politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
view the rest of the comments
You're right, but if there's one thing dictators cannot tolerate on any level, it's unchecked criticism. Sure, these days there is still some level of allowing free speech for appearances, but if it's high profile and trump thinks he can exercise his control, he damn sure will.
The Jimmy Kimmel incident is the perfect example of this and what we can expect moving forward. The executives of companies have been installed specifically because they're right wingers and even those who aren't, are terrified of lawsuits. They probably know they can win the lawsuits, but it's just easier to kowtow, from their perspective.
It's surreal. I know I've been living a lie my whole life. I thought laws and the constitution would usually win out, at least when enough people knew about whatever criminal activities were happening. But I don't really expect any of that anymore. I was randomly reading up on Nazi Germany last night and I cannot help but wonder if we are in the "deport the impure Jews" phase of this. I've already internalized the idea that if they could get away with sending the "undesirables" to gas chambers, they would. But I still hold onto some hope I'm wrong. The news basically every day now though makes me think I'm not. That at best, it will get worse and not better.
What I cannot understand is what the point of anything trump does is. I bounce from one idea to another but none of it really makes full sense to me.
I know for sure he's looking to leave a legacy, that's obvious. But is he actually so goddamned hateful that his focus is determined by maximizing suffering? Is it because he thinks his supporters love this? (He's sadly correct if so)
Is he hoping to be infamous like Hitler and Stalin?
Is there a chance he's got some twisted sense of this being the right thing for America? Trust me, I don't put a lot of stock in this one because it's abundantly clear his number one priority is always himself. Maybe it's a secondary reason?
Ultimately I know that, like the original Nazis, you just cannot really understand the inner minds of evil people. But I cannot help but try. Not to empathize with them at all. It's morbid curiosity. How does one's sense of morality get so thoroughly fucked? There were hundreds of thousands of Germans who helped murder and imprison Jews. Each one of those people justified it to themselves. And a good chunk of them rationalized it so hard that a switch was flipped in their brain. "This is so important, mass murder is required and I will help commit it." was a thought process for many thousands of Germans. It's so hard to wrap one's head around. It's disgusting and demoralizing. But it's reality. Some people say humans are just evil inherently, and I see a lot supporting that argument. But they're also inherently good... sometimes.
Nazi Germany and the fact that Trump's approval rating right now is above 3% is evidence that this is a distinctly human phenomenon. We are capable of straight up evil. How the fuck can we fix it?
Sorry for the drawn out stream of consciousness reply... I needed to get that off my chest.
I understand where you're coming from, but I don't think that Trump has anything resembling a plan. He reacts to events, minute by minute, generally in the most cruel and hateful way possible.
He has plenty of advisors and backers who have coherent long-range plans, and they are making a disturbing amount of progress, but they're hampered by Trump's volatility and lack of focus. It also helps that those trying to define his agenda mostly have different interests.
Well someone has a plan.