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Trump is degenerating rapidly before our eyes — why MAGA voters don't notice (www.salon.com)

submitted 5 months ago by Rapidcreek@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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[-] dhork@lemmy.world 110 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

This is why it's essential for those debates to happen. Yes, both men are declining mentally, but Biden can at least make a coherent argument, even if he mixes up names sometimes.

There is no excuse for either candidate to avoid debates anymore. we need to hear them talk, without prepared speeches. I will take Biden's odds on that over Trump's any day.

If Biden wins this thing, I think history will find that the reason he beat Trump twice was that he was not at all intimidated by him. He takes Trump seriously, but also has the courage to call him out for the liar he is, convincingly, without dismissing his supporters as a bunch of losers. That takes a bit of confidence that only age can bring. Maybe Bernie could have done it, but I don't think any other candidate could. Clinton absolutely failed at that.

[-] rdyoung@lemmy.world 77 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

And to clarify here. Biden is declining because we all do at that age. No one is immune to that. Trump is declining because he has abused who knows how many different drugs and fuck knows what else over the decades, add that history to age and it's never going to be good. Biden has always had a stutter and while I know you didn't mention it, it's been used a bully stick by the maggats seemingly unaware of the fact that their guy has been deranged and unable to stay on topic for years.

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[-] pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 22 points 5 months ago

Shit, I'm 34 and I mix up names sometimes. If I had to keep track of as many people as he does, I'd mix up names all the time.

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[-] AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world 100 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Republican voters: "Does he still piss off the many, many, many groups of people we openly hate and wish harm upon more than any other candidate could?"

Well yes, but what does that have to do with effective governance?

Republican voters: "what the fuck is governance?"

[-] chknbwl@lemmy.world 59 points 5 months ago

This is almost word-for-word an interaction I had with a coworker yesterday. Said she voted Orange this primary because "he's the only one to fix this damn gender issue", so I asked her what she thought of his policies on foreign affairs and the domestic wage gap.

I got a double-chinned shrug and an "idunno". Lmfao our country is going to burn because a vast swath of people would rather see hundreds of thousands prosecuted for socially-engineered offenses instead of nurturing the human condition.

On a solemn note, our country's governance has become a joke. A circus of clowns too busy honking horns and throwing pies at each other to notice the tent around them is ablaze. To everyone, please, do not take our country's governance as a joke. Serious, irreversible consequences oft come from impotent or non-existent legislative power.

We stand at a precipice, so please vote. Vote. VOTE. VOTE.

[-] ripcord@lemmy.world 12 points 5 months ago

I mean, you really have to hand it to Fox and the right-wing propaganda machine for so successfully turning such a stupid non-issue into the top priority for a bunch of people.

I mean it's wrenchingly sick, but they've pulled it off so well.

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[-] suction@lemmy.world 10 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

It's so strange but also so obvious that Americans who love Trump have the exact same worries about the world that Putin's voters, the Russian country bumpkins, had when they still were able to vote in non-sham elections: Gender and gender roles, homosexuality, the end of toxic masculinity, etc. It's all they care about, and I think it speaks volumes about their innermost fears about their own lives.

[-] Quadhammer@lemmy.world 21 points 5 months ago

If only they just realized as long as trans people and democrats have rights, so will they. They want so badly to be oppressed

[-] AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world 19 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

They want both victimhood and domination, at the same time, and being able to hold that wild dissonance in their heads without alarm bells going off is what makes them Republicans. Republican media has trained them into believing that being both victim and oppressor is a perfectly valid position to hold, and because it feels good to believe that, that they deserve to be powerful enough hurt others and also bear no responsibility for that power as they are the victims of the people they want to hurt, many do.

They aren't special or anything, critical thinking and reasoning must be taught. Without that, most people rely on their feelings. The Nazis convinced massive swaths of Germans that because Jews and other groups they hated were "victimizing the German people," scapegoating them of course, the German people should allow the Nazis to murder them in their name, guilt free because clearly the german people were the victims of these scapegoats.

Herd mentality is a hell of a drug. So is Schadenfreude. American Republicans are addicted to both. Not entirely their fault either, Fox "News" and other right wing propaganda made them into what they've become over decades. Free speech weaponized into a a cancerous means of indoctrination through appealing to fear and hatred.

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[-] Red_October@lemmy.world 82 points 5 months ago

It's not a question of whether or not they notice, it's a question of whether or not they care. They don't vote for him because of his policies, they vote for him because he wants to hurt the people they don't like. They vote for him because "The Left" doesn't want him. He literally says his first day in office would be his Dictator Day and they ate it up.

[-] suction@lemmy.world 10 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I think they care, just not in a way normal people would - for Trump voters, it's 100% about trolling, annoying, hating, and secretly wishing dead anyone they deem to be the "outside group". And the worse Trump gets, the louder will that outside group's opposition to him be. Which in turn gives his followers great satisfaction. So they care in a negative way, along the lines of "the people we hate and want dead will be so outraged by his gaffes, the news will be soo delectable to watch tomorrow! I'll come so hard watching them rage!!"

[-] thisbenzingring 59 points 5 months ago

Trump speeches may sound like listening to a four-year-old explain "The Lord of the Rings,"

LMAO

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[-] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 56 points 5 months ago

they know that he'll let them hurt who they want to hurt and they don't care about anything else. I think to a lot of them a mentally incompetent trump is a bonus because he'll be easier to steer.

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[-] superduperenigma@lemmy.world 55 points 5 months ago

They are fine with a Weekend at Bernie's presidency so long as it brings them closer to the theocratic hellscape they want us to live in.

[-] agent_flounder@lemmy.world 15 points 5 months ago

He's more useful as an incoherent, babbling dementia patient. Even more if dead. They can just turn him into a literal puppet.

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[-] suction@lemmy.world 37 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Is the question "why" really still a source of puzzlement to people? It's a cult. Jesus is long dead, or probably never existed, so he's even more "degenerated" than Trump, but that doesn't seem to be a problem for his followers.

[-] WatTyler@lemmy.zip 9 points 5 months ago

Just going to take the opportunity to point out that broad (not universal) historical consensus is that Jesus of Nazareth existed, was baptised by John the Baptist, and was then crucified. It goes without saying that Jesus being the Son of God, Messiah etc. is not the broad consensus.

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[-] Icalasari@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago

Jesus likely existed

What I find funny is scholars who analyzed The Bible have a TON of reason to believe Jesus was one of those, "THE END IS NIGH! IT IS COMING IN OUR LIFETIMES! THE END IS NIGH!" people which is

Fucking hilarious to imagine

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[-] Boddhisatva@lemmy.world 30 points 5 months ago

Even Jimmy Fallon, who tends to be cautious about mocking Trump, joked on Monday night, "It sounds like his brain got a flat," and suggested Trump's new campaign slogan should be "Trump 2024 WI-RI-BI-GYU ... AHHH."

Trump 2024

[-] RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com 21 points 5 months ago

I'd vote for this dog. Bad comparison. One is a mindless idiot bumbling from treat to treat, the other a majestic dog living the best life.

Sticks for everyone! And water fountains on every street!

[-] Potatofish@lemmy.world 26 points 5 months ago

Because they have already degenerated?

[-] samus12345@lemmy.world 23 points 5 months ago

They might notice, but they certainly don't care.

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[-] MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 23 points 5 months ago

Wish he'd degenerate quickly into a 6' hole.

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[-] griD@feddit.de 18 points 5 months ago

I had time to think for a bit. Please be advised that I'm not an American citizen and the following is purely conjecture.
Basically, I believe the US is FUBAR. There are 4 possible scenarios for the 5th of November:

Trump gets so demented it's getting impossible to get him propped up, he has to concede somewhere around that time
Trump finally gets thrown in jail, before election day
Biden wins - right now it looks like it would be a close call
Trump wins

The article mentions, as many have before, that the "conservative" way of "thinking" has become purely emotional. So what do you think will happen if either of the three first will come true? Someone will seize the day and shout some bullshit conspiracy or another and now 20-30% of your emotionally driven population will get set to "angry" and "revenge".
If he simply wins: Mission accomplished!

Now that I've thought a bit more, even (maybe especially?) if Biden wins in a landslide, the conspiracy spin could even be made stronger. Yikes. It might be the time of troubles on a very large scale and I reaaaaaaaaaly hope I'm totally wrong with all this!

[-] ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world 18 points 5 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

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[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 14 points 5 months ago

There's a very good chance Trump's trial doesn't conclude until after voting day. At which point we may face the situation of having a President-Elect that is convicted of Insurrection.

We really should have just let the states ban the guy.

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[-] Rolder@reddthat.com 11 points 5 months ago

It would be best for everyone if he just keeled over before the election, tbh

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[-] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 11 points 5 months ago

How can someone degenerate when they've always been a degenerate?

[-] FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today 9 points 5 months ago

I think most Maga voters might prefer an ineffective president.

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[-] Fapper_McFapper@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago

To his supporters this is a feature, not a bug.

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this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2024

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