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Face, meet leopard. Leopard, meet face.

bruto said:
Only up to a point. Many people have some realistic assessment of what their best interests are, and many also have enough humanity to consider the best interests of others. Xenophobia, racism, and the myth of bootstrapping American exceptionalism were already there. You can blame the propaganda machine for exploiting them, but it takes two to tango.
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And what do you think is the cause of the preexisting xenophobia, racism, and the myth of bootstrapping American exceptionalism in the first place?
 
arthwollipot said:
And what do you think is the cause of the preexisting xenophobia, racism, and the myth of bootstrapping American exceptionalism in the first place?
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Fear of death. It's at the root; most politics is about distribution of resources, most concern about resources is fear of missing out on them and thereby living less well which is to get nearer to death. Fear and hatred of the Other is worry about acquiring and keeping those resources, and distributing them in an acceptable way. The appeal of patriotic exceptionalist mythology is comforting to people who imagine "it can never happen here" -- what they really mean is "I hope it never happens to me". It's fundamental mortal terror -- literally, for each of those words. That's why people get so irrational and emotional about politics: their little lizard brains are frothy with fear for their very existence.

Cheerful thoughts!
 
TragicMonkey said:
Fear of death. It's at the root; most politics is about distribution of resources, most concern about resources is fear of missing out on them and thereby living less well which is to get nearer to death. Fear and hatred of the Other is worry about acquiring and keeping those resources, and distributing them in an acceptable way. The appeal of patriotic exceptionalist mythology is comforting to people who imagine "it can never happen here" -- what they really mean is "I hope it never happens to me". It's fundamental mortal terror -- literally, for each of those words. That's why people get so irrational and emotional about politics: their little lizard brains are frothy with fear for their very existence.

Cheerful thoughts!
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The Trump approach to informing the MAGA masses about their economic management is roughly the equivalent of the SS telling the Jews they were just being sent to the showers and to leave their clothes neatly for when they got back, when they were being herded into the gas chambers.
 
TragicMonkey said:
Fear of death. It's at the root; most politics is about distribution of resources, most concern about resources is fear of missing out on them and thereby living less well which is to get nearer to death. Fear and hatred of the Other is worry about acquiring and keeping those resources, and distributing them in an acceptable way. The appeal of patriotic exceptionalist mythology is comforting to people who imagine "it can never happen here" -- what they really mean is "I hope it never happens to me". It's fundamental mortal terror -- literally, for each of those words. That's why people get so irrational and emotional about politics: their little lizard brains are frothy with fear for their very existence.

Cheerful thoughts!
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However, the "fear for their very existence" and the "fear and hatred of the Other" is so much worse in a society where you can see those things actually happen, people lose their livelihood, i.e. where there is no or only a very insufficient safety net keeping people afloat if they get sick or lose their jobs.
It doesn't inspire people to think of "distributing [the resources] in an acceptable way." Instead, it inspires them to think of ways to make sure that they won't be the ones losing out, which they hope to accomplish by kicking downwards, by removing the ones that they think are undeserving and shouldn't have access to any resources at all, i.e. the homeless, the immigrants, the sick, the black - never the ones who are hoarding all the resources, i.e. the oligarchs and the politicians they pay.
 
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arthwollipot said:
My point is that it didn't start with Trump.
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TBF, I don't think Trump has ever personally cared about anyone but himself since his unfortunate childhood. So, to some extent, the manipulation of the MAGA mindset has been done by those far better at it than the orange ogre. And yes, that sort of thing has long pre-dated Trump. Even as far back as Lindberg and the pre-WW2 fascist movement. Donny is just the latest and worst iteration.
 
arthwollipot said:
Of course he hasn't. He can't. He is psychologically incapable of caring about anybody unless they can be of some use to him. That's his pathology.
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I imagine it depends on how we define "care." He does not care for anyone as another person, as a normal person might. But insofar as the distress of others seems to be the thing that makes him happy, he might be said to care about them.
 
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Helen said:
Well, say what you like about King Con (and I do! I do!), but he knows that there is no one in who is able to praise, adore, and worship him the way he is able to praise, adore and worship himself, so why on earth would he care about anyone else, once they have been conned by his latest grift?
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He's like when Cat meets Camille. And just like Camille, he's actually a disgusting blob.
 
bruto said:
I imagine it depends on how we define "care." He does not care for anyone as another person, as a normal person might. But insofar as the distress of others seems to be the thing that makes him happy, he might be said to care about them.
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That's not what makes him happy. He makes people miserable because it's a power trip. He has the power. He has the control. That is what makes him happy - exerting power over others. Other people matter to him only inasmuch as he controls them. If they acknowledge that, if they bow and scrape and tell him how wonderful he is, he likes them. If they don't, if they defy him, they are the Enemy, to be ridiculed and derided and other than that making him feel good about himself, he is indifferent to what happens to them.
 
Helen said:
Well, say what you like about King Con (and I do! I do!), but he knows that there is no one in who is able to praise, adore, and worship him the way he is able to praise, adore and worship himself, so why on earth would he care about anyone else, once they have been conned by his latest grift?
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He loves to be able to treat them like dirt them hear their shouts and cheers of adulation. His shoot someone on fifth Avenue aside was him expressing that cynicism.
 
Safe-Keeper said:
Reposted from another thread.

🐆.

It's just frankly ridiculous how horribly Dump treats his adoring disciples, and how they just keep adoring him. It'd be really sad if they weren't worshiping such horrible people.
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I think they stick with him because he hates the same people as they do. What they don’t realize is that Donald Trump pretty much hates them too. He panders to them and grifts off of them. That’s not love.
 
thesarkariform.com

"I Voted for Trump" — Now My Industry's Down 23% and Collapsing Fast: Freight CEO’s Heartbreaking Realization

Craig Fuller thought he was voting for business savvy, not economic shock therapy. But just 100…
thesarkariform.com

“I Voted for Trump” — Now My Industry’s Down 23% and Collapsing Fast: Freight CEO’s Heartbreaking Realization​

Craig Fuller thought he was voting for business savvy, not economic shock therapy. But just 100 days into Donald Trump’s second term, the founder of Chattanooga-based freight analytics firm FreightWaves says the administration’s aggressive tariff policies are slamming the industry he helped build—and fast.

“I did not vote for a neutron bomb to wipe out supply chains and small businesses,” Fuller wrote in an April 20 social media post. A longtime Trump supporter and even a rumored contender for transportation secretary, Fuller is now sounding the alarm about the damage he says is being done by what he calls “economic whiplash.”

In his view, the 145% tariffs on Chinese goods are functionally an embargo, and they’ve been rolled out so suddenly that U.S. companies haven’t had time to adapt. “It’s too much too fast,” Fuller told reporters in a phone interview. “The economy can’t absorb it.”

Fuller’s concerns reflect a growing unease in the freight sector. Traditionally, spring marks an uptick in shipping volume. But this year, he says, demand is softening—and fast. Truck traffic out of Los Angeles, the country’s largest port, is already down 23% compared to the same period last year. While not all of that is due to tariffs, Fuller sees it as an early warning sign.


“It works like a virus,” he said. “It starts in Southern California and spreads across the country. If you can’t move freight out of L.A., you’re not going to be filling trucks to places like Chicago, Dallas, or Kansas City either.”

Freight imports through Southern California ports could be slashed by as much as 50% this year, he predicts. And that means layoffs across the supply chain are likely coming by June.
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Hey pal, guess what?

◊◊◊◊ YOU!!!
 
So many people seem to have voted for Donald Trump because "business." If they had actually done any homework, they'd have realized that Trump built his own business by stiffing and then bankrupting the smaller businesses he relied upon to do the actual work. Donald Trump is not a champion of small business. They're his prey.
 
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