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The right wing playbook for authoritarianiam is playing out as intended, and they are close to winning

I kinda like what Jerry Rawlings did in Ghana back in 1979. Corruption was rampant and he found out he was going to be purged to make room for some crony so he led a coup and took over before he could be killed. He lined up 3 or 4 former presidents of Ghana and shot them, then lined up lots of other politicians, corrupt judges and businessmen and shot them too.

Someone mentioned Nixon extending the Vietnam war to get elected. Ive known about that for a while and it's sorry. None of these people are ever punished, the courts always find someway to let them off like with Trump. Greg Palast had an article how the Koch's killed Indians to take their oil right away. On the local level the wife of one of the wealthiest people here was killed and dumped in a river thirty years ago. The body came up and was found on the next county's side so it's DA looked into it. He got caught in a bribe sting with one of the members of this family . He got in trouble not the family and no one looked into it anymore. They are all so dirty no one exposes the other out of fear of being exposed themselves.

My theory is the whole elite is very corrupt and benefits from it. There will be no change because all change has to start with or be approved by your elite in any society and since they are all compromised and benefit from corruption nothing will happen
 
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Politesse said:
I don't have much hope that Trump is going to get called on the carpet for any of the things he has done, none of which even approach that level of severity.

Well.

Yet.
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I beg to differ. IMO his disastrous words and actions related to the COVID pandemic alone, probably cost over a million American lives and many millions more globally.
 
I wholeheartedly agree with the OP- I just want to add another wrinkle…

Back in the 80s, I remember reading an essay describing that as climate issues build, we would see a rise in far right wing politics. Nationalist backlashes against mitigation, movement of people, coupled with the rage and dissinfo power of the O&G industry and those heavily invested in it, and their hired politicians, it’s playing out as predicted.

…only thing missing from the OP is Steve Bannon’s “flood the zone with bullshit” line. That’s part of getting everyone to not trust their ears and eyes. Ask a MAGA about J6 and they will likely say it was a peaceful protest until Antifa (or FBI) showed up.
 
TSwizzle said:
Jimmy Higgins said:
Trump support has become like flat earthers. Trolling liberals became a performance art.
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Having dopey Kamala Harris as a candidate for POTUS is top tier trolling.
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She is only "dopey" to you because you fear her. You just want to go back to when white men had all the control, and everyone else knew their place. Women were only vagina's and stayed home with the kids. Black and brown people knew their place.

You are terrified that a Black Women would gain control.
 
Dunno if this really qualifies as “playing Devil’s Advocate,” but, I don’t think I buy one of the things I consistently hear about the existential dangers of Trumpism (as opposed to Trump himself.)
I think that Trump truly is sui generis—the threat from HIM is deadly severe, and very real, and urgently needs to be put down, but that once he’s out of the picture, the existential threat to America fades with him.
There’s no one “in line behind him” that comes anywhere close to commanding that cultish level of fervent loyalty, no one waiting in the wings to inherit that insane MAGA zeal that Trump is able to leverage.

DeSantis? Cruz? Rubio? Vance? Haley? Gaetz? No matter how deep you go into the bench, it’s a clown car, with no one capable of being what Trump is to the GOP today. The threat level drops off significantly once you get past Trump.
I say, when Trump dies, Trumpism dies.

Obviously, the GOP won’t start suddenly start showing an interest in playing fair, in truth-telling, in honoring small-d democratic ideals, in respecting women, minorities, or immigrants…
But
…in a post-Trump world, their ideas will have to compete on a much more level playing field than the one they play on today.
 
Axus said:
So how to overcome this inconvenient problem?
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The first part to overcome is to realize that the modern Republicans are not authoritarian. They are totalitarian.

Look at how they got rid of Roe Vs Wade. How they want to persecute people whom go out of their state to have abortions. Their attempts to prevent non-whites from voting.

People here know more about current politics then I. I bet others can find far better examples of Republican totalitarianism.
 
starwater said:
Because he is white and male.
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What are you on about?

starwater said:
She is only "dopey" to you because you fear her.
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I am unburdened from fear.

starwater said:
You just want to go back to when white men had all the control, and everyone else knew their place.
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I am unburdened by white men.

starwater said:
Women were only vagina's and stayed home with the kids. Black and brown people knew their place.
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I suspect this is a fantasy of yours.

starwater said:
You are terrified that a Black Women would gain control.
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lol, you are such a silly goose.
 
TomC said:
This is why I want him convicted of a capital crime and publicly executed. I'd settle for assassination, but it's not my first choice.

Rather like some other vicious populists, such as Saddam Hussein, I believe that Trump will continue inspiring mayhem as long as he lives. He's cultivated enough deranged and violent followers to keep causing trouble from prison.
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I can think of a worse punishment for Trump. The GOP is typically unforgiving towards their own nowadays. The 11th commandment is no longer a thing. Look at what happened to people like Madison Cawthorne, Paul Ryan, Kevin McCarthy and Adam Kinzinger. I want Trump to live long enough for him to receive the same treatment as GOP presidential candidates like Romney and McCain from his current faithful.

Then he can fuck off and die.
 
TSwizzle said:
starwater said:
Because he is white and male.
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What are you on about?

starwater said:
She is only "dopey" to you because you fear her.
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I am unburdened from fear.

starwater said:
You just want to go back to when white men had all the control, and everyone else knew their place.
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I am unburdened by white men.

starwater said:
Women were only vagina's and stayed home with the kids. Black and brown people knew their place.
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I suspect this is a fantasy of yours.

starwater said:
You are terrified that a Black Women would gain control.
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lol, you are such a silly goose.
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These are not arguments, they are just name calling. At this board you are supposed to present arguments.
 
Elixir said:
pood said:
this board you are supposed to present arguments
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What a bigoted authoritarian view! Is there something about people without ideas that pisses you off? Formulating cogent arguments places a tremendous demand on some folk who might otherwise appear normal.
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Free thought board... with a handful of atheists more politically aligned with christo-fascists than with democracy and progress... VERY low expectations are called for in such cases.
 
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