Donald Trump is a confidence man, a charlatan, an unrepentant liar whose deceits have cost at least a half-million Americans their lives. Why do so many American support him?
"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." Especially when you put hundreds of them in the same place at the same time, give them an easily recognizable uniform (red MAGA hats), and play to their imagined grievances.
Fear and hate are the handmaidens of fascism. Trump's supporters are afraid of everything their silos of mis/disinformation tells them to fear. I know grown men and women whose raison de etre is to hate. How they got this way is easy to trace over the 40 yr. arc from Reagan to Trump.
McCarthy and the Red Scare comes to mind on the political end. But you can't get past Religion's hellfire and damnation threats to scare people into a fearful mob mentality.
"This is the great patriot whose father hired a doctor to lie about his being disabled by bone spurs in his feet to get him out of the Vietnam draft five times."
Fake assed "tough guy", orange sus domesticus that would soil himself multiple times if he ever found himself in some serious kinetic "bullshit" (as he is wont to say). I would bet dollars to rat turds that that coward has never even been in a fistfight. As feeble as Joe Biden appears to be, he once said, of Agent Orange, that he would like to "take him behind the gym" (inferring thump on him). Feebleness notwithstanding, I am certain Pal Joey would kick his ass...TODAY! I come from two generations of combat veterans of conflicts that disproportionately killed my people only so they could return stateside, maimed and be treated as citizenless citizens (WWII and Vietnam; grandfather and father, respectively) and have been in all manner of combat in my own life. The fact that this bastard ducked (FIVE TIMES!) and has the grapes to call himself "tough" infuriates me to no end.
Rohn I was going to like your comment, but was blocked from doing so. Now how on Earth did that happen?
However I don't understand this sentence: "I come from two generations of combat veterans of conflicts that disproportionately killed my people"
Assuming that you refer to WWII and Vietnam, your father and grandfather. And that you are an American Descendant of Slaves (ADOS), how did either war disproportionately kill your people, assuming that by that phrase you meant ADOS. The way you stated your comment is that the proportion of blacks killed in WWII and Vietnam were greater than the proportion of whites killed. I don't think that is what you meant
In WWII, 400,000 American lives were lost, of that 708 were black. So not out of proportion.
There were 58,220 American lives lost in Vietnam of that a total of 7,262 black Americans died in the Vietnam war. They represented about 12.4% of total lives lost. although black Americans were about 11% of the population in the 1970's . the percentage of black lives lost, was all out of proportion to the size of the population.
First, to be approaching a 100 years old (you are older than my parents would be) you appear to be most recalcitrant to cognitive expansion. White boys do not control my narrative. Further, I have been admonished, in my life, that it is far better to remain silent and be thought an idiot than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt. And, it is quite clear you have never seen combat, of any type, in your life.
Your assertion makes a number of arrogant assumptions, which appears to be your modus operandi. I said nothing about "American lives" but your white supremacist instincts compel you to feel that you can dictate, you cannot. "My people" are the world's majority, Mr. Minority. Not only do I not consider myself "American" (and if I am I am like none other, given history) I quite concisely stated "my people." Additionally, it would be foolish of me to accept your, or any white boy's, narrative (let alone unflattering statistics). Nonetheless, I shall humor you.
Now, I am aware that you are a troll and you, likely, have nothing to do but spread your dis-ease of white supremacy and I will not validate you, ever, with any further response as I am satiated letting one make a fool of themselves. However, in the spirit of charitability, I will grant you this one time, only, dispensation.
Finally, given the apartheid nation in which we have been involuntarily imprisoned for half a millennium and the horrific statistics that remain constant, any Black Person in the United States, I don't give a damn if it is a solitary soul, that dies killing Non-Europeans, his/her brethren, is disproportionate and too many. How many white boys have killed other white boys at the orders of black and brown people? But, then again, that is beyond your limited white privileged cognition to comprehend, let alone appreciate. I employ the term "cognition" most loosely.
There you go all angry again. Rohn if you would shed that chip on your shoulder you would be alright.
I understand that you have to vent your spleen, but this animosity to whites is no different than the white animosity and fear of blacks.
And your need to use "big" words only displays your inferiority complex. Get over it, be real.
I understand the impulse that drives you, because for years racists have considered blacks as mentally deficient. I remember not so long ago, that they were amazed that Obama could speak coherently and eloquently, and I understand how such sentiments can induce a drive to prove otherwise, but you over compensate.
You aren't making points, and you are not helping your cause, with your sham bluster and attacks.
Myself I care not what you think or what you think of me. I know who I am, and am very content, but you and that chip on your shoulder are your own worst enemy.
Listening to interviews with people attending his rallies it seems as some Americans feel let down by their governments (local, state and federal) and by big business.
They see all the wealth and prosperity around them and wonder why they didn't get their fair share.
They feel surrounded by corruption and self-serving corporations.
They think that an outsider is needed to fix the situation.
Why they believe that Trump is an outsider, someone they can tust and someone that have their best interest in mind is a mystery to me.
Exactly - the biggest shyster on this planet & they believe he will save them from people like himself ??? They are so delusional it is beyond understanding ! This article is such a great synopsis of trump's actual history as 'leader' I am going to save it in my 'keepthis' folder ! Thank you !
I don't think they are delusional, rather they are aspirational, and they see Trump as their avatar and savior. They know he is a perv, a liar, a cheat, a tyrant, a mob boss,, a traitor but they don't care, they look at Trump and they see themselves. He is a mirror to their "soul' (for want of a better word).
Americans suffer from the Horatio Alger myth, many of us have ancestors who came to these shores, believing the propaganda that the streets were paved with gold, arriving here and discovering the lie, never the less the notion of Manifest Destiny and gold at the end of the rainbow, drove them west, to slaughter and be slaughtered by the original inhabitants,
Their children, having inherited or claimed a postage stamp sized piece of land (40 acres or a quarter section)m saw themselves as land invested gentry, and the only reason that they weren't rich is because they were temporarily distressed, but they believe that they too will have their day, after all it is gods promise., if only they could dispose of those pesky immigrants, gays, insubordinate women and people of color, especially those that don't speak English or perfect English.
I think this was called The American Dream? Which I always thought was a scam.
You can give people land but that doesn't necessarily mean they will be good proprietors.
Puritan ethic comes in here somewhere........work, work, 'pull yourselves up by your bootstraps' mentality. Giving handouts to these people I guess ensures that they didn't make it and then they blame everyone but themselves.
My third great grandfather homesteaded 40 acres in the black belt of Perry Co, Ala in the early 19th Century (Black belt had nothing to do with race, but was called that because of the black gumbo mud, which was rich for growing cotton, a combination of clay and bottom soil from the Cahaba River. However unless it is constantly fertilized tobacco and cotton suck the nitrogen and other nutrients out of it within a generation and the sons that can, have to migrate to more fertile soil, And that happened.
My great grandfather homesteaded 160 acres of pine forest in 1894, and not doing anything with it he sold it to a carpet bagger from Des Moines, Iowa for $1 an acre, and the carpet bagger built a saw mill on his land, in fairness the carpet bagger was the front man for a group of investors. My great grandfather and his father eked out a living as pig farmers in the piney's, their sons as lumberjacks and sharecroppers
They were also illiterate, my 5th great grandfather disappeared off the scene, before he could educate his younger sons, and being illiterate they were not competent to engage in business, sign contracts, keep books, and were taken advantage of, and the condition was passed on , until Horace Mann, the apostle of public education, convinced enough states and people to fund public education via taxes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Mann
...and this attitude, of course, was fostered by forty plus years of propaganda spinning all (mostly)Republican-caused problems upon the "Libruls" (Democrats.)
If it is all about envy and frustration because they aren't also wealthy and feel abused by big business and billionaires, then why do they allow themselves to be led around like a calf with a ring through i'ts nose by the same?
IMO it is deeper than that, because the culture war, the war on "woke" is not about taxes or economics, but about loss of primacy of males, especially white males. And that can be reduced down to sex, and that is why Viagra is so popular. I contend that Viagra is a big seller among "conservatives" and not "liberals".
Try to get Trump supporters to read this article. Reading something the cult followers don't agree with is next to impossible. From The trenches in rural Arizona, the only way to reach and deprogram the Trump supporters I can see on a mass level is to run television commercials on the western channels and sports channels explaining what a dictatorship is and what it can do. There's a pretty good network of antenna TV that has cheap commercials. At least in the six swing States that needs to be tried. Talking to a trump supporter the other day, he told me that if Trump took away our social security and minimum wage the Trump supporters would vote him out of office? I really don't think they know what a dictator is. Any word with more than two syllables is suspect for them knowing its meaning. I told him that dictators don't go by elections and he said basically that he and his Trump supporters would fight the government? AR-15s versus tanks, attack helicopters, Putin, Saudi Arabia, China... Most days Trump supporters can't even keep their cars running, let alone fight off the globalist autocrats.
Sure, look at how often people have poured money into "Nigerian Prince" scams, refusing to believe that they have been played for suckers. Once you buy into a confidence scheme it is very hard to get out as a person's self-esteem (and too often finances) can be invested in proving that they were right. It is emotional attachment to sunk costs and what they represent (in this case a "powerful" leader who they think is for them), not logical thinking.
First, Trump got more free advertising than any candidate in my lifetime. He sells. He was a TV star and was in the news long before he became a politician.
Second, some people have a predisposition to his brand of demagogue. IMHO there is something to the Jungian collective racial subconscious. A high percentage of the population wants and probably needs to be led and needs to believe they are part of a movement. He often speaks in codes. His supporters believe that they know what he means. Trump and his base often act as if they have their own signals, and he uses gestures that may/may not be indicative that he is signaling groups like Qanon and other white supremacists.
Third, there are suckers born every minute. IMHO 80-90% of his followers vote contrary to their own economic and physical health. Blinded by the quest against "the other." Someone who is in a cult might lose their sense of individuality, become obsessed with cult doctrine, cut contact with loved ones, and/or start engaging in unhealthy behaviors voting against their own self interest.
Fourth, he passes himself off as the "hero with a thousand faces," which is an archetype of the dominant myth of western civilization. Ihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces
Trump passes himself off as a superman, even selling trading cards depicting himself as heroic figures. Consider that George Lucas based the framework of the story for the original Star Wars (1977) around Campbell's theories.
Fifth, many of his followers confuse him with other "heroes". . To many where I live, he is the second coming of Fulgencio Batista, Cuban dictator who opposed Fidel Castro. He gestures like caudillos like Francisco Franco and Juan Peron. He poses like Mussolini. According to his first wife, he studied the speeches of Hitler. He supports dictators like Putin, Xi Jinping, Orban, Kim Jong-un. Many of his cult followers confuse him with Jesus Christ. He doesn't discourage them.
If 'tis true that "the truth shall set you free," you are one of the freest people on planet Earth. That having been stated, I would proffer that that number "6" is, likely 7.5.
What struck me was the number of people involved in Trump's crimes who have conveniently hung themselves including Epstein around the moment they could have exposed him further. And how Kennedy's son was the only one who escaped this fate. It smells a bit like Putin and his windows.
My take on Why do many Americans support Trump, is because he is their avatar. Meaning the culture war. The Civil war did not end the confederacy, it just went underground and like a lake of lava, simmered and built up pressure, till the earth above it, gave way and it erupted. That was Trump, who weakened the ground of Democracy and let loose the hounds of hell.
Having been raised in the south and north, I feel I know of what I speak, especially since I lived under the roof of a house owned by my Southern Baptist preacher uncle.
Racism is not the only thing that has been festering, but the acceptance of women owning their own lives and bodies, gays gettng married, transpersons gaining rights, acceptance, medical care and even elected, terrified and thus motivated the poor suffering low T males on the right
For these so called men, unless they have power, are in total control of not only their women, but society as well, they feel less than a man a woe man. Has anyone besides me noticed that there is no female corollary to the "woundful slur" of emasculate and effeminate?
Why do you think Viagra is such a profit maker, not because their is a biological reason that some males can't get an erection, it is all psychological. Human males don't go through musth like elephants, or other animals do during the rut or mating season, and women don't have to go through estrace , like other animals do, to seek sex.
Human males who suffer from arrested development, just can't get it up, unless they are dominant and the partner is submissive. The words Top and Bottom have significance in the straight world as well as the gay world.
Self validating women, black's who submit to white male domination are rewarded and the same who don't are perceived as sexual threats, and gay males, especially those that are macho and don't act like "pansies" not only confound and confuse the psyche of this poor woe men, On the one hand, they evoke disgust, for acting like a woman, regardless of outward behavior, by having sex with a male.
It was an idyllic world for males, when blacks and women "knew their place, were submissive and LGBT wee in the closet, Black assertiveness and masculinity, women's independence and self validation, and the public presence of gays and Drag Queens did not pose a threat, or evoke in this phobes, a sexual attraction.
There was a niteclub in San Francisco called Finoccio's, it was a favorite tourist attraction, and attracted, especially man a "straight, especially those who suppressed their same sex attraction.
A Stanford study involved volunteers who defined themselves as very homophobic, and males who were acceptive of gays. They wired electrodes to their private parts and showed them homosexual erotic, the more homophibic they were, the more the needle went off the charts.
You're not too old to run for president, and by the way I do not believe in karma either, just Justice. I think the right wingers are allergic to the truth after telling and listening to lies all their life. The truth scares the feces out of them. They feel threatened by the truth seekers, intellectuals and more evolved. They start looking around like a pack of carnivores after killing a large chunk of meat and saying to themselves, we can steal all of their stuff in the name of our God and still get to go to heaven. They just view the more evolved as a feminine beta dessert.
LOL. Bob. "They just view the more evolved as a feminine beta dessert." that line is a keeper.
If you were addressing me. I am not only too old, at 84, but unfit. I am in remission from brain and lung cancer, the craniotomy and radiation, screwed up my sense of balance and motor skills. I can't even read my own handwriting, thankfully it hasn't effected my touch typing (though I am sure that some wish it did). I am also pre diabetic and very opinionated, though I do not hold beliefs, just opinions which I have arrived at, and not acquired
I am not a victim of anything except my own stupidity, fecklessness, and arrogance that made me think I was superhuman and untouchable, cancer brought me down to earth, as did diabetes. We learn too late..
There notion of a "real man" is stilted by the environment in which they live.
In a red neck trailer park of single wide's, the best looking women are hitched to the loudest, brutish, most tattooed dude in the park. On Park avenue, the army candy of billionaires are for hire wives and mistresses, like that "calendar model" from Slovakia, Melania that married the orange emperor.
Unattractive low status men, who can't find a mate, order one from the internet from an international pool of hungry and starving women, who see America as a large shopping mall.
It is not real men, that they seek, but a fantasy version of a real man, an archetype that has been inculcated in them by their social status, family and friends.
When I was young it wasTyrone Power, Lionel Barrymore, John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart and the likes, when I was a teen it was James Dean
They hate change, they hate rules, and they hate us. There he is---all their grievances come to life. The con-man gets up there and tells them just what they want to hear. Trump can wave his magic wand and take them back to their childhood when they ruled the world. It's not their fault, and he's got the solutions. Thom did a great job of pointing out he has NONE.
This faction, this cult, is not coping with the demographic change. Their white world without a climate crisis is not coming back.
Hating change was the old timey conservatives like William F Buckley, Since his time the world has changed, especially the social and culture environment of the U.S. and it isn't change that motivates these creeps, it is fear of the loss of dominance, power and control that the changes
have caused.
No longer King of their little castle, women no longer submissive (there is even spousal rape now, when in the 1950's and 1960's they were free to rape their wives, POC now get (supposedly, what a farce) equal treatment and have entered the middle class in droves, and homosexuals and trans, are now out of the closet and, gasp, even being elected to office.
The world has changed, and they want to take it back, not to 1950, but 1850. they want a society in which those who have taken their balls, poor weak males posing as men, are either seen but not heard, or not seen at all, except when they step off the sidewalk into the road, when their "betters" approaches.
BTW Ramaswamy and Haley, even Tim Scott, Herschel Walker and Clarence Thomas are proof that it isn't melanin that they fear, so long as melaninic, sings their tune and submits to their domination and control, they accept them into their club, but to a limited degree., the illusion of acceptance. Even without Donald Trump, there is no chance that Ramaswamy and Haley would win a primary.
So true, Thom. The cultastrophe that is Trumpism ironically reinforces the notion that people as a whole are trusting, which I interpret further as "good".
It's a perverse animal which subverts its species better tendencies for the sole purpose of self exhalation - to the detriment of the entire species existence.
I hope the fever among the herd of Trump break now, rather than in a time following his ascension to executioner in chief. I wish this for the sake of the duped - they don't know what they're fighting for - only whom.
It's because people know something is very wrong as Biden spends hundreds of billions on weapons and militarism, yet there is austerity for health care, education and housing here in America. People know the system is hopelessly corrupted and as interest rates skyrocket to keep the wealthy protected without a word from Biden those of us adversely affected wonder who is going to protect us? In 2016 Bernie Sanders he was the anti-Clinton, anti-establishment candidate who was looking out for us, although your cowardly assessment was that they were "identical" presidential candidates. Trump was the anti-establishment candidate who was looking out for himself but convinced a base that felt left behind that he was looking out for them. If Democrats had integrity and you and so many others were not doing contortions to make excuses for their lies, militarism, and terrible judgment it is likely Trump wouldn't a have ascended. In fact, Democrats and Clinton's campaign helped him to do so! And if the Democratic Party wouldn't have tipped the scales against Sanders, it is likely you would have never seen Trump as president because so many independents and conservatives agreed with Bernie's approach. Biden's deceits and militarism has cost hundreds of thousands of lives, millions if you count his insane rants favoring the invasion of Iraq, but those are the lives of poor black and brown people overseas and they don't really matter to Biden liberals. So you can back the guy whose innate racism has him publicly doubting the loss of Palestinian life while he hugs the Trump of Tel Aviv Netanyahu. It's the cancerous hypocrisy, violence and militarism that allows a Trump to ascend to power, and you Thom are now part of the problem not the solution.
There we go again Boris,,. Biden's militarism. Man you sure do sound like Putin's puppet.
Humans, especially XY humans are their own worst enemy, they seem interested in one thing, and one thing only, testosterone needy domination, like your butt buddy Putin.
Let's talk about his militarism, his psycopathic need to dominate. With psycopaths like him and Xi in the world. I would hope that Biden is militaristic, alas all the evidence is that he isn't.
Save yourself the energy and time, there are probably only two or three people who read these reports that agree with you, and they either lack critical thinking skills or in Putin's tank.
Same here. Bernie was our last best chance, alas he scared the bejesus out of the money powers, and the DNC put their thumb on the scale for a woman, who not only lacked charisma and was trustworthy, but was married to a man that created the rust belt/swing states, betrayed his base, and gave rise to the billionaire class.
And the voting idiots, either were ignorant, or fooled themselves into believing that a self aggrandizing narcissist, would be different than her husband.
Propaganda is dangerous whether it's from Russian or US sources. It can lead to world wars when leaders are prevented from negotiating peace by outside influences. This is from a Ukrainian newspaper so don't be scared, don't cower in the corner, don't put me under the HUAC.... https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/05/5/7344206/
World wars or abject surrender to psychopathic madmen. it is apparent that is your desire.
Poor Barry, the perpetual victim, if only his munificence ruled the world, all would be right, as the gulags filled, and the noise of firing squads could be heard 24/7
There’s definitely a cult mentality following amongst tRump’s base. What’s unforgivable are his enablers, the spineless Republicans in Congress, with the exception of Liz Cheney and a few others most of whom paid a price for their integrity, the spineless have bowed to their master out of fear of his wrath and threats of his cult base.
The part I’ve had a hard time wrapping my head around is the far-right evangelical Christian haters. The biggest hypocrite bunch of all time. Based on tRumps lack of morals and virtue, he’s not a poster child of the ideal Christian. (I wish spell check would stop the capitalization. These haters aren’t worthy of the big C.). I think the far-right evangelical Christian haters, with their barely hidden racism, fear of a vengeful God, hate for anyone other than their view of an Aryan Christianity, without sin, made for easy taking by the Republican makeover of the 1960’s through 1980’s with an ever growing political powerhouse of a movement since Jimmy Falwell and Billy Graham got the ear of Richard Nixon. TRump is an ends to their means, but definitely not their savior.
Also indirectly avoiding tRump but taking full advantage of the moment is Koch and the like. They’ve never bought into the carnival barker, investing their time and money with Congress and down ballot races. Similar with the “thank you for letting us pick your judges” Federalist Society. Similar with the Heritage Foundation. They see tRump as one of many means to an end, expendable. They’re playing the long game. And that’s where it gets really scary. Scarier than tRump. They have a chosen one, or maybe more than one. And that’s where the unholy allegiance between the far-right evangelical Christian haters and this dark side of Conservatism merge. That chosen one, groomed for the long game, might by circumstance and fate have emerged early - James Michael Johnson.
Falwell, Graham and todays so called Christians, don't perceive themselves as hypocrites, because they have never read the bible, are totally unfamiliar with Matthew, and only know about Luke, and Paul,. because that is the swill pumped into them by the perverts and crooks who lean on the podium at Sunday go to meeting sessions, where so called preachers and priests preach hatred, bigoty which generates fear. And fear is the easiest way to control and pick pockets of the masses.
A secular society is a threat to the evil pick pockets who use something called god as a sock puppet Even slavery was justified by this sock puppet
The sheep look to their shepherd for guidance, support and protection. The purpose of a shepherd is to keep the sheep in the flock, till it is time for the fleecing and slaughter.
I'll defer to Mencken:
"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." Especially when you put hundreds of them in the same place at the same time, give them an easily recognizable uniform (red MAGA hats), and play to their imagined grievances.
Sublime, indeed.
Fear and hate are the handmaidens of fascism. Trump's supporters are afraid of everything their silos of mis/disinformation tells them to fear. I know grown men and women whose raison de etre is to hate. How they got this way is easy to trace over the 40 yr. arc from Reagan to Trump.
Tis older than that, Reagan was the door opener though.
McCarthy and the Red Scare comes to mind on the political end. But you can't get past Religion's hellfire and damnation threats to scare people into a fearful mob mentality.
"This is the great patriot whose father hired a doctor to lie about his being disabled by bone spurs in his feet to get him out of the Vietnam draft five times."
Fake assed "tough guy", orange sus domesticus that would soil himself multiple times if he ever found himself in some serious kinetic "bullshit" (as he is wont to say). I would bet dollars to rat turds that that coward has never even been in a fistfight. As feeble as Joe Biden appears to be, he once said, of Agent Orange, that he would like to "take him behind the gym" (inferring thump on him). Feebleness notwithstanding, I am certain Pal Joey would kick his ass...TODAY! I come from two generations of combat veterans of conflicts that disproportionately killed my people only so they could return stateside, maimed and be treated as citizenless citizens (WWII and Vietnam; grandfather and father, respectively) and have been in all manner of combat in my own life. The fact that this bastard ducked (FIVE TIMES!) and has the grapes to call himself "tough" infuriates me to no end.
Rohn I was going to like your comment, but was blocked from doing so. Now how on Earth did that happen?
However I don't understand this sentence: "I come from two generations of combat veterans of conflicts that disproportionately killed my people"
Assuming that you refer to WWII and Vietnam, your father and grandfather. And that you are an American Descendant of Slaves (ADOS), how did either war disproportionately kill your people, assuming that by that phrase you meant ADOS. The way you stated your comment is that the proportion of blacks killed in WWII and Vietnam were greater than the proportion of whites killed. I don't think that is what you meant
In WWII, 400,000 American lives were lost, of that 708 were black. So not out of proportion.
There were 58,220 American lives lost in Vietnam of that a total of 7,262 black Americans died in the Vietnam war. They represented about 12.4% of total lives lost. although black Americans were about 11% of the population in the 1970's . the percentage of black lives lost, was all out of proportion to the size of the population.
Nobody here is blocked in any way...
Thanks, but how is that I couldn't like Rohn's comment? A glitch? I could like other comments.
Sometimes you can't 'like' a comment.
Just scroll down then back up and hit 'like' again..it works for me.
First, to be approaching a 100 years old (you are older than my parents would be) you appear to be most recalcitrant to cognitive expansion. White boys do not control my narrative. Further, I have been admonished, in my life, that it is far better to remain silent and be thought an idiot than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt. And, it is quite clear you have never seen combat, of any type, in your life.
Your assertion makes a number of arrogant assumptions, which appears to be your modus operandi. I said nothing about "American lives" but your white supremacist instincts compel you to feel that you can dictate, you cannot. "My people" are the world's majority, Mr. Minority. Not only do I not consider myself "American" (and if I am I am like none other, given history) I quite concisely stated "my people." Additionally, it would be foolish of me to accept your, or any white boy's, narrative (let alone unflattering statistics). Nonetheless, I shall humor you.
Now, I am aware that you are a troll and you, likely, have nothing to do but spread your dis-ease of white supremacy and I will not validate you, ever, with any further response as I am satiated letting one make a fool of themselves. However, in the spirit of charitability, I will grant you this one time, only, dispensation.
Finally, given the apartheid nation in which we have been involuntarily imprisoned for half a millennium and the horrific statistics that remain constant, any Black Person in the United States, I don't give a damn if it is a solitary soul, that dies killing Non-Europeans, his/her brethren, is disproportionate and too many. How many white boys have killed other white boys at the orders of black and brown people? But, then again, that is beyond your limited white privileged cognition to comprehend, let alone appreciate. I employ the term "cognition" most loosely.
https://www.dw.com/en/africa-in-world-war-ii-the-forgotten-veterans/a-18437531#:~:text=From%201939%20hundreds%20of%20thousands,for%20their%20European%20colonial%20masters.
https://time.com/5852476/da-5-bloods-black-vietnam-veterans/
https://rohnkenyatta.substack.com/p/strange-days-of-sorrowful-joy-and
There you go all angry again. Rohn if you would shed that chip on your shoulder you would be alright.
I understand that you have to vent your spleen, but this animosity to whites is no different than the white animosity and fear of blacks.
And your need to use "big" words only displays your inferiority complex. Get over it, be real.
I understand the impulse that drives you, because for years racists have considered blacks as mentally deficient. I remember not so long ago, that they were amazed that Obama could speak coherently and eloquently, and I understand how such sentiments can induce a drive to prove otherwise, but you over compensate.
You aren't making points, and you are not helping your cause, with your sham bluster and attacks.
Myself I care not what you think or what you think of me. I know who I am, and am very content, but you and that chip on your shoulder are your own worst enemy.
Listening to interviews with people attending his rallies it seems as some Americans feel let down by their governments (local, state and federal) and by big business.
They see all the wealth and prosperity around them and wonder why they didn't get their fair share.
They feel surrounded by corruption and self-serving corporations.
They think that an outsider is needed to fix the situation.
Why they believe that Trump is an outsider, someone they can tust and someone that have their best interest in mind is a mystery to me.
Exactly - the biggest shyster on this planet & they believe he will save them from people like himself ??? They are so delusional it is beyond understanding ! This article is such a great synopsis of trump's actual history as 'leader' I am going to save it in my 'keepthis' folder ! Thank you !
I don't think they are delusional, rather they are aspirational, and they see Trump as their avatar and savior. They know he is a perv, a liar, a cheat, a tyrant, a mob boss,, a traitor but they don't care, they look at Trump and they see themselves. He is a mirror to their "soul' (for want of a better word).
Maybe they are stuck in the Wild West?
They are stuck alright, and they squeal like a stuck pig.
Americans suffer from the Horatio Alger myth, many of us have ancestors who came to these shores, believing the propaganda that the streets were paved with gold, arriving here and discovering the lie, never the less the notion of Manifest Destiny and gold at the end of the rainbow, drove them west, to slaughter and be slaughtered by the original inhabitants,
Their children, having inherited or claimed a postage stamp sized piece of land (40 acres or a quarter section)m saw themselves as land invested gentry, and the only reason that they weren't rich is because they were temporarily distressed, but they believe that they too will have their day, after all it is gods promise., if only they could dispose of those pesky immigrants, gays, insubordinate women and people of color, especially those that don't speak English or perfect English.
I think this was called The American Dream? Which I always thought was a scam.
You can give people land but that doesn't necessarily mean they will be good proprietors.
Puritan ethic comes in here somewhere........work, work, 'pull yourselves up by your bootstraps' mentality. Giving handouts to these people I guess ensures that they didn't make it and then they blame everyone but themselves.
I don't know..
Just throwing ideas out there.
My third great grandfather homesteaded 40 acres in the black belt of Perry Co, Ala in the early 19th Century (Black belt had nothing to do with race, but was called that because of the black gumbo mud, which was rich for growing cotton, a combination of clay and bottom soil from the Cahaba River. However unless it is constantly fertilized tobacco and cotton suck the nitrogen and other nutrients out of it within a generation and the sons that can, have to migrate to more fertile soil, And that happened.
My great grandfather homesteaded 160 acres of pine forest in 1894, and not doing anything with it he sold it to a carpet bagger from Des Moines, Iowa for $1 an acre, and the carpet bagger built a saw mill on his land, in fairness the carpet bagger was the front man for a group of investors. My great grandfather and his father eked out a living as pig farmers in the piney's, their sons as lumberjacks and sharecroppers
They were also illiterate, my 5th great grandfather disappeared off the scene, before he could educate his younger sons, and being illiterate they were not competent to engage in business, sign contracts, keep books, and were taken advantage of, and the condition was passed on , until Horace Mann, the apostle of public education, convinced enough states and people to fund public education via taxes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Mann
...and this attitude, of course, was fostered by forty plus years of propaganda spinning all (mostly)Republican-caused problems upon the "Libruls" (Democrats.)
If it is all about envy and frustration because they aren't also wealthy and feel abused by big business and billionaires, then why do they allow themselves to be led around like a calf with a ring through i'ts nose by the same?
IMO it is deeper than that, because the culture war, the war on "woke" is not about taxes or economics, but about loss of primacy of males, especially white males. And that can be reduced down to sex, and that is why Viagra is so popular. I contend that Viagra is a big seller among "conservatives" and not "liberals".
Try to get Trump supporters to read this article. Reading something the cult followers don't agree with is next to impossible. From The trenches in rural Arizona, the only way to reach and deprogram the Trump supporters I can see on a mass level is to run television commercials on the western channels and sports channels explaining what a dictatorship is and what it can do. There's a pretty good network of antenna TV that has cheap commercials. At least in the six swing States that needs to be tried. Talking to a trump supporter the other day, he told me that if Trump took away our social security and minimum wage the Trump supporters would vote him out of office? I really don't think they know what a dictator is. Any word with more than two syllables is suspect for them knowing its meaning. I told him that dictators don't go by elections and he said basically that he and his Trump supporters would fight the government? AR-15s versus tanks, attack helicopters, Putin, Saudi Arabia, China... Most days Trump supporters can't even keep their cars running, let alone fight off the globalist autocrats.
Well, Bobby Azarian thinks it is a neurological issue where Trump supporters have difficulty changing their mind once they have made a choice.
Sure, look at how often people have poured money into "Nigerian Prince" scams, refusing to believe that they have been played for suckers. Once you buy into a confidence scheme it is very hard to get out as a person's self-esteem (and too often finances) can be invested in proving that they were right. It is emotional attachment to sunk costs and what they represent (in this case a "powerful" leader who they think is for them), not logical thinking.
It is deeper than that, much deeper.
Yes I agree.
First, Trump got more free advertising than any candidate in my lifetime. He sells. He was a TV star and was in the news long before he became a politician.
Second, some people have a predisposition to his brand of demagogue. IMHO there is something to the Jungian collective racial subconscious. A high percentage of the population wants and probably needs to be led and needs to believe they are part of a movement. He often speaks in codes. His supporters believe that they know what he means. Trump and his base often act as if they have their own signals, and he uses gestures that may/may not be indicative that he is signaling groups like Qanon and other white supremacists.
His slogan, make American great again was Reagan's campaign slogan and was used by Clinton. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_America_Great_Again
Third, there are suckers born every minute. IMHO 80-90% of his followers vote contrary to their own economic and physical health. Blinded by the quest against "the other." Someone who is in a cult might lose their sense of individuality, become obsessed with cult doctrine, cut contact with loved ones, and/or start engaging in unhealthy behaviors voting against their own self interest.
Fourth, he passes himself off as the "hero with a thousand faces," which is an archetype of the dominant myth of western civilization. Ihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces
Trump passes himself off as a superman, even selling trading cards depicting himself as heroic figures. Consider that George Lucas based the framework of the story for the original Star Wars (1977) around Campbell's theories.
Fifth, many of his followers confuse him with other "heroes". . To many where I live, he is the second coming of Fulgencio Batista, Cuban dictator who opposed Fidel Castro. He gestures like caudillos like Francisco Franco and Juan Peron. He poses like Mussolini. According to his first wife, he studied the speeches of Hitler. He supports dictators like Putin, Xi Jinping, Orban, Kim Jong-un. Many of his cult followers confuse him with Jesus Christ. He doesn't discourage them.
An to top it off, he tells the suckers, “I’m doing it for you!”
Trump's Number One Superpower is so easy to spot:
He says cruel, vicious, sick things about minorities (esp. Blacks) which 6 out of ten majorities (i.e., Whites), only think.
OUTGODDAMNEDSTANDING!
If 'tis true that "the truth shall set you free," you are one of the freest people on planet Earth. That having been stated, I would proffer that that number "6" is, likely 7.5.
Truth be told.
Thanks for this piece.
What struck me was the number of people involved in Trump's crimes who have conveniently hung themselves including Epstein around the moment they could have exposed him further. And how Kennedy's son was the only one who escaped this fate. It smells a bit like Putin and his windows.
My take on Why do many Americans support Trump, is because he is their avatar. Meaning the culture war. The Civil war did not end the confederacy, it just went underground and like a lake of lava, simmered and built up pressure, till the earth above it, gave way and it erupted. That was Trump, who weakened the ground of Democracy and let loose the hounds of hell.
Having been raised in the south and north, I feel I know of what I speak, especially since I lived under the roof of a house owned by my Southern Baptist preacher uncle.
Racism is not the only thing that has been festering, but the acceptance of women owning their own lives and bodies, gays gettng married, transpersons gaining rights, acceptance, medical care and even elected, terrified and thus motivated the poor suffering low T males on the right
For these so called men, unless they have power, are in total control of not only their women, but society as well, they feel less than a man a woe man. Has anyone besides me noticed that there is no female corollary to the "woundful slur" of emasculate and effeminate?
Why do you think Viagra is such a profit maker, not because their is a biological reason that some males can't get an erection, it is all psychological. Human males don't go through musth like elephants, or other animals do during the rut or mating season, and women don't have to go through estrace , like other animals do, to seek sex.
Human males who suffer from arrested development, just can't get it up, unless they are dominant and the partner is submissive. The words Top and Bottom have significance in the straight world as well as the gay world.
Self validating women, black's who submit to white male domination are rewarded and the same who don't are perceived as sexual threats, and gay males, especially those that are macho and don't act like "pansies" not only confound and confuse the psyche of this poor woe men, On the one hand, they evoke disgust, for acting like a woman, regardless of outward behavior, by having sex with a male.
It was an idyllic world for males, when blacks and women "knew their place, were submissive and LGBT wee in the closet, Black assertiveness and masculinity, women's independence and self validation, and the public presence of gays and Drag Queens did not pose a threat, or evoke in this phobes, a sexual attraction.
There was a niteclub in San Francisco called Finoccio's, it was a favorite tourist attraction, and attracted, especially man a "straight, especially those who suppressed their same sex attraction.
A Stanford study involved volunteers who defined themselves as very homophobic, and males who were acceptive of gays. They wired electrodes to their private parts and showed them homosexual erotic, the more homophibic they were, the more the needle went off the charts.
You're not too old to run for president, and by the way I do not believe in karma either, just Justice. I think the right wingers are allergic to the truth after telling and listening to lies all their life. The truth scares the feces out of them. They feel threatened by the truth seekers, intellectuals and more evolved. They start looking around like a pack of carnivores after killing a large chunk of meat and saying to themselves, we can steal all of their stuff in the name of our God and still get to go to heaven. They just view the more evolved as a feminine beta dessert.
LOL. Bob. "They just view the more evolved as a feminine beta dessert." that line is a keeper.
If you were addressing me. I am not only too old, at 84, but unfit. I am in remission from brain and lung cancer, the craniotomy and radiation, screwed up my sense of balance and motor skills. I can't even read my own handwriting, thankfully it hasn't effected my touch typing (though I am sure that some wish it did). I am also pre diabetic and very opinionated, though I do not hold beliefs, just opinions which I have arrived at, and not acquired
I am not a victim of anything except my own stupidity, fecklessness, and arrogance that made me think I was superhuman and untouchable, cancer brought me down to earth, as did diabetes. We learn too late..
The keyboard is mightier than the sword.
Ain't that the truth. Any doubts look what that fat diaper soiler has done with only two thumbs
So they see Trump with all his sex scandals as a REAL man?
Many Trump voters are women. Does this mean they want a real man?
There notion of a "real man" is stilted by the environment in which they live.
In a red neck trailer park of single wide's, the best looking women are hitched to the loudest, brutish, most tattooed dude in the park. On Park avenue, the army candy of billionaires are for hire wives and mistresses, like that "calendar model" from Slovakia, Melania that married the orange emperor.
Or Rupert Murdoch's wives https://people.com/all-about-rupert-murdoch-wives-7973429
Unattractive low status men, who can't find a mate, order one from the internet from an international pool of hungry and starving women, who see America as a large shopping mall.
It is not real men, that they seek, but a fantasy version of a real man, an archetype that has been inculcated in them by their social status, family and friends.
When I was young it wasTyrone Power, Lionel Barrymore, John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart and the likes, when I was a teen it was James Dean
Because.They. Hate.
They hate change, they hate rules, and they hate us. There he is---all their grievances come to life. The con-man gets up there and tells them just what they want to hear. Trump can wave his magic wand and take them back to their childhood when they ruled the world. It's not their fault, and he's got the solutions. Thom did a great job of pointing out he has NONE.
This faction, this cult, is not coping with the demographic change. Their white world without a climate crisis is not coming back.
Emotional. Childish. Selfish.
Hating change was the old timey conservatives like William F Buckley, Since his time the world has changed, especially the social and culture environment of the U.S. and it isn't change that motivates these creeps, it is fear of the loss of dominance, power and control that the changes
have caused.
No longer King of their little castle, women no longer submissive (there is even spousal rape now, when in the 1950's and 1960's they were free to rape their wives, POC now get (supposedly, what a farce) equal treatment and have entered the middle class in droves, and homosexuals and trans, are now out of the closet and, gasp, even being elected to office.
The world has changed, and they want to take it back, not to 1950, but 1850. they want a society in which those who have taken their balls, poor weak males posing as men, are either seen but not heard, or not seen at all, except when they step off the sidewalk into the road, when their "betters" approaches.
BTW Ramaswamy and Haley, even Tim Scott, Herschel Walker and Clarence Thomas are proof that it isn't melanin that they fear, so long as melaninic, sings their tune and submits to their domination and control, they accept them into their club, but to a limited degree., the illusion of acceptance. Even without Donald Trump, there is no chance that Ramaswamy and Haley would win a primary.
So true, Thom. The cultastrophe that is Trumpism ironically reinforces the notion that people as a whole are trusting, which I interpret further as "good".
It's a perverse animal which subverts its species better tendencies for the sole purpose of self exhalation - to the detriment of the entire species existence.
I hope the fever among the herd of Trump break now, rather than in a time following his ascension to executioner in chief. I wish this for the sake of the duped - they don't know what they're fighting for - only whom.
The world is full of perverse animals.
It's because people know something is very wrong as Biden spends hundreds of billions on weapons and militarism, yet there is austerity for health care, education and housing here in America. People know the system is hopelessly corrupted and as interest rates skyrocket to keep the wealthy protected without a word from Biden those of us adversely affected wonder who is going to protect us? In 2016 Bernie Sanders he was the anti-Clinton, anti-establishment candidate who was looking out for us, although your cowardly assessment was that they were "identical" presidential candidates. Trump was the anti-establishment candidate who was looking out for himself but convinced a base that felt left behind that he was looking out for them. If Democrats had integrity and you and so many others were not doing contortions to make excuses for their lies, militarism, and terrible judgment it is likely Trump wouldn't a have ascended. In fact, Democrats and Clinton's campaign helped him to do so! And if the Democratic Party wouldn't have tipped the scales against Sanders, it is likely you would have never seen Trump as president because so many independents and conservatives agreed with Bernie's approach. Biden's deceits and militarism has cost hundreds of thousands of lives, millions if you count his insane rants favoring the invasion of Iraq, but those are the lives of poor black and brown people overseas and they don't really matter to Biden liberals. So you can back the guy whose innate racism has him publicly doubting the loss of Palestinian life while he hugs the Trump of Tel Aviv Netanyahu. It's the cancerous hypocrisy, violence and militarism that allows a Trump to ascend to power, and you Thom are now part of the problem not the solution.
There we go again Boris,,. Biden's militarism. Man you sure do sound like Putin's puppet.
Humans, especially XY humans are their own worst enemy, they seem interested in one thing, and one thing only, testosterone needy domination, like your butt buddy Putin.
Let's talk about his militarism, his psycopathic need to dominate. With psycopaths like him and Xi in the world. I would hope that Biden is militaristic, alas all the evidence is that he isn't.
Save yourself the energy and time, there are probably only two or three people who read these reports that agree with you, and they either lack critical thinking skills or in Putin's tank.
Seems like Americans are not very brave...........to have not voted for Sanders makes me want to scream.
Same here. Bernie was our last best chance, alas he scared the bejesus out of the money powers, and the DNC put their thumb on the scale for a woman, who not only lacked charisma and was trustworthy, but was married to a man that created the rust belt/swing states, betrayed his base, and gave rise to the billionaire class.
And the voting idiots, either were ignorant, or fooled themselves into believing that a self aggrandizing narcissist, would be different than her husband.
Putin Redux.
Propaganda is dangerous whether it's from Russian or US sources. It can lead to world wars when leaders are prevented from negotiating peace by outside influences. This is from a Ukrainian newspaper so don't be scared, don't cower in the corner, don't put me under the HUAC.... https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/05/5/7344206/
Excellent.
World wars or abject surrender to psychopathic madmen. it is apparent that is your desire.
Poor Barry, the perpetual victim, if only his munificence ruled the world, all would be right, as the gulags filled, and the noise of firing squads could be heard 24/7
There’s definitely a cult mentality following amongst tRump’s base. What’s unforgivable are his enablers, the spineless Republicans in Congress, with the exception of Liz Cheney and a few others most of whom paid a price for their integrity, the spineless have bowed to their master out of fear of his wrath and threats of his cult base.
The part I’ve had a hard time wrapping my head around is the far-right evangelical Christian haters. The biggest hypocrite bunch of all time. Based on tRumps lack of morals and virtue, he’s not a poster child of the ideal Christian. (I wish spell check would stop the capitalization. These haters aren’t worthy of the big C.). I think the far-right evangelical Christian haters, with their barely hidden racism, fear of a vengeful God, hate for anyone other than their view of an Aryan Christianity, without sin, made for easy taking by the Republican makeover of the 1960’s through 1980’s with an ever growing political powerhouse of a movement since Jimmy Falwell and Billy Graham got the ear of Richard Nixon. TRump is an ends to their means, but definitely not their savior.
Also indirectly avoiding tRump but taking full advantage of the moment is Koch and the like. They’ve never bought into the carnival barker, investing their time and money with Congress and down ballot races. Similar with the “thank you for letting us pick your judges” Federalist Society. Similar with the Heritage Foundation. They see tRump as one of many means to an end, expendable. They’re playing the long game. And that’s where it gets really scary. Scarier than tRump. They have a chosen one, or maybe more than one. And that’s where the unholy allegiance between the far-right evangelical Christian haters and this dark side of Conservatism merge. That chosen one, groomed for the long game, might by circumstance and fate have emerged early - James Michael Johnson.
Falwell, Graham and todays so called Christians, don't perceive themselves as hypocrites, because they have never read the bible, are totally unfamiliar with Matthew, and only know about Luke, and Paul,. because that is the swill pumped into them by the perverts and crooks who lean on the podium at Sunday go to meeting sessions, where so called preachers and priests preach hatred, bigoty which generates fear. And fear is the easiest way to control and pick pockets of the masses.
A secular society is a threat to the evil pick pockets who use something called god as a sock puppet Even slavery was justified by this sock puppet
The sheep look to their shepherd for guidance, support and protection. The purpose of a shepherd is to keep the sheep in the flock, till it is time for the fleecing and slaughter.
Back in 2018, Adam Serwer wrote a piece titled "The Cruelty is the Point," in which he argued that "Trump and his supporters find community by rejoicing in the suffering of those they hate and fear." This has always seemed the best explanation of the Trump cult. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/the-cruelty-is-the-point/572104/?utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share