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Post-Trump: III (decline, further tantrums, legal proceedings, book deals etc)

Marjory Taylor-Greene is going all-out with ‘fashwave’ imagery/optics now, really quite bizarre and scary given for some inexplicable reason she is an actual representative. Interesting thread here with a bit of background (Twitter). This is where the US Republican Party is right now.

Wow. That’s quite a, er, thing. Jesus.
 
Marjory Taylor-Greene is going all-out with ‘fashwave’ imagery/optics now, really quite bizarre and scary given for some inexplicable reason she is an actual representative. Interesting thread here with a bit of background (Twitter). This is where the US Republican Party is right now.

It was only about 6 or 7 years ago when I would just laugh off crap like this. Just a few lunatic fringe crackpots, or so I used to think. I am now astounded by how many seemingly otherwise intelligent people are buying into alt-right propaganda and authoritarianism.

I had hoped for quite a while that this was merely the death wheeze of older, white supremacists, and that the US would inevitably evolve into a more diverse, multicultural and progressive Country. As I now witness the country going backwards, I am no longer thinking my hope is realistic. Maybe the best I can hope is that this stuff is cyclical.

Two thoughts come to mind. The GOP must be defeated in the short term. They cannot be allowed to retake control of the federal government. But democracy cannot survive in a one-party state, and towards that end, the GOP must either be reformed or replaced. I don’t care which, and I don’t care if it takes a long, long time. But the US needs at least two major parties, and one of them can not have the end of democracy as its main goal.
 
It was only about 6 or 7 years ago when I would just laugh off crap like this. Just a few lunatic fringe crackpots, or so I used to think. I am now astounded by how many seemingly otherwise intelligent people are buying into alt-right propaganda and authoritarianism.

My experience exactly. During the 2016 election cycle, every week I thought for sure this time Trump's latest outrageous statement would do him in. Instead he went from strength to strength, and people I once thought were reasonable and intelligent were lapping it up. The way the GOP has progressed since then, soon Trump will be a RINO the way Reagan is now.

I had hoped for quite a while that this was merely the death wheeze of older, white supremacists, and that the US would inevitably evolve into a more diverse, multicultural and progressive Country. As I now witness the country going backwards, I am no longer thinking my hope is realistic. Maybe the best I can hope is that this stuff is cyclical.

I still haven't given up hope that this is the death spiral, and it's just taking longer than I would have hoped. But that hope is rapidly being replaced with fear that this way of thinking has become entrenched.

Two thoughts come to mind. The GOP must be defeated in the short term. They cannot be allowed to retake control of the federal government. But democracy cannot survive in a one-party state, and towards that end, the GOP must either be reformed or replaced. I don’t care which, and I don’t care if it takes a long, long time. But the US needs at least two major parties, and one of them can not have the end of democracy as its main goal.

Indeed. Defeat and discredit must overcome the GOP or the future for America will be very grim indeed.
 
Another update on the Republican ‘fashwave/cryptofascist’ thing from Behavioural Scientist Caroline Orr Bueno (Twitter). This shit is really happening, it isn’t imagined, it isn’t a troll. Incomprehensible.

PS Worth following her on Twitter, she has a good take on US human rights etc.
 
I still haven't given up hope that this is the death spiral, and it's just taking longer than I would have hoped. But that hope is rapidly being replaced with fear that this way of thinking has become entrenched.

An article in today's WaPo appears to say it all:

Trumpism is terrible. It also might be popular.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...ism-repubublican-success-popular-with-voters/

An excerpt:

So why is Trumpism decently popular?

I think the most important explanation is that the sentiments that Trump-style politicians tap into are in some ways human nature. Defining some group of people or institutions (the media, the left, immigrants, a minority religious or ethnic group) as apart from everyone else and then blaming them for creating problems and subverting the true will of the people has been a successful political tactic in any number of times and places. There is no reason to think Americans are immune to it.

...
I don’t think the radicalized GOP is destined to win over the majority of Americans. The Democrats did win in 2018 and 2020, after all. But when I look at Trump and DeSantis, I see autocratic politicians whose messages resonate deeply with huge numbers of voters. I see the business community and other institutions underestimating the Trumpist threat but also acting cautiously because they have seen how DeSantis, Trump and other politicians of this ilk seek to use government power to punish those who cross them. I see the Democratic Party underappreciating the real appeal of this kind of politics, clinging to a self-absorbed view that the rise of Trumpism is simply because of the failings of the left.

It’s certainly possible that Democrats could gain votes by delivering more real-world benefits to Americans, moving to the right on racial and identity issues or — my preferred approach — laying out a real, sustainable vision for a more equitable society.

But sadly, it’s also possible that no matter what anyone does, a growing number of Americans have gotten a taste of Trump-style politics — and liked it.
 

But sadly, it’s also possible that no matter what anyone does, a growing number of Americans have gotten a taste of Trump-style politics — and liked it.

A lot of people find mean-spiritedness appealing.
 
A lot of people find mean-spiritedness appealing.
I suspect it resonates with you if you're unhappy, or under stress. I'm not so sure that's the same as finding it appealing. It's a need to lash out, some sort of cathartic process of passing on some of your pain. If I'm right, what's needed is less pain in the first place.
 
'Put an Irishman on a spit and you can always find another Irishman to turn the handle', as GBS put it. I suspect the same is true of Americans.
 
I suspect it resonates with you if you're unhappy, or under stress. I'm not so sure that's the same as finding it appealing. It's a need to lash out, some sort of cathartic process of passing on some of your pain. If I'm right, what's needed is less pain in the first place.

This is the playbook of the right. Make life very hard for very many people, then channel their anger against imaginary enemies during your election campaign.

The US (and UK) electorate has a severe enemy identification problem.
 
I suspect it resonates with you if you're unhappy, or under stress. I'm not so sure that's the same as finding it appealing. It's a need to lash out, some sort of cathartic process of passing on some of your pain. If I'm right, what's needed is less pain in the first place.

I'm not letting them off that easy, some people get a hardon from being strict and unbending and cruel.
 
Why do we bother at all ? Looking back to a golden age when Marcos Snr robbed them blind and imprisoned opponents, the Philippines elects Bongbong Marcos as President.
There was a much better alternative. What is the matter with people ?
The internet should improve democracy but it seems to be the opposite.
 
The only reasonable analysis is that most people are very stupid and easily led into acting against their own interest even when it results in their own death; if you can convince people that committing mass murder/suicide is a fast track to heaven and 69 virgins, you can convince them of pretty much anything.
 
The only reasonable analysis is that most people are very stupid and easily led into acting against their own interest even when it results in their own death; if you can convince people that committing mass murder/suicide is a fast track to heaven and 69 virgins, you can convince them of pretty much anything.
As another example, I hear 60,000,000 Americans were victimized by various scammers in the US last year. It is easy to get past most people's don't trust/trust filters, if you're slightly skilled at it....
 
It was only about 6 or 7 years ago when I would just laugh off crap like this. Just a few lunatic fringe crackpots, or so I used to think. I am now astounded by how many seemingly otherwise intelligent people are buying into alt-right propaganda and authoritarianism.

I had hoped for quite a while that this was merely the death wheeze of older, white supremacists, and that the US would inevitably evolve into a more diverse, multicultural and progressive Country. As I now witness the country going backwards, I am no longer thinking my hope is realistic. Maybe the best I can hope is that this stuff is cyclical.

Two thoughts come to mind. The GOP must be defeated in the short term. They cannot be allowed to retake control of the federal government. But democracy cannot survive in a one-party state, and towards that end, the GOP must either be reformed or replaced. I don’t care which, and I don’t care if it takes a long, long time. But the US needs at least two major parties, and one of them can not have the end of democracy as its main goal.
From over here, it seems parts of the US are very diverse, I guess they are largely progressive too, but the country seems woefully polarised. On the one hand you've got Woke types basically saying they should give America back to the Indians, on the other far more powerful Nationalist Republicans who seem willing to subvert democracy, which means I guess they won't be attempting to 'export' it abroad any more then!

This very long article from The Atlantic is rather worrying. How Donald Trump Could Subvert the 2024 Election - The Atlantic

"Technically, the next attempt to overthrow a national election may not qualify as a coup. It will rely on subversion more than violence, although each will have its place. If the plot succeeds, the ballots cast by American voters will not decide the presidency in 2024".
 
Another update on the Republican ‘fashwave/cryptofascist’ thing from Behavioural Scientist Caroline Orr Bueno (Twitter). This shit is really happening, it isn’t imagined, it isn’t a troll. Incomprehensible.

PS Worth following her on Twitter, she has a good take on US human rights etc.

What's all the shining eyes thing? And what is the link to fascism?
 
What's all the shining eyes thing? And what is the link to fascism?

"Fashwave (a portmanteau of the terms "fascism" and "wave") is a derivative aesthetic of Synthwave or Vaporwave that is associated with alt-right/far-right/dissident right beliefs like upholding tradition, maintaining racial purity, Anti-Semitism, ultranationalism, and a rejection of post-modernist thought (which a lot of the modern aesthetics on this Wiki are actually examples of). It's not unusual for people from the Fashwave scene to try and assimilate into the more "mainstream" Synthwave or Vaporwave scenes, but they are often sniffed out pretty quickly and given the boot because nobody wants to associate with actual Neo-Nazis."

https://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/Fashwave

Nazi synths, Nazi synths, Nazi synths f**k off...:mad:
 
"Fashwave (a portmanteau of the terms "fascism" and "wave") is a derivative aesthetic of Synthwave or Vaporwave that is associated with alt-right/far-right/dissident right beliefs like upholding tradition, maintaining racial purity, Anti-Semitism, ultranationalism, and a rejection of post-modernist thought (which a lot of the modern aesthetics on this Wiki are actually examples of). It's not unusual for people from the Fashwave scene to try and assimilate into the more "mainstream" Synthwave or Vaporwave scenes, but they are often sniffed out pretty quickly and given the boot because nobody wants to associate with actual Neo-Nazis."

https://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/Fashwave

Nazi synths, Nazi synths, Nazi synths f**k off...:mad:
OK, but the shining eyes?
 


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