teflon320 said:
I would think that a community of drug and alcohol users would find the idea of ?I just want to watch the motherfucker burn? very easy to relate to. Right now, personally, I am in a good place. But man I have wanted to watch the world burn! Like a blow torch and magnesium.
I can't really relate to the idea of wanting to watch the world burn.
I know people who cheered when the twin towers went down, but i certainly wasn't one of them.
It's the same kind of nihilism as people who want to see war (with whoever) - because it is a spectacle, or a source of national pride or something.
I can't really understand the appeal of watching rich, powerful forces rob and pillage the poor - whether it is a rich nation plundering a poor country, or wealthy kleptocrats sabotaging and destroying government programs that were designed to help ordinary citizens.
I mean - just because i'm a drug user, doesn't mean i don't want to see a better world.
If anything, it makes me all the more interested in fighting for the little guys, and the underdogs, because i see the hardships many addicts have to endure; and the brutal inhumanity of the "war on drugs" and the suffering it causes.
The thing about trump is that he's destroying all the parts of government that exist to help make people's lives better (and their health, their education, their natural environment).
He steals from the poor, and pockets what he can for himself and other rich folk.
To me, that's not any sort of
world burning i have any interest in.
Maybe some kind of 21st century bolshevik uprising -
shit yeah, let's raise hell for the emancipation of the exploited workers of the world! 
...but that ain't happening - instead, much of the post-industrial western world is governed by kleptocrat oligarchs who are more focused on dismantling democracy and sewing division and hostility than leading strong, healthy populations.
Considering how often america's military
literally sets the world aflame - again, the rich fucking the poor - i think there are better ways to get your kicks.
Personally i don't find creepy old johns like trump to be very entertaining, especially when he's fucking democracy and fucking humanity.
It seems ironic to me that there are still trump fans who consider themselves patriots, because he's screwing the things that america used to be proud of - democracy, freedom, the idea of justice and liberty.
Which is why i get such a morose laugh at trump's alt-right keyboard army calling everyone "cuck" - while they stand back and watch the old man and his corporate puppetmasters fuck the very thing they claim to love.
I'm sure there are some decent people out there who support trump, and that they sincerely believe he is fighting for their best interests, but the impression i get from most trump fans that i encounter online is that they're proudly supporting something that is completely fucking them over - and that they've been completely conned.
This is especially true of the people that love trump for his social agenda.
i think there are many trumpers who are so aroused by trump's shameless bigotry that they don't even care that he's stealing what rightfully belongs to them, and belongs to all
the people.
trump's political career seems to be based on his ability to nurture an unrealistic level of entitlement, and to pander to the resulting resentment - utilising all the usual scapegoats.
Because trump supporters' loyalty is unconditional.
They don't hold him to account - they don't question or criticise, because
he's fooled them.
He knows that prejudice outweighs critical engagement with representative democracy - which is pretty clearly demonstrated in all the MAGA folks - i think
most of them are so genuinely ignorant of what they're getting behind, or how badly it will fuck their communities, their future, their country and their world.
trump fans know it's too late to back out now. any acknowledgement that the emperor wears no clothes - well, that would make them look pretty silly now, wouldn't it?
The people who love trump because he panders to their simple fears and prejudices are probably not capable of understanding what he's actually doing, because they feel secure in seeing people weaker than them suffer at the hands of state oppression.
especially if those people have different belief systems to them - or different ways of speaking, different ways of loving, different ways of living.
Presumably those sort of trump fans think they can trust him - that he'll reward their devotion and loyalty by doing the right thing by them.
But that's not how political charlatans operate. Trump doesn't govern for the people, he doesn't govern with any consideration for the US constitution, or whatever "america" stands for in any sort of abstract sense.
His presidency is distraction, to divert people's attention away from the dismantling of the parts of the US government that operate for the good and wellbeing of the american people.
Whether it's deliberate or conscious on his part is irrelevant, in a way.
The role he is fulfilling is basically to keep the news media focused on what a weird, nasty old creep he is, while the republican establishment rigs the system - more than ever - in the favour of the corporate elite and truly wealthy minority.
While he's at it, he is also doing all he can to destroy the freedom of the press, which is a crucial part of any democracy.
I'm sure there
are some people out there with reasonable justifications for why they support trump - but they've still been fucking conned.
At least the people who support trump because he's a racist/rapist bigoted piece of shit aren't kidding themselves. But they're being conned too - trump's racism is opportunistic and calculated, even if it is "sincere".
teflon320 said:
Anyways. As a Canadian. With a few Canadian friends. And having spoken to like 6 people about this. So I have a pretty reliable statistical sample. Most people up here are sad, not angry. I have way to many cool American friends to allow this jackass to ruin things.
true - i agree. the thing about trump and his support base is that they're a group of people i'd probably never see eye-to-eye with about too much of anything, so me suggesting that trump supporters deserve a fairly generous portion of the blame for trump and the destructive things he does is niether here nor there, really.
but y'know - life on this planet is a pretty fragile thing - as is the democracy most of the developed western world takes for granted.
giving so much power to a man as wilfully ignorant, petulant and hateful as donald trump is worrying.
if the world is going to be plunged into economic depression, war and chaos - there is something horrifying about it being caused by such a clueless narcissist - an oafish trash tv cretin like trumo.
perhaps the cause of it is irrelevant - but i kinda think that if we fell into a global recession because we somehow fucked things up in trying to convert the world to renewable energy, or some other noble quest, we would at least be
trying.
the trump phenomenon is just so absurdly nihilistic - a political belief system based entirely on lies and paranoia - which exists in total denial of reality (such as climate change) - that it makes the shaky position we humans find ourselves in seem all the more tragic.
hate is a corrosive and pointless thing to get sucked into - you're absolutely right.
and it
is sad to see the sort of harm that the world's most powerful government can do to international agreements and cooperation. it's sad to see one of the world's most robust and democracies get highjacked by someone so completely lacking in humanity or intellectual depth as donald trump.
i used to think he was the perfect embodiment of all that is wrong with america - but i'm starting to think he represents the very worst of humanity - selfish, insular, destructive and vain.
i think that humanity has been quite lucky, since trump took office, not to have had to face the sort of calamity or disaster that would require political leadership and sound governance - but the longer trump stays in power, the greater the likelihood of him doing some serious damage.
as i said before, democracy is fragile - and not something we should take for granted.
now is a good time to look out for one another, to strengthen the bonds within our communities - and to refuse to be divided, refuse to join in the knee-jerk reaction of hate and suspicion. people like trump thrive on division; not unity.
it's pretty unsettling to see the so-called "leader of the free world" acting like a recalcitrant toddler in a G7 meeting - but maybe this is to be expected when an empire falls.
the USA was an unrivalled global power for many years, but maybe trump is a symptom of decay, rather than the cause of it.
i would argue that as a world power, america has lacked the necessary leadership to respond to the challenges humanity has been presented with in the last few decades.
when the wealthiest nation in history leaves so many of her people starving, homeless and lacking affordable healthcare and education, perhaps it's not surprising that hundreds of millions of people jaded (or misguided) enough to think a psychopath like trump might somehow be the answer.
the sick irony of that - at least to me - is that many of the dismal socioeconomic conditions that lead voters to elect trump (huge wealth disparity and the resentment of people locked out of the "american dream"; the gaudy false promises of consumer capitalism) are only going to be more extreme and insurmountable, with this administration's slash-and-burn approach to governance.
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
