• lennybird@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        He went because his strategy is to peel off any low-info black voters he can.

        If you go into a community that overwhelmingly hates you, you can never do worse than where you started. Notice the handful of presumable plants cheering Trump on in the crowd, too.

        He gets his few talking points in and some “respect” him for reaching out to the community and that’s all he’s after.

        • Apytele@sh.itjust.works
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          5 months ago

          Also he gives idiots like my parents an excuse to maintain their cognitive dissonance. I feel they couldn’t have instilled the decent base values they did while being actual neo-nazis so I’m trying to just hold out hope that they’re just dumbasses.

          My parents would often tell me it was bad to discriminate against people for their origin and had several black friends but then would also tell me other stuff with varying degrees of truth. My mother would often tell me that one of her classmates when she was younger accused her of being descended from the people who enslaved his ancestors and she (rightly) informed him that she’s a second generation immigrant (my grandparents were fresh off the boat) but she would bring it up at every opportunity (and the whole critical race theory thing gave her a whole ideological platform for that single anecdote). She also used to talk a bunch about welfare moms when she was the most welfare mom I’ve ever seen (irresponsibly reproducing genetically fucked up kids she knew she couldn’t adequately care for and semi-successfuly offloading them on the state eventually), but fundies usually are! And she’d tell me that black men were pushy sexually so be careful around them.

          So there seems to be this conscious thread of wanting to be fair and honest and all that good Christian shit but then they’re also staying in this weird little bubble where a group of people just always getting the short end of the stick makes sense somehow through a bunch of anecdotes, conspiracy theories, and inflammatory rumors like “rainbow parties” and “drugs in Halloween candy” and “jelly bracelet colors are what sex acts you’ve done” none of which make literally any sense if you have even cursory knowledge of the subject matter or even just basic logic skills:

          Like in addition to my mother frequently expressing disgust at the concept of blowjobs I also know she’s never given one (or at least never given a good one) because the idea of a “rainbow party” would just be kind of an awkward and mediocre experience for everyone involved.

          No one is putting drugs in Halloween candy because that shit is expensive and no one is going to give them away for free.

          The jelly bracelets I guess could make sense but who would bother with all that extra bullshit when you can just tell people what you’re willing to do with words.

          And for bonus points: no one is stealing wanted suburban children to sex traffic because it’s way too easy to buy one off a tweaker or convince a teenage runaway that you’re a “modeling scout,” or run a school for “troubled children.” There are plenty of children out there that no one, not even the parents, will look for, let alone the cops or anyone with any authority. And most human trafficking in general is for labor, especially when it’s adults being trafficked. No one out there is trafficking 30 year old women (primarily) for sex, the rape is just a side perk of owning a sweatshop.

          Anyway TLDR either my parents are neo-nazis in deep cover or there’s a significant portion of that political base that are just extremely gullible. Worst part? They BOTH have graduate STEM degrees. Utterly mind boggling.

          • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Also he gives idiots like my parents an excuse to maintain their cognitive dissonance. I feel they couldn’t have instilled the decent base values they did while being actual neo-nazis so I’m trying to just hold out hope that they’re just dumbasses.

            I’ve been amazed for decades how trying to live the values my family instilled in me makes me some kind of commie that wants to destroy america.

          • lennybird@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Try having them watch the documentary, “The Brainwashing of my Dad.” long shot, but worth trying…

    • RagingRobot@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      People were mad that they invited him but after this I hope they invite him to all kinds of left leaning places lol

  • Furbag@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    This interview was stunning. He whinged and moaned the whole time about being made to wait, technical issues, other news networks, and not having his ass kissed constantly by the hosts. He did not substantially answer even one single question, and used every opportunity to speak to go off the rails on immigrants and spew lies so blatantly false that the hosts could fact check him on the spot. No Donald, innocent people don’t need pardons. No Donald, there is no such thing as a post-birth abortion. Holy Christ I cannot believe how absolutely fucking retarded Trump really is.

    My favorite part was when he talked about how Kamala Harris is the worst vice president of all time and did a terrible job, but then shoved JD Vance under the bus and said that VP picks are just ceremonial and that they do nothing. Like, bro, which is it?

    • Drunemeton@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      He came out swinging.

      He wasn’t there to win black votes or answer questions. He was there to shore up his base. He was there to get the media attention back on himself and away from others.

      It seems to have worked.

    • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      Look, I’m usually the first guy to tell you that the r-word is unnecessary.

      But calling Trump a “weirdo” has left the party in shambles for some reason, it’s high time we called the man a retard, especially after this charade.

      Maybe we start talking in their terms more, since everything is projection with them. Oh, you love that billionaire? What a cuck. Oh, you think post-birth abortion exists? Dumb retard. Oh, you won’t debate Harris? Fucking pussy’s afraid to debate a girl!

      • grte@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        The weird thing works because it elicits them to defend themselves and, because their beliefs are in fact weird as hell, they do so in the most awkward ways. Turning off normies who might have some reactionary sympathy but are on the fence. Calling them slurs or just mean things isn’t going to work in the same way. It’s not like no one has ever called them cowards or assholes before.

      • kerrypacker@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Yeah being a smarmy cunt isn’t going to help her win and that’s why she won’t. And on behalf of the world that fucking sucks.

        • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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          5 months ago

          Harris should maintain a professional demeanor since she’s running for office.

          We on the other hand can up the ante.

          • kerrypacker@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Absolutely, he’s a piece of shit and deserves to be called out. But every video I’ve seen of her comes off as condescending and arrogant, very similar to H Clinton, and not at all like Obama (for example) or even W. It’s all so polarising and I don’t get it.

            • Trae@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              That sounds like a really long way to say she’s being uppity…

              • kerrypacker@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                This is why your side will lose. Nothing I said there indicated that, I gave specific examples which go against what you have just insulted me with. You’re stuck in an echo chamber and anybody who isn’t drinking your koolaid gets labelled.

                • Trae@lemmy.world
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                  5 months ago

                  What side would that be? I’ve voted independent every election I’ve voted.

                  It’s your issue if your dog whistle is deafening and you’re so quick to label conversations as “your side vs mine”.

                  People don’t have to be democrats to abhor readily apparent bigotry.

  • xantoxis@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    My jaw remains firmly in place. I was well prepared for this by his many, many, many other racist statements and actions.

    • catloaf@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      I don’t see that he actually used a slur. It seems they’re using it in the more broad sense of “insulting or disparaging remark or innuendo”.

    • kaitco@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      And, after all the momentum he’d made in the black community by offering gold sneakers and taking a bullet!

      • ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com
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        5 months ago

        You joke, but even though it’s not those obviously racist things causing it, a pretty astounding percentage of black voters were switching from Biden to Trump (by no means a majority, but like double-digit percentage increase), according to polling before the drop-out.

        I’m really hopeful this and Kamala reversed that trend.

  • ampedwolfman@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Hear me out, because I might be getting delusional here. There’s been plenty of evidence that he is a Russian asset. There is also rampant shit spewing out of his mouth at every turn about how the system is rigged etc. and that his people should get ready for a civil war when he loses blah blah.

    Is it impossible to think that this is Russia’s endgame? Fuck having a puppet in office if he could get a number of people to revolt and take to the streets. This is assuming the number of brainwashed idiots is high enough to do more than Jan 6.

    Thoughts?

    • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      I don’t think he has enough brainwashed idiots for a revolt to succeed. Russia would be better off if Trump wins, because he can immediately stop helping Ukraine.

    • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      It’s plausible, but there are many ways to explain the status quo. And maybe all those are in play at once?

      Russia would absolutely use and abuse any US political puppet they can get their hands on. After all, there’s no point in getting into a shooting war with another nuclear power1. History has also shown that the USA united and moving in one direction at once is a force to be reckoned with. From Russia’s perspective, it’s way more economical to have your adversaries rip themselves apart for you. As the USA has had some pretty deep divisions since the Civil War, we are a clear target for this kind of strategy; we are already primed to disagree on things. The only real work to do is escalate the matter, and politics is a great lever for that. But I’ll assert that there’s no endgame necessary for this strategy: all they have to do is keep fueling chaos, keep the electorate divided, and keep everyone arguing while ignoring any common ground. From there, continued governmental dysfunction keeps us from being a bigger economical or political threat to others in the meantime.

      That said, it’s all conjecture. Let me take a less conspiratorial look for a second.

      At the same time, it’s cold comfort that some invisible hand is fomenting unrest and causing our biggest problems, rather than it being an inherently American dysfunction; classic self-coping denial. A bit like blaming your partner for why the relationship is in shambles, when everyone really needs to go to therapy and work on some root problems. Perhaps those causes are intractable, but as far as I can tell, nobody’s working that out and focusing a lot of energy on wedge topics (symptoms, grievances) instead.

      Edit: I am in no way implying that we need to validate all the obvious bad takes from the right wing. Far from it; call that shit out. Instead, I think it’s crucial to look to how/why those takes get traction and focus there instead.

      1 - proxy wars are weirdly okay, and have been for a long time. I’m still trying to figure that one out.

  • Carrick1973@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    He’s such an asshole and it’s nice to see people finally starting to realize it. He’s had sycophants around him his entire life and doesn’t have the faintest clue what normal is.