Do you remember at the Republican National Convention in 2020, they didn’t bother with a platform? It had never happened before in either major political party. Platforms are one of those things political parties do. It is a quadrennial statement of what the party stands for, what policies they want to implement, what sort of foreign policy they’ll pursue, what they think are the problems for which they have the best solutions.
Can't pinpoint one thing however long held AM-TALK radio and with it the rise of shock jocks followed by its offshoots on the teevee and internets are overlooked contributories to the madness and Dunning Kruger Effect we are witnessing today.
Lost acquaintances to their obsession. Whether by email, phone or text the message always began with YOU HAVE TO READ THIS. My reply was always, Actually I don't. Thanks anyways.
I'm intrigued by the religious connection, specifically the white evangelical Christians who are such a key part of Trump's base. "White" is certainly part of it, and Trump may fit somehow into End Times theology, but I'm curious about how those mega-congregations with a single white man in the pulpit condition the congregants to follow a supreme leader. These denominations are not democratic -- they're actually anti-democratic and authoritarian in important ways. They don't value critical thinking because critical thinking is a threat to their belief system.
Short version: Many of us criticize democratic institutions for not working well enough. For my hypothetical white evangelical, they work too well: they put "the people" ahead of that single white man in the pulpit who tells them what God wants. The founders had excellent reasons, historical and otherwise, for separating church and state. Not surprisingly, the white evangelicals -- and the politicians who pander to them, even those who've taken oaths to defend the Constitution -- are gung-ho to do away with that separation.
I have no idea how they work it out in their own hearts/minds, and that goes double for the ones who have some acquaintance with history, theology, etc.
As a country, were we ever this loutish? Were the Hitler appeasers worse at the outset of WW2?
How does this happen, unless with the calculated participation of those whose interests skew so extreme that they would see a dissolution of democratic norms in our nation?
The people were mesmerized in the 1930 and by the start of military attacks the average German was scared to raise a voice. The trails in Nuremberg are a good place to read of the quiet accession of the average German. Something we all MUST fight by spreading the works of talented writers like Lucian far and wide and be willing to speak out at every opportunity to not be like those quiet Germans were in 1939…
The German ruling class in the early 1930s thought they could control Hitler, who was popular with the masses, so they put him in a high office - Chancellor. BIG MISTAKE. He consolidated power, got rid of the ruling class, and the rest is history. The lesson for today’s GOP establishment? Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
Read up on Father Coughlin from the 1930s. Or Joe McCarthy's anti-communist crusade in the 1950s. Demagoguery has been around for a long time.
OTOH, at the moment I'm copyediting a book that deals a lot with Charles Lindbergh, the America First movement, and the anti-interventionists in Congress after WW2 had started in Europe. Their speeches and public pronouncements were generally rational, not at all loutish. I'm pretty sure there was less rational "discussion" going on elsewhere, but opponents of the FDR administration and ex-presidents (Herbert Hoover was around at the time, and against intervention) actually made sense whether you agree with them or not.
All demagogues find a piece of fear that taken alone resonates - it’s what they advocate, using it as a springboard - the action or inaction they rant about - that leads otherwise rational people - to insanity.
True -- but at the same time I do believe that some people are more susceptible to demagoguery than others, for a variety of reasons. Especially Trump's sort of demagoguery, which is authoritarian and fascistic (I think he crossed that line a while back).
I agree. Though I may sound condescending I think it’s likely those raised in indoctrination (whatever religion) so that it may be familiar and even comforting, to be told what to think, to do, to embrace.
Yes -- and if you're surrounded by people who believe the same or very similar things, the odds are against a person's finding his/her way out. But some people do for sure. Tara Westover's EDUCATED (2018) is a fascinating view from the inside of someone who did get beyond the Mormon fundamentalism she grew up with.
Oxford defines demagogue as: "a political leader who seeks support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument." Need I say more?
Once again, we must be reminded that there a LOT of stupid, gullible, fearful, and credulous people in this republic. There are people who followed Jim Jones and drank Kool -Aid laced with cyanide. There were the ones who followed murderous psychopath Charles Manson and the “Branch Davidians” who worshipped David Koresh. Small numbers, you say, but they’re the tip of the iceberg. There are many Americas out there. I’m not sure we actually can keep this republic.
I hope I live long enough to see Donald Trump defeated, broken, and forgotten.
Lucian: you’re one of the few people on earth who could get me to read more than five words coming out of that revolting piehole.
And yes, it’s utterly incoherent stream-of-disturbed-consciousness gibberish.
For why anyone beyond a unicellular organism would spend more than half a second paying any attention to this nitwit see:
“As described earlier, two powerful bonds unite the people at the rallies. They would have been attracted to Trump himself, a man who thinks the sun comes up every morning so it can look at him, and who also knows how to stage an event to make him look grand. They would have completely misattributed his motives and thought this supposedly talented and successful man was generously giving up his perfect life to help them, when actually he was running to make Donald Trump feel great again. The least they could do”
— Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and His Followers by John W. Dean, Bob Altemeyer
I compare Trump to the Wicked Witch in Sleeping Beauty. She has to go to her mirror and reassure herself that she is “the fairest of them in all of the land.” Can’t you imagine Big Mouth doing that? He’s an insecure mobster. A know-it-all. He is pushing Judge Kaplan’s buttons. He wants to be kicked out of court so he can allegedly go to his mother-in-law’s funeral. Rigggght! Let’s talk about Alina Habba- dabba-doo! She’s a real gem, isn’t she?
I appreciate that you analyze this stuff for us because I cannot even bear to read the dreck that vomits from his piehole. He is a pathetic, uneducated, unashamed liar and fraud. And I am mortified that so many of our fellow citizens fall for his bullshit. It doesn't reflect well on the education systems in this country that people can't recognize when they are being played. His 'speeches' make no sense, contain no truth and are aimed at the easily led marks who send him money, repeat his fabrications and crawl through glass to vote for him. All hallmarks of a cult. And we know from past experience it is not easy to deprogram the true believers. A sound defeat in 2024 might wake up some, but it will take a generation to purge this acceptance of authoritarianism and ignorance from the body politic.
So true...actually the Repub cult does have a platform this year, it should be the "rubber and glue" party. Their whole philosophy is summed up by their Great Leader, "I'm rubber, you're glue, whatever you say I am comes back on you." That should fit perfectly with their educational levels.
At some point in the 2016 campaign DT revealed in an interview that if something he said at a rally got a big, positive response he'd repeat it, and (my words) work it to death.
That is the essence of his speaking M.O., and his policy positions. Nothing more, nothing less. And there's not a lot that could be seen as being "less".
Trump just wings it. He’s like a faith healer and a drug dealer all in one. What he says is not only patent bullshit but it’s poorly stated. To give his verbal crap a veneer of credibility he uses terms like “a lot of people say” and “everyone knows” without a shred of evidence, and his brain-dead acolytes demand none. They are mesmerized like teens at a rock concert high on meth. I hope enough voters with decent standards and common sense prevail in November.
Cult is exactly the right word. Jim Jones got his followers to commit murder/suicide by drinking cyanide laced Kool Aid - what will DonJon convince his adoring acolytes to do? It's almost beyond belief that this is occuring. In the future health experts will be adding a new diagnosis code to the DSM for this mental disorder.
Scarier than I thought. He is even more horrible than we perceived.. And his followers are pretty scary themselves..
I have a friend who says he isn't serious. He's not going to do that stuff. I have been shocked. This woman is of average intelligence. There is no talking to her. Her mind is made up. Saddens me.
The over-the-top media hysteria about *Rump's "massive" win (not) in Iowa only feeds his brand. Critical examination of the Iowa results, such as Lucian's, are few and far between. The outcome demonstrates *Rump's fundamental weakness not his super strength. In any case the Iowa caucus is meaningless, and should be ignored instead of being elevated to a definitive political prediction. Its track record is actually woeful. As far as his rallies are concerned, no one other than his cult members will go to his rallies, and I understand the attenance has dropped. Willingly listening to his endless, an repititious farago of lies and grievances more than once is not something an intelligent person will do. So he's constantly preaching to the choir, as it were, and not enlarging his base. Many of those 74-million votes he got in 2020 weren't true believers of his incoherent gibberish: they were/are racists like him. He has made it ever so clear that he hates the same people they do, and for that his cult, and many others, will forgive him anything. He is the definition of a demogogue who really stands for nothing but himself. There's nothing new about any of it. The media has normalized him, and allowed him to get away with his agregious behavior, well, because it's *Rump. Without regard to the pernicious effects on our public discourse. We need to understand that his cult will not abandon him. They are not rational, thinking people, and that makes them dangerous. 2024 is going to be a difficult year for many of us to suffer through, but I can't let myself imagine that he will prevail.
I've only just realised that it is now the 20th year since Green Day called out a prescient and not so oblique warning about media influence producing members for precisely this type of cult. https://youtu.be/Qb9d9zyNV-U
What was the percentage of voters that made the caucus in Iowa? Not much. Everyone needs to share Mr. Truscott’s essays and make more aware of the larger movement against Trump and his cult. A lot of people feel overwhelmed by that Trump fool, what he is good (the only thing IMO) at, sowing despair and witching fools with lies.
The Iowa caucus has all the majesty of a ninth-grade student council election, and just about the same turnout. For all the money and effort he spent that corrupt shitweasel got, what, 52,000 votes? Wonder what the cost per vote must be.
TBH, both Ronnie and Nikki spent a whole lot more (time, effort and money) than Trump did in Iowa and received a whole lot less (in votes) than did smug, smirking, moronic Trump. Sick-making as far as I'm concerned.
And it’s not just Trump himself. Apparently one of Trump’s caucus organizers told her caucus that during his term as president, Trump was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize *three* times.
His speech would probably have sounded better in the original German
In the original Gibberish, you mean, Deborah. Oh Lordy.....it galls me the rest of the world sees this display of abject stupidity....
At least this version is funny: https://youtu.be/ke5Mr5eCF2U?si=RYvYc-eEjEWWiDve
Oh is it ever.
Thank you, Bill! 😄😄😄
Nope…
Hitler mesmerized the crowd in much the same way, promising them Utopia after cleaning out the "vermin".
His playbook
Same GOP went all gaga over Sara Phuckin' Palin and her hillbilly clan.
They're simply not serious people. No exceptions.
Is it purely racism? I can’t help thinking it must be more..
Can't pinpoint one thing however long held AM-TALK radio and with it the rise of shock jocks followed by its offshoots on the teevee and internets are overlooked contributories to the madness and Dunning Kruger Effect we are witnessing today.
I see this with an obsessed but somehow not monstrous younger neighbor.
Obsessed, perfect choice.
Lost acquaintances to their obsession. Whether by email, phone or text the message always began with YOU HAVE TO READ THIS. My reply was always, Actually I don't. Thanks anyways.
Mine wants me to listen in. Nope
I'm intrigued by the religious connection, specifically the white evangelical Christians who are such a key part of Trump's base. "White" is certainly part of it, and Trump may fit somehow into End Times theology, but I'm curious about how those mega-congregations with a single white man in the pulpit condition the congregants to follow a supreme leader. These denominations are not democratic -- they're actually anti-democratic and authoritarian in important ways. They don't value critical thinking because critical thinking is a threat to their belief system.
Short version: Many of us criticize democratic institutions for not working well enough. For my hypothetical white evangelical, they work too well: they put "the people" ahead of that single white man in the pulpit who tells them what God wants. The founders had excellent reasons, historical and otherwise, for separating church and state. Not surprisingly, the white evangelicals -- and the politicians who pander to them, even those who've taken oaths to defend the Constitution -- are gung-ho to do away with that separation.
Evangelicals give Christians a bad name.
Worshipping trump is actually satanism.
I have no idea how they work it out in their own hearts/minds, and that goes double for the ones who have some acquaintance with history, theology, etc.
Trump enrolled every racist with his Obama birth certificate lie!
He did. And they are.
I think you have hit the nail on it’s proverbial head.It IS all about racism.He and the “cult” all hate the same people.That’s it.
As a country, were we ever this loutish? Were the Hitler appeasers worse at the outset of WW2?
How does this happen, unless with the calculated participation of those whose interests skew so extreme that they would see a dissolution of democratic norms in our nation?
The people were mesmerized in the 1930 and by the start of military attacks the average German was scared to raise a voice. The trails in Nuremberg are a good place to read of the quiet accession of the average German. Something we all MUST fight by spreading the works of talented writers like Lucian far and wide and be willing to speak out at every opportunity to not be like those quiet Germans were in 1939…
The German ruling class in the early 1930s thought they could control Hitler, who was popular with the masses, so they put him in a high office - Chancellor. BIG MISTAKE. He consolidated power, got rid of the ruling class, and the rest is history. The lesson for today’s GOP establishment? Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
The GOP establishment -- and the "dark money" billionaires who have been funding so much of this bilge. They've pretty much lost control of it too.
Yep! Like I said, history repeats itself.
Concur
Read up on Father Coughlin from the 1930s. Or Joe McCarthy's anti-communist crusade in the 1950s. Demagoguery has been around for a long time.
OTOH, at the moment I'm copyediting a book that deals a lot with Charles Lindbergh, the America First movement, and the anti-interventionists in Congress after WW2 had started in Europe. Their speeches and public pronouncements were generally rational, not at all loutish. I'm pretty sure there was less rational "discussion" going on elsewhere, but opponents of the FDR administration and ex-presidents (Herbert Hoover was around at the time, and against intervention) actually made sense whether you agree with them or not.
All demagogues find a piece of fear that taken alone resonates - it’s what they advocate, using it as a springboard - the action or inaction they rant about - that leads otherwise rational people - to insanity.
True -- but at the same time I do believe that some people are more susceptible to demagoguery than others, for a variety of reasons. Especially Trump's sort of demagoguery, which is authoritarian and fascistic (I think he crossed that line a while back).
I agree. Though I may sound condescending I think it’s likely those raised in indoctrination (whatever religion) so that it may be familiar and even comforting, to be told what to think, to do, to embrace.
Yes -- and if you're surrounded by people who believe the same or very similar things, the odds are against a person's finding his/her way out. But some people do for sure. Tara Westover's EDUCATED (2018) is a fascinating view from the inside of someone who did get beyond the Mormon fundamentalism she grew up with.
I have to look that up. Mormonism is quite the example of a wholly self-imposed and militant cage.
Oxford defines demagogue as: "a political leader who seeks support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument." Need I say more?
Once again, we must be reminded that there a LOT of stupid, gullible, fearful, and credulous people in this republic. There are people who followed Jim Jones and drank Kool -Aid laced with cyanide. There were the ones who followed murderous psychopath Charles Manson and the “Branch Davidians” who worshipped David Koresh. Small numbers, you say, but they’re the tip of the iceberg. There are many Americas out there. I’m not sure we actually can keep this republic.
I hope I live long enough to see Donald Trump defeated, broken, and forgotten.
That's my hope, as well.
Lucian: you’re one of the few people on earth who could get me to read more than five words coming out of that revolting piehole.
And yes, it’s utterly incoherent stream-of-disturbed-consciousness gibberish.
For why anyone beyond a unicellular organism would spend more than half a second paying any attention to this nitwit see:
“As described earlier, two powerful bonds unite the people at the rallies. They would have been attracted to Trump himself, a man who thinks the sun comes up every morning so it can look at him, and who also knows how to stage an event to make him look grand. They would have completely misattributed his motives and thought this supposedly talented and successful man was generously giving up his perfect life to help them, when actually he was running to make Donald Trump feel great again. The least they could do”
— Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and His Followers by John W. Dean, Bob Altemeyer
https://a.co/2XPNf0d
I compare Trump to the Wicked Witch in Sleeping Beauty. She has to go to her mirror and reassure herself that she is “the fairest of them in all of the land.” Can’t you imagine Big Mouth doing that? He’s an insecure mobster. A know-it-all. He is pushing Judge Kaplan’s buttons. He wants to be kicked out of court so he can allegedly go to his mother-in-law’s funeral. Rigggght! Let’s talk about Alina Habba- dabba-doo! She’s a real gem, isn’t she?
She is a sad case, we know her requests for payment will fall on deaf ears, bless her heart.
I appreciate that you analyze this stuff for us because I cannot even bear to read the dreck that vomits from his piehole. He is a pathetic, uneducated, unashamed liar and fraud. And I am mortified that so many of our fellow citizens fall for his bullshit. It doesn't reflect well on the education systems in this country that people can't recognize when they are being played. His 'speeches' make no sense, contain no truth and are aimed at the easily led marks who send him money, repeat his fabrications and crawl through glass to vote for him. All hallmarks of a cult. And we know from past experience it is not easy to deprogram the true believers. A sound defeat in 2024 might wake up some, but it will take a generation to purge this acceptance of authoritarianism and ignorance from the body politic.
So true...actually the Repub cult does have a platform this year, it should be the "rubber and glue" party. Their whole philosophy is summed up by their Great Leader, "I'm rubber, you're glue, whatever you say I am comes back on you." That should fit perfectly with their educational levels.
At some point in the 2016 campaign DT revealed in an interview that if something he said at a rally got a big, positive response he'd repeat it, and (my words) work it to death.
That is the essence of his speaking M.O., and his policy positions. Nothing more, nothing less. And there's not a lot that could be seen as being "less".
Trump just wings it. He’s like a faith healer and a drug dealer all in one. What he says is not only patent bullshit but it’s poorly stated. To give his verbal crap a veneer of credibility he uses terms like “a lot of people say” and “everyone knows” without a shred of evidence, and his brain-dead acolytes demand none. They are mesmerized like teens at a rock concert high on meth. I hope enough voters with decent standards and common sense prevail in November.
So really what you’re saying is that Trump is a master bullshit artist! Yep, I will give him that much.
His best is "Some people are saying", used non stop during the Obama birth certificate lie.
Cult is exactly the right word. Jim Jones got his followers to commit murder/suicide by drinking cyanide laced Kool Aid - what will DonJon convince his adoring acolytes to do? It's almost beyond belief that this is occuring. In the future health experts will be adding a new diagnosis code to the DSM for this mental disorder.
He killed thousands of them with his Covid-19 BS.
More than a million died because of dump.....
Add mass murderer to his resume.
Yes, agreed! I forgot he's smarter than all the Doctors and Scientists
Remember the bleach fiasco, that poor woman had to fight to not burst out laughing!
Yes! And her career was ruined after being part of his administration - he destroys whatever he touches.
Stream-of-consciousness gibberish. The maggots lap it up like ice cream.
Scarier than I thought. He is even more horrible than we perceived.. And his followers are pretty scary themselves..
I have a friend who says he isn't serious. He's not going to do that stuff. I have been shocked. This woman is of average intelligence. There is no talking to her. Her mind is made up. Saddens me.
Not everyone follows news, politics and opinion as much as those of us on this site.
The over-the-top media hysteria about *Rump's "massive" win (not) in Iowa only feeds his brand. Critical examination of the Iowa results, such as Lucian's, are few and far between. The outcome demonstrates *Rump's fundamental weakness not his super strength. In any case the Iowa caucus is meaningless, and should be ignored instead of being elevated to a definitive political prediction. Its track record is actually woeful. As far as his rallies are concerned, no one other than his cult members will go to his rallies, and I understand the attenance has dropped. Willingly listening to his endless, an repititious farago of lies and grievances more than once is not something an intelligent person will do. So he's constantly preaching to the choir, as it were, and not enlarging his base. Many of those 74-million votes he got in 2020 weren't true believers of his incoherent gibberish: they were/are racists like him. He has made it ever so clear that he hates the same people they do, and for that his cult, and many others, will forgive him anything. He is the definition of a demogogue who really stands for nothing but himself. There's nothing new about any of it. The media has normalized him, and allowed him to get away with his agregious behavior, well, because it's *Rump. Without regard to the pernicious effects on our public discourse. We need to understand that his cult will not abandon him. They are not rational, thinking people, and that makes them dangerous. 2024 is going to be a difficult year for many of us to suffer through, but I can't let myself imagine that he will prevail.
Election Day 2024 will also be Bonfire Night (traditional UK celebration). How apt is that for symbolism?
I've only just realised that it is now the 20th year since Green Day called out a prescient and not so oblique warning about media influence producing members for precisely this type of cult. https://youtu.be/Qb9d9zyNV-U
The only power he has is the maga cult. We vastly outnumber them. It will come down to turnout in November.
Women will be the turning point and save our democracy.
Yes! The GOP has always underestimated (or flat out ignored) women
Indeed...VOTE!
What was the percentage of voters that made the caucus in Iowa? Not much. Everyone needs to share Mr. Truscott’s essays and make more aware of the larger movement against Trump and his cult. A lot of people feel overwhelmed by that Trump fool, what he is good (the only thing IMO) at, sowing despair and witching fools with lies.
The Iowa caucus has all the majesty of a ninth-grade student council election, and just about the same turnout. For all the money and effort he spent that corrupt shitweasel got, what, 52,000 votes? Wonder what the cost per vote must be.
TBH, both Ronnie and Nikki spent a whole lot more (time, effort and money) than Trump did in Iowa and received a whole lot less (in votes) than did smug, smirking, moronic Trump. Sick-making as far as I'm concerned.
Not his money, consider it Drone Funded.
Ach, du meine gute!
And it’s not just Trump himself. Apparently one of Trump’s caucus organizers told her caucus that during his term as president, Trump was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize *three* times.
And a dunce cap, which he thought was a crown!
Yeah...in trump's dreams---did she add that little truth in there? Doubtful.