[How] do you think Trump, with the powers newly granted to the office he’s again running for, will act in his second term?

There could have been better worlds

So… because Trump didn’t get unhinged to the point where he started a nuclear war, you aren’t worried.

• How did you feel about refusing to concede in the 2020 election and creating uncertainty and doubt about the electoral process among a not insignificant minority of voters?

• How about inciting an angry mob to interrupt the peaceful transfer of power on January 6th?

• How did you feel about hoarding and hiding classified documents so that he could show them off to impress his friends and guests? Maybe even sell them if times are tough?

• How about strong-arming the Republican party and installing his family to run it?

• How do you feel about how his SCOTUS has changed the fundamentals of the US government?

• The Chevron deference?

• Bribery?

• Presidential “immunity” for official acts?

• How do you feel about the loss of the right to have an abortion?

Do you think Trump, with the powers newly granted to the office he’s again running for, will act in his second term? Where is your line?

I see. So what has happened over the last 8 years as a direct result of his election isn’t concerning to you?

now that Trump has been president once, I know what it’s like when that happens and don’t worry that much about it anymore).

That sounds disturbingly like you aren’t all that concerned about what a second Trump presidency would be like. It sounds like you think the first one wasn’t as bad as people thought it would be and the second one will similarly be better than people think. Am I misreading your words?

What is so maddening about this comment is how much it proves my point that you don’t see.

…

This was literally the first sentence of my post. I’m sorry if I wasn’t clear enough and “maddened you”.

At this point I feel like it’s akin to art that people just don’t get. The average person doesn’t understand the message or point.

I personally don’t often enjoy art. In particular, the art where the artists are creating some kind of layered metaphor like a blank canvas with a cryptic title or something. The artist might be trying to communicate that consumerism will never fill our need for social contact or whatever but the message is lost on me.

The same thing applies here for most people I think. However, for once I actually see a meaning in it. I get horrified by the act, then I read later how little actual damage is done. Then I reflect on it and realize there is no way the protestors didn’t know that the Mona Lisa was protected by glass. There is no way they accidentally used the least harmful bright paint they could find on Stonehenge… and it occurs to me that I was so immediately upset at the perceived harm but have become desensitized to news of the actual harm of climate change.

I’m not stating that this message is obvious or that people are stupid if they are angry - I’m stating it gets lost and most people don’t get it. Yes, I’m a bit angry that the media often never mentions up front how little damage is done in any headlines I see. It’s usually “climate activists throw soup on Mona Lisa, arrested, condemned by bystanders and art lovers everywhere” not “activists harmlessly throw soup on painting protected by glass to demonstrate humanity’s questionable priorities”. Sure, the glass can be in the article somewhere but nobody bothers to read that far.

Regardless, I agree that the end result isn’t helping because most people don’t understand. I, however, sympathetic with the activists and felt compelled to explain the message as I saw it.

What is most interesting to me is that the “powers that be” have so much influence over the news that I feel like harmless acts of protests have lost their power and are demonized by default. Climate change, income inequality, police abuse, Gaza… I’m honestly concerned that people with very legitimate concerns (at least, in my mind) will have to further escalate their actions in order to feel heard. This is just the beginning I think.

“I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard.” MLK

At this point I feel like it’s akin to art that people just don’t get. The average person doesn’t understand the message or point.

These protestors are committing simple acts that threaten to damage something that people value. People are so very angry that biodegradable paint was sprayed on an ancient monument, or that soup was tossed onto the glass protecting a famous painting.

Yet they continue on with their lives and refuse to hold many corporations accountable while those corporations make our planet less habitable. This would become a wall of text that nobody would read if I tried to just outline the existential threat human society faces thanks to the reckless behavior of many of the organizations. The suffering, loss of life, economic damage… unimaginable… yet we are basically barreling toward that inevitability at full steam.

But I’m sorry, how silly of me. How could I forget that some scientists might lose the opportunity to study undisturbed lichen on Stonehenge this year.

USA here. They’d likely consider this to be extremely patronizing, but I consider most conservative voters to be unaware of what it is they are actually preaching. It’s crazy but the more extreme their views get, the more I’m convinced they’re misinformed and misled. Some folks at the top of their pyramid I legitimately hate - I have no doubt they know exactly what they are doing.

So many of conservative beliefs just fly in the face of reality. I hate that they’re perpetuating the harm that the beliefs and resulting policies cause, but seeing as how they are mostly based on clear and obvious lies, I have to assume that most of the supporters just don’t realize they are being lied to and have invested emotionally in an identity that actively harms their own interests.

The Palestinians are already on the verge of famine.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/05/middleeast/gaza-famine-world-food-programme-intl-hnk/index.html

Northern Gaza is experiencing a “full-blown famine” which is rapidly spreading across the strip…the World Food Programme warned

Gaza is not that big. The situation is already horrific and it’s about to get so much worse.

Your clip is Biden saying he did exactly what I said he did and exactly what my source says he did. The US administration, Europe, and the IMF was displeased that the prosecutor wasn’t going after corruption and wanted him fired. The United States, via their chosen representative Joe Biden, threatened to withhold aid if they didn’t fire the guy and find someone who would do the job.

You are saying Biden did something for reasons that were not in the interest of the US and it’s allies in order to benefit himself and his family. I’m saying he did that same exact thing because it was, in reality, the US and it’s allies’ literal goal. Biden saying he did that thing does not support your false statement regarding why he did it.

It’s clear you aren’t reading any sources being shown to you. It’s clear you aren’t even reading the quotes from my sources that I included in my response to save you the trouble. It’s clear you aren’t addressing any other points raised in my response.

It’s clear you are not engaging in discourse. You are willfully spreading disinformation and think a link and insincere politeness makes you look like a reasonable actor. My response is here, not because I think you will respond with anything relevant but because I want the audience you want to misinform to understand what you are and what you are doing.

Please step outside and touch some grass. While you are at it, please tell whatever foreign power is paying you to spread this nonsense that you need to improve your script or flowchart or whatever.

in a fair and free world you will have different opinions and both sides need to be respected

This is true when it comes to matters of reasonable opinion. The problem is that opinions are not facts. You cannot tell me that the sky is green and that I need to respect your opinion or the world is not free. In truth, the world can be endangered by your incorrect understanding of reality.

Joe Biden literally leveraged aid money as per US and European policy to have an ineffective guy fired. Do you think the Obama administration and the IMF and many European nations were all pressuring Ukraine to protect Biden’s son?

Mike Carpenter, who served as a foreign policy adviser to the then-vice president, told USA TODAY that Shokin “never went after any corrupt individuals at all” and “never prosecuted any high-profile cases of corruption.”

.

As a result, Biden leveraged $1 billion in aid as “a stick to move Ukraine forward,” Kupchan said. “He was acting alongside our European allies. Everybody was of a single mind that this prosecutor was not the right guy for the job.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/10/21/fact-check-joe-biden-leveraged-ukraine-aid-oust-corrupt-prosecutor/5991434002/

We hear aid is provided, we hear aid is taken away from civilians by Hamas beating people, we hear people selling aid packages to others civilians. We hear all sorts of things.

Which of these potentially terrible things negates what has been done to the people of Gaza? The destruction of their infrastructure - housing, universities, hospitals. The killing of civilians. The living conditions. The starvation.

So there is some, but not nearly enough aid. So some bad actors are taking advantage of the unimaginably fucked up situation there. How does that change the fact that Israel is at best using collective punishment (a war crime) and at worst committing genocide?

Because those in power spend a lot of effort distancing themselves from the impact they have and casting blame on everyone else, including on the victims.

A local factory may be poising the locals, paying little in taxes, and exploiting workers on the cheap but they are the biggest employer and its those minorities’ fault for some reason and if not that it’s the locals’ fault for not pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps like their fathers did…

Oh, and look over there, quick! A teacher is trying to groom your kid because he refused to shame that one gay kid in school! Git 'im!

Naive and gullible, like I said. Or, alternatively, just a disgusting person willfully attempting to spread disinformation.

I see people cosplaying as Hamas as Palestine protests. Cosplaying as genocidal maniacs.

I can’t take you seriously.

First, Israel has committed war crimes against Palestinians for decades. When nobody plays by the rules there is no point in quoting the rules.

Very few people condone killing civilians or taking hostages. Most people support the liberation of the Palestinian people and peace.

Which is why it’s only the young and naive that support it.

Only the naive think that the situation is anywhere near as cut and dry as you seem to imply it is. And only the gullible think any fraction of the population worth mentioning are cosplaying as or celebrating the actions of Hamas.

But do you condemn Hamas?®

Most people don’t support war crimes.

But, at the moment, it’s war crimes vs. bigger war crimes. The question is, is the perpetrator of war crimes willing to stop war crimes when it’s the only conceivable leverage to stop bigger war crimes? Big war crimes likely doesn’t give a fuuuuuck about the little war crimes though - they literally killed the hostages in several situations. They are just pitching a tent because it’s an excuse for them to do even bigger war crimes.

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Allegedly, British strikers in the 40’s, maybe earlier. The phrase itself is older. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACAB

Might have been used by any number of groups upset with police. It’s anti police.

Why are you trying to associate it with racist skinheads?

The tea party was basically astroturfed into existence by the Koch Brothers and other rich assholes. On the left we basically have rich neoliberal assholes who are desperate to do good while still making sure their capitalist class asses stay as rich and relevant as possible. The “good” they do is also, conveniently, great at keeping them politically powerful while simultaneously lessening their tax burden.

I vote. I research and try to push the most progressive candidates. I still live in a reliably blue district in a relatively blue state. The establishment candidates have always won.

I’m not encouraging people to give up the fight. I’m just venting because I’m just so fucking tired.

I continue to hold my nose and vote blue because in virtually every case the Democratic candidate is far better than the Republican candidate (from my left leaning perspective).

What frustrates me is that I have no power to push the party further left. In my fantasy, crowds of people can shout from the streets “Democratic party, do X or I will withhold my vote!” and the Democrats will lose an election, realize their folly, and move to the left. In reality, they’ll just write those crowds off as unrealistic and unreliable and likely move center to try and court more “independent” votes. With two parties dominating and the current electoral system, that’s just how it goes.

I don’t have the energy to be the difference, politically. I try to do the right thing and I help people I can in small ways - at work, in my small social circles, and by donating to organizations I trust will help. Hell, I’m afraid to be part of the shouting crowd because doing anything openly could jeopardize my work situation or even my employment. To add to that, I am antisocial, anxious, and too stressed in daily life to really engage in effective, direct action.

I’m just tired and disheartened. I feel like when I hold my nose and vote blue, sometimes I’m endorsing what I often perceive as a shift to the right.

Powerful, self-interested, wealthy people on the right though… they can just throw so much money at a problem. It takes so, so many more of us to fight against it. Deep down I know reducing my involvement just gives those assholes more power. It’s what some of them are fighting to do - dishearten the masses so that they’ll just give up.

I don’t really have a point I guess. I’m just tired. I know that the right is becoming so openly fascist because they know they don’t have the popular support… but they have the resources to drag this out. Maybe even change rules to make it so that breaking the law, even violence, becomes the only way to fight back. I just hope it ends soon. I’m tired of thinking about what it means when they continue to get close to half the votes all across the country.

Because things escalated significantly in the last few weeks.

https://www.npr.org/2023/11/06/1210831466/death-toll-gaza-israel-hamas-conflict