The Trump Administration: A Clusterfuck in the Making

[Sherrerd]

@Sherrerd

…Even stupid people dislike being manipulated. Point out to then that that’s what’s happening, and they may vote differently. Even that sweet racist message ‘you’re white and you deserve to have all others bow down to you’ may not work as well as it’s working now, if the targets of the message realize how thoroughly they’re being conned.

@davidm

The problem is that people who believe in conspiracy theories such as the deep state, and who frequent sites like Infowars and Breitbart believe that they’re breaking free from being manipulated and that those who disagree with them are either manipulators or the victims of manipulators.

How do you break through that? How do you convince them that they are the ones being manipulated?

I think this (my bolding) is one of the top two or three problems the Democrats have to solve. I don’t have an ultimate answer but I’d suggest two main avenues of attack:

1: FOLLOW THE MONEY: Who benefits when people believe that “trickle down” tax cuts are a great idea? Who benefits when people believe that a major party Presidential candidate is running a child sex ring out of a non-existent basement of a pizza parlor? Who is bankrolling the troll farms? Who is paying for the Facebook ads?
…solid reporting on these and other questions—enough of it that the CT fans can’t keep tuning out the truth—is one major way to approach answering the question.

If you are being manipulated, someone is benefiting. Who?

2: BASIC BULLSHIT-DETECTION: The link in my post (the one quoted above) gives one example of effective bullshit-detection techniques. There are other examples. People ARE motivated to pay attention when you tell them ‘this is a way you can keep others from bullshitting you.’ Even right-wingers. No one likes to be the sucker in the room—and that’s a basic human reaction that Democrats can, and should, build on.

[asahi]

I think that sometime in 2021 or 2022, Kansas is going to erect a giant bronze (or gold) statue of Donald Trump - like a towering 800 foot statue that can be seen for miles and miles around. And there will be an eternal flame that shoots out of its mouth. They’ll call it the Trumpzilla statue.

[Ukulele_Ike]

Kansas doesn’t have any money.

[ThelmaLou]

@asahi

I think that sometime in 2021 or 2022, Kansas is going to erect a giant bronze (or gold) statue of Donald Trump - like a towering 800 foot statue that can be seen for miles and miles around. And there will be an eternal flame that shoots out of its mouth. They’ll call it the Trumpzilla statue.

They can store corn inside it.

[asahi]

@Ukulele_Ike

Kansas doesn’t have any money.

I had forgotten about that - that damn Sam Brownback.

Oh well, maybe Missouri? Iowa? North Dakota?

[digs]

@Ukulele_Ike

Kansas doesn’t have any money.

Kansas just showed up at a rally and claimed Nebraska will pay for it.

[asahi]

@digs

Kansas just showed up at a rally and claimed Nebraska will pay for it.

I kinda wanna see Kansas and Missouri (my state of birth) fight. I wasn’t there in the 1850s. Let’s watch the border ruffians knuckle up.

[carnivorousplant]

@asahi

I kinda wanna see Kansas and Missouri (my state of birth) fight. I wasn’t there in the 1850s. Let’s watch the border ruffians knuckle up.

Hey, Arkansans fought each other in 1862. We didn’t need a neighboring state to kill people.
Get with the program!
:dubious:

[asahi]

@carnivorousplant

Hey, Arkansans fought each other in 1862. We didn’t need a neighboring state to kill people.
Get with the program!
:dubious:

I don’t want Arkansans to fight. I have a soft spot in my heart fer you hillbillies. I like the Ozarks and Hot Springs (Lake Hamilton).

[jasg]

@digs

Kansas just showed up at a rally and claimed Nebraska will pay for it.

but only if Kansas is renamed Baja Nebraska.

[kaylasdad99]

@asahi

I think that sometime in 2021 or 2022, Kansas is going to erect a giant bronze (or gold) statue of Donald Trump - like a towering 800 foot statue that can be seen for miles and miles around. And there will be an eternal flame that shoots out of its mouth. They’ll call it the Trumpzilla statue.

We should encourage them to build it with EXCLUSIVELY 24K gold, so when they gather around it to worship, it falls over and obliterates the lot of them…

[kaylasdad99]

@carnivorousplant

Hey, Arkansans fought each other in 1862. We didn’t need a neighboring state to kill people.
Get with the program!
:dubious:

I thought it was Arkansawyers.

Did I get snookered by William Safire?

[kaylasdad99]

@carnivorousplant

Hey, Arkansans fought each other in 1862. We didn’t need a neighboring state to kill people.
Get with the program!
:dubious:

@asahi

I don’t want Arkansans to fight. I have a soft spot in my heart fer you hillbillies. I like the Ozarks and Hot Springs (Lake Hamilton).

If the Arkansawyers eliminate one another, there’ll be more Ozarks and Lake Hamilton for you to enjoy (although you’ll have to bring along your own support staff).

[eschereal]

And the diamonds, of course.

[Gyrate]

@ThelmaLou

They can store corn inside it.

I’m pretty sure they already have buildings for that sort of thing. What are they called again? Oh yeah - pyramids.

[septimus]

I’m posting to call attention to a must-read for all Dopers:

@MovieMogul

Accusations of Godwinism are often fast & furious when making historical comparisons between Trump and You-Know-Who, but now, one of the Holocaust’s eminent scholars is going there:

Thank you for linking to that essay. It is frightening — but it is high-time that rational good-spirited Americans get frightened. PM me if/when you post a link to that essay in GD and/or IMHO. If you don’t, I will.

(Give me credit for finding my way back here just to thank you — I had to unravel my browser history just to do that! My web-browsing technique is also rather frightening. I clicked your link yesterday, but didn’t actually read it until just now. I have 56 Chrome tabs open as I type. :eek: I accidentally rebooted since I clicked but didn’t read this cite; fortunately Chrome lets me click and restore all my previous tabs.)

[Monty]

@septimus

fortunately Chrome lets me click and restore all my previous tabs.)

AFAIK, Shift+CTRL+T does that for any browser, including Chrome.

[MindsEye_Watering]

@ThelmaLou

They can store corn inside it.

Manure.

[Muffin]

@MovieMogul

Accusations of Godwinism are often fast & furious when making historical comparisons between Trump and You-Know-Who, but now, one of the Holocaust’s eminent scholars is going there:

Godwinise? How about God?

[dasmoocher]

@k9bfriender

Kind of. It is important to them that there is someone below them on the social or economic ladders. Very important. And if becoming wealthy meant that everyone was as wealthy as they are, then they wouldn’t have the comfort of knowing that there are others that are not as well off as they are.

It’s an odd trait, but it is a powerful one. People are far more worried about what other people are getting, and are desperately concerned that someone else may be getting more than they deserve, that they are willing to sacrifice their own well being and growth in order to deny it to others.

@Monty

Bolding above mine.

Did you see Mississippi Burning? Remember that conversation between the FBI agent and the Black sharecropper about the value of the Black sharecropper’s land compared to the land of his neighbor, the white sharecropper?

Black Sharecropper: Do you know my land is worth more than his, even though we have the same amount of land and grow the same crops?
Agent Ward: Why is that?
Black Sharecropper: I don’t live next to a n~." (Laughs.)

Yep, that’s pretty much it. All the dirt poor people have in some parts is what they were born with: their race. And there’s one way to make themselves really feel a hell of a lot better, I mean feel really damn good, about that: abuse those of other races.

Here’s another relevant quote from Mississippi Burning:

Anderson: You know, when I was a little boy, there was an old negro farmer that lived down the road from us, name of Monroe. And he was… well, I guess he was just a little luckier than my daddy was. He bought himself a mule. That was a big deal around that town. My daddy hated that mule, 'cause his friends were always kidding him that they saw Monroe out plowing with his new mule, and Monroe was going to rent another field now he had a mule. One morning, that mule showed up dead. They poisoned the water. After that, there wasn’t any mention about that mule around my daddy. It just never came up. One time, we were driving down that road, and we passed Monroe’s place and we saw it was empty. He just packed up and left, I guess, he must of went up north or something. I looked over at my daddy’s face. I knew he done it. He saw that I knew. He was ashamed. I guess he was ashamed. He looked at me and said, “If you ain’t better than a [n-word], son, who are you better than?”

My bold; edited offensive word.