally, (w/ help of Jared, Ivanka, et al) he figured out that, "Hey, not only does a 98% effective vaccine help millions of Americans, but — more importantly — a 98% effective vaccine helps ME, politically."
Thank God that never happens with Americans!
If he can get his followers to take the vaccine, I don’t care if he takes false credit for it.
