The Donald vs Big Tech

[mickO)))]

The media fawning over Harris is deeply troubling. I distinctly recall last year the same media were asking where the hell she even was, now she is the saviour of the western world all of a sudden. The bias isn't even subtle.

Not surprising but hopefully people will remember what four years under Biden has been like and with Harris things will only get worse. I am still shocked they are going with Harris but sure when you have the full force of the main stream media on your side you can even see just on here how some people are already falling for it.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

The "full force of the main stream media" minus the number one most popular cable news station (accounting for a full 50% of news viewership), that is. Seems more than just a detail.

[Eoin McLove]

The media fawning over Harris is deeply troubling. I distinctly recall last year the same media were asking where the hell she even was, now she is the saviour of the western world all of a sudden. The bias isn't even subtle.

Not surprising but hopefully people will remember what four years under Biden has been like and with Harris things will only get worse. I am still shocked they are going with Harris but sure when you have the full force of the main stream media on your side you can even see just on here how some people are already falling for it.

Funny, I don't keep up with the goings on of politicians in any close way, but the couple of channels I tune into- one more centre left and the other centre right- seem to have arrived at the same conclusion regarding the Democratic rally in Chicago. Both sides seem to think that while she is playing it safe, she is also looking more impressive and presidential than they had previously given her credit for. Maybe both sides are so sick of Trump and are concerned about the chaos that he well bring, and are being generous to her out of hope? Maybe they see her, and the Democrats' purported shift to the centre as a positive development. Maybe it's all bullshit and if she becomes president it'll be trans ops and pronouns all the way and all the Trumpites will be carted off to gulags. Probably she/ they can sense a need in America for less radical policies and less heated/ polarised politics and are capitalising on that. It's a power game, no question, but maybe they can cool things down a bit and bring some sense of normality back to proceedings. Maybe I'm just an optimist 

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Fuck Obama, fuck Clinton & Clinton, fuck Biden, fuck Harris: I know every pus-dripping wart of the whole DNC schtick inside out. That doesn't in any way detract from the current incarnation of the Republican party being worse, and in ways that many either don't realize or are not willing to even entertain.

Let me post again this documentary about the extent of Evangelical Christian power right into the ear of Donald Trump since before he was in office and especially while he was there. Yes, they're mutually instrumentalizing each other (Trump clearly couldn't give a flying fuck about Christianity per se), but it is a bone-chilling combination of social aims:
https://youtu.be/IhT7oyDlBIk?si=68Oev6TWNRaxaoaa

In short, I'm really not interested in anyone's positive opinion on Trump/MAGA until they first square off to me how they swallow and assimilate his political marriage to the apocalyptic puritans. Which means learning about it rather than pretending it either doesn't exist or is secondary. It is core to MAGA.

[astfgyl]

The only positive I can think of is they didn't go into more wars while he was there. I think economically things were improving before covid, but that might be just swings and roundabouts and nothing to do with any policy of his at all tbf.

They really are crying out for a centrist there and I do think that's a winning ticket for Harris but I don't expect her to actually be a centrist after it settles.

The difference as I see it is that Harris doesn't seem to have much in the way of policies to run on as of yet, whereas the orange fella has said he'd do a few things, which would give him the edge from my perspective but then I'm not a us voter so I'm detached in a way the yanks probably are. I think the fact Harris is not Trump is her major selling point as was with Biden.  They're both sort of entertaining in their own ways as well.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

They haven't gone into any wars since Biden's been in either, so without even needing to debate what it actually means, that's that cancelled out.

What kinds of things has Trump said he'll do that you think are good? Shutting down the department of education?

[astfgyl]

Proxy wars in Ukraine and Palestine don't count? That's not cancelled out at all as I see it

Edit: the bitcoin idea, the end of DEI, the closing of the border, the charging of foreign countries for US support? Do any of those count or not? What has Harris got?

Edit 2: the department of education there seems to have an lgbq leaning that upsets people but they insist upon it, just like they do here. I've the two 9 year old lads here asking me stuff about that and the yank version seems to be bigger better faster harder stronger as is with all things yank and I've no issue with the lgb at all but just let kids be kids and stuff and leave it off a bit etc. If my own kids came out in the morning I'd have no issue with it or anything but it's a controversial subject whether you agree with that or not. Just because I think it's grand because I'm not Catholic, there's no consideration for the demographic at all and a lot of things seem defined to inflame rather than teach acceptance so I can see why some religious people won't like that but it's all riding roughshod over how they feel and that's not a way to do things unless you're trying to drive half the people there mad.

Here, would you go to Saudi Arabia and teach them about the virtues of live and let live and queer sex? No you absolutely would not and you would not because you'd be afraid to and you and I both know that's the truth yet in the next breath you'd tell me that islamophobia is a problem of some sort. That's the problem for the modern leftist: You can't even square your own circle, never mind anyone else's. "Oh Palestine the horror against those evil Jews" and all that shite but the Palestinians would mostly throw you off a building for your own beliefs.

The cognitive dissonance is very strong with the modern leftist and I predict you will obfuscate with whatever reply you give but definitely won't call a spade a spade but being realistic, everything you hate about evangelical Christians is amplified tenfold in Muslims and yet you will defend them to the hilt.

Explain how you get around that mad logic if you can

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Trump may have done things differently wrt Ukraine but not Gaza. As I said above, he had a significant hand in increasing instability in the region prior to Oct 7th, at least in part due to following the wishes of his Evangelical advisors: the fundamentalist pastor of an Evangelical megachurch and one of Trump's personal advisors, Pastor Robert Jeffress, even spoke upon invitation at the opening when the embassy was moved to Jerusalem, him seeing it as a step towards Armageddon. Quite literally. Not alarming at all, eh?

Those policy proposals do exist, though I don't personally think any of them are that "good": (imo) bitcoin is a crock of shit which will create a bevy of new libertarian millionaires and billionaires while pushing us even further away from a global economy based on material resource management; I do think there are better policies available than DEI, but I don't think it's as big a deal in the daily lives of ordinary people as it is an effective culture war diversion away from improving the lives of those same people; regarding the border, they can close it if they like, I'd personally prefer to see more of a will towards tackling root causes in countries like Mexico, Nicaragua, Cuba, etc. (not something the DNC will necessarily do either); charging foreign countries to host US troops is a scheme aimed at pushing other NATO nations to increasing their own defense spending, at a time when global policies aimed at deescalation would (imo) be preferable - if Trump wanted instead to withdraw troops from foreign territories, that'd be a different matter (but in any case, on military spending, etc., the DNC are not any better).

LGBTQ again seems more of a culture war excuse hiding a more sinister reason to shut down the department of education: allowing states to shift funds towards faith-based education. Trump has already endorsed displaying of the Ten Commandments at school and various other things which dissolve the notion of the US being a pluralist secular state. Which leads on perfectly to your own attempt at a distraction from the actual subject:

Saudi Arabia is a theocracy. I'm not an advocate for any theocracies, and I especially don't want to see the US turn into one (which is the explicit desire of Trump's Evangelical advisors). One of the many reasons Hamas have been a negative force in Gaza since coming to power is because they made it more of a theocracy than it was under Fatah/the Palestinian Authority, a secular party. That's why Israel were happy to see Hamas take over, precisely because, unlike Fatah/the PA, Hamas couldn't be depicted as a credible interlocutor for peace.

No mad logic needed.

[astfgyl]

Had to wait until after work to come back on that one and I don't actually disagree with the points you're making there. I've no time for the evangelical shit either at all because I simply don't believe in it. I do, however, believe in human desire to be proven right and wouldn't put it past evangelical folks to try fulfil their own prophecies as best they can but I think Trump is playing up to them for votes more than anything (well unless he has found his god after having his botched ear piercing lately!) and I could see him ditching or sidelining a lot of that were he to get back in (which I honestly think he won't).

Trump is a capitalist pure and simple and I'm not so I obviously won't be in agreement with him in general but I think greater wealth transfer has happened under the Biden and Obama administrations than under the trump one so I just can't see a way to agree with this idea that they will do anything better or fairer at all

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

He very much did the opposite of ditching or sidelining the evangelical shit when he was voted in last time, why would you imagine he would do differently if he got in this time?

[astfgyl]

https://x.com/disclosetv/status/1828208501925257631?t=TnunJkyyqrcQW_n-5eX2QA&s=19

Unrelated to the current thread, but this one's a bit of a turn up for the books.

Anyway, cosying up to one's voter base would be regular stuff. Did he enact any policies in that direction?

[Ollkiller]

https://x.com/AdamParkhomenko/status/1828451144508600491

What a present 

[astfgyl]

https://x.com/AdamParkhomenko/status/1828451144508600491

What a present 

I know what Shep will be getting for Christmas....

Biden cards 

[Kunt 4 Life]

He very much did the opposite of ditching or sidelining the evangelical shit when he was voted in last time, why would you imagine he would do differently if he got in this time?

Second term. Nobody gets a third go as American president. You can tell people to get to fuck in your last run and not worry about getting voted in again

[Ollkiller]

He very much did the opposite of ditching or sidelining the evangelical shit when he was voted in last time, why would you imagine he would do differently if he got in this time?

Second term. Nobody gets a third go as American president. You can tell people to get to fuck in your last run and not worry about getting voted in again

If he gets in he'll keep the evangelical side all throughout his term as who's he gonna grift when finishes if they are alienated. Easy cash cow for life.