This is just a pretty standard attempt to hold down the devil inside Trump (note the hands on shoulders). It works, but only for a short time, and you need at least ten people willing to get that close. I think they’re having trouble getting the staff together to keep it under control.
Thanks for the laugh.
This seems to have been going on for some time, if I am not mistaken. Look at the first picture, I see a FIFA golden abomination (perhaps the peace prize?). It must be a couple of months old at the most. The second picture though seems to show Mike Pennywice to his right, so it should be at least five years old. Curiously the man to trump’s right in the upper picture and to his left in the middle one are the same, and wearing the same suit and tie, while the blond woman seems also to be the same one, but with a different dress (navy blue → red → black in the bottom picture, where the white haired man is no longer to be seen).
Do they think this “keeping it under control” is working? ETA: /s
Some do. As has been discussed many, many times on this board:
- Some see him as being a vessel for God’s will to fix America, even if he, himself, is sinful and flawed; they draw comparisons to Cyrus the Great – a Persian ruler who freed the Jewish people from captivity in Babylonia.
- Some steadfastly want to believe that he is a devout Christian, because it reduces their personal cognitive dissonance.
But, note that nearly all of them are conservative (and largely white) Christians. When you say “the theists do love him,” you lump in liberal Christians (yes, they absolutely exists), and non-Christian believers. And maybe that’s intentional on your part, if you believe (as it sounds like) that all religions are awful.
You have been whooshed. Drake probably should have put a /s in their post. Those photos depict Christian leaders praying for God to help Trump to do His (God’s) good work, and I am quite certain that they fully believe that Trump has been chosen by God to do that work.
I should have used the /s myself. There, corrected.
I believe that all organized religions tend to be oppresive, indeed I do. That is my experience with them, and what I have read too.
kenobi_65 is correct that I wasn’t serious, but I do think that the Republicans believe, delusionally, that they are keeping some level of control as they ride the insane tiger.
To this day, they cling desperately to the same illusion the 2016 GOP primary contenders did, of positioning themselves to harvest his voter base when he inevitably goes away. (Back then because oh he’s not a serious candidate and will soon rage-quit; now because oh he’s term-limited and is 10 yrs closer to death)
Well, yes. But there isn’t a “the right way”, There’s a whole batch of right ways and also some wrong ones. It’s wrong to marry somebody unwilling, and it’s wrong to starve your kids; but it can be right to be in a straight marriage, or a gay marriage, or a group marriage, or no marriage, or to marry and not have kids, or to have kids and not marry, or to raise kids somebody else gave birth to, or to give birth to kids for someone else to raise, or all sorts of other permutations. Not to mention whether to toast the wedding with wine or with grape juice or who gets to dance with whom, if anybody. And don’t get me started on relationships to land.
I applaud you for asking the question, but you’d be best off asking some of those people directly.
Asking people on the Left why people on the Right behave a certain way is just as futile as asking people on the Right why people on the Left behave a certain way. Both sides will give you an answer, often in depth, usually attributing the worse possible motives and frequently resorting to pejorative name-calling, when in fact, neither side seems to associate much with the other side.
As a centrist, I hear plenty from my conservative friends what and why the liberals believe, and I hear plenty from my progressive friends what the people on the right supposedly believe and why. In both cases, it’s usually simplistic, distorted and wrong.
Have some actual one-on-one conversations with those with whom you disagree. Both of you are likely to learn something.
I’m a centrist also, who grew up in a conservative background. Not a ridiculously conservative background a-la MAGA, but still one that voted consistently and predictably Republican.
The thing was that when everything was weighed, the GOP lookedl like the better ticket, pre-Tea Party. Since then, they’ve taken a insane right turn into conspiracy theories and outright, naked hatefulness. I’m not sure that many of the conservative people of my acquaintance would vote for Trump or Republicans these days because of that alone. But I’m also not sure that they’ll ever vote for Democrats either, as they perceive them as being for minorities and fringe groups and against white, middle class people. They view it as an either-or situation. And most of the party in their view is rich East Coast liberals or ethnic minorities. They don’t feel remotely seen by the Democrat establishment- few of their candidates or their campaign rhetoric speaks to that- it’s always about trans/gay rights, immigrants, and groups that aren’t them.
But these are regular old suburban white conservatives, not hardcore MAGA types. They’re people that used to mock and roll their eyes at John Birchers, but not vote for Democrats either. I was once one of them, but I’ve since discovered that with the advent of the hard right Tea Party and MAGA, that they’re not who I want to be associated with, nor do they champion my beliefs either. Nor do the Democrats, but they’re closer than the Republicans these days.
What I’m curious about is why so many people seem to feel so threatened by the changes that are happening that MAGA seems like an attractive option. Because the way they’re acting is largely fearful and with anger stemming from that fear. (remember, anger’s a secondary emotion that usually derives from fear or sadness). I’m curious what they’re so sad or fearful of. I can’t imagine that merely giving minorities equal rights and opportunity is actually threatening; if anything, it’s an opportunity for the racists to prove their point that they’re superior, not run scared.
It’s hard to imagine that a one-on-one conversation with any of those folks is going to yield answers that years on a psychiatrist’s couch wouldn’t even begin to scratch.
IMHO, these are not rational reasons and I don’t need to talk to people about them when they are more than willing to tell me what their reasons boil down to.
And I am hearing what they’re saying.
I’m trying to think ahead. Those people aren’t going anywhere, and I suspect that when the Democrats regain power, that going hard in the opposite direction isn’t going to do anything but antagonize them and in their minds, prove themselves right.
So I’m trying to figure out what’s going on with them, so maybe it can be addressed in some way other than screaming “They’re racists!” or “They’re dumb!” or “They’re assholes!” like that’s actually going to change anything. If we want to fix this and not devolve into a political pattern of reversal and retribution every time the pendulum swings to a different party, whatever’s causing them to believe Trump and MAGA are their best choices, is what needs to be addressed. A sort of root-cause analysis, as it were.
I admire your optimism. Personally, I don’t think we have much of a chance of “fixing” this. I take no pleasure in concluding we’re screwed.
But, if they are racist, dumb, assholes, what’s the plan then?
Their side’s plan is to put you in “warehouses”. The modern concentration camp was invented in the USA after all, would be a shame if that knowledge got to waste.
Your side’s plan the last time I checked was to fly high when they go low.
My plan is to never set foot in the USA again and hope you are not as contagious as it seems. I fear my hope will proof futile.
Ideally, I think a managed dissolution would be the best outcome, similar to the split up of Czechoslovakia, but that won’t happen.
They are being incited by propaganda. If the propaganda stopped they’d slowly settle down. If there was a concerted effort to “sell” a less crazy unreal worldview to them, you’d peel off a few more.
But the hard part of counter propaganda is you need to pull very gently on their reins. Which would mean the US Left creating, funding, and cheerleading for what looks like hard right propaganda in any other country but which is a bit left of were the MAGAs have been moved to by Faux etc.
Over 3 or 4 decades of slowly leftward-shifting but still right-leaning propaganda, you could drag them back to being Nixon Republicans.
Then the work of rebuilding society can begin.
I think the big fear is that if The Other People “take over” that they’ll be treated as badly as the other people were when they ran things. They can’t conceive of a multi-racial, secular democracy that won’t result in them sucking hind teat.
I agree with you in theory, but in practice what people say they believe and what they actually believe may bear little resemblance. Also, I grew up with rural conservatives. I grew up being lectured by them, in some cases. They took great effort to impress their worldview upon me. So I think I understand them pretty well.
In fact, as one of my conservative parental guardians explained to me during one of our countless political discussions, conservatives don’t like change. What’s happening now could be seen as an enormous backlash to cultural change that conservatives experienced as rapid and destabilizing. Of course, part of what they want to preserve is white supremacy and male supremacy. That has always been the case. To ignore that reality would be folly. All of this craziness is basically overcorrection to changes they didn’t like.
A lot of that is news doesn’t report on the times the Democratic establishment talks about anything not “woke”. Democratic candidates aren’t stupid; they know they have to reach the political center. And they talk the talk, but when it’s not reported, it’s ineffective.
You’ll even see it on this left-leaning forum, where even posters who are generally pro-Democratic Party still complain they talk too much about oppressed groups. The right-wing bias permeates all media–reacting to it spreads the biased viewpoints just as surely as the propaganda.