Some recent posts were deleted, conversation in thread might look a little weird as a result.

You mean the fake propaganda?
You see how hard I try to be civil and have a constructive adult conversation.
I try, lol. It ain't always easy, but I try.

Hey, I got a good idea for poor El Presidente, who doesn't have a media platform to incite violence and insurrection anymore.
He should open a 2+2 account!

Trump just sold them all out, Are they really this stupid?

I like to think they pretend ANTIFA did it, just to dunk on the liberals.

I like to think (hope) Trump couldn't muster up a physical mob of insurrectionist again, especially how they know Trump will immediately abandon them (again).

In think in today's political climate certain fringes consist of trolls, people who wield conspiracies as arguments of convenience and true believers.

It can reach sickening levels, right up to people sitting as digital audience to terrorism and murder and cheering the perpetrator on.

But why are tens of millions formerly not susceptible to cults so vulnerable to this one? One idea is the nationalism, even if its fake like MAGA, is a great tonic for people in all their frustration and desperate lives. He stoked it. Plus the backlash against Obama from all the bigots. Many are lost in the movement, many are opportunists. But its amazing to see the people it affects.

A lot of it has to do with people trying to hold onto what they perceive as the last chance to hold onto White Supremacy, particularly White Male Supremacy.

Just racists. Trump managed to make them feel good about their racism, and package it as patriotism.

I think that is why I am more pessimistic about the violence just fading away with Trump. These people felt they were commiting a grand act of patriotism when they stormed the Capitol. Saving our country, etc. They aren't going away when Trump does.

They are plotting their next moves and I would wager the "success" of Jan 6 has emboldened them. I doubt there will be large scale violence at the inauguration, however they will still be planning attacks on encrypted channels. Could be next month, next year, or 2 years.

I think nationalism is so effective because it is so basic: "You are a group, the group is everything. The group needs law and order, what we say will bring law and order. Every issue and problem we have is caused by those outside the group."

That tendency is very basic. It is even apparent on such a forum like this. People will be attracted to people who think like them and view them as superior to people who disagree, and it is much harder to openly break from that social bond than it is to attack the outgroup.

Of course such social systems of belief are inherently fallible. A group that consistently overlooks the possibility that problems sometimes come from within will always be weak. It is ill-equipped to handle reality, but comfort doesn't come from reality as much as comes from perception of reality.

Fox News. Is that what hypnotized them? That's a new dynamic ... having totally fake news being served to them, with little critical thinking acumen ... this combined with the human tendency to let emotion overrule intellect, to let whims and wishes supersede reality. Plus the internet and the proliferation of conspiracy theories there ... with the human propensity to believe them as a bolstering of the ego needed because of the very aversion to reality. All this percolated. Plus phony nationalism, plus racism legitimized, plus religious bullsyt, plus you are losing your country the good way it used to be, wink wink, plus the propaganda machine, plus a very small man/buffoon bluffing like he was big. Maybe plus Covid ... the nation was isolated and stressed. Plus all the years of television and knowing and caring way more about the Kardashian's than maybe who George Washington was.

They lost their minds. They did what Stalin or Kruschev said ... "Don't worry about them. They'll destroy themselves." An ever growing softness of mind and strength. A huge lie is their succor. Because it's a lie. I'm seeing the darkness of the human animal. I've always been of the Buddhist persuasion ... the lotus flower grows in the muck. So the presence of all the baseness isn't lethal. Starting to wonder.

Fox, the internet, Covid, combined with all the other trends and traits of the fading republic. They left reality. It was too much and too many avenues away from it opened.

Racism is undeniably a big factor behind all this.
And that's the big American tragedy. Maybe I'm naive, but I think racism does nothing but hurt this country. We'd have less ghettos. Less poverty. Less crime. We'd really be a lot better country. But to a lot of people, this is I guess either too radical an idea or just nonsense. It's too bad. We are only hurting ourselves. Look at recent events. A lot of it goes back to racism. If we want the country to go forward, we have to learn to be more tolerant. Black people have always been around, and they stubbornly stick around. Black people aren't going anywhere.

Plus some of the Penn State mentality ... fanatical us against them and cover up our faults no matter what they are. The Catholic Church mentality. Hide it, hide it, hide it. And be a good soldier for your side. Great analysis you guys are nailing it.

Well I see the "Impeach Biden" movement started tonight. I'm standing down for my sanity.

I doubt there will be a 1000 MAGAts in D.C. for the Inauguration.

As far as violent MAGAts, only a handful is my guess.

The MAGAts know they won't be walking away so easily this time.

Washington will be ready this time, and they will be picking them off as they enter the city.

I saw the speech tonight for the first time in full. Did he write that, do you think? Is there some monster behind the scenes writing that for him? He didn't seem to be looking at notes or a teleprompter. Amazing. That was the real thing. The real demagogue, populist, propagandist, conniving manipulative ... (am I really going to say this) ... genius! I think that blew Mussolini away. It was eloquent, right on note after all the tone deafness to everything else. He is the real thing on this as some have been saying on here. But he's still a coward, a blowhard, a weak and small fool.

It's not "stupid" really, they are that invested into believing they were behaving rationally. To admit that Trump was a scam all along they would have to walk back years of believing what he has said, and possibly decades before that of believing what talk radio & cable news have taught them about how the world works.

The idea that we behave rationally is VERY important to our subconsciousness. We are generally OK with making mistakes, but the idea that we were behaving irrationally is something we really struggle to accept. Giving up on Trump as a believer of Trumpism is a cataclysmic shift, and most will not be able to do it easily, and certainly not quickly.

Trump exists and feeds off the mythos that he is strong, rich, intelligent and a winner. Obviously those things are mostly untrue, but the people who follow him genuinely believe they are. They will resist, but every single time you can make Trump look weak or like a loser, you have to hammer him. Ban him from Twitter, impeach him again. Ideally, actually remove him from office. Beat the crap out of the candidates he endorses. Get him on tape making fun of religion or something along those lines. He'll never go away entirely, but the weaker you make him look post-presidency, the more his followers will peel away. Years down the road, they'll say they never really liked him and just wanted lower taxes or were anti-abortion or whatever.

I recommend the book Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me). It's a pretty good explanation of cognitive dissonance (which is certainly what we are up against here), and what it takes to fight against it

It's always humorous watching people on both sides of the aisle try and cover for the tards on their side.

Oh wow he thinks he's not talking about himself, that's precious

Translation: Nations with liberal leaders don't get along as well with us when republicans are president

Inside job

Panic buttons removed.

bahahahahaha

No, that is not it.

Trump is unstable and he is a liar, he also makes any policy about himself. This by extension makes his administration unreliable and the foreign policy untrustworthy.

In diplomacy the big virtue is being trustworthy and the big sin is not to be. This is why some countries with diametrically opposed ideologies can cooperate just fine, and why some that are closely aligned can’t.

If we’re talking more about popular perception and the enormous dislike of Trump in many countries worldwide, that is undoubtedly mostly due his demeanour.

well said

I wouldn't describe evangelicals who think the sun revolves around the earth which is a few thousand years old as "not susceptible to cults"