• Machinist@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    Sitting on the inside here. I’m perpetually astounded as well. Very little of this suprises me anymore but plenty of things shock me.

    He’s a stereotypical conman; so shallow, so obvious. And yet, my family and former friends continue to slurp up his bullshit. It’s so fucking stupid. He’s so stupid. On paper, many of these people are smarter than the orange used car salesman.

    It’s difficult to describe how astounded I really am. Black magic or aliens would make more sense. I would find a novel or show with this unrealistic.

    I wonder if I’ll ever understand?

    • Cassanderer@thelemmy.club
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      12 hours ago

      Easy, fox, et al have crafted an alternate reality in service of the long game the business Round Table of 1972 made to overturn the New Deal and other advances and basically end the Republic in all but name, thinking a plutocracy will result led by their toolish autocrat.

      That alt reality was utilized by prez to seize control of the party machine from their political tools. Then brought to his heel.

      Stealing elections, crushing the working class, ending regulations, et al is the party’s 50 year long goals and will not end with mr glorious leader. They will scapegoat and pursue reigns of terror, and enough people will support their bs out of ignorance and perveived self interest if we do not get some popular muscular opposition.

      • Machinist@lemmy.world
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        12 hours ago

        I get how the mechanics of it work. That’s not hard to see and understand.

        The part I don’t understand is the cult of personality. The personality is repulsive. He violates all kinds of norms the fundies literally hold as sacred. Trump is openly a cartoon of what fundies rail against, teach their children not to be, and consider evil.

        I was born and raised southern fundie. A new york city, orange makeup wearing, reality tv, biblically ignorant, multiply divorced, fucktard conman is about the last thing I could see them falling for. That’s the part I don’t understand. Mike Johnson, Bush, Cheney - I understand. Hell, they didn’t like Romney because he was Mormon.

        If you’ve ever seen the movie The Outlaw Josey Wales, there is a yankee carpet bagger selling snake oil. He’s comic relief and is an archetype of slimy dandy Yankee sales weasel. There are cultural tropes against exactly the sort of person Trump is including his appearance.

        And yet, they fell for it. I don’t get it.

        • Mirshe@lemmy.world
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          11 hours ago

          Because deep down, a lot of these fundies WISH they could transgress those norms. A lot of them WISH they could do half the shit he does. He’s their fantasy where they get a shitload of money and can now violate every single thing they’ve been told is sacred.

          A lot of it is also just gonna boil down to racism. A LOT of Evangelicalism, especially in America, is deeply racist. White supremacists also realized they could hijack religious messaging and spread their hate a lot farther than just going “white power” - couching your hate in religious context makes it a lot more palatable for a lot more people. The religious right, and a scary portion of the center, hate nonwhites. They’ll be nice enough in public, they’ll make the noises about how they’re welcome at their churches and there’s a place for them in heaven, but at the end of the day? They really REALLY would prefer if they were “with their own kind”.

          • Machinist@lemmy.world
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            11 hours ago

            The racism doesn’t explain it for me.

            It’s certainly a contributing factor, and I think it’s closer to whatever venality trump has tapped into in these people.

            However, just the way the man presents himself should have been an immediate turnoff for most of these people.

            He’s a fop, a dandy, he’s got a swish in his mannerisms that borders queer stereotypes for many southerners. He’s city soft. Which these people hate just as much as they hate black folks.

            Personal experience, I don’t understand deacons, colonels, PhDs, and skilled blue collar worshipping the freak. It’s not about policy, it’s that they’re just as bigoted against how he presents himself as they are about race.

        • Cassanderer@thelemmy.club
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          11 hours ago

          He is a pos. But we are in reality, they are in alt reality. The dems are puppet mastering for shadowy billionaires, scapegoats are responsible for problems, the perpetrators are the victims in alt reality.

          Prez calls out the problem and promises to fix it. He looks like he is fighting in the alt sphere. Dems give empty platitudes and run as status quo. They know they are getting increasingly screwed if not by whom, r’s are the only one’s promising to do anything about it.

          There is no credible opposition, in reality the dems are at best useless sold out tools playing good cop to r bad despite r now playing hitler. Voting them in delays, it does not change. There is no stopping r’s through them.

          But that is beside the point of why alt reality likes him, that is why he and their r party can win.

    • QuarkVsOdo@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      Ey yo. The “No Kings” Protest, people like Newsom, Prizker, AOC, Bernie and Mamdani still give me some hope that your country isn’t lost - and with it, the NATO and all free countries.

      • Sons of Gondor! Of Rohan! My brothers. I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of Men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the Age of Men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West! *

      For Furries